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> Icom ic-R8500 am ssb fm shortwave wideband receiver
Icom ic-R8500 am ssb fm shortwave wideband receiver
* aircraft and ground control
* police and other emergency personnel
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Service weather broadcasts
* TV audio channels 1 thru 69
* GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service)
* FRS or family handheld units
* military emergency guard and strategic air command
I have not picked up satellite or NASA transmissions, but if you live in the vicinity and have the right antenna, this is another whole opportunity for reception.
I have a handheld Icom IC*R1 that I purchased some years ago. It does not have the range as the IC-R8500, but with that little hand held unit, I have picked up Lifeflight helicopters, Rockview State Prison chatter, Lock Haven University's Maintanence Dept., Penn State University's football stadium security, and even Air Force 1 in addition to all the typical communications. That's right, a few years ago, when Bill Clinton was in office, AF1 landed at Centre Community Airport on open channel. Just before AF1 landed, all the bands went dead as everyone went silent for security reasons. Ground communications with the Secret Service were encrypted so I could not receive them. But soon after landing, the channels were all alive once again. That was on a tiny handheld unit that did not have the sophistication of this R8500 receiver. This Icom IC-R8500 can receive so many broadcasts that you will sit for hours and listen in to a world that you never knew existed in radio reception.
I have sat in my office chair and played with a similar, but older receiver, the Icom IC*R7000, and gone from a NOAA weather broadcast on 162.400 in State College, PA, to TV channel 10 In Altoona at 197.750 to the local State College Ham 2 meter on 146.850. During snowstorms, I dial in the Penndot (Penna Dept. Of Transportation) road crews on 47.300 chatting about road clearing during the storm. A few minutes into my playing, the local fire whistle went off so I tuned into 154.070 to get information on the fire dept call out. I then punched in the frequencies for the local PBS station at 91.5Mhz to get the news.
The IC-R8500 is not only a receiver, but a scanner with 1000 memory channels. You can spin the dial to get a frequency, direct dial with the keyboard, or access via memory. Since you can scan, you can locate unknown transmissions or enter known frequencies that you want to monitor by setting band parameters and scanning for signals. There is a priority channel that will come alive if you are listening elsewhere when a signal is transmitted and you also have scan speed and delay knobs at your disposal. Much of the owner's manual is dedicated to explaining the wealth of scanning features.
Anyone who owns an Icom unit will tell you how well made they are. This receiver feels like a tank...only a bit of plastic on the face, but otherwise metal and reminds me of military spec equipment. Since this receiver was a popular one for Icom, many past users have played with their R8500's to tweak it's features. There are modifications online (MODS) to allow you to experiment and improve the receiver, if you are inclined. These MODS are free to those who search for them in Google and generally will give you a step by step through the MOD process. This unit has not been touched so it is open for MODS, if desired.
Now let me say this before I go further. This unit does not pick up the blocked cell frequencies in the 800 mhz band. However, unblocked capabilities have become a non-issue since cell phones have moved away from analog and into digital transmissions. Thus, you could seek an unblocked receiver and be very disappointed due to the dearth of transmissions in those bands and this should not be a drawback if you are inclined to want to purchase an unblocked receiver.
Over the years, it has been my pleasure to own some of Icom's finest units. As a licensed ham radio operator, I formerly owned an Icom IC*737 transceiver that was an excellent unit. It was sold when my father gave me his newer Kenwood transceiver a couple of years ago. In addition, I have owned the IC*R75 receiver and currently own the IC*R9000 receiver that is probably one of the finest units ever made by anyone. This IC-R8500 follows in that tradition and was produced from 1996 for a little over ten years.
This R8500 is loaded with features that will enable you to enjoy virtually anything you chose to hear. Let me take some time to list them for you below:
* Picks up modes of AM, FM-n, FM-w, LSB, USB, and CW
* Bandwidth of 150 khz / 5.5 on FM and then widths of 12 / 5.5 / 2.2 on AM and SSB
* Sleep timer function shuts the unit off after preset time
* Record jack for external recording
* Noise Blanker for removing pulse type noise interference
* AGC (automatic gain control) circuit to minimize the effects of fading
* IF Shift to move the receiver's IF to avoid adjacent channel interference, esp. on SSB
* Auto Peak Filter that aids in signal intelligibility and sound improvement
* Attenuator of -10db to -30db
* Tuning Steps of 10hz, 50hz, 100hz, 1khz, 2.5khz, 5khz, 9khz, 10khz, 12.5khz, 20khz, 25khz, 100khz and 1mhz
* 1000 channels are available organized in 20 banks of 40 channels, plus 100 skip channels and 100 auto write memories
* Tons of scan features RS-232C input to allow for computer control with available software
This receiver is somewhat deceiving as many of the features are hidden and not on dedicated keys. It is assumed that many of these features are not used on a regular basis and the folks at Icom have added them by hitting a button and turning the memory dial to access them. Once accessed, the operator would turn the main tuning dial to alter the settings. This keeps the front panel clean and uncluttered with infrequently used controls.
If you would like to read more information on this receiver, you may find some info in the following links:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/IC-R8500 Comprehensive all around great link
http:// /html/mtscan0804.pdf Excellent review of this receiver in pdf format:
http:// /en/products/r8500/ Icom's page about this IC-R8500
