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Old January 29th 08, 08:15 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
Junius Junius is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Mar 2006
Posts: 111
Default Wide-Band Scanner Receivers -and- Wide-Band Active Antennas =Synergy & Utility


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The ICOM R-20 is a pretty impressive communications reciever in my view. I
also run a ICOM 706 transciever and a old solid state Heathkit SB303 unit ,
and without question the IC R20 is more sensitive with better selectivity,
certainly on SSB signals. However like all communications recievers, the
unit does require an antenna. The provided telescoping is basically useless.
The battery life is a real plus with experience in the 18 to 20 hour range
(not scanning). The ANL and NB seem to work ok. For LW/MW the am side could
be a little bit more narrow, and like others have said ICOM should have
included that feature. VHF/UHF and beyond work really well. The R-20 seems
to be solidly constructed. Some features could have been implemented
differently like the TS control. The integrated IC Recorder is of interest
and also works well.

I also have the computer usb interface and software, where one can easily
input / change station data / scan edges / modify any one of the 1200+
memories.

I have four antennas, (1) 260 foot long wire (2) 23 foot VHF dual band
vertical (3) 12 foot VHF -lo 6m (4) 163 foot dipole from which I can select.
The R-20 reacts well without overloading.

For a small package, works well. I assume the AOR handheld wide band would
work just as well.

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Wow, that is impressive. Compared to the performance of your R20,
mine would appear to have been defective out of the box. In
considering this radio, I was well aware of the prevailing view that
such wideband receivers often involve compromises, and I was expecting
just that. Therefore, given the performance that the unit provided, I
was neither disappointed, nor overly bowled over. It was about what I
expected: nothing more; nothing less. There's a lot to be said for
the R20: nice, small package; amazingly broad coverage; battery life
is quite decent, indeed; 10 Hz tuning resolution (although my unit can
show some variation; say, minus 90 Hz or thereabout); recorder is a
nifty feature, as is the standby mode it permits, allowing for
unattended listening; and I could go on.

However, for VHF/UHF scanning, it does not offer the trunking features
or APCO-25 decoding that some of the upper end handheld scanners
offer. Scan rate is also a bit slow compared with the dedicated
scanners, or so I've been told.

This receiver really wasn't designed for optimal HF reception, and I
realized that going in. Yes, as Mr. Green said, it's pretty deaf off
the whip, at least on the HF bands. I'm mostly in the Washington DC
metro area, so there's always plenty going on in the VHF/UHF bands,
particularly in Prince George's County... For SWBC listening, the
exceedingly wide bandwidth filter leaves much to be desired. True,
there's SSB tuning, and that somewhat compensates for the AM bandwidth
inadequacy on HF. Overall, however, for SWBC listening, I must say
that I get better performance out of a Sangean ATS-606. While I
purchased this unit to use as a handheld (i.e. as a portable unit),
I've hooked it up to external HF antennas of varying sorts (e.g. 100
foot wire; AOR WL-500 active antenna; etc), and to some degree or
another I have tended to encounter overload issues. Use of the RF
gain is essential, needless to say. I've experienced overload when
utilizing the R20 with a Sangean AN-60 reel-out wire antenna & Miracle
Ducker inline antenna tuner: nothing horrendous, but it was
noticeable. Ultimately, however, I use the R20 mostly as a handheld
and generally just using a whip. For me, the R20's HF side is simply a
nice extra for occasional tuning to major SW broadcasters. At home, I
tend to go with the Drakes (R8B/R7/SW8) or any one of a variety of
portables, most of which outperform my R20 for HF reception.

mike/MII: Yes, as a package the R20 is in many ways a better overall
deal than the AOR AR8200 Mk III; however, if you're into SWBC, then
you should consider the fact that the AOR does include that 3 kHz
narrow AM filter...something that prove a much desired feature, if you
were seeking a wideband handheld for which you intended to do a bit of
SWBC listening on more crowded bands, particularly if listening to a
weaker station in the presence of stronger ones...the little guys can
get drowned out in AM mode on the R20; SSB mode can in some instances
salvage the signal, but not always. The AOR costs a bit more,
however; and there are a lot of extras that are offered as options; if
desired, these can really drive the AOR price up. That said, David
Rickets seems to be really impressed with the performance of his AOR
8200 and maintains that it gives him pretty solid HF reception just
off the whip. For your reference, there are a wealth of user
assessments of the R20 available online; the receiver has tended to
get favorable reviews, by and large:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4317
http://www.strongsignals.net/access/...rocess=display
www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtscan1104.pdf
http://www.grove-ent.com/ICR20REVIEW.htm

On the whole, the R20 is a nice little receiver. An interesting
attempt at an all-in-one package. ICOM has certainly packed a lot
into this little unit. It's really great that Mr. Green has found
such satisfaction in his unit. Going on his results, I'm led to
wonder if there are some significant sample-to-sample variations in
R20 performance. I guess Yahoo groups would be the place to
investigate this sort of thing further...

Junius