I believe this is my first post on this newsgroup. I was into the
scanning hobby a number of years ago...not heavily though. I had a
uniden bct7 mobile scanner & the uniden sportcat 150 (was one that had
the defect that allowed cellular phones to be heard on the "800"
band). I still have my sportcat, but want to get something a bit more
serious (more freq. bands, channels, capabilities etc. etc.).
When the Icom IC-R3 first came out it was about 500-600 bucks (if i
remember right).... i liked it a lot but didnt want to shell out that
kind of cash for a scanner. About that time I also kinda lost interest
in the hobby.
I was sufing around on the net the other day & ran across the IC-R3
again at an electronics website & saw that it had dropped in price to
about $319. THIS new price & the coincidence that my employer just
bought a cheap X10 wireless security camera & had secreted it
somewhere at work (noone knows where) made me want to buy one (for
those that might not know...the IC-R3 can pick up wireless camera &
Television signals).

Anyway I just wanted to hear opinions from people who own or have
used this scanner.
I still dont plan on being a serious scanning enthusiest (cant
afford it..lol).

It's a battery eating piece of crap! I have one at work, the power supply
that came with the unit cant even run it on AC power! With the monitor on it
draws in excess of 500Ma!
The receiver is full of images and birdies.Changing frequencies is a real
pain in the ass the way it's set up with no keyboard.The LCD display is
tiny, the TFT screen washes out in sunlight.Volume and squelch controls are
button type..no rotary control for that. Audio is "OK".I have a Yaesu VR-120
and Alinco DJ-X10 that outperform it hands down. Save yourself the hassle,
buy a REAL RCVR and a Casio pocket TV and you will have the best of both
worlds.Be advised that the R-3 DOES NOT cover the entire 2.4Ghz TV/Video
band! Read the published specs and you will see that it misses a lot. If the
video is above 2.450Ghz the R-3 wont see it.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 best) I would give it a 4 at best.....Eddie

"j" wrote in message
om...
I believe this is my first post on this newsgroup. I was into the
scanning hobby a number of years ago...not heavily though. I had a
uniden bct7 mobile scanner & the uniden sportcat 150 (was one that had
the defect that allowed cellular phones to be heard on the "800"
band). I still have my sportcat, but want to get something a bit more
serious (more freq. bands, channels, capabilities etc. etc.).
When the Icom IC-R3 first came out it was about 500-600 bucks (if i
remember right).... i liked it a lot but didnt want to shell out that
kind of cash for a scanner. About that time I also kinda lost interest
in the hobby.
I was sufing around on the net the other day & ran across the IC-R3
again at an electronics website & saw that it had dropped in price to
about $319. THIS new price & the coincidence that my employer just
bought a cheap X10 wireless security camera & had secreted it
somewhere at work (noone knows where) made me want to buy one (for
those that might not know...the IC-R3 can pick up wireless camera &
Television signals).

Anyway I just wanted to hear opinions from people who own or have
used this scanner.
I still dont plan on being a serious scanning enthusiest (cant
afford it..lol).

Thanks for the warning! I dont think I will be buying one now. lol

"Eddie Haskel" wrote in message . com...
It's a battery eating piece of crap! I have one at work, the power supply
that came with the unit cant even run it on AC power! With the monitor on it
draws in excess of 500Ma!
The receiver is full of images and birdies.Changing frequencies is a real
pain in the ass the way it's set up with no keyboard.The LCD display is
tiny, the TFT screen washes out in sunlight.Volume and squelch controls are
button type..no rotary control for that. Audio is "OK".I have a Yaesu VR-120
and Alinco DJ-X10 that outperform it hands down. Save yourself the hassle,
buy a REAL RCVR and a Casio pocket TV and you will have the best of both
worlds.Be advised that the R-3 DOES NOT cover the entire 2.4Ghz TV/Video
band! Read the published specs and you will see that it misses a lot. If the
video is above 2.450Ghz the R-3 wont see it.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 best) I would give it a 4 at best.....Eddie

"j" wrote in message
om...
I believe this is my first post on this newsgroup. I was into the
scanning hobby a number of years ago...not heavily though. I had a
uniden bct7 mobile scanner & the uniden sportcat 150 (was one that had
the defect that allowed cellular phones to be heard on the "800"
band). I still have my sportcat, but want to get something a bit more
serious (more freq. bands, channels, capabilities etc. etc.).
When the Icom IC-R3 first came out it was about 500-600 bucks (if i
remember right).... i liked it a lot but didnt want to shell out that
kind of cash for a scanner. About that time I also kinda lost interest
in the hobby.
I was sufing around on the net the other day & ran across the IC-R3
again at an electronics website & saw that it had dropped in price to
about $319. THIS new price & the coincidence that my employer just
bought a cheap X10 wireless security camera & had secreted it
somewhere at work (noone knows where) made me want to buy one (for
those that might not know...the IC-R3 can pick up wireless camera &
Television signals).

Anyway I just wanted to hear opinions from people who own or have
used this scanner.
I still dont plan on being a serious scanning enthusiest (cant
afford it..lol).