New PCR-1000 arrived yesterday
 

Hiya...

My new PCR-1000 arrived yesterday. My initial impressions are quite good.
I hooked it up to the PC yesterday night, installed the ICOM software and
started to tinker. The PC controlled interface is great to use. I can see
getting to like it better then using a standard receiver.

At first, I used the built in speaker on the PCR-1000, but quickly decided
to run it through my sound card after I heard how weak it was. I had to
open up the cover on the PCR-1000 to set it to use the line-out. Once it was
into the sound card, it sounded good. It comes with a basic telescopic
antenna and I'm currently using that. I was able to hear a lot of the local
municipal stuff. I was also able to hear com from near by Teterboro
airport. Though, I didn't test yet to see if I could hear any of the NOAA
low orbiting satellites yet. I'll do that tonight. I have winorbit
software to track the satellites and a list of the active satellites and
what frequency to tune to.

I gave a try using it for some short wave too. Although it wasn't bad, it
is not even close to being as good as my OR-75 is. It seems to be a very
good UHF/VHF receiver, but for shortwave, it is just an "afterthought" to
have it on there. It will do just fine for strong signals, but it cant do
much with weak and messy signals.

As of right now, I know very little about what and where to listen for good
scanner transmit. I'm not even sure where to use FM and where to use AM or
SSB. I've got a lot to learn. Also.... I have to find out what software to
get in order to use it like an actual UHF/VHF scanner. It has great
potential,but I'm gonna have to figure out how to get what I can out of it.

On the down side, it came with some free Bonito software; RadioComm 4.5. It
has a satellite tacking program, Sitor, PSK, Weather Fax software and a
bunch of other stuff. I was really looking forward to taking advantage of
using it, as I love utility. The problem is, I cant get the program to
work. Every time I launch it, I get a com port error. The ICOM software
works just fine on that serial port. No port problems, but the Bonito
software that I was looking forward to using wont work. I'm not sure if it
is a windows XP issue, problems with my serial port, sound card issue or
what. I was thinking of trying to get a serial to USB adaptor and giving
it a try through my PC's USB port instead of the serial port.

Other then that, I can see I'm going to have a tremendous time with it.
I'll need some software and a good antenna, though.

If anyone has any recommendations for software to use it with I'd greatly
appreciate it.

--
Respectfully,

Michael

Location: New Jersey
Primary Receiver: R-75 with full Kiwa mods
Antennas: G5RV, 200ft "Frankenstein" roof wire
Additional Radios: 7600GR,KA-1101,KA-1102
PL-550, KA-989, Info-Mate 837, GE-SR III
ICOM PCR-1000
Westinghouse H-104 (seven tube)
Web Site: http://md_dxing.tripod.com

My PCR-1000 is attached to a R.S. discone. It works just fine for me. Get
some semblance of a "real" antenna hooked up and you might be surprised what
you can pick up on shortwave. I can pick up anything with it that my R-75
picks up. It has the same DSP unit that's in my R75 and also has pass band
tuning like the R75, although the R75 has a dual pass band adjustment and
the 1000's isn't. As far as the Bonito software goes, in MY opinion it
SUCKS. It has more bugs than a cheap trailer park. (No offense, I live in
one myself) It is a resource hog if you even can get it running right. I use
Talk PCR and love it. Other people swear by Rxplus, I believe it's called.
I didn't care for it personally. When you get a real antenna, use good coax
and keep it away from your monitor/computer. A good ground rod will help
also. The 1hz resoloution of the 1000 is great for SSB and CW. I also have
a BCB and FM trap filters on mine as the 1000 is VEFY sensitive and will
overload easily without some way of taming it down. Enjoy your new toy...



"Michael" wrote in message
...
Hiya...

My new PCR-1000 arrived yesterday. My initial impressions are quite good.
I hooked it up to the PC yesterday night, installed the ICOM software and
started to tinker. The PC controlled interface is great to use. I can
see
getting to like it better then using a standard receiver.

At first, I used the built in speaker on the PCR-1000, but quickly decided
to run it through my sound card after I heard how weak it was. I had to
open up the cover on the PCR-1000 to set it to use the line-out. Once it
was
into the sound card, it sounded good. It comes with a basic telescopic
antenna and I'm currently using that. I was able to hear a lot of the
local
municipal stuff. I was also able to hear com from near by Teterboro
airport. Though, I didn't test yet to see if I could hear any of the NOAA
low orbiting satellites yet. I'll do that tonight. I have winorbit
software to track the satellites and a list of the active satellites and
what frequency to tune to.

I gave a try using it for some short wave too. Although it wasn't bad, it
is not even close to being as good as my OR-75 is. It seems to be a very
good UHF/VHF receiver, but for shortwave, it is just an "afterthought" to
have it on there. It will do just fine for strong signals, but it cant do
much with weak and messy signals.

As of right now, I know very little about what and where to listen for
good
scanner transmit. I'm not even sure where to use FM and where to use AM
or
SSB. I've got a lot to learn. Also.... I have to find out what software
to
get in order to use it like an actual UHF/VHF scanner. It has great
potential,but I'm gonna have to figure out how to get what I can out of
it.

On the down side, it came with some free Bonito software; RadioComm 4.5.
It
has a satellite tacking program, Sitor, PSK, Weather Fax software and a
bunch of other stuff. I was really looking forward to taking advantage of
using it, as I love utility. The problem is, I cant get the program to
work. Every time I launch it, I get a com port error. The ICOM software
works just fine on that serial port. No port problems, but the Bonito
software that I was looking forward to using wont work. I'm not sure if
it
is a windows XP issue, problems with my serial port, sound card issue or
what. I was thinking of trying to get a serial to USB adaptor and
giving
it a try through my PC's USB port instead of the serial port.

Other then that, I can see I'm going to have a tremendous time with it.
I'll need some software and a good antenna, though.

If anyone has any recommendations for software to use it with I'd greatly
appreciate it.

--
Respectfully,

Michael

Location: New Jersey
Primary Receiver: R-75 with full Kiwa mods
Antennas: G5RV, 200ft "Frankenstein" roof wire
Additional Radios: 7600GR,KA-1101,KA-1102
PL-550, KA-989, Info-Mate 837, GE-SR III
ICOM PCR-1000
Westinghouse H-104 (seven tube)
Web Site: http://md_dxing.tripod.com

"Jim Hackett" wrote in message
ink.net...
My PCR-1000 is attached to a R.S. discone. It works just fine for me.
Get
some semblance of a "real" antenna hooked up and you might be surprised
what
you can pick up on shortwave. I can pick up anything with it that my R-75
picks up. It has the same DSP unit that's in my R75 and also has pass
band
tuning like the R75, although the R75 has a dual pass band adjustment and
the 1000's isn't. As far as the Bonito software goes, in MY opinion it
SUCKS. It has more bugs than a cheap trailer park. (No offense, I live in
one myself) It is a resource hog if you even can get it running right. I
use
Talk PCR and love it. Other people swear by Rxplus, I believe it's called.
I didn't care for it personally. When you get a real antenna, use good
coax
and keep it away from your monitor/computer. A good ground rod will help
also. The 1hz resoloution of the 1000 is great for SSB and CW. I also
have
a BCB and FM trap filters on mine as the 1000 is VEFY sensitive and will
overload easily without some way of taming it down. Enjoy your new toy...


Any idea where I can get TalkPCR ??? I did a web search and found dead
links.

Thanx

Michael

"-=jd=-" wrote in message
8...
On Wed 24 Aug 2005 06:30:07p, "Michael" wrote in
message :

Hiya...

My new PCR-1000 arrived yesterday. My initial impressions are quite
good. I hooked it up to the PC yesterday night, installed the ICOM
software and started to tinker. The PC controlled interface is great to
use. I can see getting to like it better then using a standard
receiver.

At first, I used the built in speaker on the PCR-1000, but quickly
decided to run it through my sound card after I heard how weak it was.
I had to open up the cover on the PCR-1000 to set it to use the
line-out. Once it was into the sound card, it sounded good. It comes
with a basic telescopic antenna and I'm currently using that. I was
able to hear a lot of the local municipal stuff. I was also able to
hear com from near by Teterboro airport. Though, I didn't test yet to
see if I could hear any of the NOAA low orbiting satellites yet. I'll
do that tonight. I have winorbit software to track the satellites and a
list of the active satellites and what frequency to tune to.

I gave a try using it for some short wave too. Although it wasn't bad,
it is not even close to being as good as my OR-75 is. It seems to be a
very good UHF/VHF receiver, but for shortwave, it is just an
"afterthought" to have it on there. It will do just fine for strong
signals, but it cant do much with weak and messy signals.

As of right now, I know very little about what and where to listen for
good scanner transmit. I'm not even sure where to use FM and where to
use AM or SSB. I've got a lot to learn. Also.... I have to find out
what software to get in order to use it like an actual UHF/VHF scanner.
It has great potential,but I'm gonna have to figure out how to get what
I can out of it.

On the down side, it came with some free Bonito software; RadioComm 4.5.
It has a satellite tacking program, Sitor, PSK, Weather Fax software
and a bunch of other stuff. I was really looking forward to taking
advantage of using it, as I love utility. The problem is, I cant get
the program to work. Every time I launch it, I get a com port error.
The ICOM software works just fine on that serial port. No port
problems, but the Bonito software that I was looking forward to using
wont work. I'm not sure if it is a windows XP issue, problems with my
serial port, sound card issue or what. I was thinking of trying to
get a serial to USB adaptor and giving it a try through my PC's USB port
instead of the serial port.

Other then that, I can see I'm going to have a tremendous time with it.
I'll need some software and a good antenna, though.

If anyone has any recommendations for software to use it with I'd
greatly appreciate it.


The Bonito software is an excersize in frustration. I abandoned it almost
immediately.

I'm coming to the same conclusion that you did, and fast too !!!!

My primary control software is "Talk PCR".
http://qsy.to/pcr/talkpcr.html

Thanx for the links !!!!

I just downloaded it and will give it a try. I hope it will work with win
XP. I also downloaded RxPluss and will try that too.

Michael

"-=jd=-" wrote in message
...
On Wed 24 Aug 2005 07:13:06p, "Michael" wrote in
message :


"-=jd=-" wrote in message
8...
On Wed 24 Aug 2005 06:30:07p, "Michael" wrote in
message :

Hiya...

My new PCR-1000 arrived yesterday. My initial impressions are quite
good. I hooked it up to the PC yesterday night, installed the ICOM
software and started to tinker. The PC controlled interface is great
to use. I can see getting to like it better then using a standard
receiver.

At first, I used the built in speaker on the PCR-1000, but quickly
decided to run it through my sound card after I heard how weak it was.
I had to open up the cover on the PCR-1000 to set it to use the
line-out. Once it was into the sound card, it sounded good. It comes
with a basic telescopic antenna and I'm currently using that. I was
able to hear a lot of the local municipal stuff. I was also able to
hear com from near by Teterboro airport. Though, I didn't test yet to
see if I could hear any of the NOAA low orbiting satellites yet. I'll
do that tonight. I have winorbit software to track the satellites and
a list of the active satellites and what frequency to tune to.

I gave a try using it for some short wave too. Although it wasn't
bad, it is not even close to being as good as my OR-75 is. It seems
to be a very good UHF/VHF receiver, but for shortwave, it is just an
"afterthought" to have it on there. It will do just fine for strong
signals, but it cant do much with weak and messy signals.

As of right now, I know very little about what and where to listen for
good scanner transmit. I'm not even sure where to use FM and where to
use AM or SSB. I've got a lot to learn. Also.... I have to find out
what software to get in order to use it like an actual UHF/VHF
scanner. It has great potential,but I'm gonna have to figure out how
to get what I can out of it.

On the down side, it came with some free Bonito software; RadioComm
4.5.
It has a satellite tacking program, Sitor, PSK, Weather Fax software
and a bunch of other stuff. I was really looking forward to taking
advantage of using it, as I love utility. The problem is, I cant get
the program to work. Every time I launch it, I get a com port error.
The ICOM software works just fine on that serial port. No port
problems, but the Bonito software that I was looking forward to using
wont work. I'm not sure if it is a windows XP issue, problems with my
serial port, sound card issue or what. I was thinking of trying to
get a serial to USB adaptor and giving it a try through my PC's USB
port instead of the serial port.

Other then that, I can see I'm going to have a tremendous time with
it. I'll need some software and a good antenna, though.

If anyone has any recommendations for software to use it with I'd
greatly appreciate it.


The Bonito software is an excersize in frustration. I abandoned it
almost immediately.

I'm coming to the same conclusion that you did, and fast too !!!!

My primary control software is "Talk PCR".
http://qsy.to/pcr/talkpcr.html

Thanx for the links !!!!

I just downloaded it and will give it a try. I hope it will work with
win XP. I also downloaded RxPluss and will try that too.

Michael



The PC I connected the radio to is an XP box, and it's current on MS
patches and service packs. I can't remember any glitches off-hand, but if
you have any problems, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help.

Thanx for the help. I'll let you know how I make out with both programs.

Michael