My Receivers

Icom ICR7000

The Icom ICR7000 was in production from 1986 until the early 1990's and is now only to be found in the second hand columns and in online auctions where it is eagerly bid upon by those in the know. I first saw one of these around ten years ago at the home of an Amateur Radio friend- and I was immediately very taken with it. After getting into Low VHF reception in a big way a few years back I vowed that if I ever came across one of these at a reasonable price I would buy it- and to my great joy I got my chance this year!.

The R7000 isn't exactly a Scanner even though it does have scanning functions ( 100 memories, and a slow search and scan rate of about 8 steps per second) -it does however make up for these "Scanning" shortfalls in being something of a classic communications receiver. It is a pleasure to use, providing fantastic audio into an external hi fi speaker. The sound on the FM broadcast band is a pleasure to listen to. The huge VFO, well lit meters, and key pad manual entry are all really welcome and for someone who has been working away with Scanners which aren't really designed to cope with large antennas the R7000 is a godsend!. It has a great front end with a quoted image rejection figure of more than 60db. The VFO allows you to speed across 30- 50 mhz in steps of your choice with little breakthrough from out of band or local signals. I have however noticed some overloading between 80 and 87.5 mhz while in WFM mode, but this is largely down to the fact that I have so many high powered FM broadcast signals around me. C'est la vie!.

All in all the R7000 is a great radio and while I am still getting to grips with it, it is now the most used radio in my shack so that should say something. If you see one and can beg, steal or borrow the money go for it-I cant rate it highly enough!.

Icom ICR7000 Specifications

Frequency Coverage:25- 999.999 and 1025- 1999.999 mhz. Australian and French models differ.

Receive Modes:AM, NFM, WFM, SSB. LSB is selected via rear panel switch while in SSB mode.

Selectivity:FM/AM- 7.5 khz, 3 khz in narrow position. WFM- 75khz. SSB 1.4 khz.

Image rejection:Greater than 60db.

Tuning steps:0.1,1,5,10,12.5 and 25 khz.

Memories: 100.

Scanning Functions:Priority Scan, Programmed Scan ( Scans between two input Frequencies), Mode Scan (Scans memories in a selected mode), Select Memory Scan (Scans selected memories), Memory Channel Scan ( Scans all stored memories), Auto Write Memory Scan ( Automatically writes a specified frequency into the Auto Write Memory channels 80-99 while scanning frequencies in a programmed scan range).

Antenna Input:50 ohms, Type N.

Realistic PRO2006

Following on from the PRO-2004 and PRO-2005 receivers the PRO-2006, manufactured by GRE in Japan is perhaps the most popular base/mobile scanning receiver in recent years. It was also available as the Commtel 205. Frequency coverage is continuous from 25-520MHz and 760-1300MHz. Any mode- AM, NFM or WFM can be selected on any frequency and a choice of increment/channel steps can also be selected. 400 memory channels store frequency and mode whilst the 10 search banks allow user defined lower and upper frequency limits to be stored together with mode and increment step. An additional 10 monitor channels are available to store frequencies that may be found during search.

Two speeds of scan/search are available, the faster of the two allowing around 26 channels per second to be scanned. Internally the receiver requires a PP3 (9 volt) battery to mainatin the memory contents when the receiver is not connected to a power source. The receiver is fitted with an internal AC transformer (240 volts AC) or can be run externally via 12 volts DC.

PRO 2006 specifications

Frequency Coverage: 25-520MHz and 760-1300MHz

Modes:AM, NFM and WFM

Increment steps:5KHz, 12.5KHz and 50KHz

Memory Channels:400 (10 banks of 40) \line Monitor Channels: 10 (for storing frequencies found when searching)

Search Banks:10

Selectivity:(from the manual) AM/NFM: +/- 9KHz = -6dB, +/- 15KHz = -50dB\line WFM: +/- 1550KHz = -6dB, +/- 300KHz = -50dB

Scanning Speed:Slow = 13 channels per second, Fast (Hyperscan) = 26 channels per second

Antenna Input:50 Ohms BNC.

Personal Findings

Of the three "scanners" that I currently own the PRO-2006 wins hands down, and for the Low VHF fan, in one major area. This Scanner is virtually bomb proof in relation to overloading and intermodulation. In lay terms this means that when you are listening to a frequency on this radio it is not likely to be messed up by out of band signals and local breakthrough. I have plugged a discone, a variety of dipoles and even a long wire into this radio and I have not noticed any serious problems. On VHF High I have also used an amplifier, and still nothing. The programming on the PRO-2006 can be a little fidgety, and the addition of a rotary tuning knob- for either direct tuning or access to stored channels would have been welcome, but this does not detract from the fact that this is about as good a scanner as money can buy (without going into the costly professional or semi professional markets). Although discontinued for some years now this radio is still plentiful in used condition and sells in the UK for between £80 and £120. I have had mine for about a year now, and if it ever died on me I would be very quick to try and replace it again with the same model. Not Quite the Icom but gives bigger much more expensive radios a hell of a run for their money!.

Other Scanners which I use.

I also use the Uniden UBC 9000XLT base scanner and the Yupiteru MVT7100 handheld. The Uniden is a good receiver, with lots of excellent features including rotary tuning and extremely fast search and scan rates, while the Yupi is about as good a handheld as can be bought for the money. However these two radios have one major shortfall which makes them not entirely ideal for Low VHF reception, and that is in the area of dynamic range. Again this is a radios ability to deal with strong local or out of band signals- whether or not your favourite frequencies are going to be swamped by breakthrough or ghost images from other bands. When I attach Low VHF antennas to these two radios I have moderate to serious problems, mostly from breakthrough of strong European Short Wave signals. The Uniden has problems in places while the poor Yupi finds it hard to cope at all!. Therefore I use the Uniden mainly for VHF High and ultra fast searching and the Yupi with either a short antenna here at home or when I am out and about. If only someone in the scanner industry could mate the Uniden and the PRO2006! such a radio with fast search and scan and a good front end would be a welcome arrival on the non-professional market!.

A few links for your leisurely perusal:

The PRO 2006 Website

Review of the PRO 2006 by Bob Parnass AJ9S

The Uniden UBC9000 XLT Website