ICOM IC-R5

I have now received my little Icom IC-R5 back from Geoff at Castle Electronics in full working order who I can highly recommend for repairs.

This is going to be an ideal receiver for when I'm 'on site' at airfields and airshows, it's so compact but seems very sturdy and robust. I have to say after some initial testing, the supplied rubber duck antenna is next to useless, but as soon as you replace this with just about anything else, it really begins to shine and is a very capable and sensitive receiver on the VHF & UHF airband at least.

Many people have complained about the lack of buttons on the little Icom's making them difficult to use, but after having read the manual several times over on programming frequencies into memories and then into banks and also programming search bands (or scan edges as Icom like to call it) I am now able to do everything I want to do without referring to the manual. It's really quite quick and easy to tune frequencies I want to get to manually in VFO mode too.

I have been messing about with the Icom connected to my loft antenna usually reserved for my Uniden BCT15X and I had quite a shock this Sunday morning! While tuning around on the Icom I could clearly hear a constant broadcast from RAF Wittering coming through the squelch and showing one bar of signal on 123.925.

The broadcast was as follows: 'Wittering radar is now closed and will reopen at 0730 Zulu on the 14th August'.

I was quite surprised I could hear anything from Wittering given my location on the West side of Leicester but what was more surprising was when I reconnected my antenna to the BCT15X, the transmission wasn't coming through the squelch and even when I backed it off, the broadcast was barely audible! Could the IC-R5 really beat my BCT15X in pulling in weak signals? Well, yes it does in this case!

So, all in all, a very capable little receiver for airband at least, HOWEVER, the scan speed of memory channels is woefully inadequate in my opinion if you intend to scan a lot of frequencies, because while it will search at about 30 steps a second, it's actual scan speed of stored memories is just 10 CHANNELS A SECOND.

Now, if your going to use this radio 'on site' as I will be doing, this is not much of an issue, because I will typically be monitoring a handful of frequencies at the most, but for use as a home based scanner monitoring perhaps hundreds of frequencies as I do, it is simply not up to the job. To be fair to Icom, it does say on the front 'communications receiver' and not 'communications scanner' !

Having said that, I hear the slow scan speed has been addressed with the Icom IC-R6 so maybe getting hold of one of these will be my next goal....

Icom IC-R5 and Scampton Air Show

Well, I decided to purchase a 'spares or repair' Icom IC-R5 recently with the hope that it could be fixed primarily for me to use 'on site' at the Scampton Air Show which is the only event I'm likely to attend this year.

Having seen a recommendation for Castle Electronics (hamradiosales.co.uk) after a short conversation with Geoff there, I despatched the IC-R5 off to him last week hoping he can get it working. As yet, I've heard nothing, so watch this space!

I have owned an IC-R2 and R5 in years past, and the Icom IC-R5 is a one bank or all banks scanner. It's scan speed is not very fast either, but usually when 'on site' at an air show, I'll be monitoring a handful of frequencies at the very most, so it's drawbacks are not much of an issue for me in that situation.

I thought the little Icom would be an ideal 'discrete' scanner to use when out and about which is not very often for me, hence why I didn't want to spend much on it. If it can indeed be fixed, I'll report back on it's performance when used 'on site' and when attached to my home antenna.

As I mentioned, Scampton is about the only air show I'll attend this year and I know there's quite a bit of skepticism of the price versus content for this show at the moment on various forums.

I would like to give the organisers of what is a brand new event the benefit of the doubt but I must admit the 'flying' content with just over a month to go looks fairly light considering it will be nearly £80 for myself and my wife to attend (better value admittedly for families as under 16's go free).

There has been much fanfare in recent emails of attendees to the show, only to learn they are joining the static display only, which is great, but at the end of the day if I want to look at aircraft sitting stationary, there is a large number of air museums I can visit at any time to admire aircraft in that way. Is it only me or do most people want to attend an air show to see aircraft in their natural environment and that means flying!

Well, I'm holding off buying tickets for now as I want to see if anything else develops in the last month or so. I may well attend my local show down the road - The Victory Show at Cosby on the same weekend - not a full scale air show by any means, but they always puts on a good flying display and for £15 advance ticket cost is excellent value!  

As with all air shows, it's good to include the air show 'common' frequencies in your scan: 121.175 - 130.675 - 132.9 - 130.5 - 130.625 - 134.55.

Cosby Victory Show have always tended to be allocated 121.175