ICOM IC-V8 for Railroad Scanning Use

Hey guys,
Just picked up an ICOM radio, model IC-V8. First, a little background: I run an online radio stream for railroad radio activity in the area of my home. I picked this radio up on a recommendation that it would be much more sensitive than any scanner I'd ever use for this feed. However, I'm finding this is apparently not accurate. I'm wondering if you guys can help me determine if I need to tweak some settings on the radio, or if you believe the radio to be defective?

First, for some reason, the when scanning using memory scan, when the radio stops on a frequency, the audio sort of "fades in", shall I say...in other words, the radio is scanning...when it detects a signal, it stops on the frequency, but there's a slight delay before I can actually hear the audio, and when I do begin to hear it, it sort of fades in as if someone were turning the volume control up from zero. Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this with the IC-V8?

Secondly, it doesn't seem to be nearly as sensitive as my scanner that I was using prior to this. I was using an older Uniden BC30XLT-1 handheld to run the stream. Let's just say there's plenty of stuff I can hear if I have the Uniden plugged in to the setup, that I simply don't get on the ICOM. Is there an optimum squelch setting I should be using on the ICOM that might be screwing something up? I have it set at a squelch of 2 right now...as far as I can tell, on this radio, 1 is a loose squelch and 10 is a tight squelch. So...2 should allow most of the weaker transmissions to get through, right?

Any suggestions you might have to improve the performance of this radio would be greatly appreciated...I'd hate for this to turn into a fairly expensive (for myself) paperweight...

Mike DiMunno
SJRA / SJRail.com

I don't have hands-on experience with the V8 but I expect it is similar in performance to other Icom 2M Ham hand helds.

The specifications for the V8, like other Icom Ham units, say that while the receiver covers 136-174, performance is
guaranteed only for 144-148. Any Icom I have had experience with rolls off in sensitivity above 148 and is definitely degraded on the 160 railroad frequencies although still comparable to most scanners.

If the radio has a "power save" mode, it should be turned off or you will probably loose the first second or so of transmissions after a period of no activity. I have never noticed the "fade in" you describe but the loss of the begining of transmissions in "power save" is a problem.

Squelch should be set to the minimum necessary to quiet background noise between transmissions. Use "1" if you can. If the V8 has an "auto" squelch mode, I have found that works better than a fixed squelch setting on most Icom radios.

Using a handheld scanner for a "base" type application is silly.

Hopefully you aren't using the stock "rubber duck" type antenna that came with it. These antennas usually suffer from the lack of a decent ground plaine as well as the fact that they aren't really tuned for one band or centered on a specific frequency.

A quick and easy solution to antenna woes is to get a cheap metal cookie sheet from the local market or chain store. Get yourself a VHF "NMO" mount antenna and mount it within the baking pan in the center. This will give you a basic antenna setup that will dominate over the standard plastic and rubber stick that comes with your scanner/radio. The best part is that you can trim the antenna to be centered around the area where you will most likely be listening.

Finding yourself a commercial grade receiver, even something such as a Motorola Maxtrac that doesn't have the PA amplifer (therefore not being able to transmit) would be a great improvement over a handheld amateur radio.

Hey,
Only reason I chose this radio to replace the scanner that was in place was because I was told it was a relatively low priced unit that would outperform any scanner. So the folks at RadioReference told me. Apparently this is not true.

I'm using a 5/8 wave mag-mount antenna tuned to the railroad band mounted on an outdoor air conditioner unit. The BC30XLT-1 that I formerly had running the stream (and is now back in place) does certainly outperform the ICOM in this situation, as per several days of testing and recording the stream's content.

I had thought the area in which I now reside was susceptible to intermod...I was told the ham radio should hopefully resolve any issues with that. My issue is apparently not intermod at all...it may just be that it's a bad location. I do know that when I pull into the parking lot at my apartment, it's all downhill in terms of radio traffic. Even my AM/FM radio decreases in quality when I pull into that lot...and I'm simply out of ideas on how to improve things. This is why I felt strongly that it was some sort of funny intermod issue, but shouldn't the amateur radio improve that situation if that were the case?

Mike DiMunno

A ham radio has somewhat better intermod rejection than a scanner but any handheld is VERY susceptable to intermod or desensitization when used with a base antenna. The handheld is designed to work with its short antenna. It WILL be subject to overload and intermod if subjected to strong signals from a higher gain or base antenna. In some cases you will hear intermod signals or, in the case of desense, the receiver will simply seem to get noisy or cut out on desired signals.

So, there are two problems with what you are doing. Any handheld is a very poor choice for that application. A ham radio gives
its specified performance only in the ham band.

A commercial VHF mobile unit, programmed for receive only, is the ideal solution.

A good quality base scanner with a tuned VHF preamp is another alternative. Don't use a wideband preamp or it will make intermod worse. Something like a Hamtronics LNP VHF Receiver Preselector is good. I used a similar device with a BC560 scanner in a very high signal area with good results for many years. The preselector filter will limit the use of the scanner to the VHF RR band only but it sounds like that is what you want for your application.

If you do go with a commercial mobile, I can program many kenwoods for free or low cost.


PM Me for details.