The only reason I can think of for excluding DMR is the licensing fee which would otherwise add to the cost of the radio. Poor philosophical decision making.
Very interesting video, but all in all I have to say I have been very impressed with the 8600 performance. I recently compared the IC-R8600 on HF SSB and CW, with other high end HF transceivers, regarding noise reduction, auto notch, CW reception and SDR bandwidth filters ?? The results were very impressive indeed with the 8600, from my discerning listening tests, in adverse noisy band HF conditions. Using the Pre Amp with adjustment of the RF gain setting, really makes a difference in noise floor reduction, as well as SDR noise reduction of course.This receiver really pulls weak SSB and CW signals out of the noise, and makes for very comfortable listening with an external speaker. Obviously as with any other HF receiver, it can't perform miracles in very noisy HF band conditions, where there is severe local interference from switch mode PSUs, LED lights etc. But you should be able to remove most of that noise with an external noise reduction RF phasing unit, with a second noise antenna. So in my view, this receiver really packs a punch for the avid Ham HF bands listener, SWL, who wants a receiver that makes listening on the noisy HF bands much more comfortable and easier. Hope this helps, the IC-R8600 is a great wideband receiver of choice.
DMR missing is a major flaw, I also think have the AOR DV 1 and it wipes the floor of the ICom. Re NR believe it or not the little Malachite is a 100 times better than any of the hardware receivers for reducing background white noise, give one of them ago apart from the flakey UI they are a great receiver. Keep posting.
.... and why the heck no DMR when it's got FSK, buy a 7300 if you need HF specific items, this is really an upper end of the spectrum receiver, not an HF receiver. I'll tell you why there's no DMR, cus they care more about people listening to that instead of DStar and why are you forcing me to have DStar, some of us don't care about DStar..
I feel the same way about my R8600. I understand that ICOM supports D-Star, but I wish they had made provisions for upgrades to support DMR and c4fm. I wouldn't mind paying for the upgrade or even if they had made provision for plug-in modules to add modes. My AOR DV-1 supports those modes plus D-Star and more. But regardless, since I have those modes on my DV-1, I can live without them on my R8600, but still wish it had them since my 8600 has much better audio quality than the AOR. Still love my 8600 anyway!
Personally pissed off that Icom did an update for the 7300 particularity to the spectrum which would benefit the 8600 but having checked with them there are no future updates planned.
I agree with most of your observations and remarks. Just saying that the radio has a nice waterfall is an overstatement. It is nice that it has one and that is all. If you ever used SDR-console v3.3 with the R8600, you will see what I mean. I know that it is only a small 4.3 ' screen, but as all other Icom SDR's the resolution and colours are below standard. When you pay decent money for a radio, one might expect more. Do you know what the smallest BW of the CW mode is on this radio? I like the R8600, but would only run it with decent software like SDR-console. Icom does only mention HDSDR software, which is sadly low grade, but usable.
Basically the receiver is too small, and complicated by having too much control having to be done by multiple touch screen actions by the operator, The functions of this receiver would have been vastly improved had ICOM added a second separate screen, columated, to one side to the main screen, with most of the touch screen functions available with just one touch of the screen and then the parameter selected, or adjusted, via a rotary control knob.
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The only reason I can think of for excluding DMR is the licensing fee which would otherwise add to the cost of the radio. Poor philosophical decision making.
I’ll stick to my whistler dmr and my ICOM icr9000
All good points. Thank you for posting.
Very interesting video, but all in all I have to say I have been very impressed with the 8600 performance. I recently compared the IC-R8600 on HF SSB and CW, with other high end HF transceivers, regarding noise reduction, auto notch, CW reception and SDR bandwidth filters ?? The results were very impressive indeed with the 8600, from my discerning listening tests, in adverse noisy band HF conditions. Using the Pre Amp with adjustment of the RF gain setting, really makes a difference in noise floor reduction, as well as SDR noise reduction of course.This receiver really pulls weak SSB and CW signals out of the noise, and makes for very comfortable listening with an external speaker. Obviously as with any other HF receiver, it can't perform miracles in very noisy HF band conditions, where there is severe local interference from switch mode PSUs, LED lights etc. But you should be able to remove most of that noise with an external noise reduction RF phasing unit, with a second noise antenna. So in my view, this receiver really packs a punch for the avid Ham HF bands listener, SWL, who wants a receiver that makes listening on the noisy HF bands much more comfortable and easier. Hope this helps, the IC-R8600 is a great wideband receiver of choice.
Great points... come on Icom, if I have to use a computer to get video out put to an HDMI monitor, I might as well buy a $150.00 SDRPlay.
DMR missing is a major flaw, I also think have the AOR DV 1 and it wipes the floor of the ICom. Re NR believe it or not the little Malachite is a 100 times better than any of the hardware receivers for reducing background white noise, give one of them ago apart from the flakey UI they are a great receiver. Keep posting.
I have a malachite and the NR/NB from ICOM outperforms it very well. In fact the internal noise generated by the malachite is really painful.
con .... no adjustable filters on wide band fm
.... and why the heck no DMR when it's got FSK, buy a 7300 if you need HF specific items, this is really an upper end of the spectrum receiver, not an HF receiver. I'll tell you why there's no DMR, cus they care more about people listening to that instead of DStar and why are you forcing me to have DStar, some of us don't care about DStar..
I feel the same way about my R8600. I understand that ICOM supports D-Star, but I wish they had made provisions for upgrades to support DMR and c4fm. I wouldn't mind paying for the upgrade or even if they had made provision for plug-in modules to add modes. My AOR DV-1 supports those modes plus D-Star and more. But regardless, since I have those modes on my DV-1, I can live without them on my R8600, but still wish it had them since my 8600 has much better audio quality than the AOR. Still love my 8600 anyway!
You spend that much money to listen to CB? Good lord man.....
😄
When life gives you lemons.....
do you need to spend that much money to listen to radio ham.
hey, we because you listen to CB once in a while doesn't mean that it's all we listen to! I've listened to it ocassionally when the skip comes in too!
Personally pissed off that Icom did an update for the 7300 particularity to the spectrum which would benefit the 8600 but having checked with them there are no future updates planned.
icom generally don't tell you about forthcoming updates. Even my sources won't tell. Just wait and see.
(I predict it will)
@@RoelandJansen I certainly hope so.
I agree with most of your observations and remarks. Just saying that the radio has a nice waterfall is an overstatement. It is nice that it has one and that is all. If you ever used SDR-console v3.3 with the R8600, you will see what I mean. I know that it is only a small 4.3 ' screen, but as all other Icom SDR's the resolution and colours are below standard. When you pay decent money for a radio, one might expect more. Do you know what the smallest BW of the CW mode is on this radio? I like the R8600, but would only run it with decent software like SDR-console. Icom does only mention HDSDR software, which is sadly low grade, but usable.
The ICOM and DMR debate is really old now😏
I just can't forgive them 😄
Just stumbled upon this video and your channel looking around at 7300 videos. Great radio, and superb explanation. Are you a Scouser? Cool accent!
Thank you 😁 no in from the Midlands UK
@@onthebench3606 Cool! I have friends from Liverpool and I mistook the accent hehe. All the best and 73
@@624radicalham 73 ! 😃
Morse Code built-in decoder! Yes. Does anybody make a receiver with a built in MOrse decoder that displays the text?
Elecraft I believe...
Just one question would you buy it again they keep going up in price
I certainly would!
I would, for sure!
Basically the receiver is too small, and complicated by having too much control having to be done by multiple touch screen actions by the operator, The functions of this receiver would have been vastly improved had ICOM added a second separate screen, columated, to one side to the main screen, with most of the touch screen functions available with just one touch of the screen and then the parameter selected, or adjusted, via a rotary control knob.
Its not too small it's "compact" 😄