ICOM IC-R30: Unfazed by Daytime DX, RTTY and Weatherfax

You all know how I like to do unusual things with my radios, test them to the limit and experiment. Today, it was the turn of my current ‘guest-receiver’, the ICOM IC-R30. Having had a few days using it for civil and military airband scanning, I decided I’d have a look at its short wave capabilities today. I hooked it up to my Wellbrook ALA 1530 Loop, which it was not fazed by at all. That was a pleasant surprise, to begin with. Scanning broadcast stations from long wave to short wave, I was well pleased with what it could do, given that many scanners are not primarily designed for this purpose.

This, however, is a serious wideband receiver. The big daytime short wave stations (RRI, CRI etc.) came in very well, and that included SSB, such as HF ACARS (5450kHz) and DWD (USB) on 7878.1kHz from Pinneberg in Germany. Impressive. The two weather fax images attached here were cleaner than I could achieve with many a more expensive radio. Very acceptable.

OK, let’s really put it to the test and try whether it yields RRTY signals strong enough to translate into images on Zorns Lemma 11.42, my radio weather software. Yup, it did (on 7645.00kHz USB), see image attached. Medium wave broadcast radio stations are already pre-programmed in the radio, including station IDs. Set it on ‘scanning’ and see what you can catch.

Tonight, I’ll continue my experiments with short wave when darkness has fallen.

Thanks to Ian Lockyer, of Icom UK, for the loan of this scanner.

www.icomuk.uk