I'm using the R30 from last xmass and am very pleased by it. Owning a R20 until last month I can say that the improvement is substantial, not only on the software front, but also the hardware is more bullit prove and has a number of extra features compared to its competition. Sadly the absense of DMR is a major issue for some. Seems that in an upcoming formware update, due next authom, it could be inculded, but thats just a rumour. Josh, may I congratulate you on the nice review! Just one thing that maybe gives some of you peace of mind is that you can use all kinds of antennae on this radio without a problem. I have connected active antenna's, long wires, dipoles and even some 450 and 500 meter Beverages to it. One thing tough, one have to use the RF-gain settings and stay away from the ATT steps if you can. The reception will be very smooth and easy on the ears. It you live near a strong transmitter the ATT is needed, but that is not a fault of the R30. Yes, I agree that 600 dollar is a lot of money. I paid €560 for it and am pleased I did as it is a real good performer wich I could compare next to a bunch of premium SDR receivers and a IC-7300.

Excellent video, there was a time when I looked at these. Then decided to get my license and my first radio is now a Kenwood th-d74.

Very nice review, great job of hitting the high points . The R30 not for everyone, but there’s literally nothing else on the market that does so much in such a small package.

They just got this back in stock. Going to come in handy testing harmonics and other oddities over a wide frequency range.

Its a nice little unit....It works great for shortwave listening,,,,,,,,I like the R30 ,,,good job on the video

I think you have now added this radio to my acquisition list. Good review.

Slick little receiver. Long way from my 20 year old IC-R10 (which still works!). Don / W5DON

If you think about it. A cellphone is basically a radio with central office switchboard system which routes your call to connect to specific phone number.

GREAT JOB!!! One of the first opinions I look for when considering a major purchase like this. I ordered one of these recently, Thanks for the review.

Dav31 Great video and well explained.You should do a users guide/lessons videos on how to use the R30 in all its various stages, especially for new beginners who have or are getting into the hobby. I say this because you make it seem really easy to use and I'm sure a series of KZfaq videos on the R30 would be welcomed and worth it. Love your reviews.

Have such a great range in terms of receiving frequency and modes, digital too is nice. Imagen listens to HF while driving and you don't need a full mobile set up. I agree it is kind for a niche market. Not sure how many listeners out there are interested in ham digital modes.

It's a sweet little piece of kit. If it was $350-450, it would be an easier pill to swallow. At it's current price, you really need a use case that requires it..

Got it and love it. Ya the price is steep but for air traffic monitoring and casual stuff it’s a Cadillac receiver. IMHO

Maybe HRO will let you check out a similar receive only radio, the YAESU AR-DV10. A little more expensive, no Bluetooth and only receives 100 kHz to 1300 MHz but has 3 VFO's and also gets C4FM. It also has an option to decode COSPAS-SARSAT signals which are radio beacons activated by persons, aircraft or vessels in distress. Might be useful if you were serious into search and rescue.

Just bought one, awesome radio.

Well done review - thanks for that. I was pondering whether to buy an R30, so now I think I will buy one. The R30 should nicely fit my casual listening needs while traveling, allow me to test other radios, and fill in the frequency coverage gaps of my other radios .

Great review-I love mine. I’ve had a couple of different HH xcvrs-the Yaesu Vx series and so forth. Initially I constantly gave the Yaesu Vx xcvrs major thumbs down because they decoded NOTHING. No SSB, etc. but then I realized it’s horses-for-courses. I thought: ‘Well, maybe there are a lot of SWLs that don’t care about SSB, so it’s fine for them’ (who are those weirdos anyway? 😄) I guess I was a little extra miffed at Yaesu, because I blindly went out and bought a VX-3 while ASSUMING it had SSB. Man was I dumb. This R30 is just plain awesome and, as an ExClass Ham, it scratches all my itches. I’m not happy with the price but when I got it in my hand, the ‘price angst’ disappeared. Thanks for the review on this, Josh.

I have one of these. I was compelled to buy one because of a friend who had me develop a code plug for his. I enjoy the filtering for SSB, and just found out this has AGC. I didn't know it had this feature, so I'm going to find it. I think it's very well developed and very durable.

I bought one of these when it came out, had the R20 before it. Superb performance and intuitive dual receiver operation. It's a shame that Icom don't have any plans to implement DMR as if it did I would recommend everyone to have one! Icom are streets ahead of AOR with their technology thankfully they have a decent QC department.

I had seen these but had not taken the time to read up on them, glad you made a review on it as I am a sucker for a good receiver, and this does fit the bill for me, except the price...I would need it to come down to at least the high $400....Thanks for the review Josh!!

Now I gotta buy one..... Icom should hire you!

I have this baby's granddaddy... the ic-r10 from the 1990's. It's still doing it's job so ICOM longevity speaks for itself. The digital is a nice addition and the expanded range up into 3GHz sounds nice, but I'm not entirely sure what you'll hear there... (some WiFi maybe?). All in all, the price is steep. I think (PURELY PERSONALLY), the funds would be better spent on a top of the line Whistler scanner plus a small shortwave receiver. But then again... it wouldn't be 1 handheld would it? Anyway... good video! Thank you!

Works awesome with my Sony wireless headphones...it's a great receiver for it's small size.

That's not a bad price, I brought an AOR AR-8200 (with equivalent capabilities for its age and a nice 0.53-2040 MHz wideband) for about that much back in the early noughties and that's still going strong and with the iCOM being a more modern receiver and probably upgradeable for new features it looks like it'll serve its owners well for a long time.

If ICOM would add DMR they would sell these like crazy. Same for the IC- R8600.

Hey Josh thank you for sharing this radio I like your presentation you did an excellent job thanks again on this handheld have a great day your best friend from Atlanta Georgia

I don’t think the price is bad I remember paying $1000 for the R20 in New Zealand and it’s still working just like the day I bought it.

11.175 USB and 25.250 USB Main Cell... A must have for military radio traffic. You can catch the an occasional phone patch. Offet is so strong you can hear it skip, an echo if you will.

This review encouraged me to pull the trigger. Expectation management is vital. It does NOT make my BCD536HP appear deaf on the air bands, in fact I have a new analog appreciation for the Uniden.With the right “Hamloop” antenna, the R30 does satisfactory on HF. Without the right antenna, nada. To be expected. It’s a tough call. For this kind of money, I could had got a SDS100 or a Yaesu or two. I had an itch, one that I couldn’t justify, but this scratches it. At least I learned though scanning that D-STAR is dead in my area. I would not have this mild buyer’s remorse with a DMR upgrade. And I have no idea why I need to receive up to 3.3 GHz. Maybe think it through a bit to justify a purchase. Payday suddenly seems a lot farther off.

I've got one. Never looked back. My TRX and Uniden's have their place. The R30 has its own special place. Very sensitive radio.

good comprehensive review

I'm surprised it doesn't do DMR. I am not surprised that it doesn't do trunking

It's a High Quality Japanese Radio, I will Surely Buy It!

My last receiver was the Yaesu VR-500. I absolutely adored this little rxer. Its gone now and have been hunting for another. I think the fact that this ICOM unit covers both analogue and digital with such thorough spectrum cover makes it a potential buy...........oh the price....yeah its got the spec, but the price is just.......hhhhmmmmm

Mine comes tomorrow.

For $600, it should have trunking/scanning and should be able to transmit.

Could you please make a video to show how to program and connect a data cable to the IC-R30 to import and export frequencies. I have spent hours trying two lots of software to program my radio.

Great video! I have really never given much thought to picking up a receiver. Also, my wife is in your Ham Jam video clip. She is now famous!

If it had DMR I would definitely purchase one. I do have a Bearcat BCD436HP as well as numerous HAM radios. Thanks for the review, K4AYS

Nice review, although like you that price point is a little out there for this Amateur. I did have a few scanner radios in my past and reslly enjoyed that aspect of the hobbie. Thanks again KE8JWE. Vic

Another ham who is a SWL. Great. This is an excellent receiver. thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review; if the price point is a little lower ($500) I just might buy one. To listen in for DMR that would be nice. BTW I am married to a girl from Cebu, PI. I drove out to Xenia, OH from Seattle for the Hamvention this year. 73 john

Awesome review....thank you

Trunking, the term you were searching for is "control channel" no. You can not "brute force" your way to listen in as th he control channels change every day.

It would have been better to see more of the radio instead of the narrator. Otherwise a very complete and thorough review.

How’s the battery life? (Thinking in terms of emcom) one thing that would be neat is if it could receive aprs (think weather stations, yeah I know noaa freqs but I’m weird) if it was in the $350 range it’d be a decent no brainer

Nice review thank you! Such a nice sleek and neat receiver. Would buy one in a heart beat if only Icom had included DMR (same with the IC-R8600). Have to stick to the Whistler TRX-1 for DMR and P25 Phase II, which I like, but it is such a brick!

it would have been nice to actually see the receiver and various screens..

I have an R-2 that I loved for a long time, but when I have an external antenna, it hears the loudest signal in the band, whatever the tuning says. You didn't seem to have a lot to say about that issue. Hoping they improved that in a $600 radio. That said, my TH-F6 does everything that I wanted out of my R-2, besides the transmitter stuff. I will give the R-2 away the next time it surfaces.

I still have my IC-R1. I should dig it out and see if it still works.

I really want one but as they got discontinued the prices are pretty ridiculous WHEN you find one. You said +/-500 was pricey, the only 3 Ive found now on ebay are 1,000! lol, there is no way in the world I will pay that for a receiver, I rather get the ICOM that is a base station with waterfal for a couple of hundreds more

Hi, Can you recommend a good handheld VHF receiver for Wildlife Telemetry Tracking? Must be able to attach an external YAGI Antenna.

Lovely Receiver

Sorry, I don't understand your statement, it's not a scanner but it can scan 200 frequences a second?

Gengar uses "buy" It's super effective! Enjoyed your review. It would be nice to own to tune in to those digital modes (D-star, P25 ECT). Beats my hunk Realistic DX-302 that doesn't cover higher bands (above 30MHz). Looking forward for another review. KE0VGE :)

Is there way to get the IC R30 to automatically detect different modes in a scan, so if it stops on a particular bit of the band it can self detect whether its an AM FM SSB signal??? I was told it will do this but so far I have no proof,and cant yet find a set to try it on, still looking for one in the UK.

Just P25 Phase 1, not even Phase II, which is mainly used here.

New viewer and subscriber here, great video, and I agree it's pricey but, it's like the Cadillac of receivers.

Can you please answer the following 4 Questions about the R30 please. 1. Does this receive Digital Radio Mondiale for listening to Radio Stations. 2. if you are on a bus or a Taxi and the Drivers communications radio transmits, can the R30 show you what frequency it is on, can it find that frequency. 3. Are the buttons rubber or hard plastic. 4. How long to charge the battery.

The dancing solar Daruma is almost as good as having a cat (or dog) in the video!😁👍👍 Great review. N9KHZ

Just curious, maybe I missed it, how does this radio work on longwave and NDB frequencies ? 150 khz to 530 khz?

I just bought the Icom IC-R30, I am currently storing in frequencies to Channels and putting names to each frequency, for Airband, bus Channels, shop security, do you think it is best to have DUP off and VSC on but with Broadcast FM Radio Stations, I will have DUP off and VSC off, do you think that those settings are good.

how many Channels along with the frequency can you store on each memory bank on the Icom IC-R30 and if you only had 9 frequencies in one bank, can you just scan that 1 bank with the 9 channels in it, so can you just scan one bank.

Where is the Squelch located on the R30 and how much text can I assign to each channel, not group, so channel one, can I put Auckland Tower which is 14 alpha numerical text spaces.

Can someone explain the difference between a scanner and a reciever to newbie.

So someone in another video thought this was a scanner. Glad you pointed that out. Looks like a great receiver. I just want to find a great scanner price point around $600 that picks up all modes of transportation. My wife and I live 40 miles from lk MI 3 min from Amtrack and 2 airports plus alot of local responders. We'd like to hear some of it.Can you recommend a scanner?

I want you to know I before I got into ham radio I was big into please scanners and short-wave receivers I used to own the ICOM R-10 Communications Receiver and the ICOM R 3 Receiver I own them radios no more I did sell them and I Really miss them I'm fixin to order Icom R30 Communications Receiver I'm going to put the money in the bank Monday and probably had to wait till Tuesday to order ICOM R 30

Can you listen to polycom

Nobody cares about trunking outside of US. It’s not used for anything, anywhere, and hasn’t been for almost 10 years, since TETRA has been introduced (TETRA is trunked, to be completely anal, but that means nothing, as it’s completely encrypted, requires handshaking, and has intrusion detection). So not having trunking support means absolutely nothing to pretty much all of the world minus US, and hasn’t for a decade. Also, i’m not sure why you keep stressing “it’s not a scanner”. It is. Just like RC6 and RC20 before it. It scans in multiple ways, it scans two bands simultaneously, it supports various scan modes, and it does it at a rate of 200 channels / second. It VERY MUCH IS a scanner. Trunking does not a scanner make.

I'm surprised that such a small radio has such a wide frequency range. I don't understand how it can cover the same range as the desktop IC-R8600. Also, Icom charges an extra fee to run the radio?? $75 at Universal Radio. WTF???

Would this be a good radio for SHTF to monitor frequencies?

Great review as always, price for me is to steep however. I use my radios like this on the road so I don't care about the blue tooth speaker capabilities. There are many other functions that I would never use. It is nice, but not for the price. My C.Crane Skywave SSB does all I want and costs a bunch less. 73 de Jon, AA9IG

awesome...

If it could do EDACS, I’d buy it now

suggestion... don't "browbeat your sons." Just SUPPORT them and maybe a gift from time to time which allows them to LEARN what you know about ham radio. It is more than a gift... it is a lifetime of happiness!

In my humble opinion, The AOR DV 10 is superior. Loses to R30 at some points, but overall it's better.

I donno, I think it's pretty fair to complain about how these radios don't "do everything." Given how advanced SDRs have become I feel like they could still do a lot more than they do. They are at least overpriced, and that goes for Uniden's radios as well, and I think it's also fair to complain about obsolete connectors you see like mini USB and DVI connectors on radios released after 2016 for $500-2,500. I really think they just want to release more products so they don't release one that does everything.

NICE

Hello buddy, I have a question, I live in the second floor from an apartment,I am wondering if ICOM 25N can get the signals ? From here ! I tried to listen to frequencies from home but didn’t work at all ! Can’t hear anything and I am not sure where the problem is ! I just got this thing !

If possible, how does it compare to the uniden sds100

Do you have any thoughts on the IC-R30 capability to locate interference signals or rogue transmitters using its S-meter? Or are there better solutions to sweeping for signals around the home and office using Amateur radio gear? Thanks for the video!

Can the R30 scan shop watch uk (Canterbury Kent) does any one know

Is there a homebase version of this radio

get an RSPduo and be done with it. Don't just wish for Modes, Get Them !

Can listen local digital TV?

Amazing that it does not support DMR. Main Ham digital system!

I’m looking for a receiver primarily for listening to military aircraft. (I’m doing a photography trip and the frequency used when aircraft is low-level is public info.) There are cheaper options than this but I’m looking for a receiver made in the US or Japan. Any other suggestions of models I should look at? Thanks!

80% of talking and 20% of showing the radio. I believe, it should be the opposite.

Yeasu hand held good digital mode

What does it decode ?

The icom R30 is very nice....But at $599 cost way too much...I dont want one that bad...

ordered mine today, question: is it possible to put a password to lock?

Will it decode public service / law enforcement P25 frequencies?

Does this receiver have accessible features for blind hams?

AOR AR DV 10 ! ;) ALL MODE ! :)

Kind of expensive for an AM commercial 940-1600 radio.

I would buy it if it simply supported DMR. I think it’s a big miss it doesn’t especially in Europe

I'd buy it if it could operate as a GPS aware trunking scanner (and compete with Uniden HP series). Otherwise it's only worth about $350 to me.

I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR REVIEW OF THE ICOM IC-R8600, HOW IT COMPAIRS TO THE R-30.. THANKS FROM N3NDX... GOD ALMIGTHY YEHOVAH BLESS YOU.. 73... 07-29-2019...

It is so expensive .........OMG