I'm thinking of purchasing an Icom PCR-1000 and I'd like to reach out
to anyine who has one or has used one. Reviewing the comments I find
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

I live in New Jersey, not far from New York City so I'm in what most
would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.
" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have
any experience in how well it suppresses imtermod from nearby AM
stations?
" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told
that the front end is similar to Swiss cheese when you connect it to a
good outdoor antenna. Any comments
" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.
" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone
have any suggestions for software that works well with the PCR-1000
for this task?
My access is often limited to USENET, so I'd appreciate if anyone can
offer any suggestions or comments would respond directly via e-mail.


Many thanks!

wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of purchasing an Icom PCR-1000 and I'd like to reach out
to anyine who has one or has used one. Reviewing the comments I find
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

I live in New Jersey, not far from New York City so I'm in what most
would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.
" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have
any experience in how well it suppresses imtermod from nearby AM
stations?
" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told
that the front end is similar to Swiss cheese when you connect it to a
good outdoor antenna. Any comments
" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.
" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone
have any suggestions for software that works well with the PCR-1000
for this task?
My access is often limited to USENET, so I'd appreciate if anyone can
offer any suggestions or comments would respond directly via e-mail.


Many thanks!

I have owned a PCR 1000 for about 3 months. My listening is fairly casual
so I can't address your question with depth of insight in which you ask.

I use a discone antenna with a 36 inch whip on top for HF reception.
While I'm not a DXer the PCR 1000 is allot of fun to listen
to the short wave bands with. I believe that this is a much better HF
receiver than given credit. (Note: check out some the Freeware DSP
software for processing audio from difficult signals, This is pretty
cool stuff, I believe the optional DSP hardware is unnecessary)

As for scanning, My listening has been primarily the VHF Marine
band. It does an excellent job at this simple task. The control software
(talkpcr) allows VOX recording of audio to the hardrive and many handy
features
such as logging of channel activity and band scope.

I would suggest you post your question to the following lists.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCR-1000/

or

http://qsy.to/pcr/index.html

There's also a PCR1000 group on qth.net.
As an aside we have a few more PCR1000 compatible programs on the
software page on Strong Signals.
73s and GL...Mike

Bruce Robertson wrote:
wrote in message
...

I'm thinking of purchasing an Icom PCR-1000 and I'd like to reach out
to anyine who has one or has used one. Reviewing the comments I find
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

I live in New Jersey, not far from New York City so I'm in what most
would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.
" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have
any experience in how well it suppresses imtermod from nearby AM
stations?
" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told
that the front end is similar to Swiss cheese when you connect it to a
good outdoor antenna. Any comments
" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.
" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone
have any suggestions for software that works well with the PCR-1000
for this task?
My access is often limited to USENET, so I'd appreciate if anyone can
offer any suggestions or comments would respond directly via e-mail.


Many thanks!


I have owned a PCR 1000 for about 3 months. My listening is fairly casual
so I can't address your question with depth of insight in which you ask.

I use a discone antenna with a 36 inch whip on top for HF reception.
While I'm not a DXer the PCR 1000 is allot of fun to listen
to the short wave bands with. I believe that this is a much better HF
receiver than given credit. (Note: check out some the Freeware DSP
software for processing audio from difficult signals, This is pretty
cool stuff, I believe the optional DSP hardware is unnecessary)

As for scanning, My listening has been primarily the VHF Marine
band. It does an excellent job at this simple task. The control software
(talkpcr) allows VOX recording of audio to the hardrive and many handy
features
such as logging of channel activity and band scope.

I would suggest you post your question to the following lists.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCR-1000/

or

http://qsy.to/pcr/index.html

I've found the PCR-1000 to be a poor choice for AM and SW DXing. The lower
the band... the poorer it performs. It works rather well in the VHF and UHF
bands. If you want to hear anything at all on AM and SW, you'll need a good
outdoor antenna well away from the computer and receiver.

Also, using the PCR-1000 with older computer equipment (especially older
monitors) will result in lots of noise hash. Newer computers and monitors
are better shielded and affect the PCR-1000 less, but IMO it's still far
from "ideal".

To sum it up, I buy them when I can get them cheap to make a buck since they
have excellent resale value, but I'd never keep one for my personal
collection.

wrote in message
...

I'm thinking of purchasing an Icom PCR-1000 and I'd like to reach out
to anyine who has one or has used one. Reviewing the comments I find
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

wrote in message
...
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

Love mine - use it everyday

would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.

I live in Sacramento & do really well, you just need the right antenna.

" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have

I do really well with AM DX'ing

" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told

It's perfect for v/uhf listening. I scan a lot there too.

" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.

You just need the right antenna set-up / I had to tweak and play around a
little.
The ut106 dsp module helps A LOT! It helps to ground properly. The only
rfi
problems I had didn't come from my computer. They came from outside
electrical
stuff. Keep the antenna away from powerlines, buildings, ground properly, &
if you have a noise problem in a particular band, be sure to use resonate
antenna
for that band.

" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone

The PCR1000 lacks the sensitivty for serious sat. work,
you could do ok with the right antenna / preamp setup.

It doesn't seem to help to explain how good the 1000 is. But I guarantee I
wouldn't part with the two that I have.

"Ken" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

Love mine - use it everyday

would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.

I live in Sacramento & do really well, you just need the right antenna.

" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have

I do really well with AM DX'ing

" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told

It's perfect for v/uhf listening. I scan a lot there too.

" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.

You just need the right antenna set-up / I had to tweak and play around a
little.
The ut106 dsp module helps A LOT! It helps to ground properly. The only
rfi
problems I had didn't come from my computer. They came from outside
electrical
stuff. Keep the antenna away from powerlines, buildings, ground properly, &
if you have a noise problem in a particular band, be sure to use resonate
antenna
for that band.

" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone

The PCR1000 lacks the sensitivty for serious sat. work,
you could do ok with the right antenna / preamp setup.

wrote in message . ..
I'm thinking of purchasing an Icom PCR-1000 and I'd like to reach out
to anyine who has one or has used one. Reviewing the comments I find
on line, it's a 50-50 split; some love it while others hate it.

I live in New Jersey, not far from New York City so I'm in what most
would classify as a very heavily RF congested area.
" Thinking of using it DX'ing the AM Broadcast band, anyone have
any experience in how well it suppresses imtermod from nearby AM
stations?
" I do a lot of scanning in the VHF and UHF bands and I'm told
that the front end is similar to Swiss cheese when you connect it to a
good outdoor antenna. Any comments
" On HF I'm seeing comments that it's plagued by lots of RFI
from your PC.
" I'd like to use it to receive the VHF weather sats - anyone
have any suggestions for software that works well with the PCR-1000
for this task?
My access is often limited to USENET, so I'd appreciate if anyone can
offer any suggestions or comments would respond directly via e-mail.


Many thanks!
The PCR1000 is botha great and lousy reciever.
Like you mention the front end is wide open.
That can be greatly helped by an inline low pass filter.
A friend who has one lives withen blocks of the local police
and sveral 15X-MHz paging transmitters. so he built a filter
that chopped out everthing above 80MHz. He is intersted in 6mtrs.
He has great SW performance. At the cost of lossing 80MHz.
I live about 15 miles from the closet VHF (other then hams)
and I had almost no bleed throught issues. Sometimes aircraft
overhead would create momentary problems.
The bandscope was nice, but since you can't use it with CW/SSB
it was far from perfect. Icoms software sucks. Peroid. There are great
3rd party programs.
The DSP unit is great, but the PCR1000 runs warm enough without the
additional heat. Stabilitly and sensitity are great. I could just
pick up the GOES west satellite on 46?MHz. And it is just over the
radio horizpon from me.
For most lsitening I preferr a "real" receiver and use a Kenwood
R2000,
or a Tandy DX398 for HF and my Pr02004 or Pro34 for VHF/UHF work.
The PCR1000 is great in one way. You can prebuild lists of frequencies
for specifc events. SssBig snow storm comming, load the road crew
list.
T-storm load the list for storm spotters. Big plane crash off shore,
load the CG list.
I traded mine for a recent vintage laptop for my wife. The guy that
I traded it to has offered to sell it, a nice newer Tandy Handheld
and a newwer laptop for $350. I will almost certainly go for it,
because
the PCR1000 is a nice useful tool. And I like the newer scanner which
will do trunking(and has a port so you can program it from a PC, but
it will operate stand alone!). And a newer laptop would be nice. But
for day in and
day out use I will stick to my "real" radios.
It was nice to take the PCR1000 to the woods with a PalmPilot and do a
sruvey from DC to light.
The PC noise issue can be greatly helped by the appropriate use of
feritte
cores. The more the better. Put them on every line into your PC, your
mouse and keyboard (they both have CPUs inside), printer, monitor,
audio
lines and maybe most important your coax lines. RF from the PC can
"creep"
up the coax shield to the antenna.
None friend has his PCR1000 mounted about 1000' away from his "shack".
He lives way out in the boonies, and has the PCR1000 in the barn. Runs
power/data/audio to/from the PCR1000 with a burried cable. With lots
of feritte cores on the line. He has a remote coax relay to switch
from
a Doty antenna (do a google on Doty Low Noise Antenna) and a simple
home
made diskcone. He has fantastic reception.
Terry