IcomR7000

The ICOM IC-R7000 is an excellent general purpose VHF / UHF receiver that operates on 120 VAC. While is can also operate on 12 VDC, it is a bit large for a mobile rig and is really intended as a base station type of unit where the 12 VDC would serve as a backup power source. While not as productive as the Maxtrac or MDS radios, the R7000 receiver has been used with success in ATCS Monitoring. The radio easily tunes the ATCS BCP and MCP frequencies with fairly good sensitivity.

The R7000 does have a rear "Ext Spkr" jack as well as front panel "Phones" and "Rec" jacks. But as is the case with all scanners and receivers, these jacks cannot be used for data reception as the audio filtering and processing makes data decoding impossible. Therefore, the radio does need to have a discriminator tap installed. Fortunately, there is a "Spare" jack on the rear panel in the form of an RCA phono jack for just such a purpose.

The radio is roomy and uses old fashioned components with leads (as opposed to surface mount components) making it easy to work on. The discriminator tap is relatively straightforward for those technically inclined. Details on how to perform the discriminator tap mod can be found at: http://www.discriminator.nl/r7000/index-en.html

If you're not handy with a soldering iron, hook up with an ATCS fan in your area who is, or contact a local ham radio operator. Most hams will either be able to do the mod for you or put you in touch with someone who can. Check with your local ham radio club or if you're feeling lucky, there is a partial list of ham radio operators who are active in ATCS Monitoring on the Yahoo! web site at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ATCS_Monitor/database?method=reportRows&tbl=11 This list shows the where the ATCS Monitor / railroad buff / ham operators reside and if there is someone in your area, so much the better.

There are two negatives found so far in using the R7000. First, as already mentioned, the radio doesn't perform as well as a Maxtrac or MDS. the second issue involves frequency stability. R7000s have been around for more than a decade and haven't been made for years. That means these radios are getting on in years. As a result, the accuracy of the digital frequency display may not be quite what it once was. This is especially true in the higher frequencies like those used for ATCS. The bottom line is, you can't just dial in 897.9375 (for example) and assume that you're on channel. You might have to fine tune a bit one way or the other to get the lowest error rate in your data. Once you find the sweet spot, you can easily store that frequency in a memory channel, but it can take some playing around. The R7000 can be aligned to correct any tuning errors, but the alignment is fairly involved and takes professional grade test equipment to perform.

In summary, if you have an R7000 on hand and would like to give it a shot before you go out and purchase a new, dedicated ATCS receiver its certainly worth the effort.

Comments/Questions

-- DanRapak - 10 Sep 2007