From: roman@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Roman Robles)
Subject: Re; ICOM IC-2SRA
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 23:43:29 GMT

Linda Stocks (AA6MR) asked about the IC-2SRA...I'll venture my
opinions and welcome anyone else to comment so I'll know
whether or not I'm 'off-base'.

I bought my IC-2SRA in January because I like to listen to
military aircraft and 280-400 MHz is not easy to find on
less expensive scanners. My only other radio is a Kenwood
TH-27A which I picked because I really like its performance
in the 118-136 MHz AM aircraft band.

The IC-2SRA user interface is NOT as intuitive, NOT as
easy to work in the dark with one hand, NOT as easy to read
in the light...but I'm sure you can learn to like it and
without the TH-27A as a basis of comparison, I would probably
never recognize these points as weaknesses.  It is adequate.

The IC-2SRA DOES work well in the band of interest to me, as well
as in the 460 MHz and 800 MHz public service bands.  The antenna
CANNOT be expected to perform well everywhere, but the radio is
adequate in these bands with the antenna supplied (I am talking
about the 2nd antenna; the one with the cheap phone jack for a
connector.)  The 2m receiver can also receive the 118-136 MHz
aircraft band, apparently AM detection and AGC. It is not quite
as good as the TH-27A, but not bad.  The Wide-Band receiver is
not as good as the 2m receiver in the 118-136 band, but I
suspect that this is a result of the antenna more than anything
else.  

The literature I have says that the radio will receive 25-950 MHz,
but it seems deaf outside 50-900MHz. (even though the synthesizer
seems to lock properly from 25-950). I have found very few birdies
that are bothersome, but (as you should expect) it is more prone  
to "intermod-type interferences".  The TH-27A is much better in 
its ability to operate in areas where the pager transmitters
are located. (but it is not perfect either...)

Audio quality is good, but you need a headphone/speaker mic in
noisy environments...not much audio power.  The battery life is
reasonable compared to what I get from the TH-27A, but it does NOT
have the Extra-Low power transmit that the TH-27A has and I find
this a bit of a hindrance to extended battery life (I work and play
within a couple of miles of 2 popular repeaters and EL power is
fine for many occasions).

The knobs on the top are TOO, TOO close to the antenna and this 
makes using them a bit cumbersome.  

The only serious complaint I have is that the radio sometimes
interfers with itself when I try to scan with both receivers
simultaneoulsy.  THIS CAN BE A PROBLEM, but remember that the
wideband receiver covers all of the frequencies that the 2m
receiver covers, so it might be a nit-picking thing.

Summary - the radio works in the bands of interest to me, its 
resistance to intermod (etc) is not bad, all considered, but I
could be in a good part of the country for the combination of
this radio/interferring frequency allocation/receiver IF frequencies.
The user interface is not great, but you could learn to like it.  The
feature set is GOOD, but lacks call alert which the TH-27A has and I
like....The battery consumption seems O.K., 

I'd buy it again. I have NOT found any "holes" in the coverage from
25-950 MHz, other than the lack of sensitivity at the extreme ends.

I hope this helps...Good Luck.

73's

Roman Robles
KI5XZ
roman@otis.sps.mot.com


Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc