am new to Ham radio. I bought an ICOM IC-V8000 mobile VHS radio, and it took me quite a while to figure out how to get going and using it. It is a great radio, but confusing to me. The manual is technically correct, but doesn't tell you WHEN or WHY. Hopefully this brief write-up will help someone else.
Getting Started
First reset the radio like the manual suggests.
Using the internet, or asking locals, figure out a channel, or frequency, that is used locally. Ask if it is a repeater. If it is a repeater, ask for the tone frequency, ask offset frequency, and write all this stuff down.
Hook up power and antenna. Turn on your radio. Push the upper left button on the Mic to get into VFO mode. Turn volume half way, squelch half way.
If you hold the up or down arrows on the mic, the frequency will take off up or down. When you get close, push the up or down again, and it quits scrolling. From here you can get closer by turning the front dial on the radio. Eventually, you will get to the frequency you are after.
Push the PTT button, and say your callsign.
Now it gets interesting. If you are on a repeater frequency, the repeater should "squawk" back at you, or do something you can tell. Probably it will not though.
The next thing to try is the Dup- or Dup plus. But, it probably will still not work, because you have not entered the Tone. Hit FN, then TONE. This turns the tone on, but the tone is still set to the wrong frequency. To set the tone frequency Hit the SET button on right side of mic. Keep hitting Set until rT is at the bottom right. It will say 88 or something. Use up and down arrows on Mic to set Tone frequency. When done, hit CLR amw on Mic.
Now, say hit PTT and say your callsign, listen for squawk. If still no squawk, crank up your power to HIGH by hitting HIGH on left side of Mic. Try again.
Memory
Lets pretend the moons aligned, and you got it to work. It sure would be NICE to save it for next time. You want to save to memory. Hit FN, then CLR/amw on right upper side of mic. Find a clear memory slot (first time they are ALL clear!). Now, hit FN again, and then HOLD DOWN CLR/amw for two seconds until it beeps at you 3 times.
If you hit VFO, you can go find other frequencies to save. When you get a channel or frequency set up, hit FN then CLR amw to grab your settings, then scroll through memory spots to find empty slot, and FN CLR amw , held down 2 seconds to save it off.
Radio Main Modes
There are like 5 main modes. There is VFO mode. There is memory mode. There is Bank mode. There is Call Channel mode. And there is "stuck in memory never never land mode."
VFO mode is like scrolling around through the entire universe of VHF frequencies trying to find frequencies worth saving to memory.
Memory mode is all the cool frequencies you have already found and setup. You can scan these, scroll through them listening or talking.
Bank mode allows you to get really confused, and listen to the weather channels.
The old timers will laugh, but the call channel is actually pretty stupid. The theory is that there is one MAIN channel that EVERYONE wants available at their fingertips at all times. So, the most used repeater, or your wife's "private" channel, or something you want REALLY handy is what you should program into your "Call Channel." The book describes how to program the call channel, but NOTHING tells you what it is.
Never never land sucks. Turning off the radio doesn't clear it. You can't get to normal modes. You can't talk. It is really confusing. Basically, I THINK it happens when you accidentally selected a frequency to save to memory, but you haven't dumped it to memory yet. So, it is waiting for you to find a new home for the channel by selecting something, hitting FN and CLR/amw. I think.
Scanning
Scanning is cool. You can scan memory, or you can scan the ENTIRE VHF frequencies. To scan memory, hit MR/Call quickly, then hit the 2 button on the mic. If you want it to stop scanning, hit the 2 button again. To scan the entire VHF frequency, hit VFO on top of Mic, then hit the 2 button.
Eventually you will figure out that the VHF frequency is HUGE, and mostly stagnant. So, you want to only scan certain areas of frequencies. You set these areas by using Edge channels.
As an example, say you want to only scan the channels you can talk on. Select VFO, go to 144.100. Save this channel to memory spot 1a. then go to 148.000, and save it to memory spot 1b. 1a and 1b are special edge channels.
To scan between 1a and 1b, Hit VFO. Then hit the 2 button to start scanning. Then hit the Set button on the right side of Mic. The set button tells the radio to use 1a/1b and scan the "program", signified by the P in the bottom right when it is doing it.
Odds and ends
Monitor is cool. It shuts off squelch, and does interesting things on repeater channels so you can listen to the inputs to the repeaters if the other guy is close enough.
Set is used to SET settings for each channel or frequency.
I thought the Alert for the weather channels would be cool, but what it really does is interrupt every conversation with dead space just long enough to distract you.
I believe the way to use memory banks is to save the channel to memory, then group the memory areas into like banks.
The Mic keys and the front panel of the radio keys don't do the same things. I would suggest learning the mic methods OR the front panel methods.
They are great radios, but can be confusing.
Getting Started
First reset the radio like the manual suggests.
Using the internet, or asking locals, figure out a channel, or frequency, that is used locally. Ask if it is a repeater. If it is a repeater, ask for the tone frequency, ask offset frequency, and write all this stuff down.
Hook up power and antenna. Turn on your radio. Push the upper left button on the Mic to get into VFO mode. Turn volume half way, squelch half way.
If you hold the up or down arrows on the mic, the frequency will take off up or down. When you get close, push the up or down again, and it quits scrolling. From here you can get closer by turning the front dial on the radio. Eventually, you will get to the frequency you are after.
Push the PTT button, and say your callsign.
Now it gets interesting. If you are on a repeater frequency, the repeater should "squawk" back at you, or do something you can tell. Probably it will not though.
The next thing to try is the Dup- or Dup plus. But, it probably will still not work, because you have not entered the Tone. Hit FN, then TONE. This turns the tone on, but the tone is still set to the wrong frequency. To set the tone frequency Hit the SET button on right side of mic. Keep hitting Set until rT is at the bottom right. It will say 88 or something. Use up and down arrows on Mic to set Tone frequency. When done, hit CLR amw on Mic.
Now, say hit PTT and say your callsign, listen for squawk. If still no squawk, crank up your power to HIGH by hitting HIGH on left side of Mic. Try again.
Memory
Lets pretend the moons aligned, and you got it to work. It sure would be NICE to save it for next time. You want to save to memory. Hit FN, then CLR/amw on right upper side of mic. Find a clear memory slot (first time they are ALL clear!). Now, hit FN again, and then HOLD DOWN CLR/amw for two seconds until it beeps at you 3 times.
If you hit VFO, you can go find other frequencies to save. When you get a channel or frequency set up, hit FN then CLR amw to grab your settings, then scroll through memory spots to find empty slot, and FN CLR amw , held down 2 seconds to save it off.
Radio Main Modes
There are like 5 main modes. There is VFO mode. There is memory mode. There is Bank mode. There is Call Channel mode. And there is "stuck in memory never never land mode."
VFO mode is like scrolling around through the entire universe of VHF frequencies trying to find frequencies worth saving to memory.
Memory mode is all the cool frequencies you have already found and setup. You can scan these, scroll through them listening or talking.
Bank mode allows you to get really confused, and listen to the weather channels.
The old timers will laugh, but the call channel is actually pretty stupid. The theory is that there is one MAIN channel that EVERYONE wants available at their fingertips at all times. So, the most used repeater, or your wife's "private" channel, or something you want REALLY handy is what you should program into your "Call Channel." The book describes how to program the call channel, but NOTHING tells you what it is.
Never never land sucks. Turning off the radio doesn't clear it. You can't get to normal modes. You can't talk. It is really confusing. Basically, I THINK it happens when you accidentally selected a frequency to save to memory, but you haven't dumped it to memory yet. So, it is waiting for you to find a new home for the channel by selecting something, hitting FN and CLR/amw. I think.
Scanning
Scanning is cool. You can scan memory, or you can scan the ENTIRE VHF frequencies. To scan memory, hit MR/Call quickly, then hit the 2 button on the mic. If you want it to stop scanning, hit the 2 button again. To scan the entire VHF frequency, hit VFO on top of Mic, then hit the 2 button.
Eventually you will figure out that the VHF frequency is HUGE, and mostly stagnant. So, you want to only scan certain areas of frequencies. You set these areas by using Edge channels.
As an example, say you want to only scan the channels you can talk on. Select VFO, go to 144.100. Save this channel to memory spot 1a. then go to 148.000, and save it to memory spot 1b. 1a and 1b are special edge channels.
To scan between 1a and 1b, Hit VFO. Then hit the 2 button to start scanning. Then hit the Set button on the right side of Mic. The set button tells the radio to use 1a/1b and scan the "program", signified by the P in the bottom right when it is doing it.
Odds and ends
Monitor is cool. It shuts off squelch, and does interesting things on repeater channels so you can listen to the inputs to the repeaters if the other guy is close enough.
Set is used to SET settings for each channel or frequency.
I thought the Alert for the weather channels would be cool, but what it really does is interrupt every conversation with dead space just long enough to distract you.
I believe the way to use memory banks is to save the channel to memory, then group the memory areas into like banks.
The Mic keys and the front panel of the radio keys don't do the same things. I would suggest learning the mic methods OR the front panel methods.
They are great radios, but can be confusing.