ICOM IC 400 UHF

I have one - quite happy with it's performance - agreed re the manual - the instructions in there assume a lot of UHF technical experience on the part of the owner IMV - some issues were quite baffling to me too for awhile. Re tips - might be better to ask about the actual functions / modes you actually want to employ - then people can respond on those specifics. I use selcall, CTCSS and the scans: group, open and repeater.

hi Denis
do you have the mike earth (needed for scanning) go to the channels one by one push and hold the scan button to set scan channels.scan on /off.

There was a thread about 400pro scanning issues see here:
Previous Thread

Dennis

I have one of those purchased August 2009 and I keep the manual in the glovebox (never did that with Uniden or GME). Sometimes I accidentally press something and muck up the setup I have and have to fix it.

Re Open or group scans I found all the channels in either group had to be individually selected and added to the group. A bit tedious. There may be a quicker way but I have not found it. I would suggest starting with setting up a group scan of a few channels as per page 12 first. Then when you have that worked out complete setting up group scan then change to open scan and use what you have learnt to set that up.

The manual is a pain. The features you want are well into the manual and they have some rather baffling stuff before that to do with settings that will probably never be changed and can really be skipped. If your manual is like mine the info you need will be on pages 11 to 13, Skip the very confusing pages 9 and 10 to do with scanning preparation. The defaults are good enough to get you going.

I like the Icom. It is a better unit than the GME (run for cover, get flamed and burnt) but it is a lot more difficult to learn. Very steep learning curve with the Icom.

Flynnie

I have one, and find it's a P.I.A. for simplicity compared to the GME that I now have in the wifes FG XR6.

I have had mine for about 4 or 5 years now, the quality to listeners is as good as GME units,
Just one thing ..............if you fiddle around with the settings you could make your set transmit a pulse about 30 seconds, you won't hear it, but it'll annoy the C r out of others, the only way you will know it's doing it is a little icon will flash on the top left side , and you'll need the manual to stop it, if you dont have a manual download one fron the website.

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I ao have the ICOM and I depress the scan button for a couple of seconds and it starts to scan.

And I agree it is bloody complicated to use.

Dennis
The 400 Pro will drive you nuts..in the early stages, as it did to me.

I did send you a message about the simplified version... That helps heaps.

It will help you to realise that you really only have to operate it in Priority mode, as you tell the radio which chanels you want anyway, ( your own priority)

The bars and their combination position on the bottom of the screen will tell you what mode you are in..

Yhere is also a Yahoo user's group, which are helpfull

Icom 400 Pro User's group

Not that I use it much, but it's there anyway

Cheers
Bucky