Icom IC-R9000 AM FM SSB CW Shortwave Receiver 100 KHz -1999 MHz Sherwood Mods

  
Where necessary in our sale details below. This sale is for an highly reviewed and revered Icom IC-R9000 receiver built from 1989 thru 1998. Many hobbyists consider the R9000 to be the epitome of receivers due to its excellent sensitivity, wealth of operational features, spectrum display, and unbroken coverage (unblocked) from 100 KHz thru 1999.80 MHz.

Cosmetically, the receiver is used and you will notice a couple of minor scratches on the covers. These Icom covers were easily scratched and it is nearly impossible to find an R9000 without any marks. However, despite the minor marks, this receiver is in above average condition and should appeal to someone wanting a higher grade unit then what is commonly found for sale. We have verified that this R9000 operates wonderfully with excellent sensitivity. We did not operate the unit above 1,000 MHz since we do not have the proper antenna nor are we familiar with transmissions to test the receiver in this range, but we expect the receiver will work just as well in those upper ranges as it does in the lower ranges.

The unit works well with no known issues or problems and we did not spot any noticeable burn-in on the CRT screen. It is also common for these receivers to have CRT distortion or improper screen alignment and neither of these issues is present with this receiver. Everything appears to be absolutely beautiful. The R9000 is supplied with an original user manual, a service manual with fold out schematics, copy of the brochure, promotional documents, reviews, and the Passport Whitepaper review.

In addition, we include a CD that contains many documents including the service manual. This is a very special R9000 receiver has benefits from all 3 Sherwood modifications to take the receiver to the next level. In talking with Rob Sherwood, he has often described the R9000 as an excellent receiver, but with a couple of shortcomings. The couple of Sherwood mods serve to take care of these minor issues with the receiver and are.

You can also see the addition of 2 filters on the IF board in the picture at the top of this listing. The R9000 could run very hot inside the cabinet when operating off of AC current.

This was due in large part to the internal power supply, but also due to the CRT display generating heat. The result of this heat build-up is that the life of the internal components can be reduced over time due to this exposure to the heat. Component failure then creates the need for more servicing and more costly servicing. Typically it is best to operate the receiver using DC current to keep internal heat to a minimum.

However, in this case, Sherwood Engineering designed a replacement rear panel that contains a cooling fan. Thus, you can operate the receiver using AC current while the low noise cooling fan quietly hums to keep the internals from overheating.

We took a close-up picture of this fan mod which can be seen in the picture section above. Frankly, you can manage without the sync on this receiver due to its fine tuning in 10 Hz increments using ECSS (exalted carrier selectable sideband).

Many people who regularly DX actually prefer ECSS over a synchronous unit. That said, Sherwood Engineering offered a down converter and a buffered filter board at 455 KHz that enabled this receiver to use the highly acclaimed Sherwood SE-3 sync detector. The Sherwood SE-3 sync detector enabled the receiver to remain locked on the signal during deep fades and could also enable tuning to the edge of the filter bandwidth to avoid interference. Finally, the SE-3 offers a better audio amplifier (with richer bass) and so a speaker patched to the SE-3 will provide superior audio than when using the receiver's internal audio circuitry. The R9000 does not come with an SE-3, but this modification makes it "SE-3 ready" in the event that you would like to add this unit at any time in the future. You can see the 455 IF output on the rear panel. As you can now determine, this particular R9000 is an ultimate version offering the well know performance of the R9000 but now with all of the available Sherwood improvement modifications. Typically when someone looks to purchasing a "do all" receiver, they soon find that they run into a list of compromises. Additionally, if you want a wideband receiver to scan, it is usually limited with what it can perform and this leaves the operator frustrated and wanting more channels, banks, speed, etc. Thus, the person likely ends up purchasing a combination of receivers to get the band coverage and features that one is desiring to have available to them.

In 1989, Icom introduced the IC-R9000 to the consumer market with high acclaim. Certainly this was not a receiver for the amateur hobbyist!

During the 10 years that Icom made this receiver, it received numerous "high five" reviews from those who were fortunate enough to be able to get their hands on the receiver and put it through its paces. Finally, here was a receiver that could do all things well and as close to perfection as you will ever likely find in a DC to daylight receiver that offers scanning capabilities. We now intend to explore some of the receiver's features and capabilities at this time in the listing.

Let us point out that when you look at this receiver, you are immediately struck with the fact that this receiver is unlike any receiver you have probably encountered. The outstanding difference is that Icom employed the use of a large front panel display to help with both signal location and with programming.

We would like to summarize some of the features found on the R9000 and then take a little time to discuss some of them. 5.5 diagonal CRT for spectrum display, terminal monitor & operational functions. Unbroken and unblocked receiving range of 100 KHz to 1999.8 MHz.

Separate Bass / Treble controls. 1 / 1 / 5 / 9 / 10 / 12.5 / 20 / 25 / 100 (thus tuning resolution of 10 Hz). Selectivity 150 / 15 / 6 / 2.4 /.

5 KHz (depending upon receiving mode). Super high frequency stability + or - 25 Hz less than 30 MHz and = or.

25 ppm over 30 MHz. AFC thru the entire FM range (like 1200 MHz in amateur bands or to compensate for frequency shifts of doppler effect from weather satellites). Excellent sensitivity on all frequencies.

Improved CI-V to control the unit from a personal computer. Line out , external speaker and 1/4 headphone jacks. Noise Filter that is threshold adjustable and width selectable. 10 / 20 / 30 dB attenuator. And then there are features specific to the scanning functions. Adjustable scan speed (but based on about 13 channels / sec).

Programming scanning ranges & memories using the CRT scope. VSC function (voice scan control) - scans immediately when a voice is not detected upon scan pause. Programmed Scan - Repeatedly scans between two programmable scan edges. Up to 10 groups of scan ranges can be specified. F Scan - Repeatedly scans pre-selected frequency widths around your receiving range.

Useful for signal searching in a narrow frequency range. Priority Scan - Monitors the memory channels while you listen to your main operating channel. Your most required memory channel may be programmed as a priority channel for each memory bank. (good for public service call out frequencies). Memory Scan - Scans all memory channels or a pre-programmed memory channel range i.

Selected Mode Memory Scan - Scans memory channels which contain the same specific mode. Selected Number Memory Scan - A group number can be assigned for all 1,000 memory channels. This search then will only scan only those channels that contain the same group number.

Auto Memory Write Scan - Scans between two scan edges and when a signal is received, writes the channel sequentially into memory and also writes the received time into the note area. At this point, we would like to talk a bit about the strengths of this receiver. We have often been asked what is our favorite of all the receivers we have ever tested.

This is akin to asking a parent which is their favorite child. Each receiver has a personality and shines in some areas while lacking in others. For us, the R9000 is not perfect, but is very close. As you can tell from the list above of receiver's features and specs, it is a phenomenal receiver.

We have personally owned one and used it for about 8 years so can answer a number of specific questions. However, as much as we have used the unit, there are many features that we have never explored and are lacking in familiarity. If you like buttons, dials, controls and user options....

This is a dream receiver that will hold your interest for some time. The other purpose is for DXing and, in using the spectrum display for mediumwave and HF reception, discovering new transmissions or working to improve reception with what we see on the scope. You basically use the unit like a regular receiver with all the bells and whistles of IF shift, notch, filter selection, etc, etc. However, instead of working on a difficult signal blindly, you can observe it in the spectrum scope.

This helps you observe the presence of other nearby signals and efficiently move away or minimize the interference. Otherwise, you don't "see" the signal and don't know what you need to do. Yes, you can figure it out, but the visual using the scope is a great way to do this with ease.

Secondly, we use the scope to spot signals. You can set the spectrum display to read + or - 25, 50 or 100 KHz and using it like a radar screen, discover signals that you may otherwise overlook or tune past. On our R9000, we set the scope to read + or - 25 KHz and then set the tuning step at 5 KHz when searching shortwave.

This means that in looking at the grid on the display, we can accurately know the frequency of the signal before tuning toward it. Then as necessary, we can make the tuning resolution finer for tropical band use or zeroing in on sideband signals. When DXing on mediumwave, we can see signal peaks at every 10 KHz and it helps to visualize the strength of the signals up and down the band. On the ham bands, this display becomes very important in assisting in optimizing signals.

With a tuning resolution of 10 Hz, you can get perfect SSB and, using a variety of weapons previously mentioned, deal with both QRN and QRM. On our personal R9000, we programmed about 100 channels on the higher frequencies that are mostly public service in nature. The display allows you to easily load this information and see it during entry.

Admittedly, we do not use the scanning feature as often as direct entry of frequencies or of listening on the HF bands, but it is nice to have this feature when we need to call upon it. Others will undoubtedly find a lot of use with the versatility of the scanning features. Here is a list that should not be considered exhaustive. Longwave transmissions including broadcasts within Europe or Asia as-well-as beacons & utility broadcasts. All the amateur radio frequencies of 160 thru 2 meter plus all the high band and satellite communications. Military traffic (that is on open channel and not scrambled). Emergency services as fire, police, ambulance, hospital, lifeflight.

Road repair and clearance crews. Prison traffic (security, of course). University maintenance and security traffic. City Transit Systems (buses, metros, trains, etc).

Wireless microphones / baby monitors , etc. Amusement park traffic (Disney has a large network).

Space communications & satellite communications (if open channel). As we have mentioned, we do not utilize the full scanning capabilities of our R9000. Our preference is to direct dial in certain marginal frequencies. We were able to download hundreds of frequencies available to us in our area (found in various online databases) and from time-to-time, print them out for reference, and then punch them in on the R9000 keypad.

Some of these frequencies are rather obscure and not necessary to have in memory. For instance, we were able to tune into our neighbor one day as he was on his farm tractor communicating to his farm hands in the barn.

We had no interest in this transmission and while we have never tuned in any other time, we found it fascinating the scope of signals for what this receiver can pull in. On another occasion, when our daughter was late coming home from school, we were able to tune into the school district frequency and learned that there was an accident on the road ahead of the school bus that was holding up the bus traffic and thus delaying school bus drop offs.

Our personal experience with this receiver is that it is possibly the best wideband receiver ever made.... Or at the very least the best that will ever be made for the consumer market in this price class. (this is personal opinion, but backed by other opinions as well) Why is that? First of all, there are no gaps in the receiving range and that is virtually impossible to achieve anymore as only government receivers can now offer that type of coverage.

Secondly, Icom released a follow up to the R9000, the R9500 and the R8600. However, while the receivers multi-color display are striking to look at, they also have some issues with circuit noise coming from the massive LCD display affecting the readout on the spectrum screen. A well respected electrical engineer told us that the circuit noise level on the readout of the 9500 means that it is worthless for weak signal searching due to the "grass" on the screen and this can also be seen on the screen readout for the R8600 receiver. We have tested this on both of these receivers and found this to be true and that Passport's review of the R9500 also confirms this information. At this point, we would like to provide you with some external links to learn more about the R9000. Here is the mother of all links from Radio Reference.

This site is the Rigpix site that offers little extra info, but does have a link for you to view the manual. Here is an excellent complete review on the Medium Wave site and first offered on the Radio Netherland site. And this final site is the eHam site giving reviews by other users of this R9000 receiver. The item "Icom IC-R9000 AM FM SSB CW Shortwave Receiver 100 KHz -1999 MHz Sherwood Mods" is in sale since Sunday, April 11, 2021. This item is in the category "Consumer Electronics\Radio Communication\Ham, Amateur Radio\Ham Radio Receivers".

The seller is "bigapple59" and is located in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania. This item can be shipped to United States.

• Model: IC-R9000
• Band: AM
• Type: Base Station
• Features: Digital
• Supported Modes: AM
• MPN: IC-R9000
• Brand: Icom