IC-R8600 Digital Modes & Receive History

Summary: How the IC-R8600 receives D-STAR, P25, NXDN, dPMR and DCR, the receive history log and the digital settings.

Receiving Digital Modes

Touch DIGITAL on the mode screen (touch it again to cycle D-STAR, P25, dPMR, NXDN-vn, NXDN-n, DCR). The receiver’s digital demodulation is done in DSP. The digital voice coding is AMBE+2 technology licensed to Icom; see IC-R8600 Safety, Precautions & Compliance. Use a digital squelch code if you want to hear only calls carrying it (see IC-R8600 Tone Squelch, Digital Squelch, Descrambler & Decryption).

Digital filters: D-STAR, P25 and NXDN-n use 15/10/7 kHz; dPMR, NXDN-vn and DCR use 10/7/5 kHz.

Receive History Log

Calls received in a digital mode are stored in the history: up to 50 entries (the 51st deletes the oldest; a call from the same ID or call sign overwrites its older entry), kept when the receiver is off. MENU, HISTORY, rotate and touch a log to view it. Items:

• All: frequency, mode, date and time.
• D-STAR: caller and called call signs, message, RXRPT1 (the repeater accessed) and RXRPT2 (the repeater received from), CSQL.
• P25: caller ID, called ID, NAC, call type (ALL, GRP or IND).
• dPMR: COM ID (Tier 1); caller ID, called ID and CC (Tier 2).
• NXDN and DCR: caller and called IDs, RAN or UC and call type. If a DCR call isn’t individual or the transmitter isn’t Icom, only the user code shows.

Saving the History (RX History Log)

SET, Digital Set, RX History Log (default OFF): ON stores the log to the SD card as CSV in the RxLog folder. The CSV format (Separator/Decimal, default Sep [,] Dec [.] but it varies by version) and Date format (default yyyy/mm/dd) are set under the same item.

Other Digital Settings (SET, Digital Set)

• Digital Monitor (Auto): what the Monitor function does in a digital mode (Auto, Digital, Analog).
• Digital Mode Select: which digital modes appear on the mode screen.
• D-STAR Standby Beep (ON), D-STAR Auto Detect (OFF: fixed to DV; ON: temporarily switch to FM when an FM signal arrives), RX Record (D-STAR RPT) (All or Latest Only), D-STAR EMR AF Level (20%; 0 disables).
• Fast Unmute (NXDN) (ON).
• Display, RX Popup (Normal, 3 seconds; OFF, RX Hold, Hold) and P25 RX ID Display (Dec or Hex).
• Serial function: the front and rear USB ports can output D-STAR data (see IC-R8600 USB, LAN, CI-V & Remote Control).

Indicators

BK appears when a break-in call is received, EMR when an EMR signal is received, and L when packet loss has occurred.