IC-R8600 Menu, Function Screen, Quick Menu & Entering Text

Summary: How to use the IC-R8600’s MENU screen, FUNCTION screen and QUICK MENU, and how to enter text on the touch keyboard.

MENU Screen

Push MENU. The items depend on the receive mode and include MEMORY, SCAN, SCOPE, DECODE (FSK modes), HISTORY, RECORD and SET. Rotate a dial or touch an item to open it, push EXIT to go back one level.

In the manual, “MENU » SET > Time Set > Date” means: push MENU, touch SET, choose Time Set, then Date. To restore a setting to its default, touch the item for 1 second and choose Default, or push QUICK on the item and choose Default.

QUICK MENU

Push QUICK. The items depend on what you’re doing (for example Keyboard Type on text screens, <<REC Start>> and <<REC Stop>>, Temporary Skip during a scan, Move Channel and Memory Copy on the MEMORY screen, Channel Select Group Range in Memory mode, and the meter type).

FUNCTION Screen

Push FUNCTION. Touch an item to turn it on or off; touch for 1 second to choose its option or open its menu. The available items depend on the mode:

• ANT (ANT1/2/3), P.AMP (OFF/ON), ATT (OFF, 10, 20, 30 dB), IP+ (OFF/ON)
• TONE (OFF, TSQL or DTCS) and D.SQL (D-STAR CSQL, P25 NAC, dPMR COM ID or CC, NXDN RAN, DCR UC)
• TONE/SHIFT (FSK RX frequency, tone frequency and shift width)
• AGC (FAST, MID, SLOW), NOTCH (OFF, AN, MN), NB, NR, DUP (OFF, DUP-, DUP+)
• SCRAM (dPMR descrambler) and ENCRYP (NXDN and DCR decryption)

Push EXIT to close it.

Entering Text

Names and other text use an on-screen keyboard. Character types:

• Memory and group names: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, space and symbols such as @ % & # + – = [ ] / ( ) : ; ^ ! ? < > . ,
• Opening comment: A-Z, 0-9, space and / @ – .
• File names (SD card): letters, digits and symbols, but not ” / : ; * < >
• NTP server address: letters, digits, space, – and .
• Network names, radio name, user IDs and passwords: as listed in the manual (letters, digits and symbols)

Choose the Full Keyboard or Ten-key layout with SET, Function, Keyboard Type (or from the QUICK MENU while typing); the full keyboard layout can be English, German or French. Touch a key to type it; touch the shift key for 1 second for upper-case mode; touch [ENT] to finish, [CE] to clear.

Example: to enter the memory name “MAIN CHANNEL”: MENU, MEMORY, rotate to the channel, push QUICK, Edit Name, touch the shift key for 1 second for upper case, type up to 16 characters, touch [ENT].

The manual is inconsistent about name length: the introduction says memory and group names can be up to 16 characters, but the step-by-step instructions say up to 10. If you plan to use long names, test what your receiver accepts.