They had one left in stock, not cheap, but it was available. Icom America did not supply any replacements and I was able to hunt down the board from Icom Canada.

One of the main PCB's blew out in a lightning storm. Your post reminds me of trying to find a competent repair tech for my 8500. Of course, the commission modified the stock receivers to meet their own special needs. I too have SDR receivers, but I find that the R8500 is the better listening choice when I want to monitor a single dispatch radio channel over an extended time period.įinal note: At one time the R8500 was very popular with the staff of the FCC monitoring lab group. There aren’t many other possibilities any longer. If you have access to a shop with modern electronic instrumentation and a copy of the manual, at least you would stand a chance of improving the receiver. It might have been an electrolytic capacitor (and there are many!) whose dielectric needed to be re-formed. After that point the problem disappeared and it has not recurred. A friend and I tore into the receiver, but the ultimate “fix” in my case was to leave the receiver powered up continuously for almost a week. The manual is large and it is expensive, but it also is complete. Ultimately I bought the service manual for the receiver, the only item which Icom would sell. I don't know whether he has changed his mind about it. Tim said that he would not touch the receiver either (at that time) since he also could not get parts for it from Icom. I then called Tim Moes at his shop and asked him for help.

Curiously they were still servicing the earlier R9000s! Icom simply would do nothing to support the 8500. I first called Icom America and learned that they had just discontinued all parts and service *totally* for the R8500. Several years ago my R8500 developed an electrical breakdown somewhere in the RF chain, leading to unstable howling oscillations and no reception.

Icom ic8500