PC Connectivity

The R-20 can be connected to a PC in a number of ways. It has a USB socket which allows the user to program the memory channels and also save the audio files it creates.

Additionally, it also has a CI-V interface for rig control which allows you to control your R20 from a PC. This allows you to effectively have almost unlimited memories and the possibility of interfacing a database with your R20.

Thirdly, the R20s audio output can be connected to a computers soundcard or serial port via a slicer in order to decode data signals.

Programming and Cloning

Connecting up

In order to clone or program an R-20, you need the appropriate lead. The good news is that all that's needed is a commonly available USB lead and you do not need a level converter like you do with so many other radios which use the RS232 serial port.

The socket on the side of the radio is a 5 pin USB mini 'B' socket which is a fairly common connector as used with a variety of cameras and card readers. You can buy one of these cables very cheaply from a number of on-line and high street retailers.

Programming and cloning software available for the R-20 is as follows

CS-R20

Icom introduced CS-R20 which is supplied as an optional extra. It comes with the necessary cable. This application is reliable and useful enough but is lacking when it comes to cutting and pasting multiple records. It does not integrate fully with windows either and so you cannot cut and paste anything to or from CS -R20 and another application such as a text document. There's no Undo feature, Ctrl-Z does nothing.

Why is it so crap? well, the people who write this stuff are not seasoned programmers and are not with the bleeding edge of software design, they are quite often the same engineers who develop the firmware and it is just issued in a perfunctory way.

Anyone who has ever programmed a PBR radio will know exactly what I mean, the software to program these devices lags current mainstream practice by as much as ten years. Until relatively recently, most apps still ran in DOS. When they did run in windows, they were 16 bit and would not support long filenames. This has very much been the culture and you have to remember that scanners are very much a niche market and development is focused at a very small target market.

I'd have a real issue with this if it wasn't for the fact that CS-R20 is relatively affordable.

The current price from Waters and Stanton (at time of writing) is £24.95 (Eur36.18) which I consider to be fairly reasonable even considering the limited scope of this product.

Screen Shot

It allows you to upload voice files, save them on your computer and download them back to the scanner. It does, however, not allow you to play audio files or even convert them into any file format that can be played on a PC.

Butel iClone

Butel have been creating software for scanners for a number of years. Their software has characteristically been vastly more attractive to the end user than the original manufacturers software itself. They seem to have a better understanding of what the end user wants out of a piece of software than the equipment makers . Butel at one time were set on doing their magic with the IC-R20 and indeed went as far as releasing iClone as a taster. iClone was able to successfully upload and download payloads from the R-20 and from one scanner to another but did not feature the possibility of editing or manipulation. All looked set for a bright future and high hopes were had for when the full application was released. But as a great loss to the R-20 community, Butel pulled out of developing software for the R-20 as they had bigger fish to fry and needed to concentrate their resources. Butel no longer distribute or support iClone.

NF-R20

Normand Fortin then came forward to fill the void with NFR-20. Normand had already developed software for the IC-R10. His approach was revolutionary. Rather than re-invent the wheel and create a database engine from the ground up, he developed a spreadsheet which runs under MS Excel with an import function which could use payload files downloaded in CS-R20 or iClone.

ICW2WAV

In essence, Icom chose to use the Oki ML2302TB chip to handle audio recording duties. This chip was designed originally for use in digital dictation machines and on the face of it was not a bad choice. The ML2302 chip is quite clever in the way it is very well suited to recording the human voice and storing its resultant file into a very small file size. It's this ADPCM2 chip which allows more than four hours of audio to be recorded on 32MB of flash memory. Unfortunately, Oki's ADPCM2 codec features a proprietary algorithm and Icom were, it would seem, not able to licence it as part of CS-R20.

However, a mobile phone was identified which used the same compression technique for its ringtones and some very clever people got together and came up with Icw2wav a little conversion utility which borrows a couple of libraries and turns your saved files into wav files. CS-R20 is used to upload the audio files from your R20 to your PC.

Rob Fisher's .icf file utility

If you have an ICOM IC-R20 and the CS-R20 software, you might find Rob's program useful:

It's a command line tool that operates on the files generated by CS-R20. It can do a few different things, such as sorting memory banks by frequency or name.

It's open source and written in Python, so if you know Python you'll be able to write your own scripts.

http://www.robfisher.net/software/r20/

Michael A. Casey

At one time, a developer by the name of Michael A. Casey was talking about developing software for the R20. I have not heard any updates as to how far the project has been taken. His stated aims were as follows......................

ICF/ICW file transfer is built in.
Sorting of any field in various channel banks.
The same capabilities as the existing CS-R20 software.
CSV import.
Copy/Paste rows, fields, and columns.

Other features I will have in my second software title:

CIV control and automation.
Automatic recording functions.
ICW playback and conversion.
WAV/MP3/PCM/WMA transcoding.

Rig Control - Driving your radio with your computer

It has for a long time been Icom's policy to include CI-V capability with their upper tier radios.

CI-V is a serial interface and set of associated protocols which allows to computer to send commands to the radio. It can also send queries to which the radio will reply with the requested data.

Sadly the R-20 has a somewhat limited command set which does not give extensive control over the entire range of its features.



Icom IC-R20 CI-V Commands


	Sc	Cn
Transfers frequency data (transceive)	-	0
Transfers mode data (transceive)	-	1
Reads display frequency	-	3
Reads display mode	-	4
Sets frequency data	-	5
Sets LSB mode	00	6
Sets USB mode	01
Sets AM mode	02
Sets CW mode	03
Sets FM mode	05
Sets WFM mode	06
Reads squelch condition (open or closed)	01	15
Reads S-meter level	02	15

Connecting up with CI-V

Unlike the simplicity of the USB interface, the CI-V interface is a little more tricky to implement.

The reason for this is that your computer's serial port uses a signal of -12v to represent a binary zero, and a voltage of +12v to represent a one.

The R20 uses TTL logic voltage which means that it expects a zero to be 0v and a one to be 3.3v.

For this reason, a voltage level translator is required. Icom's product is the CT-17 although it is unrealistically expensive and there are other third party products available at a fraction of the asking price.

The CT-17, however can interface up to four radios so if you have other Icom receivers and transceivers, it is maybe worth considering if this is the case.

If you don't have a serial port on your PC, you can now get a USB to CI-V interface which in fact has a FT-232BM chip which is similar to the FT245BM used inside the R20.

There are a couple of issues with the CI-V socket on the R20, it doubles up with the headphone socket, so, firstly, it's a three pole plug as opposed to the two pole plug which most interfaces, including the CT-17 normally use.

Secondly, the R20 uses the speaker socket for the CI-V interface so plugging anything in to this will mute the speaker.

My preferred solution is to use a special 'Y' cable I have made up which allows me to connect my interface and an external speaker. The R20s speaker is, after all a little bit on the quiet side and almost gets lost in the noise of my PC's cooling fan at times

Another option is to shave off the tip of a stereo plug so that when you insert it, it does not activate the internal switch which mutes the internal speaker.

There is an adaptor which is exactly this, a 3.5mm plug minus the tip. At the time of writing, the cost is $14.95 shipped to the lower 48 US states. Contact Dan at Taylor Engineering.

The interface can be made quite easily by anyone who's a bit handy with electronics. I built my first one inside the case of a PC. Doing it that way means it does not need an extra power supply. My circuit centred around a MAX3232. This TTL interface can also be used to program other radios and devices so it's a useful thing to have built in. The CT-17 uses a MAX232.

It is possible to power the MAX chip from the RS232 lines which are constantly positively asserted during the read / write process. This generally works within the definition of RS232 although some laptops are known to not truly support this in practice.

CT-17 Schematic

If you're interested in what's inside the Icom CI-V interface, here's the schematic. The three RFCs (Radio Frequency Chokes) probably aren't necessary for the R20 but very well worth including if you plan to use transceivers on your interface.

Rig control software for the R-20 is as follows

Rig control software does not have to be specific to the radio in use. CI-V is a standard protocol so the only thing you need to do is instruct the software as to what your specific radio is and isn't capable of.

Any software you see that says it is compatible with the IC-R10 should work with the R20. If you see an option for the R10 and nothing for the R20, select R10.

There are a myriad of software applications out there, plenty of crippleware demos to try, a few polished turds with audacious asking prices. One I can highly recommend is Ham Radio Deluxe.

HRD software is free for use by radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Registration is optional and without cost. You are asked to register only so that the authors have some idea of just how popular the package is. If you like what you find, please make a donation to your own national radio society to promote Amateur Radio in schools.

Taking audio or CI-V out from the R20 using readily available parts

No Soldering Necessary !

You may need to do this if you want to hook your R20 up to your PC for recording, soundcard data decoding, rig control,

The audio output from the R20 cannot be connected to a PC soundcard using a standard audio lead.

The R20 has a stereo type socket but it is only the tip which carries the mono audio. The middle connector or 'barrel' is used for CI-V control and should not be connected to the soundcard.

Here's how to connect your R20 to your soundcard using readily available leads and adaptors. You will need two stereo jack to phono leads, one female to female phono adaptor and one 'Y' splitter.

Note: a phono plug is often referred to as an RCA plug, particularly in the US.

This is the 'Y' adaptor as shown above and the female to female butt connector. The example shown here is a plastic type rather than the bling gold one shown in the picture above.

Female to Female

'Y' Adaptor

These 1 female to two female adaptors are relatively hard to come by but would take the place of the two adaptors shown above. You would only need this and two stereo jack to phono leads.

MPA-STD

Designed for use with the Alan/Midland PMR446 walkie talkies so they can work with Icom two way headsets.

Given its name, it sounds like you can catch a dose of something nasty from this device but I bought one from Maplin today and as well as having a 90˚ jack plug, it also seems to spring the IC-R20's jack socket into a 3.5mm mono socket for the audio, and a 2.5mm mono socket for the CI-V.

It works with my motorcycle helmet which is wired up for Icom PBR transceivers. At last, I can listen to my R-20 in the audio setup in my skid lid when I'm out and about on the bike. It even works with my MP3 player although I suspect I am only getting one of the two stereo channels.

Connecting the R20 to a computer