I’m a little bit intrigued to hear that Icom are about or have already released a new handheld scanner. I was rather hoping for a successor to the amazing R20 and R30 but it seems that the R15 is anything but a successor.

I’ll grant that it is going to be a much lower price of just £450 which is much cheaper than the R20/R30 but with a frequency range of just 108Mhz – 500Mhz and only AM, FM and Wide FM and no digital modes I am struggling to the point of it.

When I first saw it listed on the ML&S web site I nearly jumped straight in and ordered one but now I’m going to have to give it some very serious thought and at least hang on to my R20 and wait to see if an R30 ever comes onto the second hand market.