746Pro died twice, DO I DUMP IT?

[WA9MNF]

Hi...

I can appreciate your problem with the IC-746 PRO. I bought one in March 2008 from HRO. I had it for less than 2 months and I lost xmit power. I called HRO and I sent it to them. They in turn sent it to the Icom repair facility on the west coast. When I received it from them it lasted a short time and the same failure occurred. I called Icom Service Center Michigan and spoke to Matt. I explained my problem to him and I sent it to him. Two weeks later I received it back and it worked like it was supposed to for 7 or 8 months. Then the backlight failed. I called and spoke with Matt again and although it was out of warranty he told me to send in to him. I did and he covered the repair under warranty. Since then I have had absolutely no problems with it. I mainly run digital modes and cw but also use it on ssb and am.

I suggest you read some of the reviews on Eham and give him a call. Matt is a good guy to work with and obviously is an excellent technician. I love the 746 PRO and it has a great receiver coupled with very broad frequency coverage. Good luck..oh, and I have no connection with Matt whatsoever other than being a very satisfied customer..

73

Ed

[W8JX]

Based on track record though the 746 does have some design flaws that effect its reliability.

[AA4HA]

Just an observation.  I've seen rigs that have been used 'gently' and rigs that have been used hard.  One friend of mine used his rigs hard--he was a member of the "AKR" club--and he was usually having to have his rigs repaired often.

The "AKR" club?  That's the "All Knobs Right" club--whose members push their rigs as hard as they can!     73!

I have never heard of the AKR club (as a formal organization) but in my time I could nominate a bunch of folks for membership. Usually they are also asking where the hidden service menus are so they can dial up the 100 watt PA to 125 watts for that extra 1/10th of an S-unit that makes all the difference in a contest <joke>.

It is amazing how many of these folks also have things that barely resemble antennas (coat hangars held together with acid core solder), no grounding, do not own an SWR meter and judge everything anecdotally or by reports on how good "they sound" on ESSB. Also they will run a full 100 watts to get onto the input of a local 2 meter repeater that is located 3 miles away and you can roast a steak on the heat sink of their favorite transmitter.