Why did IC-T81A get discontinued?

[N2TEB]

Hi - Just wondering what your thoughts are as to why the Icom T81A quad bander HT got discontinued.  I'm interested in the radio, but I'd like to get some more information before I look into it further.  Was there a particular problem(s) with this radio?

Thanks and 73!

[N1RWC]

A good question, I own one of the T81A radios and it has it's pluses and minuses. One major plus is it was the first handheld to exhibit 4 Ham bands in a small package. Unfortunately Icom has a way of making a good radio then discontinuing it within a year of production, like the T8A. On the flip side, the major drawbacks to the T81 are the multi function thumb pad, which you have to hit dead on to work properly, and the power level is either 5W or .5W, no intermediate level unless you wear down the battery pack. Also plan on spending extra for the AA Battery Case, and also get some SMA to PL259 and SMA to BNC adapters to connect it to an external antenna. I did have to have Icom replace the speaker after 10 months of use, it sounded tinny after the 5th month and just stopped on the 10th month. I do applaude Icom for quick turn around, it took 23 days from drop off to pick up to get my radio back. As of right now, I rely on my Yaesu FT817(18 Months running), FT847(4 Years running) and a Radioshack HTX202(My 2nd radio bought 7 years ago) for most of my everyday radio contacts, and left the T81 in my Emergency Go Kit.

[K9PO]

I got the T81A for the 1296MHz band to play around with and have a cheap way to add and extra band for VHF contests. There are some weak points to the human to machine interface, the hot button comes to mind. But my guess is that it did not sell very well and at any rate most Japanese compnaies turn over their HT products pretty quick.

BTW there is a yahoo interest group for the IC-T81A the URL is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ict81a it is a great place to ask questions and get information about this radio

73
K9PO

[N5JXO]

The Icom T81A was discontinued because it was easy to modify to transmit and recieve out of band. The FCC had a requirement to make radios hard to modify. So instead of Potting the circuit board or inserting a new processor and program, They discontinued the radio. I think it mainly had to do with the 800-900 MHz cellular band. I love this radio I have 2, and each of my 2 kids have one also!