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| Reviews Summary for ICOM IC-756 |
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Reviews: 59
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Average rating: 4.3/5
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MSRP: $2799.00
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Description: 160 thru 6 meters TX, Gen coverage RX, 100 W, SSB,CW, AM & FM
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More info: http://www.icomamerica.com
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You can
write your own review of the ICOM IC-756.
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WD3T
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 1, 2008 20:22
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Have own since 1999, am orignal owner always worked great
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I wanted and was going to buy a IC-736, but they had just come out with this model and in 1999 I bought one new. never had any issues with it and has never needed to return to the factory. heard of so having problems with the lines on screen, but mine never has had those. reception is exelant and get good reports on Xmited qso's will upgrade to new rig one day but dought that I ever part with this radio. best feature is the scope, being able to see the qso around either side of you. Highly recomend just check out before you buy. Guess I was lucky with mine, it has always worked perfect for me. Good luck
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OH6LHB
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 6, 2007 04:57
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Very good with some mods
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned my ic-756 since 2004 and have been quite satisfied. I bought it from the second hand US with very reasonable price. I have added very wide 3.3 kHz SSB filter inside the rig and the low end response rised up very dramatically. I'm taking the audio out from the headphones jack and feeding it through the small Sony graphic EQ to a very good speakers and the audio is amazing ! The radios own speaker is a very poor quality. I am a little bit audiophile and also using in a transmitting side some audio equipment;PR40 Heil microphone, Ultravoice digital VX2496 as a preamp and Virtualizer Pro DSP 2024p made by Behringer and feeding the radio from the backside into a ACC1; usually getting very good audio reports. The display of the radio is very nice to use; you can notice for example the change of the propagation just looking at the display. Maybe the display could be a little bit more sensitive (you can find a modification for that and very easy to proceed).Also my display is having sometimes one blue horizontal line which appears when the humidity is high. I also succeed to blow the relay for the amplifier (you have to be very careful and not to use it with Heathkit or with Ameritron amplifiers !) The whole radio is very simple to use; very logical menus, big buttons and not looking and feeling cheap ones. I also added one 500 hz CW crystal filter and now I can work CW with APF filter and with the twin P.B.T. Working great ! It doesn't have two receivers, but it has a dualwatch which works crossbands ! Very nice to use in split operations. Rating of number 4 comes cause of those complains mentioned above.
73's and good dxing and rag chewing
Kari
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W4CSM
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Rating: 3/5
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Sep 30, 2007 15:57
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Display problems
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have known several people who had display problems with the 756. Since what I read here indicates that there were some (known) defective displays installed in ealier units, I wonder if anyone has asked Icom America if they would repair these units at no cost or very low cost. It looks a lot like an "auto recall" to me. I had an 11 year old car that had a defect fixed at no cost and they contacted me. I can't imagine Icom not being receptive to that notion.
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AA0CX
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 1, 2007 14:42
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great, with the exception of the blue lines
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Love the rig: but horizontal blue lines began appearing across the display about a year ago. They seem to disappear when the humidity is lower, and reappear when it's higher. I have electric heat, and no humidifier, which makes things drier in the winter, and they're gone in the winter. Today I have had as many as four lines, and as few as one. Two days ago, I had no blue lines, for about 30 minutes, then they began appearing. All in all, it's a very decent mode on CW, my main mode, and the receiver is top-notch. The blue lines are discouraging, though.
73
M.A. Swartzell AA0CX
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K5UNY
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 29, 2007 07:52
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Replaced the screen
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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well my 756 had the screen replaced because it developed Sooooo many horizontal lines the readout was getting difficult to read, as was anything else on the display.
Found out there was an aftermarket LCD available so the radio was sent off to Scott Malcolm at MTS in the state of Washiungton. Scott is a Loong time Icom repair shop and very good.
I don't recall the exact cost but with LCD and labor(quite intensive) it was less than $400???this repair/replacement was done approx 2 years ago.Check with Scott to see if the display is still available today.
756 looks like new and the lcd display is fine.
NOW the tuner has quit tuning, Go figger!!!
Alex K5uny
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K7MDO
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 29, 2007 07:38
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Potential displaly problems
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The IC-756 may be one of the best buys today because of the internet review system where we only get a mix of opinions from folks either with their own agendas or with a bone to pick with Icom.
If you read these posts you simply cannot get a feel for the "probability" of your screen going bad. It may be and probably is quite low.
As to the question about an external monitor, I wonder myself if the HRD program can't be substituted for virtually any front panel function with complete operation of the set achieved through the computer. Maybe you would lose the band scope?
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AI6E
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 10, 2007 11:28
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extremely functional work horse.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased the 756(classic) new aprox.8 months after they came out. No problems with the exception of a failure this month 8/05/07. My antenna fell to the ground after the mast broke. When I got everything back up the radio would no longer x-mit. r-x is still working. Packed it up and off to Icom..they found a bad YGR amp on the RF board. Something must have happened when the antenna fell. That was the one and only failure I experienced with the 756(classic). The display works great but is a concern. Has anybody thought of designing a solution to drive an external monitor with the 756(classic)?? My 756 ser.# is 01024. I use a IC 706(classic) as my back up radio.
AI6E (pre restructuring)
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W8KQE
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Rating: 1/5
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Jun 23, 2007 11:07
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Blue line on display just appeared!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This really sucks! The IC-756 has been my main rig for almost 10 years now, and I have had nothing but high praise for it. In the past, I had read some of the other surprising reviews here that mentioned a blue horizontal line or lines suddenly appearing on the 756 display without warning, but I didn't think I would be affected since i've had this rig for years with no display issues. I've 'babied' this rig since the day I bought it in 1997, never transporting it from it's fixed shack position or using it portable, always covering it with a dust cover when not in use, and even using Q-tips (yes, I am obsessed with keeping this what I thought was great rig in mint condition) on front panel switches and buttons! I turn the rig on this morning to check out 6 meter activity, and I see my first ever horizontal blue line where none should be! Icom no longer stocks this 'Sanyo' LCD display, and if the display should completely fail, as it has for some, the radio is essentially inoperable. Icom needs to somehow own up to this widespread manufacturing flaw and give owners fair trade in value towards a current 756 ProIII, or another current Icom product.
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VA6LJH
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 8, 2007 17:54
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Good general Rig
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I started from a different direction than most. My 1st transmission was with a Heath SB101, followed shortly by a Drake TR3 and then the Drake 4B twins. No, I am not a nostalgia buff or a tube buff. It simply got me on the air for $125.00 into some awful loading antennas. One day after doing 17 adjustments to change bands (and forgetting to change sidebands on the transmitter too often), I said enough, and called HRO about what I thought was an IC746. They corrected me and in short order I had a very new looking IC756. Thanks HRO for checking for the blue stripes (there are none.) What a whole new experience, push 1 button to change bands, it even remembers my last setup. No one is complaining about me drifting off frequency anymore. The antenna tuner is wonderful. The complaints about the scope’s insensitivity don’t apply to me, as the noise level is about S6 here, any signal I can’t see on the LCD I can’t have a QSO with. The Noise Blanker is a bit of a mystery. When I use it at home it does not blank furnace, range, fridge and other switching transients. Yet when I use it mobile at work near a very noisy industrial area, it knocks the S9+15 noise down to S6 and I then can hear a net I use. It is a dandy mobile rig, the only thing is I worry about the LCD when there is a big temperature change.
What I don’t like.
The audio. There is always some irritating noise coming out of the tinny speaker, and another speaker didn’t help much. I can listen to the Drake longer, and even the Heath’s marginal audio is less irritating. No, I am not a tube guy, my audio equipment is SS.
The LCD problems. I keep wondering when it will happen to me.
The 1.8/1.9kHz SSB filters. They don’t do as much as I hoped, but maybe my expectations were too high.
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W4VD
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 2, 2007 10:55
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Great Buy
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have been looking for a late model 756 for a long time and finally found one. What can I say? It's a great radio, small as compared to a TS-940 but loaded with features, the scope is a nice addition to any shack, it does need a fairly strong signal to display a station but with the 2 preamps on, they boost the signals enough to been seen. The auto notch works great, better than I had hoped for. The dual watch is great and it does work on adjacent bands, not only in band as the manual says, I was copying a CE1 on 80M CW last night and copied T32MO on 40M CW (who was fairly weak here) no problem. It's a great tool for the DX'er. The radio works great in the digital modes, RTTY via the back panel ACC1 jack and a Rigbalster Plus is superb. with these going for under 1000 dollars this is one of the better deals out there.
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