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write your own review of the ICOM T8a.
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W4KVW
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 14, 2009 17:17
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EASY OPERATION
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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First I must say I do NOT see what all the fuss is about the battery clip.I NEVER have a need to REMOVE the battery so it's a NON ISSUE for me.I must also say this HT is SO SIMPLE to operate it's like I feel like I am forgetting something but I'm NOT.It works GREAT on ALL THREE BANDS & changing bands,adjusting the volume,adjusting the squelch or whatever in MOST cases is just a ONE BUTTON deal & NOT a bunch of MENUS.I got a GREAT deal on mine & just like ALL of my ICOM gear LOVE IT.The ICOM drop in charger & Batteries America high capacity battery work GREAT together & the stock antenna is NOT a total wasted effort either as is the case with MOST HT antennas.I would buy another one should I need another one.I'm sure the new model is even BETTER but I'll keep this one for now. Thanks again ICOM for a GREAT little HT. }:>) I almost forgot that it has GREAT audio both on transmit & receive as well as I expected afer all it's an ICOM. }:>)
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EX_AA5JG
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 13, 2008 22:47
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Good simple to use HT
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I first bought an Icom T8A in April 2000 and it was my first dualband/multiband HT. I ended up selling it because I wanted to try something else, which is pretty common for me to do.
I recently picked up a T8A again off of ebay, and had forgotten how good this HT is. I have owned almost every HT out there and this is one of the easiest multiband HTs to use. You can do almost everything off of the front keys. The menus are pretty much set and forget items with the exception of the CTCSS frequencies, which are in the menus.
The receive audio sounds good on it also except at extreme values, which is gets a little distorted. I am listening to the classical music station as I type this and it sounds just fine. You also get TV audio (won't be good for much longer) and wide receive with the T8A.
This HT does what you need, without a lot of useless gimmicks like the VX7R and such. Don't get me wrong, the VX7R is a great HT, but I didn't use 75% of the stuff on it. The only drawbacks to the T8A are the lack of a backlighted keyboard, and the lack of a LiON battery, but the Nimh batteries aren't too bad.
Two pieces of advice concerning this HT:
1. In the menus, there are separate settings for the transmit and receive CTCSS tones. RT is the transmit tone frequency, and CT is the receive tone frequency. This will let you use split tones for the same frequency.
2. If you need a replacement battery, get on ebay and you can find one for $17 or so.
Overall, if you want several bands, like to listen to FM broadcast bands also, and hate menus, this HT is for you!
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W8ILP
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Rating: 2/5
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Mar 18, 2007 07:55
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was good for awhile
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Yeh, blown finals, apparently caused by some cars excessive voltage spikes while starting if you happen to be charging the same time you are starting your car. Been retired to a dresser drawer for a couple years now.
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KD7TDA
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Rating: 2/5
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Jul 9, 2006 08:56
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Problems
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used my T8A very little. Overall I didn't mind it too much, but the finals blew on it so now it is just sitting in a drawer. The receive was ok, but not as good as my W2A. Maybe someone who knows more about fixing radios will want to buy it cheap.
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DS5PXJ
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Rating: 3/5
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Feb 11, 2005 16:47
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Good HT but Ant.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've been using this HT for morethan 2years.
I replaced Ext. Power Jack once. receiving is great for aerial to 900Mhz.
but no satisfaction on antenna. : SWR on 6M and 70Cm got some high.I suggest you buy another tri-band ant. to use T8A for long. without antenna, on its feature I think it is great I would like give 5. but with antenna I don't think so.
the TX Power level has just two selection. We need one more between them like 2.5W or something. 5W running with 12VDC, it is OK in the Winter time outside else remember Final goes out not by some high SWR but Heating !!! TNX.
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NE0P
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 17, 2003 02:19
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Great HT even by todays standards
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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It has been awhile since I owned this HT, but look back on it with fond rememberances. Hoping to find another one at a good price. This was the first HT to come with a NIMH battery, and the first tribander to include 6 meters. WOrked great on 2, 440, and 6 with the stock antennas. One of the better stock antennas I have seen, and it didn't come in pieces like the VX5R. This HT also has great wideband receive. FM and TV audio are excellent. Much better than what my Kenwood F6A does in those areas. Modding it was also easy, do it off of the keyboard. None of this remove this and that things. Also the perfect size for the hand. One downside was the short battery life. However, you can now get a 6 cell case from www.batteriesamerica.com and fill it with 2100mah NIMH cells. Those ought to last awhile. You can charge the whole pack if you have a C777 type univeral charger. Wish this would have been out when I sold the HT. The only other downside (hence the 4 rating) is Icoms typical all or nothing on power level. Either you get 5 watts or 0.5 watts. No reasonable medium power choices. GET WITH IT ICOM AND KENWOOD! If Yaesu and Radio Shack can figure out how to have medium power, you can also.
If you are looking for a do it all HT where you don't need AM BC or Shortwave receive, this is it. I have never had any of the battery clips break, either on the T8A or T81A. Wonder what the others are doing wrong to keep breaking their clips?
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NO7OR
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 17, 2003 14:15
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Excellent Radio!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This has been a great little radio! It was my ONLY radio for over 3 years. I have had extraordinary success with it using an Anli telescoping antenna system. I own two iCOM battery packs for it, and I've never had any of the problems experienced by other users. The only thing I would have changed - if I had designed the radio - would be to incorporate a BNC antenna connector instead of that SMA thing.
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KC8LTL
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 1, 2002 17:18
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Not what I hoped for
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The IC-T8A was my first ham radio and has been my primary HT since I got it in 1999. Unfortunately my experiences have not been always positive.
First of all, it went into the shop three times within the first year. First I burned out the finals. Then the 12V jack went bad. Unfortunately, while ICOM was able to diagnose this, they sent it back to me still broken, and so I had to send it in a third time. Since then it has at least worked.
As others have mentioned, the battery tab is not the greatest. Mine broke when the battery was wearing out, so I can't really complain, but since I charged it in the radio for a long time, I can certainly understand how this could be a problem for others.
In addition, the Battery pack is just plain too small. There is no real high capacity pack, and so you will have to change packs every couple of hours.
The wide frequency coverage is great, but having this in such a small unit means that selectivity is not as great. It is a trade-off - neither good nor bad. I had bad intermod problems when I ran it with an external antenna, but then again, the radio is not really designed for this.
The included rubber duck could be better, but this seems to be a common HT problem.
On the other hand, it is a very small radio which produces 5 watts. It has been quite convenient to throw into a backpack... I know that I would be interested in a battery pack that made the radio deeper if it allowed me to use the radio for a reasonable amount of time.
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KB0YOJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 4, 2001 10:56
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Great little HT
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This radio has it's problems but those problems are small compared to the radios performance. I love the wide receive coverage of the radio. The six meter band is great for the 6 meter repeaters in my area. The tone decode is a nice and very useful function. The size of the raido is great. The factory antenna is huge for this radio, I bought the dual band antenna for the Radio Shack HX-245 from radio shack online and it works great. The battery life is not as good as I would like, yet I have found a fix for that problem. Go to radio shack and get the 9.6v turbo rc racing car battery and the sell the conection to fit from that pack to the charging port on the side of the radio and that pack will last you 4-5 days with a 25-50% duty cycle. The radio is a great little rig. If the batter clip breacks just but the case for the radio and problem fixed.
73's
Carmen Lyons
clyons357@earthlink.net
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N8AUC
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 9, 2000 15:00
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Not a bad little rig
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I really like this little radio, and the closeout price I got it for made it even nicer. I can't give it a 5 in good conscience because of the problems it does have. Then again, in my book you'd better be able to walk on water to get a 5.
The bad parts:
1) Battery snap. I had a battery snap break after having the radio 30 days. Icom did way more than they had to, and went out of their way to accomodate the replacement. I understand that this problem is only with Icom made packs and that the aftermarket batteries don't have this problem (like Maha and W&W).
2) Battery Life: 2-3 hours continuous use out of a single charge. Longer durations with shorter transmit duty cycles, of course. More would be better. So I carry an alkaline cell case for now.
3) Intermod rejection: I got spoiled by my HTX-202. No other HT could meet that kind of performance. But, with such a wideband receiver you're going to pick up more crud. It's fine at home (even on a rooftop antenna) but at the office (downtown) it occasionally gets hammered. The intermod performance is about what you'd expect from a super-wideband HT. Comes with the territory - so to speak.
Now the good parts:
1) I get glowing reports on the transmitted audio quality, with the internal mike. Reports like, "I can't believe that you're on an HT - and an ICOM at that. It sounds too good."
2) Receive audio is quite good considering the tiny internal speaker.
3) Puts out a solid 5w with the BP-200 pack. Even more when using an external supply. I've seen 6 watts out of mine at times.
4) I like being to listen to EVERYTHING and transceive on 3 bands with one unit. Being license trustee for our radio club (we have six repeaters on 4 bands) I wanted to be able to keep an ear on all of them. This one unit lets me do all of that. It also lets me listen to police, fire and EMS, AM Aircraft, FM Broadcast, NOAA weather radio, GMRS and FRS too.
5) No function keys. One finger operation. Very easy to use.
6) CTCSS Tone scan is very nice and works well. It was so easy to use I didn't have to consult the manual.
7) The units' small size makes it very easy to travel with. I don't have to carry a portable scanner AND an HT anymore, with batteries for each. It's all in one nice neat little package.
Overall, I'd say it's a keeper.
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