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| Reviews Summary for Icom IC-T90A |
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Reviews: 111
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Average rating: 4.0/5
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MSRP: $319.95
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Description: Tri-ban FM transceiver, Wide-bad 495Khz - 999.990 Mhz, Dynamic Memory Scan, Lithium-Ion technology, Rugged palm sized, weather-resistant construction, DTCS & CTCSS ton squelch. Simple to Operate !
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KC2HMF
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 2, 2007 11:43
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Hasn't failed me yet
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I received this rig as a gift for christmas. Having a warranty on it, I decided to test its limits. I carried it around through the harsh winter weathers of Northern New York, and it held up just fine. After about 1 month, it stopped Txing. I returned it to ICOM and they had it back to me in about 2 weeks, better than new. Was very impressed. I have done the MARS/CAP mod and have depended on this rig for SEVERAL uses, and it has yet to fail me... Battery can take a while to charge if it is COMPLETELY dead, and has lasted me as long as 8.5 hours of heavy use at events. ICOM accessories are fairly expensive, but I have found many generic accessories that match up perfectly for mere dollars... Like the features, simple operations, goes anywhere and everywhere. Hit local repeaters from next town over, about 10-15 miles as the crow flies.
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VE7ITF
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Rating: 3/5
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Jun 13, 2007 18:07
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The Jury is still out on this one...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Here is my story with the Icom T-90A...
My first new radio lasted 3 weeks! Then the transmit died on it. I took it back to the store I purchased it from and they took a quick look at it and gave me another unit and said they would send the old one back as dead stock. The second unit (your not going to believe this) lasted about 3 weeks as well and then refused to deliver it's power out. This radio also went back to the store and even "they" couldn't believe it! So to cover everyones butts this time around they sent it off to Icom to have a closer look. I am sure at this point they thought I was doing nasty things to my radios! A few days later we had word back from Icom and they said there was a problem with the CPU and it was transmitting full power out just not anywhere in the amateur spectrum. So... onto unit #3. Have had this one for about a month. It seems to be holding up just fine. I would have by the second time around just asked for my $$ back on this particular radio but I purchased a rapid charger which one might find handy with this radio (because it takes 13 hours) to charge with the wall wort and I also purchased a spare battery. I did not want to lose money by trying to sell back these two items so I kept up hope that my issues with this radio would work out.
a funny note... the third radios serial number falls right smack in the middle of the other two serial #'s of the radios that crapped out! :) So were all three made around closing time Friday nite? :)
some things I like about the radio are...
Easy one handed menu operation.
Battery life is pretty good with lithium ion.
Antenna works well around my area both on
repeaters and on simplex.
It's small and easily carried without the heft.
I like this style of belt clip that swivels.
It doesn't dig into your side and is car seat
and chair friendly.
some things I don't like...
Questionable reliability
Battery charge time is ridiculous with wall
wort.
Accessories are expensive
The underside of the rapid charger when doing
it's thing gets very hot.
It has 1/2 watt or 5 watt power out nothing in
between.
Radio gets hot quickly in the 5 watt mode so
much so that you might be tempted to wear some sort of glove or end the qso prematurely.
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K1MBR
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Rating: 4/5
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May 27, 2007 22:08
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Good! Not my favorite
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought this radio a few years ago because I liked the features of the IC-T8a and the IC-T81a. It worked as advertised including the ability to listen to AM and FM broadcast. 3 of my fellow hams bought this unit and we programmed them all the same with the computer. I used mine in my service vehicle with a Mirage BD-35 dual band amp for a hideable, tranportable, "mobile".
Now for the bad news, The end of the antenna SMA is soldered directly to the PC board and easily cracked loose causing intermittent poor receive/transmit. If you are using the DCS it seems to have a problem coding Kenwood radios if you talk above a whisper (this was noted with 4 IC-T90's and 3 diffrent Kenwood radios. It was fine ICOM to ICOM and Kenwood to IC-T90 but not IC-T90 to Kenwood). It becomes very very hot to the touch if you are using it more than 10 min transmit time or warm while charging mobile with the mobile charger. and last, 6 meters has never been a viable option for me in a handheld. BUT I did and do like this radio but prefer my TH-F6 now.
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K5ADF
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Rating: 4/5
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May 9, 2007 19:14
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Cheaper Battery Sources
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have a T90 that was purchased several years ago. The HT eats a battery fairly quickly and as stated below the charger is infinitely slow. I do not have a fast charger so I cannot comment on it. I bought a spare battery, which is definitely needed, from W&W Manufacturing at the Dayton HamVention at a price less than half what ICOM charges. The battery is comparable to the ICOM battery in all respects. I have since purchased a battery to replace the ICOM original as it would no longer take a charge. I paid $39 for the battery from W&W. I also have their drop in charger (also very slow to charge). I suggest you try another source for the T90 Li-Ion battery at a much more reasonable price. There is nothing special about an ICOM battery other than the high price.
Incidentally my new IC91AD HT uses the same battery.
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N1RSR
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Rating: 4/5
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May 9, 2007 13:06
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Not a bad HT... but not without its shortcomings
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had a T90A for awhile and have no problems
with it. It has been pretty rugged and
reliable.
Pros:
-Small size but still useable
-Durable design
-Nice backlit keypad
-Long lasting battery.
-Not hard to program
-Reliable (eg, compared to the handy trashies that
yaesu has been putting out lately... everything
they've made after the FT530 has basically been
a dog.)
-6M coverage
Cons:
-Only H/L power, they should have made at 5/1 or
made 3 or 4 settings instead, like Kenwood has on
the old G71A. Instead icom's power selection is
more like "Full output or nearly nothing, pick
one. "
-Batteries are bleeping expensive, at around $100
a pop.
-Intermod might be an issue for some, especially
if you have a tendency to use an HT as a
hackneyed mobile radio.
-Charge time is slow on wallwart, fast charger
works good but sometimes it is finicky about
charging up a completely dead battery while it is
still attached to the radio for some reason, so I
just remove the batt and put it in the cradle with
the battery only adapter.
*** My main gripe is the price of the battery...
if the battery was say, $50 or $60 I would have
easily given the unit a 5.
-Mike
N1RSR
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KT4WO
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Rating: 3/5
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Apr 13, 2007 20:36
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Ok for what it is
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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got it used about 3 mo ago...
seems to do as well as any duel-band i have owned..and i have had a few..hee hee...
i would buy again.
KT4WO
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N8HSD
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Rating: 1/5
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Apr 13, 2007 19:36
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Very Disappointed
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have been licensed as an Extra Class operator just under 20 years. In that time I have owned six handhelds. The IC-T90A would have been the seventh.
It is the only one I have ever returned to the retailer. I returned it after three days.
After charging the radio the required 15 hours, I attached the stock duck to see what I could hear. The answer was very little, on any band.
Transmit was even worse. There are 5 local repeaters in our area that I can bring up with 500 mW on my 7- year-old VX1R. I could only bring up one of them on the IC-T90 set to low power (500 mW).
In general, my impression was the old VX1R outperformed the IC-T90 on the bands I use most: AM BC, Commercial FM, Air, 2Meter Ham.
I called AES Cleveland to ask what was up. They suggested resetting the T90, which I did, four different times. There was no improvement.
I sent the radio back to AES via UPS the third day I had it, convinced the transmit section had died completely. To my amazement, they phoned me to say it was “up to manufacturer’s specs”.
I am bothering to write this review because AES insisted on charging a 15% restocking fee when I told them that if this radio was working to specs, it certainly was not going to be what I needed at this QTH. I even offered to split the difference and purchase a different brand. They declined.
Bottom line: If you read further on eham, you can see the IC-T90 gets rather mixed reviews--for the same reasons I have cited. My advice would be not to purchase one unless you can get your hands on the actual unit you want and test it out extensively before you buy it.
Oh, did I mention my IC-T90 did receive a NOAA weather station well? Yes—right on 146.760 mHz, loud and clear, with its own stock rubber duck. I wish I have believed the other intermod reports in the reviews below.
73’s. Hal
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KE4VNL
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 4, 2007 11:58
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Battery and temperature
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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My only complains of this radio are:
Very susceptible to intermod
Battery life on the stock battery don’t last enough.
Get very hot in Tx mode only.
The battery takes forever to charge with standard battery charger.
KE4VNL
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W7YBY
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 31, 2007 11:32
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Worth the money
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I've had this since July of 2006 and it is the only radio I own. Using the rubber duckie provides fair coverge but not great. I went to a small mag mount on the trunk and got a tremendous boost in coverage. I obtained a second small mag mount and put that on top of my office refrigerator in my home and I get out just fine to the 2m and 440 repeaters which are about 10 miles north of me.
On the receive side it is susceptible to intermod but as I understand it most multi-band radios also face this demon. I would have given a 5 if not for this one issue.
It is more radio than I need but it has served me well and I have no regrets making the purchase. The quality is good and while the manual could be better, it is understandable.
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KB0LPI
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 6, 2007 21:17
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Works for me.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I haven't had a chance to do any 6m work, but performance on 2m/70cm is good. I get good audio reports with it and has decent range for an HT.
Weather and TV audio are a plus, I didn't think I'd use them that much but they've come in handy.
Memory is very flexible with band scan ranges, memory Banks, and skip channels that can be set for scanning. Very easy to keep an ear on all the stations you want to monitor and block the ones you don't. It has good scanner capabilities.
Stock duck does an "adequate" job. I've had better results with a Maldol MH-510 (does induce some pretty major intermod in places) and especially my Larsen 2/70 (No major intermod issues)
Power issues make it a 4 rather than 5. I've had good luck with battery life on the stock battery. It does seem to last pretty well, but any other options are few and expensive. Requires <12V to transmit under external power. (your homebrew Cig plug won't do, you need the "special" Icom unit)
The battery takes forever to charge. I can run as a scanner with no transmit for 5 hours or so, put it on the charger at bedtime, and it's still not fully charged when I wake up.
Fast charger is expensive and the AA cell battery unit has no (useable) transmit power. Definately a downgrade in that department from my old 24AT that had the battery attachment on the bottom, and you could get a range of different battery sizes depending on your needs/mood.
I don't regret my purchase, but I wish I could plug into 12V and transmit without custom cables, and I wish it didn't take so long to charge.
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