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| Reviews Summary for ICOM IC-740 |
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Reviews: 31
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $1099.00
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Description: 160-10 meter 200-watts input HF transceiver, circa 1984
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More info: http://
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DJ5PJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Feb 11, 2009 08:41
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fine old TRX
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I got it 30 years ago - and I am very happy with it - troublefree - ok ! DJ 5 PJ
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N8YQM
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 11, 2008 09:37
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Excellent radio, especially for beginners
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought this one used while I was still new to amateur radio. Good receiver, easy to use, and has some nice features when you consider the age. The internal power supply is a big plus. My only gripes as others have mentioned is that there's some hum from the AC cooling fan that couples into the audio, and the speech compressor switch got flaky. The hum was fixed by replacing the AC fan with a 12 volt brushless fan, and when running the 12 volt fan off the 8 volt supply inside it's plenty quiet. The compressor switch started showing up when the output power dropped off and the ALC meter was still way low. Took me a while to track it back to that, but I repaired the switch. If you have the CW and SSB filters, the FM unit, and the electronic keyer, it makes the radio even better. Wish I had picked up the keyer while Icom still sold it.
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NG9D
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Rating: 5/5
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May 30, 2008 09:54
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great "investment"
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This rig is worth about $4200.
Why did I assign that value? Well that is what I would have today, approximately, if I had not spent the money on the radio. When I bought it 25 years ago, I spent about $1000 on it and an ATU. But if I would have invested that at a (conservative) interest rate of 6% compounded annually, I would now have $4200 or so.
But I would have no IC 740! And I still think it was a good use of the money.
I would rather have had 25 years worth of flawless use from this rig (with the promise of more to follow) rather than $4200 in the bank.
Whenever I buy ham gear, I consider the consequences of spending the money. $1000 was a lot of money 25 years ago. And in my opinion, purchasing the IC740 was a great investment.
73
NG9D
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KK7XT
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 20, 2008 07:27
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a greatt old workhorse
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used this rig for many years Has served me well and for the price cannot be beat. I do have some questions though. If anyone reading this has info on if there is a Heil boom mic that will work with this rig I would like to know which model and if any mods to the rig need to be done. Also has anyone used a rigblaster with the icom 740? Please email me at kk7xt@yahoo.com
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NN9Q
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 11, 2008 13:47
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AFTER 9 MONTHS
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This a follow on to my earlier review last summer. Since then I have learned a bit about this radio. I am a new HAM and I started, by luck only, with the 740. I now have two. I have extensively and directly compared – side by side – the 740 with two other radios: a Corsair II and a Kenwood 440. Their receivers did not compare to the ever-quiet 740. I have played with the 756 Pro III for about two hours. I believe that my 740 can her anything the Pro III can. This, rather bold statement, is backed up by Scott Malcom, who now runs MTC. Scott was the chief Icom technical representative for years. The 740 lacks bells and whistles, but it hears as well as any. The ARRL test figures pretty much back this up. The 740 floor level is -141 db, the same as the Pro III. Because it is HAM band only, and has front end low pass filters it blocks out of band signals very well. Its intercept numbers are also very good.
How does it do it? 16 poles of crystal filter do help. The quadrature mixers made of matched discrete components help as well, as does the finely tuned amplification across all filter stages. The notch filter, while not automatic, is deep, deep and deeper .
I have added an audio DSP (GAP-BHI) to help with atmospheric noise. This has improved an already easy to listen to radio.
So I suggest to all the following: Get a 740 for under $300; ship it to Scott for a tune up, add a good audio DSP, and you might surprise some folks who have spent WELL over $2500 for a rig.
Well you know some folks like to look at bandscopes!
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N7INO
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 13, 2008 20:10
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A very good rig, and user friendly
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have have the rig for a year, Lost audio and was repaired. Great receive, Always get good signal reports and is so user friendly. I run it into a auto turner to a K5RV antenna which so well. The 2 VFOs making band switching back and forth easy. I have new rigs and I hate to find the manual to make a change have the built in power supply and all the filters, FM board and it lacks nothing. If you can find one buy it you won't be sorry.
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AF9J
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 7, 2007 21:31
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What a great sleeper of a rig!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I got my IC-740 a month and a half ago from a neighbor on my apartment building. He bought it used 9 years ago from AES, with the intention of getting his ham license. He never did get his license, and only SWLed the ham bands with it. Several years ago, it died on him, and sat in his closet. In October, to make some space, he decided to get rid of it. When he learned I had a ham license, he gave it to me, along with some other ham radio gear, figuring I would get some use out of it. He was right. I had sold my FT-897D to pay for car repairs, and had no suitable contesting radio.
The dead radio condition, was traced to a burned out resistor on the voltage control board. One new resistor (which was given to me for nothing at work), and the IC-740 was working. Some DeOxit in the receive preamp actuating relay, solved receive preamp acutation issues. My IC-740 already had 250 Hz CW filters installed in both receive IFs, so all I had to do, was buy the clone of the keyer board MTS sells (the original keyer board has been unavailable for a long time), and I was ready for some serious CW work. The Compressor switch wasn't working, but some DeOxit in the pins from the plug for the Compressor switch tonight, solved the lack of Audio Processor capability my IC-740 had. All of these faults were probably related to the fact they my neighbor is a smoker. When I first got the IC-740, it smelled like an ashtray! So for a very minor cost outlay (a $20 bill I gave my neighbor [all I could afford at the time], and another $64 for the keyer board), I have what I consider to be a very underrated radio.
Why? It's easy to use. After years of wading through menues to change things like keyer speed, receive filters, etc., on the fly during a contest, I can just press a button, or turn a knob to do what I want to do. The tuning movement is nice and smooth. The SSB transmit audio (as long as you keep the mic gain below 12 o-clock) is good even with the stock hand mic. The noise blanker with its two modes of blanking, works better than the noise blankers I've dealt with for at least the past 10 years or so. It actually works (unlike other noise blankers I've used), on the powerline noise problems I have. The IF Shift, and Passband Tuning work as well in many cases, as DSP, without the pinched sounding audio DSP often gives you. And the receiver - I agree with the previous reviews, it's very hot and very quiet. The last time I had a receiver this quiet, was back in the late 80s & early 90s, when I had a Drake R4B (along with a T4XC). On 160m, I can hear signals I couldn't hear with my FT-897D. In a word, this Gen Xer thinks the IC-740 rips! It's a real sleeper of a rig. Are there better rigs?, of course (after all today's radios use DDS which is better than the older synthesizer design in the IC-740), but not by quantum leaps or bounds. After all, many of the improvements in the past 25 years to ham rigs, have been more of the bells and whistles variety, than fundamental performance improvements. In my opinion, a good operator using an IC-740 could give an operator of one of the newer big buck rigs a run for his or her money. I've been a ham for almost 30 years, and active on the bands for 25 of those years. My IC-740 compares favorably to some of the better radios I've owned in the past, and even some I didn't own, but have had the privelege of using (such as the ICOM IC-756 Pro). It's surpising that so few were made (only about 4500 of them). This one's a keeper.
73,
Ellen - AF9J
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G7IGB
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 28, 2007 03:54
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Very low noise floor
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've just picked up an IC-740 on behalf of a newly licensed amateur and I'm very impressed with this 25 year old transceiver. The radio covers only the amateur bands, which means that receiver selectivity is excellent and the noise floor is very low. The receiver was so quiet on bands like 40m and 80m that I suspected a faulty antenna. The IC-740 is also very easy to use and ideal for newly licensed amateurs, as there are no complex menus to navigate. A variable noise blanker, AGC setting and switchable notch filter all work very well and the controls are easy to use. Overall the IC-740 is highly recommended if you can find one on the second hand market!
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G0RIF
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 27, 2007 22:50
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Great older rig with wonderful receiver
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I just love my IC-740 - the way it looks like a real radio with knobs & dials for all the features (yet still simple to operate), a lovely smooth tuning dial, great analogue meter and wonderfully quiet receiver, optimised for amateur band performance (the 740 has no general coverage RX).
I have an IC-703, FT-901 and JRC JST-245 for comparison and I prefer the sound of the 740 over all the others (although the JST-245 is my main day to day rig).
I use mine for both CW and SSB - CW with a simple straight key where I'm finding the 740 really does a good job. I use the stock mic for SSB and it seems to work just fine with excellent reports - good audio with plenty of punch (I have the compressor on for phone work).
My radio has no additional filters but they are available from Inrad so I might yet add a few in the future to make a good radio even better. Nevertheless, in its stock form the 740 is a fine radio and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a low cost HF only rig.
Regards,
Dean - G0RIF
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KC7UP
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 27, 2007 20:22
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Great Rig
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Time owned: months
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Have owned this rig since new in 1982. Have added 250z cw filter plus 1.8 filter. For Cw I prefer this rig over my IC751. It's a great rig.
Curt
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