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| Reviews Summary for Icom IC 703 |
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write your own review of the Icom IC 703.
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KD3JF
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 19, 2008 05:24
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Great Radio
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Time owned: months
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I have had the 703 Plus for 2 months and it is a jewel. The receiver is wonderful and much better than the 706MKIIG for which I am thankful. The tuner is very good. All I do is hit the Mike button and it automatically tunes the rig.
I am not a CW only operator although I do CW 90% of the time. I get on 75 meters in the evening and have no problem working the round tables with 10 watts on SSB. I frequently go to Fort McHenry on Saturdays and use the MP1 vertical. With my KX1 and 2.5 watts out on 20 meters I rarely was able to work anyone on CW. With the 10 watts on CW I can work just about anyone I can hear.
Paul Gates, KD3JF
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W4KG
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 14, 2008 07:36
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Nice Rig
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This rig rates a 5! Icom has a winner and I only wish I had this one first.
I run mine with a Diamond BB7V vertical from my portable shack. The QSO's that I have made were from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most contacts don't believe that it is just a small 10 W rig.
On the CW end of things all the adjustments are what you expect from Icom. The Menu options and ease of use are first rate. If you are just getting into HF and want to have fun with QRP, this is the rig for you. The first contacts from the QTH were on a MFJ 40/80 M dipole at 60', the first night the ionosphere gods were working in my favor and I worked several states, Canada, South America & the Caribbean Islands on phone and CW.
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N0YXE
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 20, 2008 18:57
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Wonderful (703Plus)
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I just got the 703Plus last week and I am learning how to use it before I attempt to go portable. It is very easy to operate and it works beautifully. I have it hooked up to my G5RV antenna and it's performance is what I would expect of a full ten watts out on SSB. I checked into the Maritime Net this evening (14.300) and net control gave me a 5-7 RST. I'm in the middle of the country and he was operating from the middle of Florida. The DSP is very nice and the tuner works very fast and does an excellent job. I'm looking forward to going to the park and trying it out with different antennas. Overall, it's a gem!
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G4PNF
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 10, 2008 03:17
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going to be a keeper!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Here are my initial impressions of this rig after a month of use. The more I use this little beauty the more I love it. I purchased mine second hand but ‘as new ‘ from a UK dealer and installed the Inrad 250 Hz filter (which even with UK customs etc works out considerably cheaper than the Icom equivalent) and this has turned it into a seriously good CW rig. For portable operation I made up a battery pack using 10 high capacity nimh AA batteries and (given the impressive low current drain of this rig) this has given me quite a decent period of operation with 5 watts RF output. It is very impressive the way the 703 can handle such a range of voltage. It needs something a bit more robust to give 10 watts for any reasonable length of time but I have had loads of cw contacts on 5 watts using a simple long wire antenna. The CW performance is excellent and monitoring the keyed RF out with an external RX confirms this. The SSB audio reports I have received are also excellent using the standard mike. I had an FT 817 for a little while and though comparisons between such different beasts are a bit unfair, to me the 703 seems to be in a different league, this is a ‘proper’ radio and a delight to use. The menu system is relatively simple and making the normal adjustments becomes fairly intuitive after a little while. The IC 703 has the feel of a quality bit of kit. I think it is definitely going to be a keeper!
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AB7DP
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Rating: 5/5
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Jan 26, 2008 15:43
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Great QRP Radio
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I am still practicing my CW but I am amazed at what I can work with only 10 Watts on SSB with the IC-703 Plus ! I especially like this radio because of the built-in DSP, Speech Processing, Antenna Tuner, easy to ready display, and that it has 10 Watts output. It integrates well with other other components such as microphones and the LC-156 pack lets me take it outside when the weather is nice and operate portable with a NiHM 13.8 Volt Battery.
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K0FTC
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Rating: 2/5
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Jan 19, 2008 16:38
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QSK problem
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have a new IC-703+ and I have to verify what W9AC has said in his review. Operating full QSK I received the following signal reports, "terrible" "unbearable" and the one that hurt the most "disgusting". Those long words pounded out in CW for the world to hear. Not one contact on full QSK that didn't tell me I had a bad signal. The frustrating thing is that you can't hear how bad it is on your own headset, another station has to tell you how bad your signal really is. Two CW operators allowed me to go from full QSK to semi during the same QSO. One said much improved, the other said the signal was clear. My experience with the radio in semi QSK was great. 10 watts was netting me 579's from all kinds of places US. I would also say that it was very evident that had I kept the radio, a CW filter would have been a must. I like ICOM radio's, and will replace this one with another, but it won't be a 703. For all those folks who have great reports, I think it great that you've had good experiences with yours, this is just my personal experience with this one out of the box. So it is headed back to the company I bought it from for an exchange for another ICOM.
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WA6MOW
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 31, 2007 13:04
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Great rig, beware of EBay sellers.
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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OK, here we go. I have owned five 703's. Icom sold a batch of 703's called refurbished. There is a lot that goes into a 703, and if you get a bad one, you are in for grief. Keep in mind that the refurbs had intermittent problems, very difficult to trouble shoot. I recently bought two 703's off of EBay sellers and both were lemons. I had two flawless units that I sold and wish I had them back. Only buy from reputable sellers who will provide some kind of warranty. This is a wonderful rig, with very low current drain, and great performance.
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WX4O
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 3, 2007 11:12
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Excellent QRP Radio
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had my 703 (plain) almost 3 years and have never had a problem with it. It's been used portable, field day, battery powered, and DC supply powered. It's my emergency backup rig too. Never had a report of bad signal quality. Excellent receiver,
very good internal tuner, good DSP. CW filter helps a lot. Many great features in a small package. Priced right. No worries. Proud to have it.
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NS5U
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 3, 2007 10:40
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Best Radio there ever was
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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The radio draws 300 to 350 ma as advertized and functions on voltages lower than many rigs will tolerate. That said it is not a SW40+ with less than 40ma rcv requirement.
The DSP can be turned off to save juice.
He is clear about his example getting "warn to the touch". Let me be clear my example doesn't even get warm to the touch.
I clearly stated I have not monitored my own signal on the air/and the sidetone in earphones is hardly the same thing. I have heard many other examples of this radio on the air and I have yet to notice anything objectionable in those signals. I don't have a perfect ear and it is not calibrated to any lab reference but I started playing radio sometime ago with TEN TEC gear and the 525D is still the most fun I have every had. This to say I am somewhat sensitive to CW signal quality as TEN TEC IS THE BEST! Bar none hands down.
The IC-703 can stand on its own merits and sales numbers and if the signal is so ragged across the board where are the FCC notices?
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AE4TO
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 3, 2007 08:24
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Excellent qrp radio
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I being having a lot of fun with this radio. I performed the bias adjustment and the keyer grounding and never had any problems with this radio.It is sensitive, small, light, the tunner works very fast. The receiver seems to be better than my 706.
I use it mainly in cw and the keyer is good, makes some noise but is the perfect radio to take to the beach, park, vacation. I am going to add a small linnear for those times when 10 watts is not enough. Over all a very practical radio. Icom does it again...AE4TO
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