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| Reviews Summary for ICOM IC-2820H |
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Reviews: 32
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Average rating: 3.3/5
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MSRP: $768
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Description: The ICOM IC-2820H 2M/440 dual bander has all the features you would expect and some you would not! You get: separate front panel, wideband receive, 3 power settings, built-in CTCSS decode/encode, selectable amber/green display, PC compatibility and 522 memory channels. V/V and U/U receive is available. The rear panel has two SO-239 antenna jacks to support diversity reception (two antennas required). The diversity function compares the receiving signal strength from two different antennas, ANT1 and ANT2, and automatically selects the strongest signal. This feature is useful when you are listening in a moving vehicle or the transmitting station itself is moving. Diversity receiving is available in 127 MHz, 136 MHz, 146 MHz, 375 MHz, 440 MHz and 500 MHz bands only.
The IC-2820H is D-STAR upgradeable with the optional UT-123 Power output is 50/15/5 watts on 2 meters and 50/15/5 watts on 440 MHz. It is 9600 BPS packet ready too (6 pin DIN). This radio comes with full function backlit HM-133 remote DTMF hand mic, mounting bracket, power cord and spare fuses. Main unit size: 5.9 x 1.65 x 7.4 inches 3.3 Lbs (150x40x188 mm 1.5 kg). Controller size: 5.9 x 2.6 x 1.25 inches 7.4 ounces (150x58x32 mm 210g). This model requires 13.8 VDC at 12 amps. This radio is supplied with the OPC-1663 and OPC-1712 separation cables.
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More info: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/fm_txvrs/2820.html
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VA3MKS
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Rating: 1/5
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Jan 24, 2009 15:44
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Not so sure about this one.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Good - Display is big and bright.
THE BAD!! GET READY!!
- Only 11ft cable for the remote head. Very hard to install into Mini-van or extended van if radio is mounted in the trunk.
Why would you make a 20 foot GPS cable and a 11 foot Control head cable????? Where's the logic?
-Had to buy some cat5 to extend the MIC aswell.
-Radio should of used wing nuts on the bracket instead of screws for easy mounting and unmounting.
-GPS can't be mounted outside? WTF? Why not make it weather proof? I really dont get this one.
-The owners manual is awful, very bad grammar.
-Magnets to hold the head? WHY? so I can easily remove the head? what about ruggedness?
-It would have been so much better to have the MIC plugged directly into the remote head.
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G0KSC
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Rating: 0/5
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Dec 23, 2008 09:56
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Design flaws and over priced
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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An unbelievable price for a very average radio and then ripped off again fro Dstar capability.
The transmitted audio is awful and can only be compared to a mobile phone working on loud speaker. Surprisingly, the IC92 ans IC91 handy talky sets provide much better audio. There are mods around the Internet to fix the audio but one should not have to dismantle a $1000.00 radio to fix something that should have been right out of the factory.
The biggest joke is the GPS antenna arrangement. If you buy one for use on Dstar and you wish to use the GPS antenna, then you will have to use the radio with a remote head as the antenna plugs in to the transceiver behind the head unit resulting in the front panel not being able to be fitted whilst this antenna is in use.
An annoying and very loud fan buzzes all of the time no matter what power you are running too. This does not matter much when you are in the car but when at home.
There are loads so other points and issues which just have not been considered. For example, for any entry level license holders limited to 10 watts will have to make do with 5 watts as the transceiver has 3 power settings. 5, 15 and 50 Watts.
I wanted to get onto Dstar and have purchased the DV Dongle, the IC92 HT and this one.
For audio performance, the DV Dongle is best, hands down, by a long shot. Next is the IC 92 but like any HT it can not be used in the home on an external antenna as the receiver is as wide open as a barn door, splatter , splatter, paging system, emergency transmissions, everything with 50Mhz hits it.
IF you are happy with the above and the other surprises you will have when you buy one then go ahead, you will be happy. IF not, I recommend you borrowing one first.
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N1RSR
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 23, 2008 00:49
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Could have been THE BEST if not for some serious shortcomings.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Pros:
-Well designed interface, Radio is easy to use.
-Dual in band RX + Crossband rpt features = great.
-PC Programming is nice.
-Knobs/controls feel robust and not like the junk Yaesu is turning out these days.
-Mic offers a lot of control over rig functions.
-TONS of memory channels, w/alpha tags.
Cons:
-Radio is an intermod sponge. For me it isn't debilitating, but anyone living in a suburban area or or near a city, the radio is going to be unuseable without something like a PAR filter in front of it. ICOM should be ashamed of themselves... for example, my V8000 (which I own two of) is nearly bulletproof...) the 2820H on the other hand, if there's a paging transmitter in town, you will hear it somewhere where it's not supposed to be. If you live in an urban area, or travel to these areas, this radio will be UNUSABLE without a filter. In my case I use it on a base setup, so it's not so bad... but mobile it would be terrible. (I just about travel into Boston every day..... a situation which will hammer most radios on the front end. ) This is my primary gripe with the radio- I dock 2.5 points for this alone. Hell, if it wasn't for this, I probably would have given the rig a 4.8. :)
-TX Audio is tinny, lows are cut off. It's almost as if there is some kind of a high pass filter in this thing. No matter what mic you use, bass will be cut off. It's sad given that the radio has a lot more than the usual options for tailoring TX audio (eg, there are two settings which determine output audio. ) There really isn't much excuse for this. I have cheap monobanders that sound better than this on 2M FM. Even my $89 Icom T2H sounds better than this thing does on FM TX. This is absurd given the cost of the radio.
-D-STAR support is an addon module, when it should be included by default. If ICOM wants to spread D-STAR, they should have bundled this with the radio, even if it meant increasing the price a tad... the big bucks for the UT-123 is absurd. I can see charging extra for GPS, etc, but at the price point this rig is at, D-STAR should be included. (or at least bump it up a few bucks and include it by default. ) FWIW I only dock them about a half a point for this- as I don't know what the codecs, chipsets, etc, for this really cost.
-Power output is lower than advertised- although this isn't a huge deal for me, radio only output 33 or so watts on high power on a bird 43 on VHF going into a bird DL. I can't imagine UHF is much better (although I don't have the slugs to test it at present... ) I realize it doesn't make much of a real difference, but how about a little truth in advertising? :) Be aware that I did not dock points for this... but it is still an annoyance.
Conclusion: This would have been a NEARLY PERFECT dualbander but some design flaws stopped it from being that about 65% of the way there.
If Icom makes a follow on to this that isn't an intermod sponge like this thing is, and includes D-star support by default, I'd be first in line to buy it... Even if it panned out at something like $850 with full DSTAR support and a mostly bulletproof front end. There currently are NO dualbanders on the market with a front end that is worth a crap- if ICOM could make one that was bulletproof, they'd get buyers in droves. Currently the only way to get a good
RX in a 2M/440 FM setup is to run a monobander
for each band.
I really wish someone would make a dualbander with a front end that wasn't junk, that did 35+ watts out the back, please, with sugar on top, or something. Is it really too much to ask? :)
I realize YaeComWood is trying to reach a price point with their radios, but they'd do much better on the brand identity front with dualbanders if they made one that was something above marginal. They can diversify their product line if they want, eg, have radios of differing performance levels, but they should offer something for power users. They do it for HF (the big three have incredible HF offerings) so why not for VHF/UHF?
I really hope someone at ICOM reads this- the performance of this rig is WAY out of character with every other ICOM product I own- which is a
lot of radios; I am surprised that they could not produce something better for the price, honestly. I am actually kind of saddened, as
this radio easily could have been the best dualbander ever made, probably for what amounts to no more than $100 worth of parts/engineering per unit.
73,
-Mike
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DJ0ABR
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 23, 2008 12:50
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nice rig
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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just bought my second one.
After getting used to the 2820 I love this rig. The first in the car and the second one at home. These 2820s are doing a wonderful job.
Using it in D-Star and FM mode for 3 month, I found no problems at all.
I can recommend it as replacement for older transceivers.
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K1IW
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Rating: 2/5
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Oct 9, 2008 06:55
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OK, but not worth the expense
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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ICOM charges a premium price for this radio (even without the optional $300 D-Star module), so your expectations should be high. While audio quality (tx and rx) is good, the user interface is poorly executed:
(a) The glossy display makes it difficult to read. You will need to position it so that it is not facing any window in your vehicle. Even on an overcast day, the light from outside will reflect on the front panel surface making it difficult if not impossible to see.
(b) Important user functions are either buried or not possible. For example, to change the PL tone, you have to press two buttons, scroll down to the correct choice in the menu, press another button, then dial the frequency. Then, to get back out you have to press more buttons. There are entries for both "Repeater Tone" and "CTCSS Tone" - one is used when the radio is in "Tone" mode (encode only) and the latter is used when the radio is in "TSQL" mode (encode + decode). There is no way to do split tone however.
(c) The main tuning knobs [also used for other features] are waaayy to easy to rotate. I don't know how many times I've just brushed against one of them while hanging up the mike - then Bam! I'm on another frequency. Also, these buttons can be pushed in to select different features - it's difficult to push them in with rotating them at the same time.
(d) The radio lacks a one-button way of reversing the repeater frequency (to check the input). In fact, I haven't found any way to do this. At the same time, there are one-touch buttons for things you rarely need to do. Just going from "Tone" mode to CSQ requires pushing the "tone" button a bunch of times.
In summary, there's much room for improvement with this radio. I couldn't recommend purchasing it unless you really want D-Star, since in this regard it's the best radio on the market.
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W6GDK
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 29, 2008 14:17
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Okay radio, but poor RX audio on FM
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I haven't used this radio too much on D-Star yet, but have noticed that the RX audio on the left side seems to be bandwidth limited when the left side is the main. If I select the right side (monitoring local DSTAR repeater) as main, the audio from the left side now takes on a more pleasant sound, with more bass. When using the VHF side as the main, it sounds like the low frequencies are being attenuated. I checked between FM and FM-N, turned off tone squelch etc, but no change. When listening to other stations with a bit of distortion, the restricted audio makes the signal even harder to copy. Sounds like the audio I heard on an old IC-730 when the other station was using compression.
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I discovered the source of my restricted frequency response RX audio problem. When I connect my KPC-9612 Packet TNC to the front panel packet data jack, the RX audio is filtered to optimize for Packet audio. Packet can be set for the left or right side recevier, or can vary between the two by selecting MAIN as the packet channel.
Without the packet connection to the radio, the audio is much better. I only have the one TNC, so I can't assess whether it is a radio issue or TNC issue. However, I had a Kenwood V7A connected to the same TNC for APRS use and never saw an RX audio problem so I suspect it is a 2820 issue.
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GM1FLQ
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Rating: 1/5
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Sep 25, 2008 06:22
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D star - are you gullable enough ?
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have used the IC2820 and my view is that D star is not the future for amateur radio. It can't be compared with SSB in the 1960's, it is not even in the same league. The IC2820 is of typical latter day poor build quality using cheap looking and cheap feeling plastics. The controls feel like they are from a cheap kids toy and the audio has the usual downsides of digital technology versus analogue. I foresee this whole D star thing only being of interest to a sub-section within the hobby - particularly the newer entrants of juvenile age who love their mobile phone & gaming machines - perhaps we will see D star texting next - the mic on the IC2820 looks just fine for that. Maybe a good thing because according to other more experienced users (see other eham reviews) of this mic, the PTT switch inside doesn't last very long.
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MM0PMW
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 22, 2008 13:17
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Is D-Star The Future?
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Having just used the 2820 with the optional UT-123 fitted for three weeks, my view is that D-Star is the future for Amateur Radio.SSB was a leap forward in the 1970s,I want to make a comparison,and say that this mode is also a step in the right direction.
The display on my 2820 is mounted on a MB-165 at eye level in my shack.I like the green to amber variable display background.The audio sounds ok to me,the one touch reply function is a great way to respond to a station calling,you can respond in an instant.Programming is time consuming,but if you use the software, then that takes the time aspect out of the equation.
DX communication is at your finger tips with the D-Star system,the Icom 2820 has opened new doors in Amateur Radio,and injected new life into the hobby for me.Come on in the water is fine.
Matt / MM0PMW.
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W3PAP
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 17, 2008 08:54
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After a short time, I like it.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've only had the IC-2820 for a short time but I like what I have seen so far. Prior to this radio, I had an IC-2100, an IC-2710, an IC-2720 and an IC-2800. I do a bit of traveling and want to store a lot of repeaters into the radio so that I can use them on my trips. One of the problems I encountered was being able to listen/talk to only a group of repeaters wherever I was. The 2710 has a limited number of channels and I was always deleting and adding channels for where I was going and then trying to lock them out as I moved into different areas. I got the 2720 because it allowed you to set the channels up in "Bands" that you could easily turn on and off. However, the 2720 does not have any alpha display so all you could see was frequency and in strange areas you never knew what town you had without the use of a cheat sheet. And I found the display hard to see from a side angle. I got the 2800 with its beautiful color display which has alpha tagging but again it has a limited number of channels available and you're forced to lockout or enable channels individually .. but the display is awesome. Finally, I decided to take the plunge into the 2820. It's a bit pricy but will give me the ability to go digital when I choose later. I got rid of the 2100, 2720 and 2800. I kept the 2710 because the remote head fits perfectly into a slot in the dash of my Jeep Compass. The display is clear and large enough to read easily. Channels can be broken into 26 bands with mixed VHF and UHF and it has alpha tagging so you can see what city the repeater is in. All in all, I like it so far.
One problem is the CS-2820 software that Icom sells. While it allows you to input all your channel information and set up banding, everything has to be typed in... still better than putting them in through the radio panel. There is no import cabability and you cannot cut and paste from any other application (like a spreadsheet). It is a pain to put in a lot of channels. I have found out the RT Systems (www.rtsystemsinc.com) is about ready to release their software to program the 2820 and it will have import capability and an ability to direct link into lists created in the ARRL TravelRepeater software. That will be a welcome addition.
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DZRTRAM
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 15, 2008 20:51
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An absolute pain to program
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is a great radio, as long as you don't program it. This is the most difficult radio to program that I have ever used. I have two Kenwoods and two Yaesus in addition to this 208H. My 8900 automatically puts in things like offset, etc. when I'm using the software. With the 208H program you have to type in or choose from a list by double clicking on the cell you want it in. Some of them you can't even type in, you have to choose from the list, which really slows things down.
You cannot even select a group from what you've put in and move it. With the Yaesu 8900 I can select and move any way I want. This is archaic for a big company to put out something like that.
Saving it to your hd or flash is a pain, too. You have to open up the program and then open the program and then open the data you saved.
I don't know of one radio software program on the market that isn't much, much, much better than the one for the 208H. Even the manager of the local HRO hates it and won't even try to program it manually. This is the only Icom I own. If this is an example of their incompetent attempt at programming I'll stay as far away from Icom as I can.
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