|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
|
You can
write your own review of the Icom IC-202S.
|
N9OO
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 21, 2007 21:59
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Great Old Standard
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
I've owned both the IC-202 and the IC-202S. I still use the IC-202S albeit less today on 2 meters. I really have fun using it with my Tokyo Hy-Power HX-240 HF transverter. The HX-240 transverts from 2 meter down to all pre-WARC 10-80M HF bands with 50 watts output. It's a real conversation generator when I chat with people on 75M SSB and tell them I'm using a 2M SSB rig and transverting it down to HF. The HX-240 is about the same size as the IC-202S so it even makes a good portable VHF/HF SSB/CW station!
Great little rigs that do a remarkable job for being 30 year old technology.
|
|
ZL3MH
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jan 9, 2003 18:26
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Way ahead of it's time
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Hi It's Murray ZL3MH from New Zealand. I use
the IC202s all the time . I have worked as
far as VK5 on sporadic E which is nearly
right across the USA. I use it with a QQV6/40
value amp, a mast head pre amp (bf981) and a
12 element beam. On recieve I have used it on
AO-10 to work OH which is as far as we can go.
It is repairable and with a small amp as above
and pre amp you will work as far as anyone. I
have used it on psk31 on AO-10 and is is quite
stable for a vxo. Yes it does have it short
comings but I but it for $75 NZL which is
about $40 U.S. Finally these rigs are still
highly sort after for the boys using 2.4,5,
10 and 24 gigs with transverters. You will
have trouble to buy one in VK and ZL.I also
have a mods list for the 202 for lsb and
you can contact me on
email murrayhely@yahoo.co.nz
|
|
KU4QD
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 11, 2002 17:01
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Net old portable that works very well
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
The Icom IC-202S was the updated c.1980 version of the venerable (1976 or so) IC-202 2m SSB/CW "bookshelf" portable. The main difference between the IC-202S and the IC-202 was the addition of LSB capability for satellite work and the fact that the antenna was removable. Otherwise they are basically the same radio.
I bought my first one new on closeout around 1984 or so. I've had one since. Both times I've sold this radio I've regretted it, and not just because I like vintage Icom gear or because I like interesting portable rigs. The IC-202S performed very well.
The rig was an analog, VXO design. It covered four band segments, each 200kHz wide, with 144.000-144.400 installed from the factory. Many on the used market today will have satellite subbands in the other two crystal slots. With no synthesizer it had a very low noise floor compared to other 2m multimode rigs of it's day. Sensitivity was decent if not up to the best modern specs. Still, it was *far* better than the Yaesu FT-290R, which became it's main competition towards the end of it's run. Selectivity was quite acceptable as well.
Output was 3W PEP or CW. CW T/R switching is manual, as in you have to flip a switch on the fromt of the rig, which is the main negative point on this rig. For terrestrial or satellite SSB work, though, the rig was quite pleasant to operate in its day, and still isn't bad at all today. The tuning was a bit course and you never quite knew exactly what frequency you were on, but since when is 2m SSB chennelized, anyway?
Receive audio was fine to my ears, if not exceptional, and transmitted audio reports were always quite good with the stock mic. An optional desk mic., model SM-2, was available, as was an optional 3 amp power supply/speaker combo, model IC-3PS. The rig did sound better through an external speaker. One neat feature of the power supply was that it had a bay in which to inset the matching IC-20L 10W linear, turning the IC-202S into a nice little base rig with output power comparable to the bigger rigs of the day. An optional internal NiCad charger was also available.
OK, perhaps it deserves a "4" today, but in it's day this was *the* fun little toy for mountaintopping and portable 2m operating. It' still fun and the flaws are understandable if you remember that this is a mid '70s design. It was way ahead of its time and better than many later rigs. No bells, no whistles, just a great rig.
Let's put it this way: if I find a nice clean, working IC-202S at a reasonable (or perhaps somewhat unreasonable) price I will certainly buy it and keep it this time.
|
|
GW4RWR
|
Rating: 4/5
|
May 4, 2002 18:12
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Very useful radio.
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Adequate coverage of ssb + beacon section in a handheld set with adequate battery life from its C cells.
I replaced the front end, mixer and added a tx/rx relay. This vastly improved the sensitivity. However received audio quality was still not that good, either on this or a friends IC202e version. Everyone tended to sound the same. I think the only way around this is wider IF filtering.
Together with the fiddly VXO dial, which has far too many kHz per revolution, I found this to be an unsatisfactory radio for 2m ops. Great for the 23cm transverter, however.
|
|
G8SBF
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Apr 10, 2001 10:05
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Excellent
|
Time owned: months
|
|
I have owned my IC202S for about 10 years and it works really well. Mine has a 3SK88 transistor in the front end and there are many mods to improve noise floor etc on the web. I have used it for Satellite downlink purposes on Oscar 13. Again it was ideal for this purpose. The styling is now somewhat outdated, but don't be fooled, this is a seriously good radio!
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
