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Show all reviews of the Icom IC-718
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You can write your own review
of the Icom IC-718.
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NT6S
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Rating: 2/5
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Apr 27, 2008 19:26
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Highly Over-rated!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This will probably be the first and last review I post on eHam, only because I just can't sit by idle on this one... I am expecting that I might get quite a bit of hate mail based on this review, but since I don't give a bleep, I'm gonna tell it like it is.
Let me start by saying that I have worked in the technical end of the radio industry for a long time, and I have always found the reviews on eHam to be highly suspect and very light-weight technically speaking. For that reason, I believe that all eHam reviews should be taken with a generous heaping tablespoon (not just a grain) of salt, because very few of them, if any, are written with the technical authority of say... the ARRL reviews.
That sentiment especially holds true for most of the reviews written here on eHam about the IC-718. After all, who are most of the reviews written by? Amateur radio operators, that's who. Some of whom have just purchased their first HF radio (it is marketed as an entry level HF rig by Icom), and who have no basis for comparison. So naturally, if a new Ham purchased the IC-718 as their first radio, one can't really blame them for ranking it 5 out of 5, based on their lack of experience and their feelings of "new radio excitement".
I suspect that many other 5 out of 5 ratings have come from Hams that are loathe to admit that they have made a bad purchase, and should know better. The reviews that are really hard for me to understand, are the glowing, 5 rated reviews, written by long time Hams, that do have (or claim to have) other radios to compare with the IC-718. After all, one of the duties we have as Hams is to "Elmer" new Hams, and part of that responsibility is to steer new Hams away from poorly performing radios, and towards better performing radios (new or used) in the same price range.
The IC-718 is a below average performing radio with several design flaws. The dual conversion receiver is very noisy and hashy, and is broad as a barn door. The adjacent signal rejection is poor to non-existent. The receiver AGC is fixed at a fast rate and can not be changed (adding to the poor received signal quality) without a modification (which doesn't help much). Unbelievably, FM is not even possible with this radio. What an oversight. In the CW mode, transmitted waveforms have a power spike at the leading edge of the envelope of up to two times the expected output power. And who designed the volume control? You can't turn the receiver audio down smoothly to zero. When turning the volume control counter-clockwise (turning the audio level down) the receiver audio just cuts out at a point about 5 degrees before arriving at the full left position. In doing so, the audio never transitions to zero audio, it just reaches a certain audible level and cuts out once you turn past that point! This has been noticed by scores of Hams on scores of IC-718s. I am joining with all those many Hams who are astounded by the 5 out of 5 ratings that this radio has been given by so many on eHam.
If I worked for Icom, or had to sell their products, I would be so embarrassed by the IC-718, that I would recommend anything else, even a used rig from another manufacturer, over this radio. Icom must be embarrassed, because they knocked $50 off the price and will give you a free DSP unit if you buy the radio.
Here is a short list of other fairly recent HF rigs that can be had for about $550.00 or less on the used market. You Elmers should be steering your new Ham friends away from the IC-718 and toward the following used rigs... For example... TS-50, TS-450SAT, TS-570DG, TS-570SG, IC-707, IC-735, IC-728, IC-729, FT-840, FT-890AT, FT-900AT, to name just a few. Even old boat anchors (by today's standards) such as the TS-830S will run circles around the IC-718.
Put that in your pipes and smoke it!
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