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Reviews For: ICOM IC-7100

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-7100
Reviews: 176MSRP: 1600
Description:
A new Mobile HF,VHF and UHF Tranceiver from ICOM,.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/hf/7100/default.aspx
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
251764.4
AJ2I Rating: 2017-09-29
Good value for money Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I got one of these about year ago new when the were doing a great rebate promotion. I get 100w output on SSB with a Peak Hold Meter. I don't use D-Star but it does work fine. Use it as a mobile only radio at the moment and find is easy to adjust settings on the fly, buttons are convenient and easy to access band changes etc. Some say the form factor is weird, would have preferred a style like the 7000 myself, but it is what it is, the features and the Rx Audio etc outweigh the awkwardness. I think it has a better Rx on SSB then an 857d and the NR/NB works well.
KE8KW Rating: 2017-08-27
love/hate relationship Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I Like this radio a lot, but I dislike it's erratic behavior. Sometimes the radio does wierd stuff that requires me to do a 'partial reset' to get it to stop doing whatever it is. Most recently, my meter display was showing my output to be very low and it was not. Made a full qso with the meter showing that I was running about 10% out. BTW.. I have none of the issues with limited power output as mentioned by many reviewers. If it would just quit being periodically schizoid, I'd be a real happy mobiler. I think Icom made a mistake at not making the chassis a little bigger and including and onboard antenna tuner. Personally, in my situation, I would have much rather had that than all the D-star stuff.. I just don't get it.. AND, the nearest D-star machine to me is too far to hit from here. The only time I would have any use for D-star is on long road trips. I like the vhf/uhf component and had gotten me on both of those bands at least once in a while. Regarding HF, I use this radio with a Comet antenna that covers from 40 meters to the moon including 6 meters, so they're made for each other when paired with a diamond duplexer. Stay away from the comet duplexer tho.. too low power handling ability on uhf. I live in a mountainous region and for the past couple months, going up on one of the higher elevation roadways in the area that has a totally clear shot to Europe from the top. I work a late afternoon dx net from up there and get great reports. I find I can work most DX I can hear as long as the pileups aren't too big... then I'm screwed. Also have a Wolphi interface for data modes, but the software is quite lacking in my opinion. There's not a single good app in the android arena that does JT65. The ONLY one on the market at this time absolutely sucks. My one last statement on this radio has bugged me since day one... since before I bought the rig even when I'd see it in the shops. It just seems like the design staff said 'screw it, it's quitting time' when it came to the VFO knob. I've owned Icoms my entire ham radio career (32 years) and they have always hand nice well designed VFO knobs.. this one is a piece of crap wrapped in an even crappier piece of rubber.. what were they thinking?! Have fun, good luck and 73...

KE8KW
AB3CN Rating: 2017-06-01
Versatile, capable, loads of features Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Over eighteen months playing with this capable, versatile IC-7100. Shack use, no mobile installation. Keeping up with the firmware updates, nice Icom continues to support this unique unit. Unique, I think, with a quick glance over to the Kenwood 480. Still being a happy IC-7000 op, though, it’s been fun to switch between the two rigs. Digital HF modes are easier with the IC-7100. I think the 2m sensitivity is better. I have plenty of desk space so putting the guts of the unit up on the shelf isn’t a necessity—however, it does reduce the eye-level cable spaghetti. It is attached to an Icom AH-4 tuner and an OCF dipole for HF, and this combo works well. No operational issues. No lock-ups glitches hiccups or stuck pixels. Like other radios I have, there’s a lingering hope to pair the IC-7100 up with a phenomenal external speaker—if I ever discover the perfect one. No hesitation to rate this affordable transceiver 5 stars.
W7LDG Rating: 2017-05-18
Outstanding Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I got one of these a short time ago and think it is outstanding.It has lots of bells and whistles and D-Star is Great. I did several test on it and I dont understand why some say it has a SSB power problem. Mine does 117 watts, The secret to a good accurate reading is a meter with "Peak Hold". If your meter does not have peak hold then you have no right to give a SSB power reading. You can get one with FM, but for SSB use the correct equipment. I am pleased and proud it is in my shack.
KD2FIQ Rating: 2017-05-14
Good radio that could be great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this radio with intent of it being installed in the mobile. The size is right. I love that the head unit is only one cable to the main unit and the mic / headphones connect to the remote head. This is my first Icom so there was a little bit of a learning curve. I was able to get the hang of it rather quickly. In the box you get an abridged manual. The full manual is on the CD. I wish a nice printed full manual was provided. I have worked it on all bands including VHF FM and side band. Good audio reports were received. The main unit is quite small and very appropriate for a mobile installation. Doesn't have an integral tuner but this I knew. I may go with the LDG that is supposed to match this radio nicely.

Unfortunately, the HF sideband output RF power is inconsistent. I am able to get 100 watts (as seen through my MFJ 949E external tuner) on 80 meter and 10 meter for example. 20 meter and 17 meter won't break 50 watts. I went back and forth between my Yaesu FT-991 and the IC-7100. Same antenna, different radio but much less power on the Icom. Of course I knew about this issue prior to purchase and hoped that it was worked out with the new firmware. Sadly, it is not the case. I contacted Icom tech support and spoke to another ham who has the same radio and he confirmed the limited RF output was the radio functioning normally. He sounded frustrated as well. Almost like he didn't know what to tell me. I asked if a new firmware update was in the works to correct this and he stated he did not know.

I was able to program memories via Chirp. That was a welcome surprise. There was no official Icom programming software that came in the box. It appears they want you to purchase it.

I am currently getting used to the radio in the shack and have the head unit connected to the main radio via a 3 foot CAT5 patch cord. Works fine. The longer "official" extension cables are a small fortune. I am going to try a longer cable (probably shielded CAT6) to see if that works well. I am thinking it will work fine. What I want to do a lot of is keeping the antennas and main radio unit in the mobile and setting up a nice chair and table with a long interconnecting cable. You could probably do the same if you wanted to leave the main unit in the shack and kick back on your favorite easy chair.

I have only touched the surface of D Star. Seems already to be more intuitive than DMR. Audio quality maybe a little better. If I find it a nice feature, I may investigate a GPS unit to connect to the radio. Yet another item not included in the box (but I knew that of course)!

The pros may outweigh the cons. I think it will work very well in the mobile. If you are looking to get on VHF / UHF sideband it'll work very nicely. I wouldn't have this as a primary HF rig in the shack by any means however.
VA2DV Rating: 2017-04-25
Does it all Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I wanted to get back on VHF-UHF weak signal work with minimal investment so I traded my HF-only rig (TS-590) for this one.
My fear was that it was going to be a big trade-off on HF. Not so.
I am happilly surprised by the quietness of the receiver and the recovered audio. The selectivity is quite good for a rig of this size. Keep in mind that I have modest antennas so overloading is not an issue here. I was not a big fan of separated head design but I must say that combined with the touchscreen, it's make operation a breeze in most situation. It's a very good compromise as a complete
HF-VHF-UHF rig with enough features to keep the operator busy for a long time. The audio from the built-in speaker is loud and crisp, in fact this is the first radio I have that does not need an external speaker to sound good. At the actual street price on the used market, you cannot go wrong with this one.
VE6AGE Rating: 2017-03-29
Very Good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've bought this radio around Christmas time and I could say that so far it has been a very good transceiver. I recommend it to anyone looking to buy an all band / all mode radio.
WB8LBZ Rating: 2017-03-28
I like so much I have 3 of them Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I wasn't a fan of this radio when I first saw it demoed. I bought one and it seemed like the low power complaints had people running for the exits. I paid $850 for the first and much less for the other two. I have one mobile 80 - 70CM, one for digital/second mobile and one for VHF/UHF in the shack. I love the SD card backup. I have the RT Systems software/cable and only need to update one and I can back it up with the others. Lots of memories, more than I will ever use. Low power on SSB, I will never know. If I ever use it for HF I will drive an amp at 35 Watts. I did the firmware update on one and the others were current. Nice radio. I replaced an Icom 7000, 2730 and an 208. I don't use the D Star as it is behind the mountain and I can't hear it and it can't hear me.

73, Larry WB8LBZ
El Paso
K4JQL Rating: 2017-03-28
Trouble Touch Screen Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had intermittent trouble with the touch screen since it was new. Sometimes it doesn't respond at all sometimes it responds when "it wants to ". I've done all the resets at one time or another, updated the firmware, to no avail. Only thing left is send it back for repair of an out of the box problem. When it works it's a great radio. touch screen doesn't work reliably. K4JQL owned this radio about 2years.
AD0AR Rating: 2017-03-05
Great radio, don't do the capacitor mod Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had the radio for a few months now and while HF is relegated to another radio, this ic-7100 works great on VHF/UHF! It has much better sensitivity that my IC-7000 this replaced.
I did do the HF SSB mods for higher average power on SSB and I'll tell you this- It's not really needed and the capacitor mod actually messed up my FM mode.
Anything FM had a buzz in it- Apparently the portion of the transmitter that varies the carrier power is adversely affected installing the capacitor.
Adjusting the transmitter power down to drive my vhf/uhf amp stack led to hardly any contacts on repeaters. It made me think my radio or amp was messed up. Also to note the power bargraph looked like it was strobing (flashing) when transmitting. I thought it was odd.
Soooo.... I set up my IC-7000 in the car as the 7100 is in the home shack and I parked the car up the street and set the radio to record 146.520 while I executed some voice checks.
Then I listened to the recording. It sounded like the transmitter was turning on and off about 20Hz making my voice very choppy.
I removed the capacitor mod and all sounded good.
I did leave the soft mod in there jumping over the transistor collector to emitter to test the mod as that was more than enough to peg the meter at 130 watts PEP. I removed that mod too because there is a mic gain problem.
I don't care what your argument is, if you do these mods, you are going to mess up the FM/SSB mic gain balance no matter what. So if you do not plan to use the FM mode all is good.
Now this is what you mess up and no mod will balance this that I know of:
FM modulation gain will be way down versus SSB modulation will be through the roof so doing these mods you will effectively have to manually change the gain on the submenu whenever you change modes. I could not hear myself on 146.520 when I would talk it was so quiet. By the time I had the mic gain up enough (40-50% on FM) that when I switched back to HF SSB I was transmitting about 10W of ambient room noise the gain was so high. I had to turn the mic gain all the way down to about 4-6% to keep my HF mic gain normal.
If you know how to solve all the above issues, GREAT! But as it stands now, inputting 14VDC with a 25A power supply and NO mods with the default settings with the mic 3 inches from my mouth I do get 70-100W PEP with the compressor.
Your mileage may vary, but this is my experience.
Also to note others have mentioned the 15khz roofing filter is way too big for HF activities as it causes the AGC to pump whenever someone else is in the 15Khz passband. Playing with the PBT and setting BPF filter settings to the SHARP shape greatly reduced this action when PBT tuning is properly executed and was much better performing than my IC-7000.
Also don't expect the auto notch to block any agc action, it is after the agc whereas the manual notch and PBT IS in the AGC loop for maximum effectiveness against AGC pumping
Nothing is going to fix this perfectly other than a more narrowbanded roofing filter, I just miss the dual notch the 7000 had as it was much easier to "brick wall" QRM/QRN with the radio Macros in Ham radio Deluxe/ DM 780.
Obviously the roofing filter is stuck at 15Khz to allow FM ops with a simpler circuit so for what it is, it is a slam bang shack in a box with a integrated sound card with included DSTAR functionality.
As an afterthought, if Icom offered a optional color screen upgrade control head, I would not hesitate to buy as I am sure other owners would also jump on such a super option!