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Reviews For: Icom IC-2730a

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-2730a
Reviews: 45MSRP: 419.00
Description:
VHF/UHF Transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
64.7454.1
SY9CGZ Rating: 2018-03-28
very good radio!! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
very good dual band radio, but the fan makes a lot of noise especially at night.
I would like to have a mosque on the screen
KD9GOL Rating: 2018-02-01
Excellent dual band radio! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned this radio for almost 2 years now, it was actually my first radio after getting my license. 99% of the time it has been used in a mobile environment.

Received audio is great, although if using the radio in a mobile environment you will probably need an external speaker. Mine works fine with a non-amplified speaker, but in louder environments than my pickup you may need one. If using as a base the built in dual speakers should be fine. Air band receive is also excellent, and actually outperforms all my scanners in that respect. The radio includes a weather alert feature which is very nice when I'm in the field for SKYWARN, and the alarm is quite loud. The one touch access to weather channels is also a very nice feature. My only complaint with the weather alert function is that you can't set a SAME code, it will activate for any alert on the station that you select, which may get annoying during wide area severe weather events. It also will not display the type of watch/warning/advisory like weather radios and some scanners will.

It has been used in multiple vehicles with no problems. The base version does not come with the faceplate mounting hardware, but I simply bought a cheap mount designed for cell phones that works perfectly fine. The crossband repeater feature is easy to set up and use. I think there's a problem in my mic cord, I had to turn it backwards because sometimes I'd press the PTT and nothing would happen, but I believe that's a result of how I had my mic cord run. Since I switched it the other way I've had no problems.

Buttons are easy to push, back light is adjustable and more than adequate for viewing day or night. Very happy with mine, and considering getting a second one as a shack radio.
AB0O Rating: 2018-01-14
Excellent Radio! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After 40 years of hamming, I finally decided to buy an actual mobile rig. Had always used handtalkies, linears, and speaker mikes. Boiled it down to the Kenwood TM-71A or the IC-2730A. At the ham store, I really liked the fully duplicated controls for each side's Rx/Tx. The programming was easy enough to master while sitting in the car for 30 minutes. The display is large and bright, plenty of audio. I decided to get the suction cup mount, which puts the control head right next to the shifter on my minivan...very easy access. The magnetic mount allows quick removal to store or take the head with me.
I had the ham store put PowerPoles on the power cable, so I was transmitting within 30 minutes out the door.
I also enjoy listening to air band, and this receiver has excellent sensitivity and I can hear all airports within 30 miles easily and obviously planes that are much further. The AM audio quality is outstanding...not just an afterthought.

I bought the deluxe version to get the mounting plate for cheaper, and bought the suction cup mount, so expect to pay around $100 more than the lowest advertised price for the straight 2730A, but the accessories and features are worth it. I could have easily just stuck it to the car dashboard with a strip of velcro and saved $100, but I usually buy radios for a long, long time, so decided to take the high road.

Easy for me to recommend this radio.
KF5IRG Rating: 2018-01-12
Cross Band Repeater Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Works Great and is really easy...

To Activate Cross-Band Mode
Before you activate cross-band, set the frequencies you will need. Frequencies can be set in
VFO or using Memory Channels, or also using VFO and a Memory Channel.
Note: Once this procedure has been completed, the cross-band feature will now appear in the
menu unless a full reset is performed.
1. Press and hold both MAIN keys, MONI, and then press power.
2. Press MENU.
3. Rotate a tuning knob and select EXMENU.
4. Press MW. Rotate a tuning knob and select OTHERS.
5. Press MW. Rotate a tuning knob and select RPT M.
6. Press MW. Rotate a tuning knob and select START.
7. Press MW. Rotate a tuning knob and select YES.
8. Press MW. The display will show both bands with rPt listed under the frequencies. The
cross-band feature is now activated and you may operate in cross-band mode

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Earlier 4-star review posted by KF5IRG on 2015-06-26

do not know why my resolution comment never got posted? oh well lost in the cloud probably.
The hum issue was resolved by the friendly staff at Icom issue was duplicated by them by manually lowering the voltage to the unit. so with that in mind i took a look at my install, I connected my unit to the accessories post on the truck under the hood and due to the additional length fron distance from battery was far enough to create a v drop to the rig with engine off same in the shack so i just removed/cut any extra length off power cord and walla v drop gone. Also the is rig has 2 mic inputs one on body and one on control head. this is nice as now i can with my echolink node plug in rigblaster nomic in to one and supplied mic in other very convenient. gave only 4 stars due to the fact no mounting hw included and rig
has NO 6 pin data port but has ci-v IRLP node radio? But all in all a good rig and easy to see, controls work well sound is good, pumps out good audio and signal and dtmf keys work. No worrries so far, using as node radio for EL at 100% duty cycle on 20 watts with extra cooling of course! All in all a good rig i think.
KI4WCA Rating: 2017-08-26
Excellent performance overall Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought this radio for base/mountain topping use. I have only used it out of the car in front of my house once so...
As a dual band base radio it is excellent. The front end is intermod resistant and very sensitive. It is a fabulous dual band analog radio. It does a very good job on airband as well as for trains. It has received very good reports for audio too. It is very easy to program and I can't wait to work some satellites with it.

I paid the ridiculous 49 dollars for the bracket to attach the front panel to the body but even accounting for the money spent for that this radio is worth it. It performs wonderfully even though a 300 watt NWS station is not far as are some very strong pagers in the 150mhz range. No images or overload at all.

The only changes I would like are 4 power settings 5, 10, 25, 50 vs 5, 15, 50 as delivered.
I would like a bigger internal speaker and 5 watts of audio too. Aside from these quibbles the radio is fantastic. I love it.


If you just want an analog FM dual bander...just get one!!!
SQ5D Rating: 2017-07-16
Supercool cheap radio. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Wonderful smal cheap radio. It's analog radio still if it is want you want its hard to find another more userfriendly. UX is great - everything you need on front panel. Search speed is good enough. Audio is exelent. Of course it comes with no mounting brackets whatsoever with no additional items yeasu or chines manufacturers accustomed us yet it's price what compansate it. If you want additional equipment you can buy it - if you dont need it its not mandatory to pay for it. I'm useing it on base so hardo to say how it will preserve car environment but for base porpoise its duralibity is just enough.

Disadvanteges - well I have version E (Europe) and I dont have cross band repeater out of the box which is strange as its not forbidden in my country. Still you can make moddification and problem is gone.
Another probelm is fan which is ridiculously loud but as with previous disadvantege you can fix it by yourself. I've changed my fan for japaneese super-silent fan and its not an issue anymore.

Conclusions - very cheap, userfriendly, good audio radio. So when you want just analog its easy choice for you.
DV2AWN Rating: 2017-07-14
good radio, modification required for cross band operation Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i first wrote a review on this radio whilst i was trying to enable the cross band repeater function which i then gave only 2. i am now re-evaluating my review after having found out how to finally make the cross band repeater function work. it turned out that for non-u.s. models, there is a modification required, which is to removed a diode and a key press combination to enable cross band function. after doing this, my ic-2730a finally worked as a cross band repeater. the RX and TX is as can be expected of ICOM radios, which is to say good. build quality is also good. about the only gripes that i have is that you have to shell out extra money for mounting brackets. otherwise, i would recommend this radio with one caveat.... modification required! 73!

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Earlier 2-star review posted by DV2AWN on 2017-07-12

the build quality looks solid. good thing i ordered this with mounting bracket. however, i can't seem to get the crossband function setup. it didn't help that the manual did not have any chapter on this. you have to get the separate crossband setup addendum on icom webpage. however even with that addendum, i still can't make the crossband function work. right now, i'm trying to search the internet on how can i do this. there is not much documentation on the net about this. what gives icom? dissapointing.
N1AUP Rating: 2016-08-19
Awesome dual bander. Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought the 2730 over the Kenwood, mainly because I liked the idea that I could plug the mike into the head, rather than running a separate cable back to the RF desk.

So far, I love the radio. It's like having two radios in one box, with two squelches, two tuning knobs, and two sets of buttons. I find the white display easy to see both in sunlight and darkness, and the features are easy to use. I didn't bother to manually program the unit. I bought a real cable for $25 off of Ebay, and used the Icom software. The public domain software does not yet talk to this unit.

Radio is far more sensitive than my 706, and it doesn't seem to be bothered by intermod or other kinds of interference.

VE7REN Rating: 2016-05-28
excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
upgraded from a ft8800,to this beast.. whats not to like.. huge readout. backlighting in the buttons,and overall great build.. it was fairly easy to program,and the audio is fabulous.. ive had people notice the difference.i bought it new,with a free mobile bracket for the body..velco the faceplate to the body.. never a problem. you will have to make a 2-3 inch jumper for the control head,as it does not come with a shorty..
OZ1HMN Rating: 2016-05-05
Generally working well Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Don't want to repeat other already mentioned stuff, just my additions.

1) I have a number of times been forced to turn the unit off and on again to get RX Audio through. I can see in the display that there is RX activity, but no audio heard. Off/On cured it every time. But in my init???

2) I have see moist/damp inside the display if used in moist/damp weather.

3) I wished that RX audio would be present directly in the mic connector.