| VK3ZAZ |
Rating:  |
2023-09-30 | |
| Initial experience |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This review based on data mode only not any other mode.
And weak signals only using data.....ok?
Radio is great on cw and works with pw1 in that manner.
One year in
Disaster
Had a power spike after sunrise with all my equipment switched off including my ic-7610 plugged into 13vdc rail but somehow my RedARc solar charger kicked into 24 vdc charging mode after I notice no solar charging and reset my dc switchboard breaker.
My panels are 330 watt Jincos 37 vdc oc voltage and 10amps short cct. So its possible the radio got a voltage higher than rated volts because the redarc regulator apparently kicks into 24 vdc mode I am told but cant figure how it over rode 720 amps of DC storage but it did.
And despite two ic9700 four alinco fm mobiles and an ft991a being on the same mfj power board with individual fuses the only radios taken out were the 7610 which would not turn on and my ft101dx which is bricked with a frozen log on screen..
whilst the yaesu agent said no problems to warranty…despite having four out of my five years with icom remaining they have informed me its my issue and will have to pay for the repairs.
My comment is I find it odd that icom provide a five amp fuse which goes in the B+ line from the dc input.
I located and found mine blown and changed it and it blew again.
I am hoping something in the HV labelled B+ line has crowbarred and protected all the internals.
Moral to the story use goid protected regulated supplies and play Russian roulette.
The ft101dx is sad case came up with…Insert SD card and load firmware … touch screen here … error failed to read SD card
and would not turn off. Tried the three finger power on and fast and other button to no avail..
so much for Being a Greenie and using dc Auto sensing solar regulators…
curious as to why and for what reason or circumstances you would ever replace the five amp internal fuse and why icom even supply one if replacing it is evidence of a surge not covered under their warranty conditions..
2c
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| VK3TEX |
Rating: |
2023-05-02 | |
| Pretty Good Radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Had this for a few years, overall a pretty good radio in my opinion:
Good points regarding SSB and CW, not digital.
1: Good quiet receiver. A lot quieter than the 7300.Excellent filtering on RX.
2: TX quite good with a studio mic and W2IHY audio gear.
3: CW has many great options with the best being its APF and ability to choose MOSFET output switching for silent Full QSK operation. Great CW radio.
4: Most controls well thought out for the front panel, quality feel of controls only average.
5: Best display and spectrum scope out there.
Could be better:
1: No CW graphic to show you if you are centred on the exact place you need to be. Yaesu and Kenwood have this which is great feature. (TS 990 and FTDX101)
2: Memory system could have been better designed.
3: Cant change much on display with mouse except the frequency. The Yaesu is better in this regard with most things accessible. Laziness from ICOMs software engineers...??
Other stuff:
Comes with a 5 year warranty for original purchaser in VK. Big tick...
However has not been a reliable radio with two trips back for repairs within two years, ICOM were very good with the repairs though both times.
No TS button like older ICOMs is a negative for me. They could have left the timer button off and made it a TS button. Yes, spinning the VFO knob fast achieves this
but a TS button would have been better.
The ability to display all parameters at once on display is very nice feature.
Nice light radio easy to move around shack.
Easy firmware upgrades.
Plenty of options to configure scope.
In summary i could go on, but suffice to say it has more good points than bad. Mine has not been very reliable though. And they could have done a lot better with the user interface, accessing memories just one example... but the menu system is quite good.
If you love CW this has brilliant Full QSK but sadly lacks a nice filter graphic to show where you are...
Good 4 out of 5 stars from me overall.
Cheers, Les VK3TEX. |
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| W9BB |
Rating: |
2023-02-18 | |
| NICE |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Nice radio, does everything well, is simple to use, small learning curve, pretty much plug-and-play. It's not an Anan or a flex, what I mean is the displays aren't the same not even close. Besides that, the radio works and let's face it most radios today have their own selling points. Overall nice radio if you like Icoms you will like the IC-7610 |
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| KB9NGX |
Rating: |
2023-02-17 | |
| Effective and enjoyable |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
The overall quality of this unit includes the effective implementation of its features. Accessed through a logically planned interface. Making its leading performance very easy to use. Its thoroughly enjoyable audio, makes this rig completely available - devoid of time limits.
For me, the difference from my previous rig (Kenwood TS-590SG) is the stark contrast between having to grudgingly tolerate the process, with effort to stay 'active'. And now the enjoyment in being active, is including the process. A remarkable turn-around in enjoyment of my Hobby.
It should be included (here): Addressing the cost difference between my previous rig, and the IC-7610; the enjoyment that I had experienced for many years of operating, was absent from my previous rig. That rig represented a good value in hardware. But its execution as a Transceiver, was too lacking in fundamental ways. It took effort to tolerate, in order to get use from that purchase.
For me, any hobby requiring that degree of tolerance in its pursuit, does not provide enough relief from the 'everyday'. In fact, had it not been for, not wanting to lose touch with those Hams whom I had conversed with for over 20 years. I would have very quickly found my previous rig, on its own, was wasted money. Indeed, I would have been better off with an older, used rig. For addressing the needed qualities.
The Icom IC-7610 was well worth my money. Once again, allowing appreciation of what I knew to be available in my hobby. But was for too long being curtailed, by my supposedly 'cost-effective', previous newly purchased rig. |
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| F5NZY |
Rating: |
2022-08-21 | |
| Highly recommended... |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
It has been about 6 months since I acquired the IC-7610.
Before buying it, I had the chance to try it at a neighboring OM and friend, Pascal F6DFY.
I am really happy with this transceiver which in terms of performance and ergonomics, meets most of my needs.
It's a transceiver perfectly suited for fast and efficient traffic, as well as for Contest.
As an example, recently, during a contest (CW), there was an EU station that arrived 599+10dB and 200Hz lower, a VE4 station that arrived 529.
I was able to contact the Canadian station very easily, the TRX discrimination being excellent.
Excellent QSK, as well, with diodes for TX and fast relay reed for RX.
The APF is very effective in improving the signal to noise ratio without any bell-like effect.
The audio quality is excellent and allows you to listen for hours without getting tired.
Sometimes we hear that the 7610 would be two 7300s.
Having had an IC-7300 for several years, I can assure you that this is totally inaccurate.
If like me you like the QRP, the RF power can be reduced to 0.1w to full 110w (20m).
Enjoy!
73 de Steph, F5NZY. |
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| N7KM |
Rating: |
2022-03-06 | |
| Enjoyable! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I picked this radio up about two years ago from a ham who for some reason didn’t like it. I’ve owned several ICOM radios and always enjoyed them. I have a Kline which has been, and is, a superb radio and it’s not going anywhere. The more I use the 7610 the more it has become my go to radio. It’s taken awhile get it setup just right but now it’s smooth as silk. I thought I had the screen retention problem then discovered the previous owner had changed one default screen setting, when I switched that and it’s beautiful. To make a long story short. I’m a very active CW rag chew op and and I’m involved with a large SSB traffic net as control station. This radio is a workhorse and an engineering masterpiece. It’s a joy to use. I’m still discovering what it can really do. |
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| K7NG |
Rating: |
2022-01-26 | |
| Pretty darn good radio. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I dearly love(d) my Ten Tec Orion, but it appears that components made of unobtanium are making it an excessive challenge to keep on the air. So I went out to find a replacement. I chose the IC-7610.
I find that it has a few 'wowee, gee whiz' features but really I am interested in operating CW in contests and DX pileups, plus digital modes in casual situations... and ease of operation, ergonomics, and basic performance specs are of more interest.
....Good:
Control of the RX filters. Three stored values of which the parameters may be adjusted.
The noise reduction is great, and works very well in CW mode, which in my experience is the exception.
CW QSK TX is quite adequate. I don't send fast enough to bump my head against the QSK limitations some folks have griped about, I guess.
The CW audio boost is NOT as good as the Orion, though it works somewhat. This with the NR does get some pretty rough signals up to good-copy status.
The SSB TX seems to be very clean and bright sounding, according to on-air checks I've made.
I do like the I/Q output which interfaces to HDSDR. Heck of a band scope. At least in my configuration, I only get radio HDSDR control of frequency. Not mode, and no sub-rx marker or anything. I don't know if this is 'normal' or if I'm doing something wrong. For general band watching I haven't any complaints other than I never liked the way HDSDR looks.
.... Not as good (IMHO)
I wish I had a single button to push to bring the manual notch function into operation.
I'm not particularly impressed with the performance of the noise blanker.
The 'Digi-Sel' preselector is probably nice if you're in a multi-multi contest operation or field day, or have a lot of high-power hams living down the block, but it didn't have any discernable positive effect in my situation through a couple of contests I dabbled in.
- update -
Let's not talk about the display problem seen in early production radios. It's over and done with. Newer radios don't have it.
I learned a lot in the last several years about how to get the most out of the IC-7610, and I more than ever find it hard to believe how good a performer it is in the receive arena.
SDR opens up a whole new vista of enjoyment on the bands.
I have even entered several of the ARRL FMTs (Frequency Measuring Tests) with it and using just the internal standard have gotten into the 'winners circle' (1 Hz or better accuracy) more than once.
I have compared the transmitter performance (noise and IMD) to a number of other radios and it's near the top of the heap there too - if the heap is other radios with 12V finals.
I am a very satisfied 7610 user. |
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| IK0YKM |
Rating: |
2022-01-11 | |
| Outstanding radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Great radio, easy to use (like all Icoms) and beautiful design. Excellent preselectors and filters. Connected to a linear amplifier, it doesn't make me miss the other equipment I have. This radio, together with the IC 7300, constitutes Icom's winning move.
I am also very satisfied with the quality / price ratio.
Henry |
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| N2DTS |
Rating: |
2021-10-05 | |
| Very nice gear... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I really like this radio, its easy to use, and it works well overall. Four things are lacking in my book:
1 antenna tuner is limited in range,
2 Audio is limited in response, lows on RX and highs on TX,
3 The way the agc works brings up background noise a lot, the RF gain helps some...
4 the mouse can not click on options, it would be much more useful to pick settings and options then signals but they restrict its operation to the scope only.
Overall, the radio is a joy to use, what audio there is is clean and good sounding and the 200 Hz cutoff helps with high frequency hearing loss somewhat, but that should be optional, not mandatory.
The display is top notch, the band scopes fast and detailed, enough buttons in the right places make the radio easy and fun to use.
Like the 7300, the 7610 modulates ok on AM, with a slight amount of digital grunge on the signal at full power, some sort of AGC artifact I think.
Not that good for the AM or essb guys with its limited fidelity on RX and TX.
The dual RX is nice, I can watch 80 and 40 meters at the same time and just hit the change button to switch between them.
Close strong signal reject seems very good while control of that is not as easy as a real computer based sdr where you can drag the filter around on the screen with the mouse, Icom does not give you a filter overlay or the ability to control it.
Flex gives you filter knobs and the overlay to allow you to move the passband just past the signal you do not want to hear on their M models which is easy and effective. Icom gives you dual passband knobs and no overlay which just makes it guesswork.
Overall, Icom got more right then wrong and for all the features the radio has its a good buy at the current price.
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|
| WX3B |
Rating: |
2021-10-04 | |
| A Masterpiece, A radio anyone can enjoy |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
After several decades of mostly Yaesu ownership, I purchased several Icom IC-7610's for use at my station. The first thing that surprised me was the easy to use touch screen user interface!! This radio is a joy to learn and use, and the important menus and functions can be "guessed" without ever opening the well written user manual. The second impression I got was how REMARKABLY quiet and precise the receiver is. Half of my operating in SSB, the other half is CW. The 7610 a very flexible radio and you can tailor the filtering and dozens of other parameters to make the radio uniquely enjoyable to you. It was a novel experience being able to do radio control and CW keying over one USB cable. I discovered for DXing and contesting that the Heil IC microphone element is a perfect match for the radio once the highs are emphasized some bass is dialed out. The fact that the radio has a built-in voice keyer and also lets you RECORD QSOs from the receiver were two very useful and fun additions. But wait, there's more: the radio actually performs extremely well in my multi-operator environment with very closely spaced antennas - and that surprised me since the radio is of SDR design and has no traditional IF filtering. As another added plus, this also happens to be my radio of choice for portable operating in my camper. It is small and light enough to be easily transported. I even ran it in my car several times; what an upgrade from my 706!
There is so much to like about the 7610; It is easy to setup, learn and use, it is a top of the line high performance DXing and contesting radio, and it will hold its own with high fidelity sound on both transmit and receive (this makes a great short wave receiver!)...AND you CAN take it with you. The 7610 is truly a crowd pleaser for all.
Kudos to Icom for an excellent product!
73,
Jim Nitzberg WX3B |
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