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Reviews For: ICOM IC-7400

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

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-7400
Reviews: 48MSRP: 1850
Description:
Transmitting range:
1.810MHz to1.825MHz
1.9075MHz to 1.9125MHz
3.500MHz to 3.575MHz
3.747MHz to 3.754MHz
3.791MHz to 3.805MHz
7.000MHz to 7.100MHz
10.100MHz to 10.150MHz
14.000MHz to 14.350MHz
18.068MHz to 18.168MHz
21.000MHz to 21.450MHz
24.890MHz to 24.990MHz
28.000MHz to 29.700MHz
50.000MHz to 54.000MHz
144.000MHz to 146.000MHz

SSB(2.4kHz)/6dB,3.2kHz/40dB,3.6kHz/60dB,4.3kHz/80dB
CW(500Hz)500Hz/6dB,700Hz/60dB
RTTY(350Hz)
AM(6kHz)
FM(15kHz)


Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icom.co.jp/ham/products/ic-7400/index.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15484.5
9H1BD Rating: 2004-01-20
Great Rig ! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Have owned an IC7400 since June 2003 and no problems so far ... I love using it and the receiver is 5 Star! The DSP works great and get vy good audio quality reports. I strongly recommend this rig for; specification, value for money and all the extras !
73 de Herbert (9H1BD)
M0AFJ Rating: 2004-01-13
Good Performer and Reliable Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Had my 7400 now for 8 months and have not had a moments problem. Have found the receiver first class, the filtering on CW is excellent with very little adjacent channel even on 40M. Run the rig in conjunction with the IC2KL amplifier, makes a great combination. I get many unsolicited comments on the audio, sounds good and also gets through the pile ups!. Fitted a GASFET Pre-amp on 144, that really improves the perfomance
FERRET Rating: 2003-12-21
M1EUZ ICOM 746PRO FAULTS Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had a 746 and 756 Pro2 and a few Kenwood's. My ic746 pro died last week, no TX but RX was fine.
Sent it too Icom U.K. and received it back 4 days later, very fast turn round must be commended. They replaced I.C. upc1658g-e1 then retrofit 2 pin diodes 1sv2552. I have had this rig for a year or more. It gets 95 stars for LF, HF receiver and 75 stars for vhf. All in all very good, TX audio it gets unsolicited good remarks. Odd but all so true is that it is a better receiver than the ic756 pro2 odd, as they are very much the same. I am considering picking up a second ic746 pro in January for holidays and club trips. All in all I hope icom sort this problem out before the warranty runs out, they did not admit this was a common fault, Hi Hi. But I know two fellow hams that have had this happen.

Come on Icom don't let your quality slip. The ic746 pro is marketed as the ic7400 here in England. I would recommend the high stability crystal oven for vhf operators’ part number cr-338



The receiver as good as ic756 pro2



Rx tone TX tone very good



Pass Band Tuning and Bandwidth good



Atu is fast fair to good



Noise blanker poor



Noise reduction fair to good



Tuneable filter very good



Menus are intuitive good to very good
PA8DX Rating: 2003-08-11
Good rig, but TX is now dead... Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had this rig for 9 months and I was quite happy with it, untill 2 days ago when the TX went dead. This seems to be a critical design flaw (check the reviews for the 746Pro, which is basically the same rig, or check www.mods.dk where the ESD issue is described). Since the problem seems to be a ticking time bomb, I'd expect a recall from Icom, but unfortunately no such thing. If you have a 7400, just hope for your sake it goes dead WITHIN the warrantee period, like mine. Let's just hope they apply the ESD fix when they service it!
M5TAW Rating: 2003-03-22
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought my 7400 new from a UK dealer in west London. Radio less than list price and supplied with free SM-20 mic and SP-21 speaker. Particularly impressed by the IF DSP. Have used TS 870 before which also had IF DSP, I prefer the flexibility of selecting bandwiths and pass bands with the ICOM - no need to buy additional filters! It seems that this radio is able to cope with any QRM/N issue, especially on the low bands where the 870 was not so good. Notch and noise reduction also very effective.
Transmit audio is first class with selectable bandwidths and adjustable bass/treble. This radio puts out the 100 watts as stated, unlike the 706s I have owned. I have the processor on with the mic gain half way.
The large screen is very clear and the menu relativelty easy to operate - I do recommend a read through the manual however a this radio has so many features.
The internal ATU does a great job tuning anything that I ask of it. I do prefer Kenwood radios tuning however which does not transmit a tone when tuning up. This ICOM adds to the many tuning tones you hear on the bands.
The external build quality is good, but not as goos as Yaesu and Kenwood. The knobs are plastic as is the front panel, no problems using any of the controls though.
All in all, I consider this radio to be a bargain. It is a complete package from HF to 2M with great flexibility and performance. It has the best receiver I have owned. Have used 570/870/706mk2/G/847/840/747/920.
Highly recommended.
LA5XQ Rating: 2002-10-31
A very good performer Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I even found one used, someone sold it after only two months. I only know the 746 briefly and liked it very vell, so this 7400 (European) was a shure shot.

All these filtersettings is just out FANTASTIC, just make your own filter bandwith! Wow! I can't stop playing with it. I am a hunter and to tune in on CW with 50 hz and no ringing is enjoying - never heard anything like it before. Treble and bass controls for each mode is very neat. This is the best AM receiver I've ever had, sorry they did not include a phase locking thing in it.

The built in antenna tuner is very fast and changes to the band - exellent. But this is not the situation when using an external AH4-tuner which it matches nicely (Due to space restrictions this is the one I use on my only antenna an 40-mtrs delta loop). When this is on and the band is changed the tuner does not change band or at least turns itself of. No big deal though the other Icoms does not neither.

The resolution on the VFO-knob is nicely selectable in CW: 150hz - 600hz- 1500hz - 6000hz per turn very nice. In SSB one has only the 6000hz and 600hz, but there is a trick, push and hold the ssb button for 1 sek and it turns into digital mode, then turn on the 1/4 and you are on with 150 and 1500hz. A little tricky, but I like a very high resolution and uses the 1500hz in SSB and 600hz in CW.

I like the pushbutton and set menu very well, it is easy to use and possible to adjust any setting exactly and wile transmitting. Say the NB button, press the button and adjust just enought to the need, and the vox gain etc. Except for MIC GAIN, RF POWER, CW PITCH and KEY SPEED They are a bit fumblesome, it is rather difficult to change from 20 to 22 in cw speed and there is no indication of the speed (all this is on menus in my 718). I am often changing cw-speed to the other stations speed and that is not so elegant on this rig.

I have used it for about four monts now with great results. As a matter of fact I have heard a better receiver only once and it was a Collins. I have even compared it with my IC-718 and IC-736. The 718 has some better operating convenience but performance is not in this class. So also for the super 736 a good rig of some age, but the 7400 outperforms it in any mode and task. Both on transmit and receive. It has a super modulation that I often get comments on. (((Like in Kenwoods))).

The receiver is so clean and sensetive that it sounds very different from analog radios, so much that I rather like my old ones, but that is due to my habitts of noise that I am used to hear in my radios. This is the strange thing about the radio and a really change to a new era of radios for hams.

All in all a very good transceiver, with lots of bells and whistles. Obs it takes a PS of 23Amps.

73 de LA5XQ Ove


M3RDX Rating: 2002-10-15
can't fault it Time Owned: N.A.
I have had this radio for only 1 week but find it to be a very capable HF set great receiver superb filtering nice clear display and with the heil hm10 studio mike I get great audio reports none of the problems that the n.american stations seem to have build quality is fine smooth vfo action 100watts output on all HF bands every bit as good as the 756pro ft1000mp, and the TS870s, that I have owned in the past I have not tried 2m or 6m as yet but it runs great on psk and rtty with a G3LIV isoterm interface all in all so far very happy with this rig no real faults so far
good dx
Ian m3rdx
M3RAY Rating: 2002-02-24
If you only have one radio in your shack this has to be it! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This must surely be the transceiver of the decade, I have only had the IC-7400 a day or two, but initial impressions are a real eye opener. The IC-7400 is very comparable with the IC-756PRO with the addition of 144 MHz. The receiver is superb, the fully adjustable filters cope superbly with the QRM and the option of sharp or soft filters is a terrific addition with the sharp filter really boosting the received audio quality, the audio quality can also be adjusted on both transmit and receive with separate bass and treble controls. I have at this stage only made a few contacts, but the audio reports have been very favourable on both HF and VHF. I am using a very cheap “studio” microphone from Shure (C606) which seems to work well, I haven’t tried the supplied microphone as yet, so I can’t comment on that. Navigation around the bands is a breeze, The display panel is clear, bold and has all the information you could possibly need.
This is truly a wonderful piece of kit, I have never been much of an Icom fanatic, but this radio really does blow the competition out of the water. If you only have one radio in your shack this has to be it! Go out and buy it, you won’t be disappointed !!!