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Reviews For: Icom IC-V8000

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

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-V8000
Reviews: 185MSRP: 249.00
Description:
2 meter mobile radio
75 Watts output power
RX: 136 - 174 MHz
Wide/narrow operation
Front firing speaker
Cooling fan
Dual color display
Auto repeater offset
CTCSS Encode
CTCSS Decode
CTCSS Tone scan
DCS Encode
DCS Decode
DCS Code scan
DTMF Encode
DTMF Decode (optional)
DTMF Code squelch
Dynamic Memory Scan
Weather channels
Weather alert
Weather scan
207 Memory channels (3 scan edges)
Call channel
6 Character alphanumeric display
PC programmable
Radio - radio cloning
Programmable keys
RF Attenuator
Channelized operation
Alpha only operation
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur/2mmobile/index.html#v8000
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001854.4
W4AUV Rating: 2011-10-21
Very satisified Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I do a great deal of driving for my work and this radio gets heavy usage. It has performed 100% plus. I always get excellent audio reqports with it. If you want a solid, high power mobile radio for 2 meters, you should take a hard look at this one....W4AUV
K8KAS Rating: 2011-07-25
top of the line Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Owned it for 4 or 5 years, use it as a base on simplex. Full power always and ragchew often. Never a problem, nice Rx and Tx audio.
Radio stays on 7 or more hours a day on 146.430
or146.520.. buy one again in a second..Denny K8KAS
K1VI Rating: 2011-07-25
Great, except mic PTT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have 3, at least two are 5-plus years old. Very nice overall, but I have had to replace two mics, each with PTT problems. Seems with wear, the microswitch is no longer engaged. I bought time in each case, by shimming with slivers of pencil eraser, but in the end shelled out the $89 per mic, twice. Otherwise, good radio.

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Earlier 4-star review posted by K1VI on 2007-10-29

I have two V8000's and other than being a little miffed by programming so complex I have to be sure to keep the manual with me -- still, I've been very happy.
But two months ago on the first one, and today on the second one, I get intermittent PTT action. Flukey enough I can't really figure out whether it's the mic, the cable, or the radio... I would characterize my use as being pretty gentle -- stays in the car, no family wear-and-tear... Anyone else out there with the same experience? I'm waiting for Icom support to respond to my email...
K1VI -at- arrl.net
ZS1BOB Rating: 2011-07-25
Punchy radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my V8000 since it was launched, feels like many years ago;
Used only as a mobile rig. I find the high output setting useful, the area I live in Cape Town is mountainous and hitting some repeaters can be problematic.
My radio in particular, can't speak for V8000's in general, was programmed via PC and the first letter of the alphanumeric is a "d" irrespective of what you type in. Mildly irritating.
The radio fan runs when the interior of the vehicle warms up in the sun, seems to be very sensitive to temp., very irritating - fan is going to wear out long before the radio does.
Otherwise a fine radio.
KC2VOB Rating: 2011-06-01
A Reliable Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
In a lot of recent reviews people are complaining of the earlier versions of the Icom IC-V8000. I’d like to add that it appears that Icom has fixed the PTT button and audio drop-out flaws. I bought mine over a year ago and installed it immediately. No problems so far. When I get a new radio, while still in warranty, I put it to severe use for a couple of months to evaluate it. I sometimes ran the V8000 in around 90 degrees in the summer of 2010 (of course not at the 75-watt level), it gave no problems. I got its review video on YouTube under my call sign. Please visit my YT channel for further info.

IC-V8000’s Kenwood competitor TM-271A is a piece of junk. I’ll post its review here soon and YouTube review is already there but it started giving problems after I did that review. It’s Yaesu competitor FT-2900R should be great for 75 watts as it is a lot bigger and twice as heavy as IC-V8000. Looking at it’s heat sink and weight, the IC-V8000 doesn’t seem to stand 75 watts often. I rarely run it at full.
N0ETR Rating: 2011-02-01
Some good, some not. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My wife bought this radio for me for Christmas in 2002. The radio worked great until 2008 when it developed an intermittant audio problem. When the audio would drop out I could turn the radio off then back on and the audio would return for awhile. I got really fed up with it and put it back in the box and threw it in the closet for awhile. Later I took it to the store where it was purchased to see if they could fix it and thay couldn't. They offered to send it back to Icom, but I didn't want to spend the money for repairs when I could but a new radio for the same amount. About a month later I decided to search the web to see if there was anyone who might have experienced the same problem, and there was. Turns out that this problem has been on going for quite some time, and Icom has done nothing about it. A repairman on the web said that there is an audio IC located in the front left corner of the radio that has 5 legs on it. This IC will more than likely will have a cracked solder joint on one of the legs. Sure enough I removed the bottom cover, located the IC and there it was, a cracked solder joint on the fourth leg from the bottom. I resoldered all of the legs and as of 2/1/2011 the radio has been running flawlessly. I hope this helps others who might have a radio with no audio out of the speaker because the fix is really simple. I think the radio is great now that the problem is fixed and would probably buy another. I agree with the owners who said that the volume and squelch are placed wrong and have mine labeled on the bench where it sits. I really like the TONE SCAN feature as it makes it easy to find the tone required to access a repeater. I also like the manual speed control on the cooling fan. If I am going to run 75 watts for any amount of time I usually turn the fan on HIGH. I also like the front firing speaker. The unit has very nice sounding audio.
73
KI4BDS Rating: 2010-12-27
Still great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought it in 2003 and it finally quit Dec 2010. Not bad for being in a farm truck and getting bounced all over the US hauling horses probably close to 1/2 million miles. I think I'll buy another one. The mic is my only gripe. It quits about 1 x a year. Will try fixing this one too for an xtra radio. I think ICOM is making a mistake quitting the 8000 and the 706.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KI4BDS on 2009-12-31

I have given 2 other reviews on the V8000 since 2003 when I bought it. I hate the Mic problems, just as regular as clockwork the switch will quit. That is not military quality ICOM. I am however, going to buy another one for a Prius because the front firing speaker is ideal and the size doesnt matter when you must have an external speaker and wires run all over for a faceplate (I have a 706) The old V8 is in a 4wd farm truck and has been abused by me in the dusty, dirty, hot, humid conditons of N VA.We haul hay and feed and horses all over the country and it doesnt blink. My other choice will be a new 706 but for 2m V8 is my #1 choice.
K1CJS Rating: 2010-06-18
Great--but for one thing. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had the 8000 for about five years now and can find fault with only one thing--the Volume and Squelch controls position. Those two controls are interchanged from every other 2 meter rig I've owned.

Other than that, this set is a winner. I've had none of the other problems complained about here, programming was a bit difficult to master, but once you get it down, it's easy. I've easily worked stations 80 to 100 miles away from my home with a Hustler G7-144 mounted at thirty feet!

Icom--you did good with this one!
WA0ZZG Rating: 2010-04-09
Known Bugs Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I consider this radio a good value, though not perfect. It does have a few bugs. The mechanical design is great. Very solidly built. Front panel user interface confusing. Forget it. Learn to use the hand mic controls. ICOM uses this same mic on many radios. You need to only learn it once. Recommend getting the computer interface cable and software. ICOM uses the same cable for all their radios. You only need one cable, but softwares are different. Radio does get buggy because of software corruption. It will just start doing strange things. Mine likes to kill speaker audio for no reason about once a year. I just bring it back in the shop, wipe internal memory and load factory defaults, then load memories from my hard drive. I then clean the case and put it back in the mobile. Now, like a new radio. Mine shows about 70-75W out. Don't use full power all the time. The output transistor is nicely protected, but the driver isn't. It will run at the 25W level for ever. Have fun.
K9XXX Rating: 2010-04-08
nice, but Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The V8000 was my first non-HT radio when I bought it in 2003.
For some reason, this model has an atypically high "bump" current draw when being connected to an active 12 VDC circuit resulting in a heavy arc even when it is powered off. If the connector halves are aligned and then connected very quickly that will help avoid blitzing a diode in the DC input area,as I did. Icom parts sent me the $.93 diode without charge. I bought a not-working V8000 on ebay from a non-interventionist hamop for a few bucks. It had the same problem, which I fixed, but that doesn't fix what I perceive as a design failure.