| ROBBIE |
Rating:  |
2002-05-05 | |
| AN EXCELENT BUY |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I BOUGHT THE IC-2100H OFF EBAY FOR A REASONABLE PRICE WITH THE MARS/CAP MOD. ALREADY PREFORMED. IT HAS WORKED FLAWLESSLY EVER SINCE PUTTING IT IN MY TRUCK. I ALSO EXPERIENCED ALTERNATOR FEEDBACK WHICH I FIXED WITH A NOISE FILTER FROM RADIOSHACK. THE FEATURES ARE TRUELY UNSURPASSED AND PROGRAMMING IS A SINCH. THIS, COUPLED WITH MY VERTEX VX-150 HANDHELD ALLOWS ME TO BE AS FLEXIBLE AS I NEED TO BE. THE RADIO IS ALMOST ALL HEATSINK. TO BE SUCH A SMALL RADIO, IT SURE PUTS OUT ALOT OF POWER. A MUST FOR FIRST TIME HAMS. |
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| K4LYP |
Rating: |
2002-05-03 | |
| A-OK |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Friday May 3rd 2002
Just went last weekend and bought this radio at HRO Atlanta. In the 10 or so years I have been a ham, I've never bought a NEW mobile, always a used one. The $130 price tag caught my attention so I bought it. I thought to myself: For $130, I bet it's built cheap and sounds like crap. I was wrong!!! This radio is built like a brick and has so many features that a new ham might be intimidated by it. My Radio Scrap...I mean Radio Shack mobile is going in the XLY's car. I'm sold on this radio. I've read the reviews of the finals poping...so I guess I will find out if this is true in time. It does get *VERY* hot when using high power on a long QSO. Straight out of the box it's doing 55 watts. |
|
| NRDMAN |
Rating: |
2002-04-28 | |
| Great radio! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I had a Ic-2000 with horrible intermod problems, and wasn't planning to buy a 2100, but it was cheap, $129.95 at a hamfest, and I was assurred by the owner of the store that I could send it back if I had Intermod problems, and so I went for it.
I used it at home, alongside a Kenwood 2 meter mobile, an it was superior in every way! More sensitive, no intermod at all, except for one freq where the local Wx transmitter could be heard slightly almost all the time. The Kenwood was worse, and since I had used the Kenwood in my car, I decided I would keep the 2100. It's in my truck now, and works perfectly. The only complaints are the ergonomics suck, and trying to remember how to do something without the manual is usually pointless. |
|
| W2NJS |
Rating: |
2002-04-25 | |
| Excellent value. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My first 2100 was purchased about three years ago, then I picked up a second one a year or so ago when the prices started to drop. The oldest one quit a few days ago; no RF output but otherwise still working okay. Icom said on their website that the minimum to fix it would run $75, so I sold the bad radio on eBay in a couple of hours and netted $56 for it, then turned around and bought another new 2100 from a dealer for $130, which nets out to a dollar less than the repairs would have cost as a minimum. The 2100 is now officially a discontinued radio, having been replaced by the new V8000 but I suppose the dealers have a number of 2100's still in stock.
Except for this one RF output problem, I've never had a single problem with 2100's. The smart thing to do in high intermod areas is to run CTCSS receive where and when you can. I find that many hams still don't have a basic understanding of the uses of PL and DCS which is too bad because these are useful tools in communications work.
Tom, W2NJS
Posted 4/15/02
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by W2NJS on 2001-03-04
I now have two IC2100's and have had no problems with either unit. I read a comment here which sort of mystifies me. One reviewer said that he loses the CTCSS setting when he changes memories, but my 2100's both keep their CTCSS from memory to memory with no problems whatsoever. (You can punch a PL into a memory, but if you don't memorize it you'll lose the PL when you switch channels. As with most of the ham rigs, the individual channel parameters must be memorized.)I use about 80 memories total, which are ham, fire, state police, local police, etc. As you can imagine, all of the public service channels are set for tone squelch, and they work just fine. I wish that the Icom dual-band twin of the 2100 had alphanumeric display, which it doesn't, but that's another story. |
|
| K5ENA |
Rating: |
2002-04-25 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had my IC-2100H for 2 years, mainly as a base station, but now it is in my wife's car. I have always transmitted on it using the low or mid power positions without any problems. This radio is built like a tank and performs flawlessly. I just bought another 2100H today for base station use. Would highly recommend the radio to anyone. |
|
| W7SFO |
Rating: |
2002-04-21 | |
| Yup yup |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Yup, ICOM tech told my friend that if you run a 2000H, 2100H, 207 on less then full power, then its only a matter of time till the finals pop.Seems they have a problem with the circut that limits the output for low and medium power. His 207 poped 3 times in 18 months. Upgrading all my ICOM and Yaesu UHF/VHF gear with Kenwood. I will give ICOm one thing. They repaired his radio for free even at 18 months, and was only about a week turn around. |
|
| KC2IID |
Rating: |
2002-03-29 | |
| Better than rigs twice the price! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Yes, I too had a problem with alternator whine in my 2001 Ford Ranger. A ferrite bead on each power lead fixed that though. In my Isuzu 6 wheel box truck, no problem whatsoever. Fantastic receive, and very little , if any intermod. In the work mobile, with a 5/8 wave mag mount, I'm hitting repeaters 50 miles away with only a little white noise.
From the base, with only a Diamond SG-2000 mobile antenna on the roof, I'm working simplex DFQ in a 30 mile radius. Can't beat it for the price!
As a matter of fact, I recently started using it in the pickup again after my dissatisfaction with the Yaesu 7100 (but that's another review)
73,
KC2IID
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|
| DY1VCN |
Rating: |
2002-03-28 | |
| excellent mobile unit but high intermod for base use. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| Bought the 2100 based on the reviews and published specs. It was supposed to be used as my main vhf rig for a fixed station but replaced it with an old Icom 28H because the 2100 was so intermod sensitive. In-band and out of band qrm breaks the squelch and ctss often when using a Cushcraft ARX2B and once in a while when using a short ground plane quarter wave antenna on a 50 foot mast. Using the attenuator weakens reception significantly too. However, when the 2100 is used as a mobile unit, performance is excellent. |
|
| N5TUI |
Rating: |
2002-03-15 | |
| Love it! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This may be hard to believe but I can not find anything about this radio that I don't like!
Well, I paid $195 for mine about a year an a half ago, now there $130! Oh well…
It will not fit in my new truck so I’m using it in the shack, I sure do miss it mobile.
Intermod: Nil
TX audio: Great
RF output: Plenty
RX: Great!
These things are cheaper than a hand held!
ICOM did this one right. |
|
| N6TGK |
Rating: |
2002-02-15 | |
| Still good |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I've had my 2100H since November 1998 and I don't think current production runs are any worse than the one I bought three years ago. From the moment I bought my 2100 I had alternator whine, while the Kenwood TM-733 I had used before didn't have a problem. Unfortunately, being a student at the time I needed the money so I sold the 733. Once I became gainfully employed I wanted an inexpensive 2 meter radio to get started with. The 2100 fit that bill nicely. But as I said, it had problems with alternator whine. So I just went down to Radio Shack, bought their 20 amp power line filter and no more problem. Ultimately, there is no perfect radio and they all have some kind of problem... although I'm not too happy with Yahoo radios right now. They seem to be plagued with nothing but problems... especially that FT-7100. |
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