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Reviews For: ICOM IC-2720H

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

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-2720H
Reviews: 147MSRP: ???
Description:
2M/440MHz Dual Band Mobile
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001473.3
KA1BTK Rating: 2016-01-18
Not Great! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
It's bad enough that not having an alphanumeric display forces me to use a "cheat-sheet for the memory allocation, but scanning in a bank, these is no way to even see what memory allocation your listening to, which makes it more difficult to scroll down the paper or screen.

I gave this radio to a new Ham friend for his mobile. He quickly purchased a new radio with an alphanumeric display and gave this one back to me. I decided to use it to replace my old 2-meter base-station radio. After mucking with it I can see why he was so quick to get a new one.

I would not want this radio in a mobile. The need to take your focus off the road to try to figure out from whence is coming a reports is nothing short of dangerous. Opt for a simpler radio, with an alphanumeric display.
VE2UM Rating: 2015-12-13
...Good scanner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
First the flowers..

One friend of mine has two of these radios and he loves them for the ease of use. They are really easy to program and use. The modulation is clean, RF power and sensitivity are excellent.

Now for the flower pot...

I've serviced three of these radios... All with the same problem. The driver MOSFET is a 2SK3075 in the AWFUL (i'm polite here) 2-5N1A case. I've serviced two early (version 1) TKR-850 repeaters which had the same type of driver transistor, still for the same problem, fortunately, the later 850's now use a much better ceramic encaplulated driver.

The problem ? These MOSFET's go up in SMOKE !!! Your radio may operate for years w/o problem, but suddenly, the 2-5N1A will disentegrate rendering your radio useless.

Furthermore, the burnt-out 3075 will damage your PCB making device replacement an ackward job.

the repeated self-destruction of the driver device is at my eyes a serious reliability issue, hence my 0 / 5 note.
W9DPY Rating: 2015-12-12
Pretty Good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Bought this as a second owner unit from another local ham. He had bought three new units to cover both his house and vehicle use. So far; it's the first Icom VHF/UHF unit that I have bought that I liked. I was never a big fan of Icom's GUI on their full size mobile units, but this unit is better than the other two I owned. Also, this is a true dual TX/RX unit - something I haven't had since my old FT-8000. I forgot how nice that was!

I'm rating this a 4 as I have yet to see how it holds up under long term use. It's in a mobile environment in central Texas; which is a good stress test. The Rx is hot and I haven't run into the intermod issues reported by other users. The microphone PTT button is touchy - I'll probably have to address that at some point. Overall, I'm about as happy as can be for this being a used unit.
AE7VA Rating: 2014-02-16
Eleven Years Strong Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this radio in my current and former truck since I bought it new in May 2003....that's 11 years now and still working like new!

It has survived 11 years of hot Phoenix summers baking away in temps well over 120 degrees while the truck is parked outside during work and other trips.

I've modified it for AF MARS usage and it works great for MARS purposes outside the ham bands.

No problems at all with it...still transmits like a champ.

Intermod is a problem in a few areas; such as, when I pass right by a communications site on a hill next to the highway and when I pass by Sky Harbor Airport. Otherwise, I don't have any other intermod problems in the Phoenix area and I have it hooked to a Diamond Super Gainer SG7900 2m/70cm antenna.
N4KVE Rating: 2013-04-10
BEST DUAL BANDER EVER Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I own 3 of these, & to me they are the best dual band mobiles I've ever owned. The display is great. Works in bright daylight, or night of darkness. The receiver is red hot, & also receives 800 & 900 mhz. Everything is pl'd these days, so I never receive intermod. I can put these radios away, & after 2 years I can use them, & not forget how they work. While I use commercial Motorola radios in my cars now, I still refuse to sell these radios & I'll put one in my car when I take a long trip & need a VFO to scan. Over the years I have owned many dual band mobiles of all makes, & none have been easier to operate, or read the display. While some had problems with the tx failing, I have never had this problem. Icom even included the separation kit for free. I just can't say enough good things about this radio. GARY N4KVE

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Earlier 5-star review posted by N4KVE on 2004-11-19

I have had my 2720's for 2 years now & I still love them. I bought the first 2 units in Ft. Lauderdale when they first came out. They programmed easily like any other Icom.I drive between Miami & West Palm Beach on the turnpike & dont get intermod.The odd peep or 2 every other week. My finals have never blown, but to be fair I can work the repeaters I use on 5 watts. The odd time 20 watts. Also I use the radio in the double UHF mode 99% of the time. I hardly ever use VHF. 800 MHZ coverage is good & so is aircraft.As for the tx audio, I can drive at 75 mph with the windows open & nobody complains.I have played with the Yaesu 8800 & if it came out first I would own 2 of them, but the Icom came out first & I'm keeping them.I guess I'm just lucky, or everyone else is just unlucky. Keep up the good work Icom. 73's GARY N4KVE
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Earlier 5-star review posted by N4KVE on 2002-11-15

I LOVW THE NEW ICOM 2720 NO INTERMOD IN FT LAUD/MIAMI AREA ONLY SLIGHT BURSTS GREAT RX SENS NICE TX AUDIO I CAN DRIVE 60 MPH WITH WINDOW OPEN AND BE HEARED LOVE THAT RADIO N4KVE
K5JAB Rating: 2013-04-10
Garbage Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I don't like rating equipment this low but ICOM dropped the ball on this one... Were do I begin?

1. The receiver is red hot. If you have a channel programmed with out some sort of CTCSS or DCS tone and live in or near a large metropolitan area you are going to pull your hair out. The front-end on this thing gets overloaded real easy and it make for a bad scanning experience. My Baofeng UV-5R has a better front-end than this thing.

2. The display is ridiculous. A $400+ radio should have a nice large display that can show both letters and numbers. This isn't the 80's. Lets do a better job at making displays better to look at. Again, cheap China stuff has better displays than this.

3. The controls and menu system are made worse by the bad display. It's bad enough that we have to use menu systems in the first place. At least try to make it usable. I wouldn't advise trying to change CTCSS tones while driving.....

There are a FEW good things about this unit; It does cross-band repeat, has a good cooling fan and is built solid. The mounting options and INCLUDED remote mounting bracket are awesome and you can connect the mic either to the main unit or the head making option for placement in a vehicle easy.
KA3RCS Rating: 2012-12-09
Decent radio with a few issues Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been running the same 2720H as my primary VHF/UHF mobile since I got it new in 2003. It's worked through many cold winters and many hot summers, and just keeps working.

I never had any problems with the final amp, but then, I have always had the fan set to run continuously, and have every memory programmed for low power and only ever increase it if I actually need it (which is common sense as well as good amateur practice).

The only actual failure which I ever experienced with this radio was that the driver circuit stopped activating the fan. I expected the fan itself to have failed (as it has been noisy for years), but grounding the negative lead made it run again. It was strangely timed, as it occurred when I moved it to a different vehicle earlier this year. I just bypassed the driver and hard-wired power to the fan, and installed a heavy duty switch in series with the power cable to the radio...some time I plan to dig into it and fix the driver properly, or at least add a new low-side driver to power the fan only when the radio is turned on. I'll probably put a new fan in it as well for good measure.

I never had any problems with the microphone or the display either. My only real complaint about the display is that it, like that of many other Icom models, has no protective window over it...what were they thinking?!? Another minor point is that the viewing angle is suboptimal. I have the control head tilted way down (it's mounted overhead in a Wrangler), and it's still somewhat hard to read from the driver's seat.

Here are the major positive and negative points in my experience:

Pros:

- Very sensitive receiver, if no interference present (see cons)

- Very reliable - it has 'just worked' for almost 10 years

- Very good transmit and receive audio

Cons:

- INTERMOD!!! Forget big cities, the front end in this thing gets absolutely HAMMERED in a rural area many miles from any transmitter sites of any type! The RF squelch helps, but it still gets trashed horribly way too often. I have run it with a coax switch to connect the same antenna to the VHF/UHF port on my FT-857D, and the difference in the same place on the same frequency is night and day. It's not specific to one band or either side of the radio either...VHF and UHF are both affected on both sides.

- Very difficult to program. Thank goodness for computer programming, which interestingly can be accomplished with the same cable used for the Yaesu FT-50/VR-500/VX-5/VX-7 as well as the Icom cable.

- No alpha tags. Not really any good excuse for this, as the concept was already well established when this radio came out.

- Mechanical relay engages on some receive frequencies (!). I refuse to put 220 MHz frequencies in scan, as I suspect that the relay would not hold up for very long.

Overall, it's not a bad radio, despite having a few shortcomings. I have to give it a decent rating because it has been through so much for so long, and it basically just keeps working.
K9DLI Rating: 2011-12-11
fair Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned a 2720 H for about 5 years in mobile service, never had a problem with finals
or Microphones but have repaired friends radios. Also yes the front end is an RF sponge and mixer of terrible design.
My chief complaint is in the display software and tiny control buttons. The radio will display channel numbers in one mode but not when you go to group mode. I do this so I can have towns along a route in one state at a time. However no chan number or group number makes using groups nearly useless. One needs to have a cheat sheet along on trips.. I will be replacing this unit and selling it as soon as I can install a Motorola Spectra with zones and channels in alphanumeric. Then I can bring up the state I am in and stroll thru modes until I find a town I am near. The Japanese just cannot get the "KISS" concept into their radios.
KD0JWY Rating: 2011-07-20
It's an OK Radio if you live out in the country Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is KD0JWY, I owned one of these radio's mainly because of the cross band repeater option and also because I am able to use the dual receive function. It's an ok radio. I drive through town and even use it in the house sometimes but it has a wide open front end. I used it for a while but got tired of all of the interference coming through. I sold it but it works ok. 73's from KD0JWY
PU7PST Rating: 2011-01-27
EXCELENTE RADIO Time Owned: more than 12 months.
EXCELENTE RADIO EM TODOS OS SENTIDOS. ÉXCELENTE TX E RX. EXCELENTE RADIO.