| NY5J |
Rating:  |
2005-08-24 | |
| Good performance, reasonable price. |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Solid radio, good performance, I'm happy. 95% of use is on 2m, so no comments on 70cm. Ample power for my uses -- 30 miles into my favorite repeater during the commute. Sensitivity is good. I have to use the attenuator frequently, but that's a plus.
Intermod rejection could be better. Programming is cumbersome -- not something you want to do at freeway speeds, anyway. |
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| JOHNS3620 |
Rating: |
2005-06-09 | |
| Very Good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I really like the radio. I get great reports from everyone who hears it talk. Power is not a problem and neither is the fan. The mike controls work well. My only complaint as with all wide band receivers is that they pick up a little bit too much splatter and noise in certain areas, and a good switchable rejection filter would help when needed in these areas. When I am out in the suburbs The radio is great. |
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| AA6E |
Rating: |
2005-06-04 | |
| Fine rig, no issues |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This dual band rig does what the specs say, and it hasn't caused me any trouble at all. Good reports on the air.
I only wish it would have installed itself in my car, but I had to scratch my head and use tools. Seriously, it would have been nice if they'd included a universal remote head mounting bracket. My Velcro solution is marginal! The available accessory bracket is overpriced. The Icom mic extension cable I bought is very good quality, however, if expensive. |
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| KG4TBQ |
Rating: |
2005-04-30 | |
| great little radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I wanted to buy another 207 but it was out of production. I hadn't heard anything about this radio before I bought it. I've only got Icoms so I went with this one too. So far I have only one disappointment with it. I like the feature the 207 had with 4 power settings,the 208 only has 3, other then that I'm satisfied with it. It has gotten intermod one time since I've had it. I had the 2720 and it was getting intermod daily.That's why I didn't buy the 2720 again.I like the recieve and everyone says the audio is excellent. It's a keeper. |
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| AB0SF |
Rating: |
2005-04-15 | |
| Great, little, relatively inexpensive |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I was bummed when the 207H went out of production. I knew a few people who had them and they worked great for them. I was a little apprehensive to purchase a "new and improved" version of a good rig because all too often, "new and improved" seems to be a substitute for "we figured out a way to build it much cheaper and add a couple of meaningless consumer-driven features." Just give me a radio that receives well and transmits reliably, on frequency and has a working squelch control and I'm happy. Add a decent scan rate and reasonably-sized memory bank and we're really cooking with gas! This rig has all that, and I think it has more (Don't know. Only read enough of the manual to do what I needed to use it for.). The instant NOAA feature is great, too. So is the 10 dB attenuator. I haven't used it much, but I have run into areas where there was enough VHF noise to warrant turning the squelch control up enough to blank out the offending signals. Also, the "need" to have two channels of "hamtalk" blaring out of one speaker, for me, is just too Hamsexy :-) (http://www.hamsexy.com) for me to handle. I'll take the single VFO-type dualbanders any day.
If I can drive up to a high RF site and not hear a lick of IM, then the radio does the trick for me. And this radio does just that. Mine has gotten bounced around in my truck for the past three months, and has performed way better than my expectations. Pretty tight IF filtering for such a inexpensive rig. In addition to this, good out of band RX sensivity make this a great choice in my eyes. I pretty much threw this rig in the truck after I left HRO and haven't looked at the scehmatics yet, but it seems to me like this rig employs a PTT activated cooling fan circuit. This is a good idea for the drive-time guys and gals, but a little much for those of us who use the radio as a receiver. I'd have prefered a thermistor-activated fan, but hey, for less than $300, you can't have everything (Unless you're a modern-day ham - hihi.). |
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| K1ESL |
Rating: |
2005-03-10 | |
| Works great for me! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
It's regrettable that some of the recent reviews here spend more time slamming Icom than they do objectively reviewing the radios. I'm sorry to say that I think the N3 review and the GM1 "review" are spot off. It's clear there is some sort of TX audio issue that is systemic with this model, I guess it's up to the buyer to determine whether it's happening for them. I'm not an Icom bigot to be sure, I would also point out that all of the big names all have problems with all of their radios. I did move my Yaesu FT-8900R to the base - because the Icom is a heck of a lot easier to see and use for me in the mobile.
In any event, my experience has been excellent. The only thing I could complain about is the fan rubbing issue. It only happens intermittently and it hasn't bothered me enough to tear down the mobile mounting yet. No excuse for it happening enough to be an issue here in the reviews though!
I do have to comment on the "wobbly knobs". I think this is by design. My vehicle is a truck - and those wobbly knobs are what keeps them from breaking off when I'm trying to adjust the volume or squelch on our lovely California roads - which might as well be 4WD. If the knobs were stiff and unyielding, I think I would surely have broken them off already.
The mic is fine too, no issues whatsoever.
I do not have a TX audio issue - I've gotten good reports and also heard myself on a recording. I also have found the receiver to be just fine - decent intermod rejection and decent sensitivity.
The attenuator feature is very nice- my favorite repeater's frequency has a distant machine that 90% of the users can't hear - but I can, so the attenuator fixes me up on days that I can hear it(can't use PL for that particular problem).
It's not the ultimate rig, but it does what it says. My rating for the radio is a 5 - I still love it after more than a year.
The software gets about a 1 - but I haven't seen any software from the manufacturers that's worth anything. I'm not sure why the reviewer below who hates the radio thinks the software's fine. It's barely adequate. It would only be adequate if it was free.
All in all though, I still love it and recommend it to my friends. |
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| KB1KVL |
Rating:  |
2005-03-10 | |
| modulation sux |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| You can always tell when someone is operating a 208, very narrow frequency band & very weak audio. I spent $50 to make mine sound like a "normal" radio sounds. |
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| KI4CRA |
Rating: |
2005-01-22 | |
| Outstanding little radio! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have had my 208H now for about 4 months. Outstanding little radio, well done Icom. I went from a Yaesu FT8900R quad band (also another great radio) to the Icom. I did have some low audio output when I first fired it up, but went into the menu and tweaked the settings a little. IE: turned the NTx off, Mic on Hi, and the ATT off. That cured my problems since then no problems. I run this rig strictly base, on my desk and have no trouble with fan noise, no intermod, no nothing. I am using a Diamond V2000A tri-band antenna which works extremely well. I do like the 50w out on UHF, although I'm very rarely on UHF its still handy to have. On 2m it does exceptionaly well, I've been able to hit repeaters with this radio that I couldn't with my Yaesu or even my Ic 706mkkIIg. I do especially like the HM-133 mike that in itself is with out a doubt one of the best features of the radio. Well done Icom!
Mark
AI4HO |
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| K7SFN |
Rating: |
2005-01-22 | |
| Bad TX Audio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Received my new 208H the other day and decided to make some tests and program it on the work bench. Really liked the egonomics of the unit; The small control head and ability to separate it and mount to the dash was the main reason I ordered this radio. The disppointment came, when several people I made on the air checks with, commented on the low level and restricted transmit audio. I exchanged emails with ICOM tech support, however they were unable to provide any usful solution to the problem. Upon checking the radio with an IFR-1200, I found max deviation peaks of only 4 KHz. Selecting the "Narrow Transmit" audio selection, which is supposed to produce 2.5 KHz deviation peaks, had no effect. Similarily, changing the software option for the mic gain, had no discernable effect on the transmit audio. The audio remained very restricted (no lows) and you had to yell into the microphone to be heard.
Rather than keep a radio that I knew I'd never be happy with, I returned it to the Dealer and exchanged it for a different brand.
If your transmit audio is important to you, and to most of us it is, I'd suggest you look at something other than the 208H. ICOM usually makes great products, but this is certainly not one of them.
ICOM, listen to the consumers and fix the transmit audio on the 208H. You'd have a great dual band radio, if you did! |
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| KD7EZE |
Rating: |
2005-01-01 | |
| All around good radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
First off, let me clarify some of the previous posters misconceptions. A few have stated that it won't receive both bands at once, this is completely false, or at least on the 12 or so that I own. I've also read complaints of fan noise, but I haven't noticed any. Besides, when the control head is on the dash, and the transceiver is in the trunk, how can you possibly hear a tiny fan over the normal road noise. While I do agree that an external speaker is a must, this is true for any radio that has ever been manufactured, so no real complaint here. Radio programs easily with or without the computer software. Complaints noticed about the price of the software. Are you a cheap ham? It's only money. If you want something, buy it and don't complain. Someone complained that the radio has to be on while programming via computer, thus wasting power. Again, are you that much of a tightwad?
The 208H is a fine piece of equipment, and has performed well above any of my expectations. The 50 watt output on 440 is a nice feature that other manufacturers should consider. The free seperation kit is another added feature, and if it isn't long enough for your setup, extension cables are readily available for a nominal cost. I've gotten excellent reports on transmit audio quality, and the receiver sensitivity is real good. It does take a bit of time going over the manual, to understand all of the functions, but this is true with any newfangled radio. I paid $279.95 each for the ones I now have, and am very pleased with their performance. I plan to purchase more of these, to complete our RACES fleet operations vehicles. To Icom, all I can say is: "Keep up the good work!"
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