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Reviews For: Icom IC-R7000

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-R7000
Reviews: 15MSRP: ~900 (1986)
Description:
25 - 1000/ 1025 - 2000 MHz multimode communications receiver with 99 memory channels.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.w6trw.com/radio_history/Other/Icom/IC-R7000-1.jpg
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00154.6
K9KJM Rating: 2005-11-24
QUALITY Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my Icom R 7000 used when the IC R 7100 first came out, From a person who just had to have the latest........
The R7000 is a VHF/UHF receiver for the serious listener.......... It is not all that great for use as a "scanner" (The internal band select relay constantly clicks between VHF and UHF) as it scans....... But it does function well as a scanner if you understand that......
AND this radio will do a lot more than most simple scanners will....... It is one of the top choices for the SETI project ARGUS systems...
I really like my R7000 and have no plans to get rid of it. (I have been a real Icom fan over the years, Just do NOT buy one of those JUNK IC 2720's like I did! I "jumped ship" and got one of the great Yaesu FT 8800 radios that work great when I finally got rid of my junk 2720H....)
N4UE Rating: 2005-11-23
Fantastic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
OK, OK, I LOVE Icom radios. I have bought several on different trips to Tokyo. I had always wanted a R71A and I found a 'nice' one on e-pay, er,
e-bay. Of course, it was advertised as being 100% functional, etc. Blaaaah!
It needed a trip to Scott Malcom at MTS to be put 'right'. I realize that some of these older Icoms had problems with trimmers, etc. No problem. Scott fixed and aligned my very nice example of a R71A.

Next, I lusted over it's big brother, the R7000.
I put out feelers and found some real beauties. I eventually bought one from the west coast.

It was as mint as the seller indicated (and I'm REAL picky!!)
I recieved the radio today (about the BEST packing job I have ever seen, double boxed +).

Tonight, I got to trying it out. Yesterday, I put up a RS Discone antenna, but also have the ability to switch different antennas between MANY different radios.

Results?

Switching back and forth from the R71A and the R7000, reveal that the R7000 is a much (!!) better receiver. It just 'sounds better'. Of course, the frequency overlap between the 2 radios is very limiterd,
I have also tried comparing the R7000 to my new 756PRO, my 271A and my 471A.

In summary, the R7000 is a wonderful receiver.

I installed a broadband low noise figure preamp (50 - 900 MHz) in-line, in case it was needed. No problem. The R7000 has more than adequate sensitivity for all frequencies tested so far. I simply bypass the preamp....

I'll probably never use all of it's scanning feaures, since I bought it as a VHF / UHF propagation aid.

Ron

N4UE
G1HBE Rating: 2005-06-01
RF performance, built like a tank Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought mine in about 1988 after owning other 'lesser' scanners, and boy could I tell the difference! Beautifully designed and built, with performance to match in all areas. The scanning facilities were slightly quirky (the lack of a 'hold' position seemed a peculiar omission) and having the FMn and LSB switches around the back grated on such a 'semi-pro' RX. I'm sure Icom could have ditched a couple of the superfluous front panel switches (the remote on/off springs to mind) to make room.
After about 10 years I had to replace the caps in the inverter board, but this was easy for an electronics engineer such as myself. It must have been a pain for those not so fortunate though.
Despite these reservations, the R7000 will go down in history as the first multi-mode scanning receiver with real RF performance and serious build quality. I kept mine for 12 years (that's a long time in my shack!) before moving to an AR5000, another serious performer.
DT593 Rating: 2004-03-01
What I Was Hoping For Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Bought one on e-bay for about $500 total . Got a nice clean rig without any mods done to it. Seemed a bit weak on receive so found a shop manual online and tuned only the IF's and re-adjusted the S-meter. the results couldn't have made me happier. Compared to my Pro-2006, my Icom-PCR-1000, my BC-780 and my BC-895 it is just a "bit" better in regards to sensitivity than all of them (Comparisons made with a splitter going from various antennas to the R-7000 and what ever radio I was comparing it to.This seemed to be true across the entire received spectrum. No bad capacitors or bad solder joints (as of yet). I am not at all disapointed in what I got for my $500...True Quality all the way.
KA2AYR Rating: 2003-11-29
Taking a Licking and Still Ticking Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought my R-7000 sometime around 1985/ 1986. I've added CTCSS/ CDCSS decoder displays, modified it to add another set of 99 channels and used a variety of preamps and filters with it. Over the years it has needed to have the electrolytic capacitors in the DC - DC converters replaced several times (de-valued electrolytics cause display and RX sensitivity problems over long time periods), but each time it comes back as strong as the day it was unpacked. Probably the most reliable piece of communications equipment I've got.