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Reviews For: Icom IC-37A/H

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

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-37A/H
Reviews: 7MSRP:
Description:
Icom 220 mobile from mid 80s
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0074.1
WB6CSH Rating: 2021-08-11
Poor volume and squelch controls Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought mine many moons ago in the San Diego area from a ham that went SK. I am NOT impressed with this radio. It transmits and receives pretty much as it should, but is putting together a VHF FM rig any sort of a challenge?
Compared to my Yaesu FT-5100, it fails. Granted the FT-5100 is a decade newer, but all Icom mobiles I have owned develop fatal volume control problems; IC-230, IC-27, IC-37.
NJ6F Rating: 2009-05-22
Good Rig With Fix for Squelch Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Got this rig used and had to fix the 6V source. I use a MFJ 4125 small 25amp switcher with a 100 ohm resistor in the fan circuit for best quietness. On the IC-37A there is a LED on the board and with power on, it should be lit, indicating 6 volts. If not, trace out problem until LED operates. We found a shorted capacitor.
* On the squelch/ on / off pot do the following - open up the unit and take out / detach just the front (volume pot)and leave the switch. I replaced both of the 500 ohm squelch & volume pots with 2 (seperate) blue small rotary pots with NO shaft. Mount one where the original squelch pot was and run the volume pot with small flexible cable out to where the reset button is located in small space below the plastic lid.
Adjust the squelch on weakest station for solid squelch action, and then adjust the cabled pot insulated with electrical tape, for a reasonable fixed volume. Crazy glue the knob back where the shaft used to poke out. You can still utilize the on off knob/switch together with a fixed minimum adjusted squelch.
W9MT Rating: 2008-10-18
The volume control problem is quite common... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had mine for several years and it, too, developed the intermittent volume control problem. This problem is due to the pot's wiper becoming compromised by the torque used to turn the power on and off with the rotary on-off switch on the volume control. I bought the replacement part from Icom while they were still available and removing the front panel and daughter board AND wiring harness was a meticulous 3 hour splitting headache causing job.

From that time on, I powered the rig up and down with its DC supply and never used the replacement volume control for turning on or shutting off power.

I give it a 4 rating for this problem, which I believe to be common to the IC27A/H, IC37A, and IC47A/H family of rigs. I still love the 220 radio, though.

If I purchase another one, I will drill a hole in the back rear left of the top housing and place another volume control there, using coax to route the 3 leads back to the daughter board.

This is where the voice annunciator (if installed) is placed and if it's not there, there is sufficient depth for a volume control. The original control will then be used to simply power up and down the rig.
W4AMP Rating: 2007-03-12
Lasts forever! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had mine from 1991-1998, then bought it back in 2003! Still going strong. The volume and squelch pots are no longer available from Icom , I replaced them in 1998. Great rig.
KC9AXZ Rating: 2005-10-23
Good rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought this rig used. Obviously not exactly "state-of-art" at this time. Considering it's age it held up real well. The only thing I notice, it gets pretty warm quickly while transmitting. Overall it's a good rig if you want to get on the 1.25M band.

Jon KC9AXZ
www.kc9axz.com
VE6BZ Rating: 2005-05-17
solving 37a problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
found the selectivity and sensitivity of the 37a quiet acceptable.. but over time the sqelch and volume controls have both gone wonky on this radio, we have had this unit echolinked to a 220repeater in the area until this problem developed making the rig nearly useless, can anyone suggest a cure,, or aquire a parts radio,whose parts are interchangable,and get it one the air again?? any suggestions will be considered... thanks tim, ve6bz@rac.ca
K7VO Rating: 2004-01-27
Nice, older 222MHz FM rig Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The Icom IC-37A is a 25W/5W 222MHz FM mobile rig from the mid 1980s. It was small in it's day and works well. I get complimentary audio reports from mine and the received audio is quite good as well. The green LED display isn't the best in bright sunlight but otherwise it's clear and readable. A PL (CTCSS) encoder is standard.

The IC-37A does have some drawbacks: first, the PL tone is displayed as a code rather than the actual frequency, so unless you've memorized the code you need the manual to set the tone. There are only 9 memories, two of which are used to set the programmed scan limits. Also the rigs are known for a voltage regulator problem that causes the displays to eventually burn out an element at a time. This is common to the IC-25A/H, IC-45A/H, IC-27A/H, IC-37A, IC-47A, and IC-120. There is a fix for this problem but if it isn't done expect to have some display issues eventually. Despite these issues the rigs are generally reliable and have given many hams years of great service. Mine is still going strong.

Despite the heading there is no IC-37H. The IC-37A was the only version Icom ever made.

Typical used price for these rigs is about $125. If you find one that is working properly it is well worth the money. I use mine as my base 222 FM rig and I have no complaints.