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Reviews For: ICOM IC-756 Pro III

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-756 Pro III
Reviews: 229MSRP: 2700
Description:
IC-756 PRO III HF/50MHz All Mode Transceiver
Product is not in production
More Info: http:// http://www.icomamerica.com/products/amateur/756proIII/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002294.8
LA3ZPA Rating: 2008-02-09
Fantastic Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Fantastic rig, I had the 756III connected to 4L SteppIR+30/40 and BigIR+80, great combination.

And it true the ProIII are the QRM-Master.

I have dun a A/B test between the Yeasu FT-1000 and the ProIII connected to a full size 2el 40m.

40m are a great band to test a rig big signal performance her in Europe. The ProIII beat the pants off the FT-1000, I have to see the performance are so huge between this to rig, you have to see it for you self to rely believe it.

To fight the QRM her in Europa the PROIII are fantastic rig,can't see any bed ting about the ProIII.

I have sold my ProIII know, and are waiting for the new IC-7700. I hope the 7700 will give me the same pleaser as the ProIII

73 Ronny

KI9A Rating: 2008-02-08
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used the Ft1000D, the 1000MP MKV, the FT2000, 781, & 7800, under severe contest condx, with great antennas. Other than the 7800 ICOM, the PRO 3 is hands down the best rig I have ever used, or owned, short of the 78000. The FT2000 was useless, the MKV was not as good as my backup 746, and the 1000D was OK. The 781 was, however nice.
W6PSA Rating: 2008-02-08
Sad Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It turned on, but thats about it. The FT-2000 is a better deal. I did a side-by side comparison and the ProIII lost. Everyone loves the scope, but thats about it.
VA7OJ Rating: 2008-02-01
Best of breed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned all four models of the IC-756 series since 1998, and can confidently state that the IC-756Pr3 is the best of the group by far. My Pro3 replaced a Pro2 in June 2005, and I observed a considerable improvement in many areas - as described here:

http://www.ab4oj.com/icom/ic756pro3/pro3notes.html

http://www.nsarc.ca/hf/756p3_p2.pdf

My operating style is casual SSB, with an occasional straight-key CW QSO. I have found the receiver performance superb in a hostile RF environment. Weak-signal handling is also excellent, and the various DSP signal-management tools enable me to recover signals which would otherwise be uncopyable.

The Pro3 drives a Yaesu Quadra amplifier, whose ATU also provides additional receive preselection.

The spectrum scope is useful for assessing received (and transmitted) signals, as it has 1 kHz resolution bandwidth.

I plan to keep the Pro3, even if I upgrade to an IC-7700.

73, Adam, VA7OJ/AB4OJ
W8SPM Rating: 2008-01-31
Great Rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is the best HF rig I have ever used in almost 30 years of ham radio ! If you are considering a higher end radio this Pro 3 is it ! I could go and on about just about every feature but this is a Fantastic radio !
I liked the 1st one so well I bought a 2nd one for back up !
Icom has refined this radio over the years and this one is a winner !

Sam W8SPM
I2BGQ Rating: 2008-01-24
The best in PSK31 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
One of the ProIII's most important features I doappreciate is the D mode in SSB,it is very useful in digital mode transmission, expecially in PSK31 operation. When I operated PSK31 with my former 756pro I had to manually switch off the compressor and axclude the mike turning down the input gain. Sometime I forgot it and the digital transmission was incorrect. With the ProIII, when I switch in USB-D mode the compressor and mike input are automatically excluded, and this allows me to do a clean PSK31 emission. I don't know how is on the ProII, I jumped directly to the IIIrd version. The use of the DSP filters and the manual notch is easy and very useful to eliminate interfering signals on the waterfall, with software like MixW or Ham Radio Deluxe. A great value on a small ham rig.
N2DTS Rating: 2008-01-24
good radio. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I did my research, and the output devices are the same 2sc5125 in all the pro's, so it just goes to prove you cant believe anything you read on the internet!

I did a lot of tuning last night, and think the pro3 is MUCH better then the pro, I never had a pro2.
I was SHOCKED at how well the auto notch worked, I never used one before, but I was listening to an ssb qso on 80 meters, and a jammer came on, swishing the vfo and other tricks, jumping between 2 frequencies, and darn if the auto notch did not follow it all over the place and remove it, making the copy 100% and it did not even sound bad. Thats impressive!

The receiver seems to work much better than the pro did, out of passband noise is delt with much better, RX audio is very nice in all modes.

My frequency readout seems spot on, within one herz it seems!

This is a very nice radio for the money, down to about $2500.00 now....

Brett
N2DTS

VE2XK Rating: 2008-01-20
IC-756 Pro III like i need Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I buy and got my Pro III in November 2007.

I choosed the Pro III instead of the FT2000 because too much controversy opinions and bugs report.

I’m a 6M band fanatic for over 3 years and the features of the Pro III are exactly what
I need for supervision of the magic band.

1) Superb receiver

2) Duty cycle TX for digital mode

3) The monitor scope with +- 100 KHz.

4) Very fast program scan between 2 frequency edges

5) Dual receive frequency same time on same band.

6) Extremely user friendly and ease of operation.

7) Don’t need filters anymore

8) NR works great

9) 3 pre-programmed frequencies on each band with mode and filter bandwith . That’s Great.

10) 3 Pre programmable bandwidth on mode can be modified anytime and very easy.

11) The quality versus price ratio.

Some improvement would be great to have :

1) Capability to switch ON OFF the TX Audio equalizer

2) The screensaver does not work on scan or program scan. Why not ?


Finaly I look for a program able to download upload all frequency
with name etc.. Anyone knows some??

Thanks

VE2XK Michel 6M monitoring center of FN07
KA1WHT Rating: 2008-01-19
Very happy owner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought the IC-756 PRO III after researching the radio for a year. I re-read the QST product review, some articulate, informative comments found here on e-ham, other technical reviews and the comments in the yahoo group.
I was suspicious of this radio at first because of all of the rave reviews of the flashy spectrum scope and I wondered if the radio was as technologically advanced as it was pretty.
My goal, as a CW enthusiast, was to find a radio with superior filtering, low ringing in extremely narrow bandwidths and DSP noise reduction that wasn’t as noisy with artifacts and quantization noise as the noise reduction on my Kenwood TS-570D(G).
I visited HRO San Diego, test drove the radio and was impressed immediately. There are more interference fighting features than I’ve ever had available. I like the graphical display of the filter as I widen or narrow the bandwidth with the double passband tuning. The adjustable noise blanker is excellent, as I can control it to prevent it from distorting what I’m listening to in the presence of other strong signals.
The noise reduction left me very impressed. Interference from an unknown source (the power lines are buried) can be reduced, although not eliminated. The adjustable DSP eliminates most noise by preserving the signals I want and discarding what I want. With my old radio, I’d eliminate static and atmospheric noise, but always seemed to trade it for DSP noise. Not with this radio.
I haven’t tried the SSB or data modes, except for the RTTY decoder, and it’s a nice bonus.
I feel fine about the amount of money I spent on the PRO III. It’s the most I’ve ever spent for a ham radio, but has definitely been worth it so far. And yes, the spectrum scope was a factor in my decision. It's like having a built-in spectrum analyzer. Being able to spot activity without moving the tuning dial on adjacent (or distant) frequencies in an instant is very convenient.

Bill Larned, KA1WHT
W7VP Rating: 2008-01-18
A breath of Fresh Air Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I give this a 4.7 for now as I have only had it a week.

It is a breath of fresh air after all the problems with the FT-2000D.

It was easy to set up for all modes including driving two QSK amps. The receiver and the additional features actually work when compared to the FT-2000D and the members of the IC-756 Pro III forum are very helpful and not just shilling for ICOM as is the case on the F"T-2000 forum.

So far so good.