| AE7QT |
Rating:     |
2010-12-04 | |
| Back on the good,bad,and ugly review. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
So I did a non comprehencive review several months back on good, bad, and ugly and this is just a simple update. There are many other smarter fellas that have technical reviews on here that will give you much better info than I can with my limited knowledge. I am still loving this radio, I can't quite give it a 5 though. This radio has been installed, removed, and installed so many times I cannot even remember. I drive semi truck and don't want to leave it in truck when going home is why it's been in and out so much. I love all the filters, makes a huge difference on cuting out qrn/qrm. It has seen a lot of bumpy dusty miles and just keeps on keeping on with very little complaints. I have had lots of antennas and the little at-7000 tuner I bought to make the radio happy, just need to make sure your swr is not tooooo far out of wack. I keep the radio remote mount with face plate on dash near my am/fm radio and the unit on the floor away from sunlight and other sources of heat. I have 2 amps so I don't have to run radio at full power, I just let the amps do all the grunt work, but if you give this radio room to breath and keep it clean, it gets hot but not to the point of burning up (when running %100 power).
The hot switching prob I mentioned in last review is not a big deal now, I have the ARB-704 for the HF amp and it works great to protect the pa. The VHF amp doesn't seem to need a buffer. I do wish the swr meter would work on vhf/ufh, that would be nice. I have an alalizer to check swr every now and then.
The ptt switch has failed on me twice and I'm on #3 but that doesn't seem to be too big of a deal, it hasn't just totaly failed in one shot, it starts to need a little wiggle to get it to key. I just swap mics with a friend and he lends me his while the repairs are done.
The biggest problem I have now is antenna placement, the only spot I can mount them is between my tractor and trailer, that really kills my sig and makes it directional, but I still get out. If I were a rich feller like some of you, I would buy 3 more of these radios for permanate install in the house and car, and one for backup. Another thing is I wish it had is more adjustment for the audio in and out, this is just a personal preference, not really a gripe.
Now only if I could get a stiff 13.8 volt power supply when my engine is off, and I didn't have to sleep so much I could work the world a little more than 8-10 hours a day! :) 73 to all and hope you will love this radio as much as I have for all that it does. |
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| ZS5J |
Rating:      |
2010-11-21 | |
| Campers and mobilers delight... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I currently own 3 of these IC-7000 radio's. They continue to impress me the more I get to use them. I have one installed in a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a High Sierra Sidekick screwdriver antenna, and one of the others is in a Toyota quad cab with Little Tarheel II screwdriver antenna, and the third one I bought at Dayton in May, and is used as a camping/portable radio.
This last weekend we had our bi-annual field day here in South Africa. I took a 7000 along, and the fellow club members were very impressed at how well it performed. For the first time, I used it's voice keyer to call CQ field day and did the same on CW - makes it a lot easier on the voice to rather prod the button.
With just 100 watts and a G5RV antenna, I worked a whole bunch of USA hams on 40 meters - both on the morning and evening greyline !!!! 59 plus reports.
The two that I have in the mobile are certainly the best mobile radio's I have ever used at getting rid of mobile noise. Their NB and DSP NR features make it an absolute joy to use in a mobile.
I recently had one of my IC-7000's running as a temporary beacon on the 6 meter band for a period of 3 weeks. It is really easy to program this rig in beacon mode, so it sends the same beacon message over and over.
Points to note
1. I find, that due to the very small size of the 7000, and resultant small internal speaker, that it really is almost essential to connect a good quality large external speaker. This reduces operator fatigue, and allows the 7000 to sound like an IC-7800.
2. It does get fairly hot, if driven hard - it just needs sensible thought when installing it.....never put something on top of the rig, its fan and body needs adequate ventilation. You will quickly overheat the rig if you block the air intake on top of the rig
3. It is highly voltage sensitive and likes to have 13.8 - 14.2 volts to give full output. The power output drops rapidly if there is a voltage drop on your DC cable, and it is not getting upward of 13.8 volts. I notice this with my two mobile 7000's - when my 14.2 volt alternator has not kicked in, and the rig is drawing directly on my battery I typically get 60 -70 watts out, and when the alternator kicks in, I can notice the power suddenly jump up to 105 watts
Overall, I can say that these rig's are the best compact HF rigs that I have ever used, and I have owned most of the compacts from TS-50, FT-100D, IC-706 series, FT-817, IC-703 etc
73
John, ZS5J and C91J |
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| KF6NTE |
Rating:      |
2010-11-19 | |
| Great Workhorse radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had my IC7000 since November 2007 and have had a very positive experience since that time learning how to use it. I have had it both Mobile and in the shack and it has performed flawlessly in both situations. This is a lot of radio for the money. Besides The extensive All-mode Band coverage (MF/HF/VHF/UHF), DVR and customizable TX Audio and Compression characteristics, Flexible metering and TFT Color display, the IF DSP filtering is an absolutely fantastic feature enabling you to enhance your selectivity in the presence of heavy QRM, This radio was really designed for the mobile environment as its primary use and it is a rugged little unit capable of taking the abuse. In the Shack however the IC7000 has become my goto rig for digital HF work. I would not hesitate to buy another one of these again !. It likes to have a stiff power supply and a solid ground to deliver the goods and while it's not a very efficient design in terms of power consumption while operating at QRP levels it does shine in the environment for which it was designed. |
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| K8GMG |
Rating:      |
2010-11-18 | |
| One of Icom's best |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have owned this radio for 2 years and 6 months. The radio has worked perfect. From my experience with this little gem, I have found the receiver to be one of the best on the market. My radio is connected to an off center feed dipole. Honestly it is one of the best radios for being able to clean up received audio. As for transmitted audio, the mic mod mentioned in many of the reviews is great... not expensive either. It is simply the best radio for the money. You will spend many times more money on other radios and find little improvement over this one. I think an interesting point here is if you compare the IC 7000 cost to a IC 706 all filtered up and with the high stability crystal installed. The final cost for the 7000 is less and with a better receive. |
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| G4BIM |
Rating:      |
2010-10-30 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Just reviewed all the less than '5' reports on this radio. No comment.
But this is how it is with me....
Had this radio for over 2 years.
Use it mobile and fixed station 160m thru to 70cms
Often compare A to B with my Ic7800 and Ic756 Pro III.
The PA seems to be 'Bomb Proof', just like the Pro III. It does not overheat if used correctly.
There is very little I cannot hear on the IC7000 which can be heard on the Flagship IC7800.
In fact the IC7000 is a mini Pro III and on balance it may be better depending on your antennas and modes of operating. It is certainly better value for money.
It does not have the ability to handle big antennas quite as well as the IC7800 on 40m in the evening...., but then it was not designed to....
Its a very nice 'little' radio, probably the best there is for its size and cost.
Thank you ICOM.
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| WD8MNX |
Rating:     |
2010-10-27 | |
| Okay and better than average. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have, for several years now, the IC-706MKIIG and used it for 20M SSB, 80M CW, 2M/70cm FM communications. VERY happy with this rig, then updated to the IC-7000. I think ICOM missed the boat here for the following reasons (comparing the my 706MKIIG & 7000):
1. The front end of the 7000 isn't as quiet as the 706 for the same signal strength (measured with my service monitor,
2. The 7000 front end isn't as "hot" as my 706,
3. With NO input signal (in fact just use a shorted PL259 on the back RF connections - DON'T XMit though) and the volume completely turned counter clockwise (at absolute minimum) there is a noticeable hiss on my musically trained ear from the speaker; the 706 is noway nowhere as hissy. This is on any band, seems their AF / IF section needs work.
4. The microphone should have the mod, like the mod that is stated throughout this forum.
It is an 'okay' radio for mobile use but to use this radio for DX to pull in those weak signals is not recommended. The color display is a nice relief from the mono-colored 706. They kept the operational controls pretty much the same (I like consistency).
Knowing all of this information before hand I would still purchase the IC-7000.
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| VK3CCR |
Rating:      |
2010-09-08 | |
| Great radio, a lot in a small package. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My IC7000 has given good service for 16 months where it is mostly used as a mobile rig. On a recent 7000 mile trip across some of the roughest tracks in inland Australia it performed flawlessly on HF in conjunction with the excellent Hi-Q 4/160 MC1 antenna and the IC7000 DSP is very effective in noisy situations and seems to outperform my TS-2000 in this respect.
On the negative side the AB5N mic mod was needed to correct the awful audio quality of the HM151 mic and twice the UHF PA has failed for no apparent reason and on the first occasion also took out the driver FET. The warning of impending UHF amp failure is low TX output. I never use more than 50% power on UHF as it is only for rare repeater operation and after the first failure replaced the antenna installation in case it was intermittent but it failed again. |
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| N4RAP |
Rating:     |
2010-09-01 | |
| Very Nice Radio |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have two of these...purchased at the same time. I have had them for just about 1 month, now. One in the car and one in the pickup truck. First the Plus's: great looking radio, great size, great looking display and can add a larger monitor, great features such as rf gain, auto notch filter, variable noise blanker, many memories, pre-amp and attenuator,DSP noise reduction that is variable, variable transmit band width, varialbe filters, rich transmit audio(there is none better), temp guage, SWR meter. Now the Minus's: it gets hot enough to burn your hands on a summer day, display that cannot be seen in bright sunlight, noisy receiver like all other radios with 6 meters built in, receiver audio that needs to bass to it like the Icom 718,stupid scan features, poor mic audio output, one of them blew up and smoked as soon as it was turned on !, S-meter that is "dead" on vhf and uhf. I had my microphone modified by Robert Nagy(AB5N). You just gotta do this. The resulting audio sounds like a base station. Robert is a great guy and really knows what he is doing. His customer service is great, too. After the mic mod it is difficult for people to believe that I am in the mobile !
73 N4RAP
Dr Wayne D Scott |
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| KB9WIS |
Rating:    |
2010-08-19 | |
| Distortion Problems |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I owned the IC-7000 for just under a year, but eventually sold it (was downsizing). It was the first one to go.. I wanted to start with this radio to get a feel for the Icom line, prior to upgrading to a IC-7600.. I've decided to stick with Yaesu or Kenwood HF gear. The radio has a very low noise floor and a nice looking, digital display for a mobile unit, however signals seemed too sound distorted to me. The NB even on the 1st level greatly amplified this distortion even more, so it often became useless. I still don't understand why a $99.00 CB Radio can get these noise blanker circuits right (and without distortion and overhandling issues on strong signals), but $1,000+ ham units can't seem to take out the standard AC electrical noise in the US.
The AF circuit, just doesn't sound clean or pleasing to the ears on most signals, but rather distorted in nature. I've never had this problem with either the Yaesu or Kenwood line. |
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| KC2WI |
Rating:     |
2010-08-18 | |
| Almost a 5 |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased mine in January 2007 as a Class A refurb from HamAv with the intent of using it as a mobile instead of my 706MkIIg because of the DSP features. But then I changed vehicles and cars and never quite figured out how to mount it. Hope to get around to it this fall. Instead I've used it mostly portable, for field day, out on the picnic table, in the shack, etc.
I have had no failures and the radio performs well, and would recommend it.
The receive is great. The IF DSP noise reduction, notch, programmable filters, etc. all work well.
Now having IF DSP in my 7000 and 746Pro I would be unlilkely to ever spend much on a non-digital IF/DSP radio, except for special circumstances, like portable low power consumption QRP where something like a 703+ makes sense. If you don't plan backpacking it and running off a battery, then just get a 100W radio and turn the power down. The 7000 power output is fully adjustable and you can run one or two watts if you like.
The display is nice and readable. I like the ability to set multiple metering of Power Out, SWR, and ALC at the same time.
I have not come close to using all the "bells and whistles" but some of the features are handy. The TX voice recorder might seem like a gimmick, but is quite useful. It is nice to record the usual "CQ,CQ....." monolog once and then push the button to call repeatedly during poor band conditions without losing your voice. Before I had a radio with that feature I probably would just quit calling.
The menus and programmable buttons are manageable once you get used to them, but personally I think that the functions could be laid out differently. For example I would much rather have a dedicated button for VFO/memory than to turn the noise blanker off and on.
I never received any complaints or criticism about the TX audio on SSB or FM, but I had the AB5N mic mod done anyway because he said he could try to add some RF shielding to the mic. The compressor works well. You can set a fairly high compression without distortion. I use 2.4KHz bandwidth and standard response settings. I get compliments on my TX audio on a regular basis.
I don't use it much on VHF/FM but I do have my local repeaters programmed in and it works fine. A nice feature is that the power setting is stored along with frequency and mode so when I switch to a local repeater memory, I transmit using only a few watts without having to manually turn TX power down.
There are two issues that prevent me from giving this radio a 5.
Complaint #1:
The 7000 really needs 13.8V to put out 100W. On battery voltage it will not even come close. My 706 and even my 746Pro, which is not intended as a mobile, are not nearly as fussy.
It seems to me that if you are designing a mobile radio you can not assume that it will always be operated with the engine running. In fact just the opposite. It is quite common to stop and shut the engine off to get rid of all acoustic and electrical noise when trying to work a weak station. Without the alternator, battery voltage is not going to be even close to 13.8 V. So now you are trying to work a station under weak signal or poor propagation conditions and you are only putting out 50% power. In many cases it does not matter and don't think this is a show stopper, but it is not the best design.
Complaint #2:
The radio is sensitive to RF. Even when it is well grounded. Actually it appears that the microphone is 90% of the problem because I substituted my 706 mic and the problem went away. Even after adding some copper foil shielding to the mic housing and ferrites to the cable I can't totally eliminate it. Mostly I see this when operating outside portable not too far from the antenna or on certain frequencies. I've experienced it using a G5RV and a random wire fed through the AH-4 tuner so it is not simply RF on the coax getting back to the radio. Once or twice I've experienced it in the shack with the radio well grounded.
Most users may never notice this because they have the radio in a good mobile installation where presumably the vehicle's sheet metal shields RF from getting in to the radio or microphone.
But given these two issures I would say if you really want a small portable radio to use "in the field" then maybe a 706 (or some other radio) may be a little more reliable even though you might give up the nice DSP functions.
Other comments:
The radio does run warm, and even hot if you transmit a lot on high power. I have not had a problem with it but I could see this as an issue in a very hot climate or vehicle interior.
Some people have commented about poor audio from the internal speaker but I think it is fine considering the space constraints. I use a salvaged computer speaker and the audio is great.
I have never had a problem with front end overload or intermodulation distortion that some people report with DSP rigs without roofing or actual filters. The receoiver seems to be as god as or better than any other radio I have used.
If I could give the 7000 a 4.5 or 4.75 I would, but it's either 4 or 5 and it isn't perfect enough to give it a 5.
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