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Reviews For: Icom IC-H16

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Hand-held

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-H16
Reviews: 6MSRP:
Description:
Detailed Specifications

GENERAL

* Frequency Coverage:

136-144 MHz (low-band type)
148-174 MHz (high-band type)

* Mode: FM (16K0F3E)
* Number of channels: Programmable up to 16 Rx and Tx frequencies
* Channel spacing: ±25 kHz
* Power supply requirement: CM-2,CM-3,CM-4,CM-5,CM-5A,CM-7,CM-8 OR CM-12 battery packs
* Usable Temperature Range: -30°C to +60°C; -22°F to +140°F
* Frequency stability: ±0.0005%
* Dimensions (with CM-8): 65(W) x 196(H) x 38(D) mm; 2.6(W) x 7.7(H) x 1.5(D) in (projections not included)
* Weight (with CM-8): 595 g; 1.3 lb
* CTCSS tone frequency: Programmable all EIA standard tones

TRANSMITTER

* Output power:

High: 3.0 W (with CM-8); 5.0 W (with CM-7)
Low: 300 mW (with CM-8)

* Spurious emissions: -60 dB
* Harmonic emissions: -60 dB

RECEIVER

* Sensitivity (for 12 dB SINAD): 0.35 µV
* Squelch sensitivity (threshold): 0.4 µV
* Adjacent channel selectivity: -65 dB
* Modulation acceptance: ±7 kHz
* Intermodulation rejection: -65 dB
* Image rejection: -75 dB
* Spurious rejection: -65 dB
* Audio output power: 500 mW with an 8 ohm load

FCC AND DOC DESIGNATIONS

* FCC designation: AFJ9XUIC-H16
* DOC designation: 202193138I
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/support/archive/land_mobile/ic-h16.asp
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0064.7
KG4SUM Rating: 2013-04-30
Great Radio! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
They tend to develop solder cracks at the antenna/circuit board junction which are pretty simple to re-solder. Other than that Great performer!
AA8XR Rating: 2012-08-19
excellent Time Owned: N.A.
I have had this radio since 1989 new and it continues to be a great radio. Receive audio is different than the usual HTs of its generation, but it has been a solid performer since 1989 for me and I will continue to enjoy using it, as well as its UHF sister, the U16. With new batteries for each radio they run longer than ever. The old batteries of 1989 were about 800 mAh, the new ones are nearly triple that. Still running strong after all these years.
NC4TB Rating: 2010-08-31
EASY TO USE Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have owned two ICOM 16 in the last 20 or so years. Both were reasonably sturdy for what they are intended but tend to develope solder cracks at the antenna/circuit board junction which are pretty simple to resolder. They have good selectivity and sensitivity, good transmit and receive audio and are easy to program frequencies and tones into. Functional controls like channel lockout, scan, and priority channel are simple to use as well. Both tended to get lazy in the scan mode and slow down,eventually settling on one of the selected scan channels unless you remind it to scan periodically by pressing "scan". I currenly use one as an ersalz mobile by coupling it to a 35w amp and using an external antenna. The H16 doesn't have all the bells and whistles some expect on new HT's,but are quite functional. I'd buy another one at a cheap price as a spare in an instant. I believe they would be a good starter HT for a new ham as well.
N7HO Rating: 2009-11-28
Good sturdy radio. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have two IC-H16's and 3 Midland 70-154B's. The Midlands are H16 "clones" and program the same way. They work very well in the 2 meter band. Batteries are common and still easy to get. They are field programmable(with jumper removed), have tone encode/decode, scan, priority, have TX inhibit so you can still monitor your favorite law enforcement frequencies without worry of transmitting out of band, and you can even change the channel numbers to reflect a frequency, ie: change channel "02" to "96" as in the 146.96 repeater, or "52" for 146.52, etc. The H16 has a 13.8 V DC input jack, standard speaker mike jack, and a TNC antenna jack. The Midland lacks the DC input jack but has a standard BNC antenna jack. You can also use the H16 to clone memories to the Icom IC-V100 VHF mobile radio (The mobile counterpart to the H16) which also works great on the 2-Meter band. All these radios can be picked up for cheap or sometimes even free if you look in the right places. Good sturdy if bulky radios. I suggest replacing the rubber duck antenna with one made for the 2-meter band for better performance, and you will have a 2 meter HT that can rival some of the new stuff.
VK2XDZ Rating: 2007-12-15
a classic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

I have had a couple of these H16's over the years and was impressed by the excellent rx audio from the big speaker and the solid feel of the radio. Even though they worked ok,they had been knocked around a lot by the previous [commercial] owner.
So,I kept an eye out on ebay and recently picked up an as new IC H16 for a song.
When I first turned on the radio,I noticed the LCD display was different to the others that I used to own.There were 7 numbers on the display.I tried to program this radio from the front panel [by holding funct.and pushing 159357],but that wouldn't work.
I then realised that this radio was a slightly different model,being an Icom IC H16T.
The IC H16T seems to be designed for users with selective calling in mind.The extra numbers on the display being the sel call numbers.
The sel call feature is easily by-passed by pressing the reset button.
Programming took me a while to work out.
This is how it's done.
1 press set
2 press 1
3 press tone
keep pressing tone to cycle through the programming options.When finished press reset.
Not a rig for the beginner,but if you like "real" radios and can pick up a good one cheap,get it.
AGENTSKELLY Rating: 2006-10-16
I'm impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The H-16 is just the commercial version of the Icom IC-02 and it handles the entire 2 meter band without a problem.

You just have to make sure that the programming jumper inside it is set to off, which is a pretty trival task to do.

I picked up 2 of these units off of eBay and they work great.