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Reviews For: ICOM IC-7700

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

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-7700
Reviews: 135MSRP: 6999.95
Description:
Description: The ICOM 7700 200W HF/6M has been introduced at the 2007 Dayton Hamvention. ICOM has followed all the success of the beautiful IC-7800 with the smaller, single receiver IC-7700. It utilizes two separate 32-bit floating point TI DSP chips, has a 7-inch wide TFT display, built in RTTY/PSK31 receive and transmit using a USB Keyboard interface, external video connection, high res spectrum scope, plus high voltage MOSFET 200 Watt PA.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001354.4
WK7B Rating: 2008-08-29
Excellent--Outstanding! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the IC-7700 that was returned to HRO by the previous reviewer. It's been operating without issues for the past three weeks. HRO gave me a great deal.
I am still exploring the radio and owners manual, so I will have to write a second review later. At this time I feel this is the best radio that I have ever owned. Thanks Icom!
KB6HRT Rating: 2008-08-29
Not my cup of Tea! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After one day of owning the IC-7700 I returned it to HRO and payed the 10% restocking fee and cut my loses! On 20m it maybe better than some of my other rigs, but on 40-80M I did not have good results with it at all. This radio is big compared to my 756Pro, and the display is washed out by comparison! It worked as it should but its not my cup of tea! HRO's practice is they do not keep any of the High End Radios on display where one could take a listen to it. If you want to hear it, you have to buy it, then pay the restocking fee if its not to your liking.
F6EFM Rating: 2008-08-29
Big look outside , big junk inside Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

Received brand new IC7700 n° : 0701044 middle May 2008 from ICOM.UK via Martin Lynch.

First impression is beautiful look but comparison side by side my "old" FT1000MP.MK5
with 2 same wideband speakers was disappointing .
Weaks signals at end propagation was distored , audio is better out of MK5 and more agreable in any conditions.
Internal loudspeaker IC7700 is poor and riculously small .
Transmit audio was good but looking at idle curent it increase slowly still 4.5A at
transmission end and I was afraid for sutch amount heath at rear.
Day after day idle curent increased after transmit more 5A .!.
S/Meter display during transmit .!. what serve S/Meter during transmit ????
Why not display one transmit parameter more instead S/Meter during transmit mode ???
LCD display is poor under light and red color is low even adjust .
2 week later smoke out IC7700 witch return for refund loosing $1000 ...
Thank you ICOM....and Martin Lynch.!.
--------------
2 conception errors on IC7700 :

-first : into bias driver and PA with tiny potentiometers witch serve open switch at

conterclockwise and contact at clockwise .
A potentiometer is not a switch and plus ou minus residual resistance change bias .
In the case IC7700 n°: 0701044 , idle curent was slowly increase after some days to more 5A.
I have alert as soon as this anomaly but ICOM.UK have just said : it is normal.!.:


--- En date de : Ven 23.5.08, Chris Ridley a écrit :

De: Chris Ridley
Objet: RE: IC7700 Problems
À: f6efm@yahoo.fr
Cc: "Martin Lynch"
Date: Vendredi 23 Mai 2008, 15h35


Dear Mr Beroud,

) In another E-mail to Martin you mention a slight variation in standing current

after a period of transmission, this is quite normal and due to changing

characteristics in the PA devices with temperature. I trust this answers your

questions and hope you will enjoy using your IC7700 Regards Chris RidleyIcom Service

Support

--------------------

Sure it is not normal...and I say here that ICOM.UK have donkey-technician.
I have call ICOM.JP technical support , they have said "it cannot be normal, bargraph
must to read 2A" and asked me to look at adjusts on PA board.:


--- En date de : Ven 6.6.08, Icom World Support Center a écrit :

De: Icom World Support Center
Objet: RE: Problems.
À: f6efm@yahoo.fr
Date: Vendredi 6 Juin 2008, 2h54


Dear Jean Louis,


You may be watching the ID meter, aren’t you?

We checked a IC-7700 here, and we can see about 2A on the ID meter when we are on the

TX 14.1MHz, USB, MIC gain Minimum (no modulation).

How about yours?

If you see 5A here with same setting(TX 14.1MHz, USB, MIC gain Minimum no modulation), it can’t be normal.

Feel free to contact us if we can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Yoji Murakawa
Icom World Support Center
1-1-32, Kamiminami, Hirano-ku, Osaka 547-0003 Japan
Support: http://www.icom.co.jp/world/support/index.html

------------------

Once open the PA : transistors are not MRF150 but Chinese products and general

quality had seems me to be low and junk.
I have seen exactly what I thought : there is poor contact at fully clockwise on the

"switch" potentiometers : R301+R407+R410 .
After re-adjust at 1A each driver and PA the idle was reading exactly 2A on bargraph

as noticed by ICOM.CO.JP.
This problem is waiting serious improvements.!.

-second : and inadmissible conception error: the small ATU withstand +200 watts

(really ???) is without any protection system.
What happend : listing at 7.100 thinking to be with center fed LEVY antenna matchbox

tuned , unfortunatly it was not , just pushing TUNER inadvertently one tenth of

second = one second later smoke out of ATU and IC7700 closing down .
Congratulations for the conception engeeners .!.!.!.!.and thank you at ICOM for
tremendous advertising .!.but I suppose they have forgotten the ATU .!.!.!.
Even low cost YAESU HF transceivers have no sutch problems and it is not written into
YAESU manual that transceiver smoke if too mutch SWR at antenna plug , no more my MK5
, no more my FT920 , no more any unit I have owned ...or built....
What a shame from ICOM....where are genius creators IC720.???...IC2KL.???...IC765.???......

Retired now with 50 years into electronics , 15.000 TV repaired , hundreds transceivers ,...and the rest...it is finished with ICOM IC7700 .!.

Jean Louis BEROUD
F6EFM
45 rue du MANE
56540 Saint Caradec MORBIHAN
FRANCE.
f6efm@yahoo.fr
PA1HR Rating: 2008-08-03
Great for contests too! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

Saturday the 2nd of August 2008 I joined the European HF Championship. It was the first major contest with the new IC-7700. In 12 hours time I made 560 contacts with 206 multipliers; about 90% of them were in CW. Logging software: N1MMLogger (great product!). Linear Amplifier: Acom 2000A. Antenna: 400 foot horizontal DeltaLoop. Antennatuner: PA0LL. Headset: Heil ProSet-5. Paddle: ON4MAC MackPuck (the best you can get). Power output of the IC-7700: between 30 and 40 Watt.

Between the IC-7700 and the LPT-1 port of the laptop I use a homemade interface with optocoupler. IMHO this is the safest way to connect the computer with the (straight key) CW KEY input at the rear panel of the IC-7700. A document of this interface I downloaded in the files directory of the IC-7700 group.

Between the IC-7700 and the COM-1 port of the laptop I use the Icom CT-17 interface.

It is easy to configure N1MMLogger, but don't forget to checkmark COM-1 to interface the CT-17 and checkmark LPT-1 for the CW interface to the rear panel.

Impression of the IC-7700 during 12-hours contest is as follows.

Three of my previous rigs were the Yaesu FT-1000D, Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark-V and IC-775DSP. Equiped with 3 kHz Inrad Roofing Filter and fully or partly equiped with Inrad IF-filters with bandwidths of 400, 1000, 2100 and 2800 Hz.

IMHO:

The ergonomics of the IC-7700 are better than all the previous rigs. Every function is easy to find, the menu is (even during the heat of a contest) easy to handle, the external (19") LCD-display is very functional, all the knobs and buttons are easy to use.

The ventilator makes no noise, even during 12 hours contesting. The IC-7700 is as quiet as the Acom 2000A. You have to put your ear a few inch above the rig to hear something that sounds like a ventilator. Great! This is the way it should be. The only "noise" must come from the loudspeaker and from nothing else.

The spectrum scope was useful on 28 MHz with only a few contest stations to find. On all the other bands I did'nt use the scope because there was a major activity. The scope shows more or less "one big signal".

Perhaps I am spoiled with the Inrad IF-filters during all the previous years. Nothing sounds better than the excellent analog sound of Inrad IF-filters. On the IC-7700 with bandwidth 400 or 250 Hz and during heavy activity on the lower bands you will hear this typical digital and awful ringing sound when you tune on the sideband of a CW-stations. When you leave the sideband and tune in more exact on the CW-signal the ringing sound disappears. But during the contest (when you are not the CQ-sending station) you hear this ringing sound every time you are near to another conteststation. Typical for 100% DSP! Analog chrystal IF-filters still outperform on this item.

On the other hand the available filters and selectivity on 160 and 40 Meters (in Europe...) is excellent. Nothing to complain about this.

The Roofing Filters (I only use 3 kHz) and the VR AGC work fine during the contest. Every conteststation was easy to receive, even when the station had a very weak signal and with very strong neighboursignals. No problem at all!

The twelve function keys from N1MMLogger are much more of use (easier to handle and easier to program) than the four memories of the IC-7700. The four memories of the IC-7700 are nice to have, but nothing more than that. I am using the BetterRF i-mate interface.

The CW-sidetone of the IC-7700 is P-E-R-F-E-C-T! Yes, this sounds like Mozart. What a joy to listen to! And the volume is very easy to control in relation to the AF of the main receiver. Great!

Finally a rig without power spikes! The IC-7700 is an excellent exciter for the Acom 2000A, who is very sensitive for power spikes.

The IC-7700 is a very solid and reliable rig. Nothing to bother about during a contest.

Did I miss the second receiver or dualwatch? Yes, I did. With the FT-1000D and BPF-1 it is very easy to listen on two bands or in the same band to judge the activities during a contest. Another rig as second receiver is an option, but not very easy to handle during the heat of a contest. Everything must be in handreach.

Conclusion: it is a big joy to use the IC-7700 during contests. I am very happy and very satisfied. Only two items for improvement in the IC-7700Pro ( ;-) ) the sounds of the DSP-filtering and a sort of dualwatch. I can recommend the IC-7700 to every serious contester or contestgroup.

K1XV Rating: 2008-08-03
great on weak signals Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
It got my unit as part of the first batch delivered to the USA Market. It generally replaces a fully loaded IC-775dsp (which is still in the shack).

I will not repeat what others have said here. But I will say that it outperforms every other radio I have ever used on weak SSB signals. I do not have any special receive antennas here on 160 or 80. I found that I could clearly copy down in the mud signals that were not readable with the 775. Also, in many cases, I found that others could not hear these signals either. For example, eastern European stations calling CQ on an active band that I could hear and answer, but almost nobody else was answering. I assume that meant that I could copy them, and the others could not. And this was without using the noise reduction.

This one is a keeper. And I am somewhat mystified by the description of this rig at the top of the review page as being a smaller version of the IC-7800. It is physically the same size and weight as the 7800, but has one receiver instead of two. But the dsp processor and circuits on that one receiver have been updated from those used in the 7800. As a result, it outperforms the 7800. I get this info from people who have both the 7700 and the 7800 who contribute to the 7700 discussion group on Yahoo.com
MW0EDX Rating: 2008-08-02
So far so good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
PAs blown on the 3rd day of running with 200 W on 80 m CW...

Replaced/repaired by the dealer in 3 days.

Certainly an improvement over my Pro3.

So far - so good.

73 !
K2UM Rating: 2008-07-26
Excellent -- all it is cracked up to be Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I will not repeat all of the things that have been said here, other to say that the 7700 is all it is advertised to be and is one heck of a companion to my 7800. The DSP on this radio is the best I have used. There might another radio that is as good in that respect, but I have not owned it or used it. The advertising claims are true for the 7700. I have owned mine for 4 months and it has been used intensively and constantly compared to my 7800. I think the best thing I can recommend is read the advertising and the reviews and that is what you, in fact, really get with the 7700.
AB4D Rating: 2008-07-23
Nice Transceiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Not much else can be added to the favorable comments that have already been posted. Of course you can always critique any new radio and find more things that you wish the rig could do. If I could change anything on the radio, I would add at least dual in-band receive, and think it should have been included in a radio in this price class. I also would add more flexibility to allow customization of the display, perhaps with a computer software package. You can custom define the colors for the scope, but you are stuck with just about everything else except for a few other fonts for the frequency display. Otherwise, the radio is just about perfect.

73
KE4WY Rating: 2008-07-18
Outstanding Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned the 7700 over 3 months now and it's performed flawlessly. The receiver is very quiet with excellent audio. With my setup here it bandswitches together with my beam, amp and auto antenna tuner making it a very seamless station. Transmit audio reports have been excellent.

What a beautiful radio Icom has produced. All I can say is Wow!
KV4HZ Rating: 2008-07-09
Dream Rig Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I traded up from an IC-756PROIII that I was very happy with. In my own experience, navigation of the PROIII's features was reasonably easy and logical. Its receiver was better than "good," and the small amount of real estate that it occupied on my limited workspace was ideal. The PROIII also contained an incredibly effective noise blanker. I also knew that I'd be trading easy portability for a rig that is, by its weight alone, a genuine boatanchor. So I approached my purchase with some trepedation. Would the trade up really be worth the money, and the sacrifices in space and portability?

Yes, and hell yes, are my answers. The features on the IC-7700 are laid out like an open book. Everything is accessible fast. In fact, it's refreshing to have a reduction in the multi-function menu buttons that only a teenager can thrive on.

I live in a high QRM/QRN neighborhood just outside metro D.C., and while I always knew a good receiver was essential to enjoy our hobby in such a hostile electro-magnetic environment, I don't think I ever realized just how much of a difference an *outstanding* receiver could make.

Others, in these pages, have done a much better job describing the IC-Wunderrig's features, and their comments and criticisms are well worth reading before you commit to spending such a princely sum. As for me, I have not had a single moment of buyer's remorse. 73.