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Reviews For: ICOM IC-7600

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

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-7600
Reviews: 157MSRP: 3,950
Description:
The ICOM IC-7600 has been unveiled at the Tokyo hamfair August 2008. DSP based HF/50 MHz 100W transceiver keeps the best of IC-756PROIII with the look and convenience of IC-7XXX seiries rigs.
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
151574.7
KB6HRT Rating: 2011-04-23
I CAN HEAR! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I can hear the signals better on this radio than every new radio out there, I don't use the 7600 DSP, I use a 15 years old Clear Speech speaker with the 7600, namely because it would be to much processing. I have a friend that is on his second 7600 after buying an selling a 7700. He live about 30 miles away, an we both are Rag Chew on 75m in a group that are up to 1200 miles away on most days. When my friend had the first 7600 then the 7700, I could always hear everybody he was talking to clearly with the PRO3 but since he got the new 7600 I have not been able to like he does now. I tried a Ten-Tec Orion 2 and could hear but I would have to fine tune it some an if he key up I would have to drop the volume, so I was always playing with the radio, I also have a Kenwood TS590s, that radio would pull in the weak signals better than the PRO3 but not quite as good as the 7600, to my ear but a guy with good hearing could have done it. Found a 7600, close to my QTH at a good price, After I hooked it up in place of the PRO 3 did not think it was any different on receive till I got into the receive equalizer , that's what makes the difference for me, I can hear weak signals very easy and very clearly now and I can keep the volume low. It has a great signal to noise ratio, think it already has lowered my blood pressure some. This radio was very easy for me to learn because of an ICOM radio background..................KB6HRT
WA4DB Rating: 2011-04-10
The Best ! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is another ICOM masterpiece! I have owned this rig for around 5 months now and the transmit - receive performance has been outstanding. I was going to buy the 7700 but; this rig was the best “bang for the buck”. It is perfect in a pileup and I get constant, excellent audio reports. This is the first new rig since the ICOM 761 that is now my backup rig. (The 761 still performs great too.)
WA4DB
N9SJA Rating: 2011-04-01
Excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Excellent radio. The USB port makes clunky interfaces obsolete for digital modes. Works great with Ham Radio Deluxe / DM780.

I have owned this radio for 2 years and have enjoyed using it with never a problem.
K2GW Rating: 2011-03-31
Excellent Radio with excellent ears Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've owned this radio for 9 months and have considered it a significant upgrade on HF from my Kenwood TS-2000X, which I now use primarily for VHF/UHF work. Like the TS-2000X, it works well in my totally automated station centered around Logger32 and using a West Mountain RIGblaster duo to interconect radios, mic, computer, and speakers.

Where the radio really shines is during the bedlam of contests where it has greatly improved selctivity to pick out one station and rejecting others nearby. It also has better ability to pull out weak DX stations out of the noise.

In addition to the beautiful display and band scope, I really like the CW autotune feature, which eliminates the dancing around CW action when trying to net to a frequency. Similarly, the auto peaking and twin peaking filters allow very easy, automated use of the extensive DSP capabilities.

I am also impressed by the capability of the built-in antenna tuner and the on board RTTY and PSK decoders are fun as well.

One other point. This radio works off of 13.8 VDC, unlike some of it's big brothers and competition. That's important to any ham who plans to be active in an emergency. My whole shack, including lighting and, except for the linear, runs off of a RiGrunner powered by a 90 AH gelcell, that's float charged by an Astron PS-35. That can keep me on the air for an hour while I hook up the generator.

It's a world class HF radio. You will definitely feel that you got your money's worth.

73

Gary, K2GW
MM0SSG Rating: 2011-03-26
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Had a go on elecraft K3 , spent quite some time with it , would i swap my 7600 for one ?? not a chance
N3MX Rating: 2011-03-22
Outstanding Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I now own two of these great radios for my SO2R setup. I thought long and hard on what radio I was going to get for the second radio. The K3 was high on my list. I opted for a second 7600, because the first one has been such a great performer with very good ergonomics and performance. Previously I have owned the PRO II and PRO III. All good reliable radios. The 7600 is superior by a wide margin to PRO II & III in my opinion.
W7LMC Rating: 2011-03-19
I Like It! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This was real perplexing for me. Spending $3,800.00 on a radio from a company I never liked before. I have mostly been a Kenwood operator, some Yaesu. The only Icom I have ever owned was an IC-706MKIIG. It really didn’t impress me with it’s receiver on HF while using it mobile. To much noise from many sources but it was a way to get multi-bands all in one so I used it.

I have to say that as it stands today, to me Icom is the leading company of the three in technology with regards to Amateur radio, at least in the HF area. After reviewing all the mid to upper mid priced HF Transceivers of the three I had to conclude that the IC-7600 was the best radio for me. Even though it was classed in price as upper middle I went for it during the Christmas sale. Cost $3,400.00

It has been 90 days since I have purchased it and it still amazes me at the performance I get. If you have never owned a radio with scope capabilities you probably won’t understand how hooked you can get on it. This is my first scope radio and I didn’t understand until now. It is so much easier to DX/Contest moving around the bands. The scope on the IC-7600 is so nice in some cases I can even identify the operator of the signal. Mind you not all only some operator signals can be identified but that to me shows how nice the IC-7600 scope tool is.

I am giving this radio a 5 even though it has cons because I’m one of those guys that wishes for everything and this comes very close for the price.

Cons: No external monitor capabilities, Small RF-Power knob bottom of radio, More functionality of USB, Some buttons are just to close to main VFO, Would be nice if Icom offered good computer control software.

The receive capabilities of this radio are very good. They may not be the best but you add the filtering capabilities that it has and it’s very good. From pass experience I always thought Icom radios were very tinty “NOT A REAL WORD” sounding. In my opinion the IC-7600 is very clear and the roofing/notch/twin-PBT etc.. filtering make it so. I live in a restricted housing development. My antennas are in the attic, Cushcraft D4, 137 foot wire. I get a lot of noises from many household items. This radio has so far filtered them all out and I’m not losing any signal from it. I have used Kenwood 850SAT, Yaeus FT-900, FT-1000mp MKV and others in the same setting and have not got as good a result.

Transmitting on this radio is great! It lets you tailor your voice characteristics in different modes. I use a boom mic setup with pre-amp that works perfect with the radio. Fellow operators say I have a unique setup. Boom with two Electro Voice N/D267a mic’s in parallel giving 300 ohms impedance with a Nady DMP-2 Pre-Amp.

Signal reports are always good with my setup and it truly is a great radio. Not having used the older models IC-756Pro’s I can’t comment on the differences.

From what I have read, Icom has the best service so if something does go wrong I can hope for speedy great service. Plus I live 40 miles from Icom USA which doesn’t hurt.
So for now Icom gets my business and from what I have seen in the future I will be staying with them.

Thanks for reading my review.. W7LMC
WA1TJB Rating: 2011-02-20
Best Radio I've Ever Owned Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I owned a Pro III before picking up the 7600 at HRO's Holiday Sale price. I love my Pro III but discovered that it had some problems dealing with computer generated noise (my home office doubles as my radio shack and I have several computers running all the time).

I love the 7600 thus far. It has performed flawlessly and given me many excellent DX contacts. I also use it for MW BCB DX'ing and SWL and appreciate the fact that, unlike the Pro III, many of the receive features work on all bands and are not limited to the ham frequencies.

Thanks, Icom, for doing such a nice job with this radio!

Gary
WA1TJB
K3MD Rating: 2011-01-28
Wow! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Wow! Better than Pro III, FT-2K, Elecraft K3. Not quite as good as IC-7800. Very easy to use. Excellent ears.
K3GO Rating: 2010-11-25
Outstanding performance Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have owned the 7800 , K3, 756 proIII and now the 7600. It's ergonomics are more appealing to me than the K3 and the audio quality is a bit smoother and more pleasant. Both radios K3 and the 7600 are on equal par performance wise. I don't think there is much normal discernible difference between the two. I have owned two k3s and sold the last one mainly because of ergonomics. The 7800 is slightly better than all of these and I simply coiled not justify 10,000 dollars in a radio that the K3 equals in performance. The 7600 is an excellent meld of performance and nice audio quality which I simply prefer. For all the 756proiii users owners out there don't believe the reviews the are in here claiming I want or my pro iii is a better radio. The elecrfat K2 blows the doors off of it as well as the K3 and 7600.
I don't believe reviews which hide behind no return email addreses or rate this radio a zero because they say it's no good! Give me a break, these BS reviews are what destroys the credibility of this whole reviewer process and they should be tossed out.
If you don't believe this radio is in the league with the 7800, FT5000, K2, K3, simply try it on the air. Ignore the scope and listen to thfilters with 200 300 Hz separation of a S10+ next to a S1-2 weak CW signla and see that the separation of radios at this levelnis really about operator interface and audio preference. The 756 pro is still a good bang for the buck but the features of the 7600 truly make it the successor to the Icom -ken wood-yaesu performance radios.