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Reviews For: Icom IC-201

Category: Transceivers: VHF/UHF+ Amateur Base/Mobile (non hand-held)

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Review Summary For : Icom IC-201
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
2m all mode analog base rig
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.icomclassic.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0034.7
DK1NL Rating: 2021-01-18
The oldest rig in my shack! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I don't now how old my 201 exactly is bur it seem to be produced 1976-1979? The serialnumber is 6240.

I own it nog for al least 6 years and bought it in the original box! This rig runs stil very well for it's age.
One thing, the vfo is al little unstable but after 30 min warm-up it's ok.
DO1ANT Rating: 2004-06-15
old-timer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
So, only KU4QD has written down his expiriences
with the icom ic-201.
It is a pity that you can find this transceiver, more often in museums than in shacks.
I have got this wonderful tx from an Old Man
who didnt need it any more, so he gave it to me.
In my opinion this is a very, very good transceiver for operating on 2m SSB and CW.
You can use it for FM, too but for FM I have another exellent Transceiver.
So generally its is a top tx, but I think about
selling it, because I want to buy a good
hand-held tx, for example Yaesu VX-7R.
Maybe sb knows the *actual* price for this rig.

73 de do1ant, Greetings from Germany,Bochum

...Sorry for my bad english...
KU4QD Rating: 2002-01-14
Very decent for a '70s rig Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I see nobody else has written a review, so I guess I should even though it's been a couple of years since I had one of these. I'd still have it, but a collector offered me a totally ridiculous amount of money for it, and, well... it wasn't made of gold :)

The IC-201 was Icom's first 2M all mode base rig, at least in the U.S. It dates from the early '70s. The rig only covered 144-146MHz, which is fine if your interest is strictly SSB/CW. I think that's why so few ended up here. The rig does do FM, but receiver offset required a kit from the factory.

The IC-201 was an analog rig, similar to the Kenwood TS-700A or Yaesu FT-221, but a little bit smaller. Like those rigs the IC-201 had a very decent receiver, though the audio seemed to be lacking presence and favored the high end. Transmit power was 10W, and I got good audio reports consistently. The analog dial was easy to calibrate and reasonably accurate--certainly better than the IC-202 portable of the same era. The display was quite pretty if that matters to you.

There were no bells or whistles, which you would expect from a rig that old. There was no CW filter, but on 2M that rarely matters. The rig has pretty much been reduced to collectors status, which is a pity. It performs as well as its competitors of the same era and the relatively simple design should make it relatively easy to keep running as they age out. All in all, if you find one in good shape at a decent price and are aware of its limitations you can't go too wrong.