View Full Version : IC-7000
SV2EVS
08-06-2009, 07:09 AM
I dont see a review on the IC-7000.
Got this rig a few weeks ago and still learning to work with all the menus and dsp.
I previously owned an IC-730 (excelent reception).
I dont see a review on the IC-7000.
Got this rig a few weeks ago and still learning to work with all the menus and dsp.
I previously owned an IC-730 (excelent reception).
If you are a brand new user/owner, you may consider joining this group;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ic7000/
Also, check out this site;
http://www.ab4oj.com/icom/ic7000/main.html
You may also want to do a IC7000 post/thread search. There have been numerous comments on this site and several others about the IC7000.
http://forums.qrz.com/search.php?searchid=899886&pp=25&page=3
I have 2 of the IC7000's and I'm very pleased with them. I've had both for almost 2 years now, and not a problem with either one. One in my 4runner, and one in my wifes car.
KB3LAZ
08-06-2009, 07:47 PM
If you are a brand new user/owner, you may consider joining this group;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ic7000/
Also, check out this site;
http://www.ab4oj.com/icom/ic7000/main.html
You may also want to do a IC7000 post/thread search. There have been numerous comments on this site and several others about the IC7000.
http://forums.qrz.com/search.php?searchid=899886&pp=25&page=3
I have 2 of the IC7000's and I'm very pleased with them. I've had both for almost 2 years now, and not a problem with either one. One in my 4runner, and one in my wifes car.
I agree, they are very nice radios. However you have to keep in mind what they are and what they were designed for. Most people that end up dissatisfied with their 7000 is because they expected to get a radios that is up to par with a ProIII or better and that is just no the case.
I will list a few of my dislikes about the 7000.
1) They get reasonably warm and I fear that in time this may become problematic.
2) The band scope is irritating.
3) The SWR meter does not function on 2m/70cm (But I knew that before I bought it).
4) Ugh...AM audio is just dreadful!
Aside from that I am rather pleased with its performance. You are going to have to give up a few things when cramming so much into such a little package.
End results: I do not regret purchasing it nor will I part with it.
I agree, they are very nice radios. However you have to keep in mind what they are and what they were designed for. Most people that end up dissatisfied with their 7000 is because they expected to get a radios that is up to par with a ProIII or better and that is just no the case.
I will list a few of my dislikes about the 7000.
1) They get reasonably warm and I fear that in time this may become problematic.
2) The band scope is irritating.
3) The SWR meter does not function on 2m/70cm (But I knew that before I bought it).
4) Ugh...AM audio is just dreadful!
Aside from that I am rather pleased with its performance. You are going to have to give up a few things when cramming so much into such a little package.
End results: I do not regret purchasing it nor will I part with it.
Yeah, I think they should have left the bandscope function off entirely. The DSP and class A driver also consume a lot of quiescent power. It is not my first choice for a portable station, plus it's very sensitive to low supply power. Much more so than the FT897D's of mine they replaced. Also I wish they could have put a simple eq for the mic, which they did not. The thing I liked about the 897's I had is that they had a simple HI/LO cut (in the control menu, not the one on the MH31 mic), and had mic gains you could set separately for FM/SSB. I have noticed when operating the IC7000 SSB if you set your TBW wide, the lo bandpass adjustment can make a lot of difference especially if you use just even a slight amount of compression. I'm sure you have heard a lot of bad sounding IC7000's (using the stock HM-151 mic's) on the air in SSB mode when they first came out. I know I did. I still hear them on occassion (even with the AB5N HM151 mic mod). When I first got my 7000's, I played with the different TBW's and discovered that when running TBW wide, and using the stock HM151 mic, if I brought the lo pass from 100hz to 200hz, that cured the hollow sounding voice audio, and then I could even use a little compression (6db or less on the peaks). As far as lo mic gain in FM or any other voice mode with the stock mic, I just up the gain. I have one HM151 mic stock, and one HM151 mic with the AB5N mod. I can make either one sound really good. There was a lot of controversy over the AB5N mod in some of the user groups for a while.
Personally, I think Icom made the IC7000 too small. It would have been fine with me if was the same size (maybe even just a tad larger) than the 706MKIIG, that little bugger also used to get warm.
As far as setting the same expectation of performance as that of the PROIII, that is naive. I have heard folks state that in their opinion the 7000 is a "mini PROIII". If one makes a brief study of the schematics, and block diagrams of both recievers it should be obvious even on paper that there is no way the 7000 will perform like the PROIII. It is just not possible.
I do wish Icom would come out with a 2m/70cm (1.25m included would be nice to) I.F. DSP all mode ham tranciever. I guess they don't think there is a market for it to make it worthwhile.
KB3LAZ
08-06-2009, 10:58 PM
Yeah, I think they should have left the bandscope function off entirely. The DSP and class A driver also consume a lot of quiescent power. It is not my first choice for a portable station, plus it's very sensitive to low supply power. Much more so than the FT897D's of mine they replaced. Also I wish they could have put a simple eq for the mic, which they did not. The thing I liked about the 897's I had is that they had a simple HI/LO cut (in the control menu, not the one on the MH31 mic), and had mic gains you could set separately for FM/SSB. I have noticed when operating the IC7000 SSB if you set your TBW wide, the lo bandpass adjustment can make a lot of difference especially if you use just even a slight amount of compression. I'm sure you have heard a lot of bad sounding IC7000's (using the stock HM-151 mic's) on the air in SSB mode when they first came out. I know I did. I still hear them on occassion (even with the AB5N HM151 mic mod). When I first got my 7000's, I played with the different TBW's and discovered that when running TBW wide, and using the stock HM151 mic, if I brought the lo pass from 100hz to 200hz, that cured the hollow sounding voice audio, and then I could even use a little compression (6db or less on the peaks). As far as lo mic gain in FM or any other voice mode with the stock mic, I just up the gain. I have one HM151 mic stock, and one HM151 mic with the AB5N mod. I can make either one sound really good. There was a lot of controversy over the AB5N mod in some of the user groups for a while.
Personally, I think Icom made the IC7000 too small. It would have been fine with me if was the same size (maybe even just a tad larger) than the 706MKIIG, that little bugger also used to get warm.
As far as setting the same expectation of performance as that of the PROIII, that is naive. I have heard folks state that in their opinion the 7000 is a "mini PROIII". If one makes a brief study of the schematics, and block diagrams of both recievers it should be obvious even on paper that there is no way the 7000 will perform like the PROIII. It is just not possible.
I do wish Icom would come out with a 2m/70cm (1.25m included would be nice to) I.F. DSP all mode ham tranciever. I guess they don't think there is a market for it to make it worthwhile.
I agree. Actually I compared it to a proIII for a long time (at that point I had limited experience with either rig) but after owning both for quite sometime now I realize that I was in fact being quite naive. It is interesting to see how your own opinion evolves over time. Especially with the absorption of knowledge.
As for the stock mic and the audio quality; it is like any other radio, if not properly adjusted it sounds terrible. In order to get quality audio out of any rig you must adjust it to your voice. The best way to do this is to monitor your own transmissions. Otherwise you are taking the word of someone that most likely has never heard your voice in person. How in the world do they know how I or anybody else should sound?
If there is one thing that I have learned over the past half decade about reviews it is this; you should not give a review of a rig that you have limited experience with. I myself am guilty of this. A lot of the time it gives the rig a false image, whether that image is positive or negative.
Another thing that I have learned about user reviews is that they should be taken with a grain of salt much of the time. You have to learn to filter out the filler (boasting and BS).
I will tell you this much; if given the chance to review every radio that I have ever owned then the write-ups would differ quite drastically compared to their original counterpart.
After spending three years with the 7000 I really have an entirely different opinion of it than I did after six months. Which is in part due to the time it took to learn the ins and outs of the radio and its operation.
As for the OP or anyone else looking for reviews; when searching do pay close attention to the time owned before taking too much consideration in the content of the review or reviewer. That is not to say that there are hams that can not make a proper summation after a few short weeks or months but most of them have ample time under their belt using a multitude of gear either as an amateur or a professional (such as an engineer or what not).
Anyway, as I previously stated the 7000 is a fine rig if you understand its bounds.
SV2EVS
08-07-2009, 11:27 AM
If you are a brand new user/owner, you may consider joining this group;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ic7000/
Also, check out this site;
http://www.ab4oj.com/icom/ic7000/main.html
You may also want to do a IC7000 post/thread search. There have been numerous comments on this site and several others about the IC7000.
http://forums.qrz.com/search.php?searchid=899886&pp=25&page=3
I have 2 of the IC7000's and I'm very pleased with them. I've had both for almost 2 years now, and not a problem with either one. One in my 4runner, and one in my wifes car.
Thanks for the input....i did sign up for the yahoo group there and i am now getting all the messages.
Have tryied the rig for about a week or more and it performs well for me. Especially using the dsp and all the filtering.
Has anyone tryied the fan modification on mods.dk just to make the rig a bit cooler ?
Thanks for the input....i did sign up for the yahoo group there and i am now getting all the messages.
Have tryied the rig for about a week or more and it performs well for me. Especially using the dsp and all the filtering.
Has anyone tryied the fan modification on mods.dk just to make the rig a bit cooler ?
I have not, and don't plan to.
From 35+ plus years of aviation electronics design, certification, & maintenence, I'm finding that a lot of the newer ham gear is not designed to take the abuse that a lot of operators may put it through. There are lots of newer operators that don't have the benefit of a solid hands on electronics background. It shows in a lot of the user reviews you read on internet sites, and product user forums. The reviews reveal not only aspects of the equipment but of the user/reviewer as well. My commercial experience has enabled me to size up the median/nominal performance of my equipment pretty quick. Also, having a repair lab full of test equipment at work helps too.
I have a lot of gear, most of it new (new to me 3+ years). I don't abuse my equipment, and I don't have a lick of trouble with any of it. That's not to say I won't incurr a failure of some type in the future. I expect it sometime, but not soon from normal, reasonable use. However, anything is possible, and nothing is perfect, even TSOA/PMA/DO160 certified equipment fails. Same with products mfr'd where the the various iterations of ISO quality systems are used.
I understand exactly why the 7000 operates as warm as it does, and knowing what I know about Icoms current mfr'ng' processes, and the core design of the IC7000, I'm still not overly concerned about it. All my Icom gear has made it past the warranty period without any failures. If I have a problem/failure, I will repair the equipment myself. The obvious trade off of small size is ease (perhaps lack thereof) of maintenance. I recently did the Inrad Roofing filter mod on my PROIII which has long been out of warranty, and while it wasn't difficult in a technical aspect, there is little room to work. I can certainly understand how someone could make a mess out the mod if they weren't used to working on this small stuff. I miss the old days of larger discreet components and ease of access.
Pragmatically speaking, if your unit is new and under warranty, I would not do the mod unless you don't care about voiding the warranty. I apologize if I'm insulting your good sense. But, I don't know anything about your technical background.
If you still have questions after doing research in the user groups and intenet sites I've provided, feel free to contact me "off list" by email. I'll be glad to help you anyway I can.
Ciao