IC-705 QRP SDR Transceiver update, available in Japan around April 2020

Has anyone noticed? This radio has no means to mount it to anything? It has what looks like a belt loop on the back,but only one,on one side.
I have been looking at one of these as possibly something to put in the pickup.I don't typically use lots of watts,just resonant antennas,so it would probably work for me. I'm looking at this thing from all sides,and it has no threaded inserts anywhere on it to mount to a bracket.Basically,a brick.
Same problem I had with my Ft-817,no factory means of mounting to a flat surface. I has to fabricate my own with RAM mounts,aluminum plate,velcro straps,and velcro adhesive strips. How much extra engineering would it have taken to just incorporate a couple brass or stainless threaded inserts into the body,and a stamped sheet metal vehicle bracket?

 

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I can only assume... that ICOM assumed...
The majority of users would be Portable, carry in a backpack usage, or dedicated to QRP in a shack on a desk.

I don't think it's engineering,
It's cost per unit sold... If you can save 50c per unit, and you are shipping big volumes... It adds up

 

There have been objections to this radio not having this or that feature. I don't know the total size of the ham radio market, but this radio is aimed at the QRP, portable market, which is just a subset of the whole ham market. If you add too many specific features to meet some of the desires listed above, the price goes up and the market shrinks. There is always a tradeoff between price, size of market and the features. No tuner, use antennas that don't require one. Too heavy - there goes the backpacking market. No rugged waterproof case, there go DXpeditions to the jungle.

I suspect that Icom is piggybacking on the design of the 7300 with this rig, which would reduce development costs, to the advantage of purchasers.

 

Well one rig that I recently bought was a "IC-7100" so I'd say that with their control panel screen (remote) that all the functions are very well denoted and they've KEPT "MENU's" to a bare minimum!!! Kinda like our "IC-7610" which is also a PLEASURE/EASY using!!!

 

Well,I suspect a whole lot of QRP rigs don't just live in backpacks or bags. Many,like mine,live in a hardcase set up as a "go" box. Radio,tuner,cables,power supply,manuals. My case is an old military plastic pelican-like box that housed a night vision goggle of some sort. I want to be able to open the box,and go to work with minimal assembly,and be able to put away and store in a water-tite box. With ICOM and the 705,they put a loop on the back,not sure how that is supposed to mount to anything,as it's oriented vertically,and only has one on one side. Seems like if you tried to run a strap thru it,it would droop off on one side. Otherwise,this radio does seem to have lots of neat and cool features. If I get one of these,I'll have to figure out some means of mounting this thing to a metal stand or bracket that can be fixed for mobile operation in a vehicle.

 

A QRP radio designed by all hams travels in a Hummer and has a generator to support the kW transmitter

 

The IC-7610 was my 1st Icom radio. Impressed? oh yeah! The 705 has been on pre-order since announced.

 

I was day dreaming and thinking of a mk2 version, plug in adapter for mobile mount, automobile amplifier 100 W, base plugin adapter with a 100 or 500 W amplifier, pull out and go back packing with the one radio, as I said dreaming!

 

It's pretty clear that Icom is going after Elecraft with this radio. I am willing to bet it will surpass the Elecraft in performance, but Icom will need to offer an amplifier for it. Price wise, it appears that it will be expensive, but still less than the stock Elecraft K4 with no options.

 

Pulled the trigger on a reservation the other day. It looks to be very capable.

If the performance is there, I'm sure the aftermarket for this piece will become substantial, considering everything it could be used for. QRP on a hill is only scratching the surface.

 

I’m willing to bet no ham currently planning to buy a K4 will suddenly be lured towards an IC-705 instead because it’s less expensive.

 

If you mean receiver performance, I would be very surprised if they beat the KX2/KX3. Other "performance" related measurements when it comes to QRP are weight and power draw, and it doesn't look like Icom will beat Elecraft there either.

We'll see when it's delivered, but the target market isn't exactly the hard core backpack QRP'ers, more of the casual outdoor users. Comparing it to the K4 makes no sense...

 

It has a 1/4-20 socket on the bottom to mount it to a tripod or other device.

 

I’ll hopefully have hands-on tomorrow at the Orlando fest along with some video/photos. In the meantime...

 

The Icom guy in the video does finally show that,yes,Icom did in fact put threaded mounting holes on the unit. One is a 1/4x20 thread like on camera tripods,and then some other industry standard pattern four hole pattern as well. This is good news,at least for me. So,Icom,I stand corrected. And I'll probably buy one,but after they've been out a while. Let everybody else find the bugs first. What makes this unit a viable competitor for Elecraft stuff is that it will do so much more. 2 meters...70 centimeters...aircraft band (listening) Digital D-Star...