Icom - 7000

Hey All,

I'm fixing to pickup my first HF/All Mode rig and I really like the Icom-7000. I've been reading reviews, etc at eham and it seems like the 7000 likes to let the smoke out of it. Can you tell me if this has been fixed by Icom? I would hate to drop the dime on the rig and then after a short bit have to send it back to be fixed.

Thanks.
K4KGB

 

save your money,..... I won't buy one for the same reason.

it's totally unpredictible if one fails,.... some seem to never fail, and others have failed 3 or more times while still under warrantee.

there is a YAHOO ic7k user group , you might want to look there http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ic7000/

 

I don't think that's current information at all. My 7000 is going strong after several years, and I haven't heard of the finals failing on one anytime recently, and there are a few of them in use around here. It was our primary phone rig for Field Day this year, and we did very well - #2 in the USA for class 3A.
I've used mine at Field Day in the past with considerable success. I bought mine to use as a mobile but decided it was too nice to abuse that much. After being an in-house radio for a couple years, though, it went back into the pickup truck, and it's served very well there ever since. I do a lot of mobile CW with it on several HF bands.

I think most of the compact mobile multiband radios have suffered some infant mortality in the finals. I've heard of a lot more failures among the Yaesus and had an FT817 die that way, too. Once repaired, the problem never came back.

 

OK, I guess this is something to be concerned about, but I still think you'll find the same issues with most, if not all, of the compact mobiles. According to this eham forum, the problem has been fixed with a modification from ICOM. http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=63305.0 Apparently, the PA Driver can start to oscillate.

I will add that the IC-7000 gets very warm when in use. So far, no problems, though mine is wedged pretty tightly under the front seat, which probably doesn't help the cooling situation at all.

 

I have owned an Icom 7000 since November 2009. I used it constantly for a year, day in day out on SSB and digital modes.

No smoke came out of mine, and it is still operating just like it did when it came out of the box in 2009.

The only fault I can find with mine, weak receive on VHF/UHF when comparing it to a dual band mobile radio for those bands. But for HF, no problem with receive.

I did put a small 12 VDC fan behind mine when running digital modes. Not because the temperature meter was in the red. I did it just for peace of mine, to move a little air around the back of the rig because I had it sitting under a shelf on the desk.

 

My Icom 7000 is one of the very first launch ones still with the 8kHz tone. Working just fine and dandy.

 

I wish that were true, I really would like to buy one, but only if the failure problem is corrected by ICOM.

here are a few RECENT posts about the 7K (callsigns deleted by me)

april 2012, "I bought an IC-7000 4 weeks ago. After two weeks it had smoke pouring out of it. Back to Icom for repair.
Two weeks ago I bought another (one for the car, one for home). Tonight it has smoke pouring out of it. Back to Icom for repair.

First one is back from repair - faulty driver board. Second one is the same problem."

april 2012, "I use an IC-7000 every day and mine has behaved well."

april 2012, "The driver board self oscillation/self destruction is a known issue with the IC-7000. I had it happen to mine, even though Icom says mine was from a batch that the mod to prevent this had already been performed.

Other than that specific problem, the later models seem to be pretty reliable.
They really don't like stray RF getting in to them and this may exacerbate the problem."

jun 2012, "My IC-7000, which had the driver board replaced, has smoked itself again. That makes 3 immolations for the two units so far. Back to ICOM again"

.... and ICOM still has never admitted that there is a problem.

 

When you look at some of the mobile installs, it is blatantly obvious why they've fried. Look at this brilliant idea. The car seat then goes over those two radios and guess where the fan intake is on an Icom 7000.....



Here's a genius home install...



And another where someone has put a Kenwood tribander on top of the Icom 7000 completely blocking the fan intake



And then the blithering idiots will whine and moan when the transceiver packs up.

 

I'd like to know what percentage of them see this failure. I think if it was really something widespread, we'd see more people reporting it. ICOM did introduce a modification to prevent the issue, but apparently that was not enough to correct it in all cases. When the FT8x7 series finals started dropping like flies, there were hundreds of such complaints.

I worry a little about the installation I have, but it has survived many thousands of miles and a couple years literally 'stuffed' under the driver's seat. If the thing catches fire, I think I'll be the first to know it! Note that the main body of the radio fits under the driver's seat of a Tundra, but without much room to spare.

 

the problem is not heat , the REAL problem is the 7K is suceptable to stray RF due to poor shielding/grounding design and that drives it into oscillation.