NEW Icom IC-905 VHF/UHF/SHF FIRST LOOK! 144MHz-10GHz

Wow so much hate from a group of guys that have no Idea

 

Just finished getting my 10 GHz and 24 GHz rigs ready for the contest weekend using my Ic 705 as an IF. Maybe the 905 will be on the bench soon.

 

Exactly right my friend! 10 GHz is one of the most popular bands here in Australia

 

There are a lot of long distance 10 GHz narrow band QSO's being made via rain scatter.

 

Gee, what happened to "if you build it, they will come"?

Maybe a rig that makes the bands turn-key available will increase the activity?

 

It's alive here in Southern California!

 

Wow! I'm not gonna I say "I told you so, but I told you so.
Earlier when this new rig was just a concept called "Icom project-SHF" I said here on QRZ that they really need to add the following features:

"To be "perfect" for QO-100 use, it should have AT MINIMUM the following features:
- 2.4 GHz TX
- 10 MHz reference input for the RF module, or internally GPS locked OCXO. (Maybe it already has the OCXO??)
- Full-duplex capable
- 740 MHz RX (IF frequency for 10 GHz LNB)"

And now we have most of the features of the actual product.
- 2.4GHz coverage. Check.
- GPS locked OCXO. Check. And even better, they provide a GPS locked 10MHz output to lock other external equipment!
- Full-duplex. TBD
- 740MHz RX. Looks like it's there, the Icom video presentation talks about wide-band receive.

Hopefully the new IC-905 will be available in all regions ASAP. I'm exited about it.

AB6RF

 

It'll be interesting to see how the IC-905 opens up activity on the higher bands. Use 'em or loose 'em!

KF4HR

 

Not judging anyone just having a discussion, just making an observation. I am equipped to use all.

 

It certainly can't hurt! I'm also excited about it, too as it's a very encouraging development in the weak-signal modes arena.

 

OMG. They did it. A big step to the future. Where ATV, QO-100 and other further things will get normal. And bands are not exclusive anymore with transverters to use, they only belong to the usable frequencies for intrested HAMradio operators. Outstanding and very cool.

 

Dave you're EXACTLY 100% right. A lot of the arguments about "oh there's no activity on the band" is down to attitude. If you don't get the gear - there won't be activity...
and before the flames come... my local radio club started off with maybe 1 or 2 people active on 1296. Now we have 23... and we have about 80 in our club. Now it's starting to shift to the higher bands now, 2.4 GHz, 3.4 GHz and 10 GHz.

Once people start to realize how much you can experiment/build antennas and have fun with those bands - the more popular they will become.

Kudos to Icom for having a real crack at this, great innovation!

 

An update on my previously uploaded video showing more details -

 

Something I would very much like to see is a band-by-band summary of the large-signal properties of the receiver(s), the adjacent channel properties and sideband noise levels of the transmitter(s).

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM