[Icom] Icom 756 Pro versus Icom 746 Pro

[Wayne Montague/Ann Beattie]

I had a choice to make between a 756PRO and a 746PRO. The 746
won. The logic went something like this....

After owning an original 756 I decided I didn't want to "go
there" again. I was very, very disappointed in that radio and
feel it was *not* one of Icoms better efforts. The 'scope didn't
hold much value for me.

One of the holdovers from the original 756 to the first 756PRO
was the same (apparently) incredibly lousy intermoding blanker.
Um... no thanks.

I took a look at the 756PRO II. While the difference in price
didn't seem worth it to me between the two, I noticed that Icom
*finally* got around to fixing all the bo-bo's from the original
model. FINALLY, an adjustable blanker, an IF notch filter
(manual too!) and a mess of other stuff. The additional screen
display configs were really nice too. But.... I wasn't willing
to pay for it. Yeah, the color TV is nice, but.... I don't even
watch *real* TV.

I looked at the 746PRO. It had most of the features of the PRO
II and I traded off the color TV for 100W on 2M. No downside for
me on that one.

The 746PRO does not have *all* of the toys in the PRO II.
Missing is the color TV and the digital voice recorder. Probably
other stuff too. Memory keyer and Dual Watch. These, I do *not*
miss. Someone else might. Icom still refuses to pay the
royalties to make the scanning function worthwhile. Useless, for
the most part. Sigh.....

Some time ago I remarked to a friend that I'd be thrilled if
Icom would make a radio like a "grown up 706 with 756PRO
highlights". Viewed that way, the 746PRO is a winner for me. The
DSP (audio) NR works great and the IF digital filters are
wonderful. I've gone into the 75M Swamp and have yet to get the
filters breached. The manual notch is narrow and very, very
deep. The 746PRO RX is a joy to use. After driving it for an
afternoon you can toss the manual.

The 756PRO are nice and are very feature rich. A lot of folks
find them very attractive, and they work well and sound nice. I
just wanted to get the most bang for my buck in areas that
interested me and I didn't want a mess of stuff that cost extra
that I'd likely not use. The 746PRO gave me the goodies in the
756PRO II that I wanted and gave me a great 2M all mode DSP weak
signal 100W radio (and VHF RX too!). The stuff I didn't get I
don't miss and wouldn't pay extra for.

For *me*, I made the correct choice. 



Wayne
VE3CE