[Icom] Re: Icom T-81 - thumbs down

Sat, 09 Mar 2002 23:43:03 -0500

At 11:21 AM 3/7/2002 -0800, John Geiger <[email protected]> wrote:

>I have one of these HTs, and love it.  The joystick is
>a little tough to use at times, but still works great
>when you get the hang of it.  The only downside is the
>battery life is kind of short, so here is what I did.

I've found the "joystick" (4-way plus center) switch to be a major 
pain.  My hat's off to you guys who have "mastered" it, though nobody 
should have to "master" a control like that.

The problem is that many functions of the radio require you to push that 
switch straight in, and that's hard to do.  It's way too easy to push it 
left, right, up or down instead of straight in.  And the consequences of 
that can be frustrating.  For example, you have dialed in a VFO frequency, 
and need to turn on CTCSS.  To turn CTCSS on, you must first push the 
joystick button straight in, then up/down and left/right.  But if you miss 
that first straight-in press, and press it left or right instead, you will 
start the radio scanning, and lose the simplex frequency you had in the VFO.

I have several digital cameras that have a very similar 
switch.  Externally, they are identical in size, look and function.  And I 
NEVER miss the center press for the camera functions.  That leads me to 
believe that the Icom switch is a poorly designed or manufactured 
one.  I've tried several T81's from friends and at Icom displays at 
hamfests, and they're all like mine, so it's not a fluke.  I asked one of 
the Icom booth reps at Dayton, and he said "you have to get the hang of 
it", essentially admitting that the switch has a fault.

As for battery life, I was disappointed in the life of the supplied 
battery.  I bought an aftermarket battery (I forget if it was a NiCad or 
NIMH) and drop-in charger from W&W or BatteryTech (sorry to be ambiguous, 
but I'm on the road and the radio is at home).  Battery life was much better.

Six meter performance was also disappointing, but not too surprising.  The 
antenna is way too short for decent six meter performance.  We don't have 
many really good six meter repeaters in this area, but there are enough for 
me to tell that the radio just doesn't hit them very well (very far) 
compared to two and 70cm.

For the record, I love Icom.  90% of my radios are Icom (including lots of 
handhelds... I get a new one every few years).  You won't find me on a 
wild-hair trash-Icom rant.  I won't dispute that John loves his T81, but to 
me the radio has enough faults that I don't recommend it.  (On the other 
hand, I've "sold" dozens of W32's to hams in my classes and around the 
area).  I'm sorry to see it go.

You pays your money and you takes your choice!

73,
Gary KN4AQ
__________________________________________________________________________
Gary Pearce KN4AQ - Cary, NC - 919-380-9944 - [email protected]

Editor, SERA Repeater Journal - http://www.sera.org
ARRL NC Section Public Information Coordinator -
      http://www.ipass.net/~garypearce/ham-radio/ncarrl-pic/
ARRL National PR Committee member
Freelance audio/video editing and engineering -
      [email protected]

                        "I'm off to be the wizard"