[Icom] IC-756pro2

[icom@mailman.qth.net]

Hi, George,

Thanks for your reply about the 756pro2's keying waveform.  It's exactly
the answer I was looking for.

I listened on my FT-1000MP while sending a string of dits from the pro2
and the CW bandwidth didn't change at all from a rise time setting of 2ms
to 8ms, but it was a bit broad -- about +/-1kHz -- , apparently due to
the sharp turn at the top of the waveform's leading edge that you
mentioned.  That's still much better than the MP without the W8JI click
mod.  I assume that the pro2's cw waveform shaping is done by DSP, so a
hardware mod to fix the clicks is probably out of the question.

The designer of the Orion made sure that its keying was clean, but
unfortunately he's a phone man and doesn't fully understand the CW
operator's requirements because that radio is terrible on weak CW signal
DXing on both 160m and 10m.  I've never A/B'd another radio that was as
bad as the Orion in that respect.

To demonstrate what I mean by them not understanding the CW operator's
needs, when I had the Orion I sent it back to the factory for repair
because its xtal filters would not track its DSP filters when you changed
the CW sidetone/spot pitch.  To fix it, they came up with an update to
the firmware, i.e, all Orions had that problem!

I was shocked when the radio was returned to me with a list of five
hardware modifications they made on my week-old radio!  Obviously the
beta testers didn't do their job.  They alleviated the audio whine
problem, but it was still there after the mods.

Anyway, I got tired of Ten-Tec's lip service about a radio I waited 9-1/2
months 
for after I ordered it so I got a refund and used some of that money to
buy a new pro2.  So far I'm happy with it.  It certainly is ergonomically
better than the Orion and would beat the pants off of it in my A/B tests.
 It's better than the MP on 10-meter weak CW signals and about equal to
the MP on 160-meter weak signals.  Because it's audio is better than the
MP, I give the pro2 the edge just like I did for the 746pro.  The best
radio on both 160m and 10m is the Elecraft K2 with its KDSP2.

About the only thing I miss on the pro2 is that 2nd VFO knob.  I've kinda
solved that by using the dual-watch feature and cranking the balance
control either fully CW or CCW depending on which "receiver" I want to
listen on.

Thanks again for the risetime answer.

73, de Earl, K6SE