[Icom] V-8000 vs. IC-207H--intermod?

Thu, 9 Jan 2003 06:08:03 -0500

I've been running my 207H for more than a year, and find that intermod
issues in my area (intense on my drive to work each day) vanish with
adjustment of the squelch/rf gain control. I have no complaints with it.
73, Warren W1GUD Tampa Florida 

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Bruce Marton
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Icom] V-8000 vs. IC-207H--intermod?

Hello to the list,
I was reading on the E-Ham product review pages about the IC-207H and it
appears the newer posts, lets say over the last year vs. the older posts
of several years ago rate the performance of the 207H as fairly good in
terms of intermod.
I was planning on purchasing a new V-8000 yesterday by at the last
minute opted to take home the 207H.  The reasons were due to the
following:
AM aircraft receive
The second band of 440
A little more compact size for mobile use
Easier to read function notation on the screen vs. the V-8000 backlit
buttons on the front panel.

What I liked very much about the V-8000 is the appearance of the rig
having been taken from the Icom commercial land/mobile rigs.  In fact
the 8000 looks almost identical to my IC-2020 LM 450 commercial rig.  I
have been told by Icom that the V-8000 is just a re-type accepted
version of the LM VHF commercial rigs for the amateur 2 meter band.  The
specs do seem to confirm this.  I have also been told the 8000 is
bulletproof in terms of intermod and this is my main concern.

So the question is how much if any intermod does the IC 207H pick up?  I
have seen several posts at E Ham that state it is terrible and others
that say it is just great, nothing.  I don't know why there is such a
variation other than maybe the location of operation of some of the
users or maybe the differences between rigs and components used in the
production runs.  If the 207H is not too intermod prone, I would like to
hold onto it since I do like the features.

I did read that the AM A/C receive band is not good at all.  However, I
will state that my experience with it last night connected to an Austin
Radome dual band antenna, side mounted on one of my towers at about 50
feet.  I listened on the Aircraft band over the entire comm range and
was able to not only hear with ease the high flying jets up at FL 18 and
above, but I was able to hear the towers at Portland Jetport (20 miles
north) and Boston Center (location unknown from me, but Boston/Logan is
about 50 miles south if they are down there).  I was able to listen to
Pease tower, 15 miles south and the Pease ATIS, which I did not expect.
I could also hear the Skyhaven, Rochester, NH AWOS, which is about 25
miles west of me.  All a big surprise considering the info I had read on
the E ham indicating the AM A/C band was pretty weak and almost useless.
So overall, this was a nice plus.

I would love to hear from other users out there if there is or is not an
intermod issue with the 207H???  If so, I may change out for the V-8000.

Thanks much,
Bruce K1XR

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