Re RE: [Icom] New Rig Price ????

Wed, 21 May 2003 09:16:47 -0500

Bruce-

I certainly understand and the 781 is one fine radio. Did you compare it to
a 756 or a 756 PRO II? Those are two very different radios and I have the
PRO II. I also agree that if you can barely hear someone with a good system,
you better have a linear and they better have a good system at their end to
hear you. There certainly is a law of diminishing returns at work here.

Regards, Andy K5VM

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Marton" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 8:04 AM
Subject: RE: Re RE: [Icom] New Rig Price ????

> Andy, the 781 does run hot, but either a fan as you have noted or
> lowering the AC line input voltage via a variac works well.  I run mine
> at about 105 VAC, which is down near the bottom of the rated range (100
> to 120 VAC), and it is fairly cool.  Adding the fan really cools it
> down.
> As far as the sensitivity issue you note and noisy operation, I don't
> see it on my end.  In fact I had a 756 in the shack which was lent to me
> by a friend while he was away on vacation and I found it way too noisy
> for me.  The DSP is very harsh to my ears, like someone running finger
> nails down a chalk board.  If you had a problem with noise and high QRM
> levels, I'll bet your noise blanker was on.  That's a common problem
> people complain of.
> The small dots on the CRT indicating singles are small and move slowly,
> but I really enjoy this type of display.  I don't care for the multi
> color ones used on the new rigs; to each his own.  But that's why they
> make all the new high buck rigs, to satisfy all the guys who want a new
> rig.  I just like the 781 as is and find it will do anything I want and
> much more.  If I cannot hear it on the 781 with my big antenna, then
> it's probably too weak to really expect to work anyway, even if you
> could hear it ever so slightly more on a new 7800.  Plus I'll bet the
> guy on the other end doesn't have a 7800 and he cannot hear you.  So all
> the calling in the night won't make a contact.
> I'll stick with the 781, the Acom and the big antenna and bank the
> difference for any long term deflationary cycle we may be entering.
>
> 73's Bruce
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
> Behalf Of [email protected]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 8:39 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Re RE: [Icom] New Rig Price ????
>
> My 781 ran hot ( which I cured by placing a computer fan on the rear ),
> had
> a display comprised of a series of slow responding hard for me to read
> dots
> and, at least for me, was not even close to my 756 PRO II in receive
> sensitivity on the same antenna system and with both feeding a 4KL. It
> was
> very "noisy" on weak signals, especially with any QRM present--the DSP
> didn't seem too effective :-). The 781 was impressive in size and weight
> though, quality built like the proverbial tank.
>
> Andy K5VM