[Icom] DC-Daylight

Sat, 24 May 2003 09:41:34 -0700

Hi Mel,

There is nothing wrong with using "older" radios when they demonstrably run
rings around the "new stuff".

I have a number of the older Icom land-mobile radios (V100, U400, H16, U16
etc.), programmed on amateur frequencies, in my shack and car. These radios
have a -70dB EIA intermod spec (-65dB for the handhelds). I can drive around
the Vancouver city centre all day long and not hear a peep out of the radio
except for the repeater. In my experience, none of the amateur FM rigs comes
close - especially the multi-banders with their DC-to-daylight coverage and
minimal RF preselection. (Some amateur mobiles, such as the Icom V8000 and
Yaesu FT-2500, are not bad in terms of receiver intermod and cross-mod
rejection.)

By the same token, the IC-x75 series of VHF/UHF all-mode radios are
unbeatable. These are all single-band, except for the IC-575 (10m & 6m).
They even use the same DDS chipset as the IC-781.

"Jack-of-all-trades and master of none" was never truer than when applied to
some of the current "everything-in-one-box" radios.

Cheers for now, 73,
Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of Mel
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 03:47
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [Icom] DC-Daylight

Hi Ron...

>Well, now I can say I have radios from nearly every company, but it
appears
>that Yaesu is marching away big-time. The new 897 and 857 are getting
fantastic
>reviews, I don't understand why Icom can't take the PROll and come out
with a
>PROlll that covers DC to daylight.
>I'd take issue with your thinking here...

The Yaesu's and Kenwoods that have come out lately are NOT particularly
great radios as far as RF performance is concerned. They are wide
bandwidth, multi-featured, consumer boxes with lots of bells and
whistles... Nice radios indeed... However, recent Icom's ( and Ten Tec's
) have stressed performance... All the DC-Daylight radios, including
Icom's, are not exceptional performers. Anyone under the delusion that
their DC-Daylight wonder actually performs as well as a VHF-UHF only
radio that costs as much, or HF only radio that costs much more should
ask themselves why anyone is buying the narrower coverage radios. Many
of the wonder radios' RF performance falls well short of the older
generation radios. For example, an old IC751A would be far better choice
for serious contesting or Dxing than any but the best current radios.
Even the 756 series of radios tend to fall short of the older generation
radios in some performance areas... Though make up for it in other
areas. I would say, and this is just one guy's opinion, that the new
TenTec Orion and new Icom 7800 are probably the first new generation
radios that clearly will outperform, in all areas, the radios we were
using 10 - 15 years ago. This is similar to what happened with the "new"
solid state radios years ago... At first there was a performance penalty
in using the then new technology... But in time, the SS radios evolved
to out perform the older tube gear.

I'm still using "older" radios... But my consumer "resistance" is waning
;-)

Mel...
VE2DC

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