[ICOM] ICOM marine/ham radios

[Gary Fiber]

Adam,

As I remember there were some timing differences between the amateur and 
marine tuners. I ran a " converted " AT-120 for quite some time mobile. I 
had to remove a resistor and cap and disable a chip, not the micro but 
another that was in the AT-120. Then it worked fine with the IC-706MKII. 
Not doing the modification would not allow the tuner to turn off with the 
tune button otherwise it worked just fine. One I modified the tuner it 
worked as the AH-2 / 3 / 4 would but it would tune from 80 to 10 meters on 
an 8 foot whip. Not real efficient but I was on the air.

The AH-3 should work with the M-710 just fine so far as I remember.

The M-710 works wonderfully in the amateur bands and is accurate to 20 Hz 
per FCC Part 80 to end rules requires the marine ssb to be. Thats where the 
FCC gets the converted amateur rigs most can't hold the 20Hz specification 
and the FCC gets many for being off frequency. Then you have to present 
documents to the FCC you had the radio repaired by a  licensed technician 
or face a fine so you basically give yourself up.when you make that report. 
Unless the licensed tech will provide false documents. Not many would do 
that I sure would not, would not want to lay my GROL on the line.

The only difficulty is the programming as it only operates from memory 
channels and you have to program both the transmit and receive frequency in 
even if they are the same as is generally the case.

Gary K8IZ

>As I recall, the AT-120 and AT-130 couplers are fairly similar to the AH-3,
>and use the same control protocol from the radio set. Do you know whether an
>AH-3 will work with the IC-M710? I suspect it probably will, but as I do not
>have access to either piece of gear, I cannot verify my hunch.
>Cheers for now, 73,
>Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ

Gary Fiber K8IZ
GROL PG-19-6691
Washington State Resident