[ICOM] 775 prices

[Igor Sokolov]

Adam, thanks for your comments. I do value your opinion. Anyway my
point was that there are situations were DSP based radio either does
not perform as well as analog radio with good filters or requires so
much time for adjustment that it becomes not practical to use it. I
mainly operate in the contests. I did use all of the PRO series and
the latest 7800 in the contest environment. Still I found that the
best of the breed is ORION. That is when you are in highly populated
area with a lot of strong 9+ signals. My friend's shack has got huge
stacked antennas from 40m and up and 2 transceivers -ORION and IC775.
Everybody who has been operating from that shack did prefer ORION
because there were no intermods and there were a lot of "clear spots"
on the crowded 40m band during some major contests. 775 is a lot
worse in that respect in the same environment.
On more then one trip to 8Q7 we were taking both of these radios. We
usually set them so that two operators listen on the same antenna and
the one who is the first to pick up a complete call sign transmits.
That helps us to maximize the rate. The technique is pretty well
known amongst contesters. Two pair of ears is always better then one.
Now the type of pile up there is different from what we got used to
at home. It is seldom that one hear signals over S9 level and number
of  simultaneously calling stations is well over 20. We noticed that
the op using 775 manages to pick up 3 times more stations then the
one using ORION. When operators swap positions the picture has
repeated. 775 was defenetly pulling out weak signals much better. It
was easier to separate and read them.   That has been the case with 6
different operators. Finally operating with ORION started to be seen
as sort of a punishment. Nobody wanted that seat. We did the same
comparison with IC746PRO only to figure out that 746PRO is even
worse. I want to stress that when using DSP based radios we never
never concerned about how they sound. We just wanted " to understand
what the distant station is transmitting"
To me personally that was very persuading experiment. Same is true
for all the other members of our team. We are not taking DSP based
radios to that distant island anymore. But we still use them
successfully here at home.

73, Igor UA9CDC

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Farson" <farson at shaw.ca>
To: "'ICOM Reflector'" <icom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 1:46 AM
Subject: RE: [ICOM] 775 prices


> Hans, Igor,
>
> Just to throw in my twopence worth:
>
> A properly-designed DSP IF filter system can be configured to sound
> whichever way one wishes it to sound. I have no trouble pulling up
weak SSB
> or CW signals on any of the IC-756Pro-series radios I have owned
over the
> last 5 years (I now have a Pro3). I also had the opportunity to get
some
> "flight-deck time" on the IC-7800, which does those jobs even
better from my
> perspective. My next upgrade may be to a 7800, if I can justify it
in terms
> of the amount of operating I do.
>
> I had to spend a certain amount of time re-learning the techniques
involved
> in adjusting a receiver to "squeeze out the last drop". On numerous
> occasions, using the 756Pro series, I have been able to resolve,
and copy,
> signals which were so poor that they would have eluded even my old
IC-781.
> When receiving S9+ signals, I can adjust filter bandwidth and Twin
PBT for
> the most pleasing sound (at least to my ear).
>
> "Digital" sound does not trouble me. Our wireline and wireless
phone
> networks are all digital, I only listen to CD's (no LP's or
turntable any
> longer in my home!) and am acutely aware that CBC Radio 2 FM plays
digital
> CD's into an audio chain which is digital right up to the baseband
input of
> the FM transmitter modulator. To my ears, it still sounds beautiful
on a
> good home audio system.
>
> For me, the criterion in radio communications is more "can I
understand what
> the distant station is transmitting" than "how does the distant
station
> sound".
>
> Cheers for now, 73,
> Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ
>
>
>
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