[ICOM] 751A

[bmarton]

I own the 751A, have owned the 751, and I run a 781 for my day to day rig.
I have had the 756 in my shack on loan for a week or so and I have to say I
liked it the least of the group.  After hours of use, the 756 series wears
on me.  There is a very low background white noise that is like finger nails
on a chalk board to me.  It just wears me out over hours of use.  The other
analogue rigs don't have this problem.  So for me, they are preferred. I
will say that the differences are mostly in features, with the 781 having
the most.  I feel the notch filter in the 751 is superior to the 781,
however the 781 has a noise blanker that actually works (not as well as my
Drake C series NB).  

As far as operation goes, I have to agree with Adam on backing off the RF
gain.  This is the old tried and true way of operating all receivers.  In
the older days, we would always crank the AF gain to max and us the RF gain
as the 'volume' control.  This makes for much easier listening.  I usually
just set in 10 db of attenuation with the attenuator and if needed, I
increase it further to knock down any noisy band conditions.  I never run
any pre-amps.

Bruce K1XR