[ICOM] Official Icom Bulletin on Hardware and Firmware Upgrade to 7800

[David Hammond]

Hi All,

I read this afternoon about the advance notice from 
ICOM for the pending
upgrades to the IC-7800 on the 7800 Yahoo Reflector.

After paying $10K plus for a 7800 I can't imagine that 
many of you
owners are too enthused at the prospect of shelling out 
another
$500 for the privilege of having a known noisy L/O 
problem corrected
that ICOM should be standing behind with owners at no 
charge IMO.

By incorporating the 3 KHz roofing filter in the 
redesign they will be able
to claim it as an 'enhancement' rather than a 
'correction'. Very clever
indeed. (See the 7800 reflector on Yahoo)

BTW while the L/O fix is probably called for, most of 
you will find that a
3 Khz roofing filter addition will make little if any 
noticeable
improvement in the type of operation that most of us 
partake in unless
you are a dyed-in-the-wool cw contest op.  Some initial 
reports from
Europe report a significant degradation in receiver 
specs with the 3 Khz
installed. Yikes! What's that all about?

Roofing-filter-mania should start to run its course 
soon I hope.

This 7800 'upgrade' policy along with the recent 7000 
transmit audio
debacle is making me think really hard about any future 
ICOM
purchases right now. After 'owning' the HF radio market 
for a number
of years, I sense some real institutional arrogance 
setting in.  Yaesu is
already there. Just read the 9000 reflector on Yahoo 
for a start.

I still may go for a Pro III soon but must admit the 
Orion II is starting
to look interesting again. I'll pass on the 7800 based 
on these
developments, even if I could afford one.  ;-)

Be it ICOM, Yaesu or Ten Tec, believing the premise 
that a radio
platform will be the state-of-the-art for 10 or 20 
years to come is
simply pure marketing hype. Witness Orion vs. Orion II 
and now 7800
vs. 7800 II or what ever it will be called.

Unhappy 7800 owners should stage a protest at the ICOM 
booths at
Dayton. Perhaps also initiate an e-mail campaign to 
ICOM America and
Dr. Inoue in Japan.

73 de N1LQ-Dave