[ICOM] New IC-7700 announced at Dayton

[Adam Farson]

Hi Alex,

Many thanks for your comments. On the analogue meter: in a word, "Nein -
kommt nicht in Frage." The TFT screen does a fine job of emulating an
analogue meter, complete with ballistics and pointer shadow. There is no
room on the panel - or in the chassis - for a traditional analogue meter. I
do not have an issue with this - if modern airliners and military aircraft
have "glass cockpits", why shouldn't modern radios also have them?

I do not believe that Icom will undertake so major an architectural change
as adding Dual Watch, as this would push the IC-7700 considerably above the
intended price point. At the $6K price level, the IC-7700 will probably sell
very well in its intended target markets.

Cheers for now, 73,
Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ


-----Original Message-----
From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Alex
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 04:06
To: ICOM Reflector
Subject: RE: [ICOM] New IC-7700 announced at Dayton

Hi Adam,

>I would have liked to see Dual Watch; I often use it in conjunction 
>with Split. During 20m or 40m QSO's with friends in the US, I sometimes 
>transmit below the US phone band to get away from the QRM. Split + Dual 
>Watch comes in very handy for such cases. (Canada has no sub-bands by 
>emission type, so there is no regulatory issue here.)

I most often use it to find out where the DX is listening when they are
split and are using RIT, or even just to see how the pile up is behaving for
timing purposes. During contesting I use it to find multipliers on the same
band, and if it's a rare one I may just have it sit there waiting for the
pile up to thin out a bit before wasting too much energy calling the mult
when it's impossible for to get through anyway. The omission of Dual Watch
even in a contest rig is rather strange.

Since the rig is not approved yet by the FCC (has an application even been
sent yet?) things may change, and this announcement may be a feeler to see
what people think of it. Maybe there's a chance they'll put it back in
(together with an analog meter, pretty please? :)  ).

73,
--Alex KR1ST




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