[NvHam] IC-701 FS

[Jack/AE7DX]

I am posting this item in hopes of finding a local buyer before listing 
it elsewhere:

Economic circumstances, plus the opportunity to acquire a 70-foot 
crankup tower, persuades me to sell my ICOM IC-701 HF transceiver with 
the IC-SM2 desk mic. This is a 100-watt 160-10 meter SSB/CW/FSK rig but 
does not and cannot have the WARC bands.  The rig is in excellent 
condition and has worked well for me in both casual SSB use and in CW 
and SSB contests. I originally bought the rig with contesting in mind 
and, given the affordability of the rig plus the very good receiver 
characteristics, this was an easy choice.

The rig is a digital readout with resolution to 100Hz and covers 1.8 to 
29.9999MHz plus 15MHz WWV with extended receive coverage beyond the 
Amateur bands by grounding a pin on the accessory connector on the rear 
panel. The '701 has dual VFOs with front-panel selection so you can 
rx/tx with any combination. The rig has receiver passband tuning, an 
effective noise blanker, RIT, a 10db attenuator that can be switched in 
or out and a narrow audio filter that is switched in when operating in 
the "CW Narrow" mode. I understand that there are INRAD filters 
available for this rig but this one has the stock filters. The '701 has 
the capability of being used with VHF transverters via an RCA jack on 
the rear panel (you'd have to consult the manual for details on that). 
There are also RCA connectors on the rear of the rig that will allow use 
of an external receive antenna which is great for using that 800 foot 
Beverage in the 160 contest!

The '701 transmitter has an SSB speech processor and VOX plus is fully 
metered allowing you to look at audio compression, ALC, power output 
(although I do not know how accurate that is) final collector current 
and collector voltage. The transmitter can operate FSK (RTTY) with 
either a wide or narrow shift. Mark/space is selected by a contact 
closure on the accessory connector...that's for interface with a polar 
relay for those old enough to remember such things :>)

There are only two things that I have found wrong with the rig, both of 
which are relatively minor. First, if you attempt to use the rig when it 
is cold (temperatures in the 40 to 50 degree range) the synthesizer 
exhibits some instability (random hopping in frequency anywhere from a 
few hundred Hertz to a couple of kilohertz). Since I have the rig in my 
garage shack it does get fairly chilly, even though the room is 
insulated, so I leave the rig on all the time so that it stay warm 
regardless of room temperature and the instability never appears. 
Second, when changing bands the rig defaults to the bottom of the band 
(1.800MHz, 3.500MHz, 7.000MHz, etc) which means having to tune up the 
band to get to your desired frequency. I *think* there is some sort of 
"CMOS-type" battery that needs to be replaced but I have never looked 
for it and don't know how it is configured. Tuning up-band quickly is 
made easy by a "fast tune" mode that allows the synthesizer to step 
10kHz at a time instead of the normal 100Hz steps.

Aside from those two problems this rig has given me excellent service on 
all bands, including 160, on CW and SSB. I have not had occasion to run 
RTTY but the rig does put out power in the RTTY position if you key the 
transmitter manually, so I know it does work in that mode. Physically 
the rig is in surprising condition with little evidence of wear. There 
are a few places where one can see very slight imperfections but these 
are all quite minor. The front panel almost looks as good as the day it 
first came out of the carton from ICOM so someone obviously took good 
care of this rig! I do have a copy of the manual in pdf format which I 
can send as an attachment in an e-mail to the buyer. The rig requires a 
13.8 volt power supply at a maximum current of about 18 amps.

I am asking $150.00 for the IC-701 and IC-SM2 mic. I live in Silver 
Springs and work in Reno so I can arrange to meet someone for delivery 
anywhere in Reno/Sparks/CC/Carson Valley/Fernley/Fallon/etc. If you have 
any questions please contact me via e-mail.

Thanks,

Jack, AE7DX