[OKDXA] Icom 7700/7800

[Jay Bromley]

HI John and all,
As the article mentions, the final section is different the 7700 is using 
MRF150s for it's 200 watt brick.  These are the same devices like used in 
the PW1 and Yaesu Quadra amplifiers.  I am sure many others.

There were some updates on the 7700 DSP chips.  Not uncommon for rigs like 
this to go through.  A little faster, a little better here and there, but I 
doubt you could tell the improvement in real life.  The roofing filters are 
a new design for low IMD, that will make the numbers better.  Many guys sold 
off their 7800 for a pair of 7700.  To be honest these were older 7800's 
that were not upgraded for the most part.  So again it is like comparing 
apples to oranges.  I haven't talked to anyone yet that has both a new 7700 
and 7800 at the same time that made any comments one way or the other.

The 7600 will be a cross it would seem between the Pro 3 and the 7700.  Dual 
Watch will be back (this wasn't missed by me), Keyboard input for RTTY/PSK, 
and the screen size will be like on the 7700.  It will be a 100 watt 13 volt 
final.  The both rigs have a feature call CENT/FIX on the bandscope, it 
allows the rig to more or less become a real spectrum analyzer.  All bands 
edges on CENT/FIX come pre set up for the whole band edge to band edge.  If 
you see something of interest, turn the knob and the cursor chases over to 
what you what to hear.  However on large bands like 6m you can edit this 
down to a smaller slice of the band.  The old features of setting "SPAN" are 
still there as well.

For more info on the 7600 you can go here: 
http://www.ab4oj.com/icom/ic7600/main.html  Please bare in mind this is all 
preliminary on the 7600.  Will the 7600 make it to Dayton?  Time will tell.

The SDR stuff is a whole bunch of fun, but I doubt a serious contester or 
DXer would care much for one as a main rig at this point in time.  The 
reason is speed, with SDR you are all the time playing with these rigs. 
Even though rigs like the K3, 7800, FT-2000, TS-2000, and the Ten Tec Orion, 
etc, are consider by some to be SDR rigs, usually they are more of a stable 
platform to begin with, hence little upgrading is done.  Some more than 
others.  I can remember being at the Ten Tec factory tour and this was also 
mentioned on their reflector, they took issue about the Orion being an SDR. 
According to TenTec's brass at the time it was not, however the wind could 
be blowing another way now.  To me the rigs from Flex, TAPR, ADAT, etc are 
full blown SDRs.  You have to be more of a homebrewer or love to play hard 
on these rigs instead of monitoring the bands for a rare new one.  For a 
contester the last thing he needs is a rig or computer to lock up and say 
reboot in the middle of a good run.  Also they don't need to dig down in one 
menu after another to get to something fast.  Again these are just my 
opinions and not fact, you mileage will vary on what your belief's are.  You 
have to have confidence in  your equipment to chase DX or to contest with, 
so if you think one brand is better there is not doubt you will do better 
than if you are not sure of a particular piece of gear.  In others words, a 
Ford man will never be caught dead driving a Chevy or Dodge! :-)

73 de jay..


>I found the QST review of the Icom 7700 to be pretty interesting, and was 
>surprised that it actually upgraded some features from the 7800. I had 
>always figured that it was a 7800 with only one receiver.  Is anyone on the 
>list using either a 7700 or 7800?
>
> 73s John AA5JG
>
>
> P.S I see that the 7600 is coming out next year, as a replacement for the 
> PRO3.
>
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