Icom-7000

[ts548]

Hey All,

I'm fixing to pickup my first HF/All Mode rig and I really like the Icom-7000. I've been reading reviews, etc at eham and it seems like the 7000 likes to let the smoke out of it. Can you tell me if this has been fixed by Icom? I would hate to drop the dime on the rig and then after a short bit have to send it back to be fixed.

[W9BU]

You have to take the user comments on eHam with a few grains of salt. For every 100 owners who are happy with their radios, there will be 10 who don't like it and it's those 10 who get on the Internet to complain. The other 90 are busy enjoying the radio.

With 294 user comments, the average rating is 4.3. Look at the number of ratings that are 4 or 5 and compare them to the number of low ratings. Also, look at the comments with the low ratings...usually because something failed. So, ask yourself why it failed. Bad power? Bad antenna? Bad installation? Bad operator? Most of the time you don't know the whole story and the guys who complain the loudest usually won't give you the whole story.

The IC-7000 has been in production since 2005. If there were issues with the radio, I have confidence that Icom would have worked them out by now. The people I know with IC-7000s are happy with them.

[W2NJS]

While I agree 100% with the above comments, if I were in the market for a new HF transceiver of the 7000 style I would closely investigate Icom's new 7100. I owned and used a 706 for several years and found it to be a very good and reliable unit, so I believe that Icom definitely has its feet on the ground with this entire series of radios.

[ts548]

Thanks. It seems to be a problem with the finals blowing. That's why I was wondering.

[prcguy]

I know several people who "upgraded" from an Icom 706MKIIG to the 7000 and they all wish they had their 706s back. For fixed station use with a good antenna the 7000 is much more prone to receiver overload and other problems but for mobile its less of a problem. Check Rob Sherwood's receiver performance site and you will see the 7000 is rated very low and down with some known crummy low cost SW receivers.

I also hear directly from 7000 users that the radio is very sensitive to input voltage and will shut down in the 11 or so volt range where other radios still work fine.

prcguy

[n0nhp]

As the owner of two 7Ks, The radio is very good. I have owned both for more than three years. The mobile moves between two vehicles and the base is my primary radio. A tuner is pretty much a must. The radio will shut down power to mis-matches and I suppose eventually die. I do not like the fact that the boxes run pretty warm even just receiving. I mounted a small fan recycled from an old video board to the top air intake of the base. I wired it to the back plane and comes on when the transceiver comes on. That has helped the radio stay much cooler. It is not a radio that is designed to run full power digital modes. That would get it very hot and probably assist the smoke migration. I am very close to WAS and DXCC at 5W on digital modes though.
Many of the older hams that don't understand digital signal processing have panned the radio for poor audio, front-end overload etc. It takes a bit more setup time and tweaking to get your mode tuned than the old radios with two crystal filters and a roofing filter.
When I am in the chat rooms with other HF ute listeners, I am pulling out as much or more than many with dedicated receivers costing many times what the 7K does. Again, antenna and location will make much of the difference.

Bottom line, if you are looking for a primary contest / RTTY transmitter, save your Benjamins. If you are looking for a good priced mobile / station transceiver for light rag chew / QRP digi mode use, I would buy another if I needed it.

YMMV

Bruce