I got lucky!

ridgescan · #1 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 08:57 PM

I got this today from one of my customers-he said he wanted it to go to someone who loves radios and would care for and enjoy it the way he did

It's the Icom IC-R71A. Beautiful addition to my shack and runs like new! What a blessing and I am grateful.
I have a question though-does anyone here know what the "EEB's HP performance options" upgrade to this radio contained? Apparently this radio got that mod. Thanks

odontia32m · #2 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 09:32 PM

Very nice. Do not let the internal battery die. I believe the cpu will take a dump on them if the battery dies. You have a great customer.

Bob

ridgescan · #3 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 09:48 PM

Hi Bob-yes he's a good guy. He is 74 yrs old and said he had had his time with radiocomm and just lost interest. When I see him again I intend to offer to pay him something for it again-as this is a fantastic rig! Here is a better shot of it and also a shot of the sticker that boasts the upgrade I asked about

a29zuk · #4 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 11:27 PM

I believe EEB stands for Electronic Equipment Bank. If my memory serves me right they sold scanners and amataur radio equipment. I think they got bought out or went out of business in the 90's. Someone can chime in on this and correct me if I'm wrong.

ka3jjz · #5 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 05:48 AM

Actually I understand EEB went down due to the owner scamming the government due to equipment, batteries and other things paid for but never delivered. He went to the slammer, and likely that was a major cause of the company shutting down

I don't know whether he's out of prison or not - it's been a long time since EEB in Virginia was around 73 Mike

ridgescan · #6 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 04:08 PM

Tried to edit this into above post-I gave it a good cleaning-looks almost new

weeksben1 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 04:37 PM

Very nice piece of vintage/retro icom gear.

ridgescan · #8 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:00 PM

Thanks Ben

I respect it and will make damm sure it stays that way! I am trying to figure out exactly when this one was built. I know they were built fron 1984-1996 but no date on the plate nor in the manual. If I figure it out I will post here

ka3jjz · #9 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 08:32 PM

Once again, the wiki's link to the Modern receiver survey on the Universal home page comes to the rescue...

Icom R71A, Icom R72 Receiver IC-R71 IC-R72

73 Mike

gcgrotz · #10 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 09:43 PM

I think there is a Yahoo group for the R71. I know there is one for the R75.

ridgescan · #11 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ka3jjz

Once again, the wiki's link to the Modern receiver survey on the Universal home page comes to the rescue...

Icom R71A, Icom R72 Receiver IC-R71 IC-R72
73 Mike

That's where I got the info in my previous post Mike

still need to know the exact year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gcgrotz

I think there is a Yahoo group for the R71. I know there is one for the R75.

Been there too and, as you might imagine, that group is dried up. I wonder if the serial # has a clue?

nickcarr · #12 (**permalink**) 06-02-2009, 02:36 AM

Ridge,

Any chance you could do a side-by-side (video) comparison of a strong signal on both radios? I'm curious to see what the R71A sounds like compared to the R75. According to the eham.net reviews people claim its excellent on SSB but poor on AM BCB (hence the need for optional filters, etc.)

ridgescan · #13 (**permalink**) 06-02-2009, 10:21 AM

Here's a quick comparison with voice of korea. I will tell you, I am more impressed with the R71, and I am not knocking the R75 at all as it is a fantastic rig. The R71 has more dynamic range-it even has a tone control which helps you shave off even more noise. Believe me-I have been doing comparo's between the two since I got the R71 home

it seems to me that, especially when it comes to weaker sigs, the R71 can weed and pick to the nectar better than the R75. It is more room-filling than the R75 and with that "presence" plus the filters you have better listening. Of course that R71 has some sort of upgrade package in it-I am trying to find out what came in that package.

nickcarr · #14 (**permalink**) 06-02-2009, 09:06 PM

Yes I would agree. The R71 sounds a lot better than you would expect. The R75 seems to suffer from what seems to be the norm these days of "small speaker syndrome" ... My IC-7000 doesn't sound as "full" as your R71 but it's very close.

ridgescan · #15 (**permalink**) 06-02-2009, 09:58 PM

That is a nice rig. I have heard that they put a high quality reciever in those transcievers like yours so I can see that

I must confess I have been enjoying the R71 so much I haven't been running the R75 at all. I guess I may stow it in the closet. No sense in running two

right? Unless someone can think up a logical reason

fritz73 · #16 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 03:15 AM

I can think of a few, I don't know if you have two SW antennas or a splitter for the two radios, but use one as a "monitor" while bandscanning with the other. In other words, park one on a utility or military freq that only gets traffic once in a while, and use the other for everything else. That way when something interesting does pop up you won't miss it. I think I still have an old EEB catalog, if I find it I'll see if it says what the upgrade/mod was.

ridgescan · #17 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 10:14 AM

Thanks fritz

much appreciated on th EEB. Good idea on the use of the R75. Looks like it stays in the loop!

tmfok7 · #18 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 07:06 PM

Nice radio and nice catch! Good that you have a customer who thought of you first! Been awhile since I saw anything written from EEB and had almost forgot they had existed but my past recollection was that that upgrade was a Filter upgrade probably to some Collins filter set with better selectivity!

Enjoy the Radio!

ridgescan · #19 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 07:20 PM

Thank you sir

and I appreciate that! You are probably right on the filters as when I disable both narrow and wide filters, it goes muffled real bad when it should go normal. I have to run wide all the time, then the notch, pbt, nb all are superb in doing their thing.

ratboy · #20 (**permalink**) 06-03-2009, 09:21 PM

The EEB mods were like items on a menu, I just tossed out an old catalog of theirs a while back, so I'm going by memory here, but I think it consisted of an alignment (Some of them are off by a huge amount out of the box), replacement of some audio components, and possibly a filter swap. The R71a is a pretty poor sounding receiver, in AM mode, even with mods done on it. I've had two of them, and they both sounded "rough".

I bought my Yaesu FRG-8800 from EEB in 1985. Due to a screw up on their part, if I had been patient and not called to see what was taking so long, I would have received an R71a instead, with the filter change, etc done, for the price of an aligned FRG-8800! The FRG had a lot better audio than an R71A, but filter wise, it was pretty bad, and soon I was looking for an upgraded receiver for RTTY, and I made the mistake of going to Universal in Reynoldsburg, and playing with the JRC NRD-515 they had on display. Soon I had one, a Gilfer modded one, and 23 years later, I still have it.