Icom: You just lost a long time customer ICOM...

[kc9gld]

After years of buying ICOM radios, I've made the determination to abandon ICOM. The direction of their quality has consistantly refused to address their problems. In the early 2000's Alinco did the same thing, and that is why I moved to ICOM under the advice of my elmer. 2 days ago while having a qso mobile on simplex, the problems resurfaced. ICOM V 8000 mobile radios will completely lose all audio, you must shut the power off, then back on again, and it will be ok for awhile. The knobs, volume and squelch wiggle around horribly, the micro switch WILL go bad in the microphone, I've been through 5 microphones in 11 years with that radio. The ICOM 718 is the only radio I've not experienced any problems with of that brand. I spent 2 hours searching reviews, available 2 meter monoband mobiles, only to discover whoever the idiot is that designes mobile radios with a menu driven squelch needs to go into another line of work. Mobile, duh, dealing with a menu while driving? ICOM makes 1 with a knob, but again with the microphone. Yeasu is my answer, FT 2980 R , I may buy 2 and give 1 away to a new ham...

 

[N4GIX]

Heck, even the relatively new Kenwood TM-V71A still has mechanical squelch and volume knobs! Sometimes "old school tech" is the best option...

 

[wrath]

Honestly both Icom and Yaesu have been in a race to find the cheapest low resolution ,low contrast screen for awhile .I left Icom when I got my 7000 and moved to Kenwood I have 3 ,710 ga a 74A , i do have a yaesu FT 1 ,and i will probably buy a 400 the FT2 display sucks by my eyes ,i have a brand new IF 92AD sitting in its box for same reason if you can't see it to use it ,forget it the Icom 5100 is also an unholy mess of a screen avoided that ,and the whole issue of everything is a pricey option, at one time my nickname was Mr . Icom because that's all I used ,now Kenwood has the advantage parts are cheap and plentiful ,they ship with more mounting hardware than you need and there displays are bright crisp and highly visible ,i contemplated a 7610 but for the price it didn't offer me anything I couldn't do with existing equipment ,there flagship aren't premium well thought radios anymore , they all have weakness and stuff that wears out prematurely , i have much older ham gear going back 30 years that is better quality than what Icom is pumping out today. They are no longer a destination ,they are an "also ran " brand .

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[mmckenna]

I used to use a few Icom radios back in the 90's and early 2000's. Both for amateur and for work. The radios were OK. The microphones were always the issue. I spent a fair amount of time replacing the PTT buttons on their mics and gluing cases back together. I sort of stopped buying their stuff.