Icom: New D-STAR handheld: Icom ID-52A/E

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dmaria

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Looking forward to this one, but the price will probably be out of my budget.
 

ergbert

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Looks nice, I would love to see some comparisons to the Kenwood TH-D74a. I'm eventually going to add a D-STAR handheld to my roster, as I work toward collecting one (or more) of each digital mode.
 

Whiskey3JMC

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Looks nice but I would have liked to have seen a full numeric keypad. I owned an ID-51a briefly before selling it to go towards a Kenwood TH-D74a, much easier of an HT to program on the fly, tune the VFO, etc
 

K9DWB

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Thank me for the ICOM release of the ID-52. I just bought my FT3D last week so here we are. Same kind of thing like when you wash the car it'll rain about a half hour later. To me it doesn't seem to matter what digital mode is on a radio, I happen to be about 5 miles too far away from the repeaters to touch them. I can hear them though. So that means go get a bigger external antenna. Because why stop buying stuff now. :cool:

PS Jason at Ham Radio 2.0 talks about this new kid on the block if anybody's interested in it. Ham Radio 2.0 ID-52 YouTube
 

Hit_Factor

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Icom is still dreaming of a D-Star world. As long as prices for DMR are so much cheaper and Icom's are so high, it will never happen.
We have quite a few DStar repeaters here in SW Michigan and very few DMR. It's not only based on price of equipment.

I bought a reservation at HRO for the ID-52. Sold one of my ID-51 last week to make room.
 

jaspence

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Come to the east side of the state and try and find a D-Star. I have 6 DMR repeaters that I can access with my HT. I lived in Kalamazoo county when D-Star came out and the hospitals had a net each month using D-Star. I had the first IC-91AD and ou ARES leader (Art Snapper) had the first mobile in the area.
 

K9DWB

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I myself count the radio function and operation more than color screen such as my FT3D, but a nice color screen is a good bonus. Has it been confirmed on the ID-52 is color and touch or not? The YouTube that I saw with Jason/Ham Radio 2.0 looked like it's a color screen. What am I talking about, I am not in the market to buy unless I grab a Kenwood TH-D74.
 

dmaria

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I myself count the radio function and operation more than color screen such as my FT3D, but a nice color screen is a good bonus. Has it been confirmed on the ID-52 is color and touch or not? The YouTube that I saw with Jason/Ham Radio 2.0 looked like it's a color screen. What am I talking about, I am not in the market to buy unless I grab a Kenwood TH-D74.

Yes, it was confirmed by Ray Novak that it will NOT be a touch screen. I am happy about that because I don't want to be afraid of touching the screen and accidently changing something. He also said it will have 2500 DR memories. A huge improvement over the ID-51's 750.
 

N4DJC

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Yes, it was confirmed by Ray Novak that it will NOT be a touch screen. I am happy about that because I don't want to be afraid of touching the screen and accidently changing something. He also said it will have 2500 DR memories. A huge improvement over the ID-51's 750.

I’m not a fan of a touch screen either.
 

K9DWB

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IMO touch screens can be a blessing and curse at the same time. It can make a radio front panel cleaner with less buttons, but then the on-screen buttons will be small and less than ideal tactile feedback IMO. And the screen is a fingerprint magnet.

If done well a touch screen could be OK, but I think the physical size limitation of an HT means physical button bank is typically better.
 
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