bought a dstar HT yesterday

[stevolene]

icom has the discontinued IC80-AD closed out for 329.00, anyone have one of these little HT's ? Am I in for pain and heartache as some others have spoken of with this HT? LOL

they say its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but since I know nothing about dstar maybe Ill get lucky

anyone have any experience with this radio?

 

[N8IAA]

icom has the discontinued IC80-AD closed out for 329.00, anyone have one of these little HT's ? Am I in for pain and heartache as some others have spoken of with this HT? LOL

they say its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but since I know nothing about dstar maybe Ill get lucky

anyone have any experience with this radio?

Cool little radio. I have one in the shack. Download the free Icom software to program it up. It is fairly easy by hand also. Great wide receive too. Had an 880, but it wasn't even half the radio the 80 is.
Larry

 

[KE5MC]

I have not looked at the Icom version of programming software for the 80. Hopefully it has the DStar Calculator tool that makes it easy to setup repeater access. Using that tool will give you insight into the additional information needed to access a repeater.

Also, look into getting your call sign registered and getting your static IP addresses. They are not needed directly for the radio, but for call sign routing on the internet if you want to reach beyond the local repeater.

icom has the discontinued IC80-AD closed out for 329.00, anyone have one of these little HT's ? Am I in for pain and heartache as some others have spoken of with this HT? LOL

they say its hard to teach an old dog new tricks but since I know nothing about dstar maybe Ill get lucky

anyone have any experience with this radio?

 

[profiledescent]

Also, look into getting your call sign registered

I'll add to this, register ONE time only, at ONE registration site, only. It does NOT have to be a local D-STAR repeater group. One registration gets you into the Trust Server, and will propagate your call sign throughout the system.

 

[stevolene]

thanks for input and advise , definitely looking forward to this HT getting here

 

[stevolene]

everyone was spot on as far as the IC80 manual , very confusing , have the RT systems programming software and data cable on the way, hope that helps as for as the dstar. The 2 and 23 centimter bands are a piece of cake, seems the radio knows which way to go on those. Will try it for awhile, then it will visit ebay I'm sure

 

[KE5MC]

RTS software and cable is good 'stuff'. Now if you play that "old dog" card nothing is going to help.

It does have the calculator function. Just work your way down the pick list for state/city/freq/callsign...

It will format the information and place it in the memory location of your choice.

Good Luck! Keep us posted on your progress or not.

Mike

P.S. Some D-Star stacks enable/turn-on an echo-back mode. You can do a short count and after you unkey it will play back what the 'stack' receiver heard from you. One man radio check.

 

[stevolene]

this HT is the most complicated radio Ive ever dealt with, have a NIB that will be traded next Saturday for whatever I can find from yaesu . This radio is even hard to program 2 and 440, wouldn't even attempt the digital stuff,

 

[AK9R]

this HT is the most complicated radio Ive ever dealt with

In your first post in this thread, you asked if you were in for pain and heartache with this radio. It seems that 14 days later, you have answered your own question.

Next time, before dropping $300 on a new radio, you might want to give the comments from other users, aka "reviews", a bit more credence. I also suggest that you try to get some "touchy, feely" time with a new radio before you buy. With most widely-distributed radios, there are plenty of opportunities to evaluate the radio before purchase so that you don't spend money unwisely.

BTW, your post from last night revived a 2-year old thread and added very little to that thread. I moved your post here to tie it in with the much more recent thread you created when you bought this radio.

 

[stevolene]

"BTW, your post from last night revived a 2-year old thread and added very little to that thread. I moved your post here to tie it in with the much more recent thread you created when you bought this radio."

thanks for critiquing my post and moving to the "proper" location , as far as the touchy/feely suggestion its a good one, however, its hard to get touchy with a radio that's 2000 miles away, there are no local ham shops in my area, the reviews I read were more favorable than not on this HT, while I'm frustrated I'm not giving up, its just a different process then what I'm used to, was the same situation when I bought my first digital scanner
as far as giving credence to reviews on forums, you can as 1 question and get 10 different answers, I didn't realize replies in discussions were always meant to "add" , after this response I will make sure and research my replies with fresh and exciting tidbits of joy

 

[stevolene]

"Cool little radio. I have one in the shack. Download the free Icom software to program it up. It is fairly easy by hand also. Great wide receive too. Had an 880, but it wasn't even half the radio the 80 is.
Larry"

strange thing happened last night, when I tried to download the software from Icom my anti virus stopped it and tagged it as adware danger

 

[kayn1n32008]

"Cool little radio. I have one in the shack. Download the free Icom software to program it up. It is fairly easy by hand also. Great wide receive too. Had an 880, but it wasn't even half the radio the 80 is.
Larry"

strange thing happened last night, when I tried to download the software from Icom my anti virus stopped it and tagged it as adware danger

The Icom software is garbage, at least for the IC-92ad. I programmed some basic stuff, but waited for the RT-software to arrive before I built an extensive profile for the radio. Plus, I was able to, for the most part, just dump my old FT-8800 profile into it, then I added the DStar repeaters. Much easier software to deal with than the Icom stuff.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[profiledescent]

The Icom software is garbage, ......... but waited for the RT-software to arrive before I built an extensive profile for the radio. Plus, I was able to, for the most part, just dump my old FT-8800 profile into it, then I added the DStar repeaters. Much easier software to deal with than the Icom stuff.

I share this view. Since being introduced to RT Sysytems, initially used on a 2820, I have purchased it for 5 other radios. I use it on ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, and Powerwerx. The ability to drag from one radio's page to the other is an awesome time saver.

 

[AK9R]

In this post, you say you are going to get rid of the radio in a week.

...have a NIB that will be traded next Saturday for whatever I can find from yaesu...

In this post, you say you aren't giving up.

...while I'm frustrated I'm not giving up...

its hard to get touchy with a radio that's 2000 miles away,

2000 miles? Try something like 119 miles. That's how far it is from downtown Chattanooga to the Ham Radio Outlet store in northeast suburban Atlanta. Granted, I'm assuming you can get to the HRO store. But, if you are going to blame distance for your inability to check out a new radio before you buy it, at least be accurate in your claims.

 

[stevolene]

I think you need a hug , but if you want accuracy Ill play along while I have a minute, HRO Atlanta had none in stock, also Id rather deal with hemorrhoids than fight with ATL traffic. Huntsville AL is actually closer to me at 102 miles, both these mileages are as the crow flies, Huntsville much more pleasant trip, gigaparts didn't have this one in stock either ..... I'm sure there are plenty of us out there that have bought radios through the years without a "test drive", just the nature of the beast ........getting way to far off base hear anyway, its not the radio its the operator .... /

 

[n8nnx]

Ic80ad

Stevolene, did you end up selling the radio? If not check your private messages. I am interested in buying it from you. Thanks.

 

[n8nnx]

Ic-80ad

Please check your private messages again.