Icom: Icom ID-52A Plus

[N4DJC]

The new Icom ID-52A Plus was announced, USB-C charging and will connect to Android devices via Bluetooth for Terminal and Access Mode. A minor upgrade. I guess the D75A pushed them a bit.

https://www.icomjapan.com/news/4138/

 

[K6GBW]

Really good radios. I look forward to the day that Icom decides to make a similar radio for DMR.

 

[vagrant]

@K6GBW - Your patience and immortality is fantastic.

Joking aside, it would be nice if they did that for the amateur side as well as with receivers. My expectations are set for "no".

 

[N4DJC]

@K6GBW - Your patience and immortality is fantastic.

Joking aside, it would be nice if they did that for the amateur side as well as with receivers. My expectations are set for "no".

I’d agree, adding never

 

[K6GBW]

You know what I always say…I have a dream! Wait…no, thats been used already.

 

[gjurrens48_n2gj]

Really good radios. I look forward to the day that Icom decides to make a similar radio for DMR.

I sincerely doubt that will ever happen. For one thing, it's pretty hard to compete; with the cost of the Chinese radios. For instance, I just got an ad from Temu or Ali Express, I forget which, offering Baofeng dual-band HTs for $12! Imagine ICOM, Kenwood or Yaesu bringing a $12 radio to market?! I recently acquired a very capable Baofeng DM-1701 for $42 plus New Mexico sales tax (free shipping) that arrived in 7 days! It took me 15 minutes to upgrade the firmware to opengd77 'turning a crappy commercial radio into a decent ham radio. For this reason, I don't believe we will ever see a DMR radio from the big 3.

 

[gjurrens48_n2gj]

I have a question: I have a fully-programmed ID-51A Plus, and just got my ICOM 60th anniversary edition ID-52A Plus the other day. I have programmed a couple of local repeaters and joined the El Paso DSTAR net last night...all manually. I have a 32 GB SDHC microSD card and thought I could do a simple export/import (without consulting the manuals -- and there are LOTS of manuals that I've downloaded!)
I have RT Systems stuff for all my radios, including the 51A (in fact, I have had that radio for so long, I have both the v. 4 & 5 CDs!) Alas, exporting from the RT Systems software and attempting to import the tab/csv files into the new ICOM 52 Plus software is a no go. And RTS tells me they have no ETA for their software update to the 52A Plus. I'm thinking about sending the '51A data to the ICOM software and doing an export from that. Now I'm wondering if even the FORMAT of the two radio's cards are compatible. I will appreciate your thoughts! Thank you, from Gerry Jurrens N2GJ, ABQ NM USA

 

[sargern1]

Gerry, according to RT even the SD cards are not compatible. As of last Thursday evening, RT DOES have the programming software available for the 52A Plus, I have it and it copies and downloads just like the other RT programs.
Now my complaint! Even with the GPS, GPS logger and anything else I can think of that can drain the battery, this radio EATS BATTERIEs!! I've had a 51, 51plus, 52 and now the 52 plus, and none of the other radios go through a battery like the 52A plus! The other radios I can get anywhere between 12-14 hors but the 52A plus I'm lucky to get10 hours on a fully charged battery.
Anyone else experienced this issue? If so, how did you or have you not solved this problem???
73's
Garry, NM5GB, Roswell, NM

 

[K6GBW]

Just saw that Kenwood is making a new mobile radio. I thought they were gonna go the way of the Dodo! So there IS hope! HOPE....it's a four letter word!