IS ICOM ever going to release an SDR Transceiver?

Status
Not open for further replies.

jdobbs2001

Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
221
All the guts inside will be FPGA/ADC/DACs etc.. software upgradable etc.. but the same front end as a IC-7600 for example etc.. (you can have all the knobs) but do away with the whole Superhet and complexity involved.

At that point an IC-7600SDR can have a proper spectrum scope and waterfall, which is a joke compared to what you get now for under 1K.

Right now they seem to be missing the ground floor, I wonder if they are working on one and will surprise the market with an awesome SDR product that will blow out Flex,etc.. out of the water.
 

AK9R

Lead Wiki Manager and almost an Awesome Moderator
Super Moderator
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
9,290
Location
Central Indiana
I wonder if the "Big 3" are concerned about the software development and support aspect of an SDR radio. I don't know how often Flex releases firmware or software updates, but my impression is that Elecraft is routinely tweaking their code resulting in frequent updates. The danger of this approach, and Elecraft fans admit it, is that sometimes an update to fix one problem or add a new feature breaks something else in the code. Or, worse yet, an update takes away a feature that somebody liked. This can create a customer support nightmare.

BTW, Icom added a waterfall feature in the recent IC-7700 firmware update. Supposedly, the IC-7600 architecture doesn't have enough processor power to support a waterfall display which is why we haven't seen a similar update for that model.
 

jdobbs2001

Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
221
I wonder if the "Big 3" are concerned about the software development and support aspect of an SDR radio. I don't know how often Flex releases firmware or software updates, but my impression is that Elecraft is routinely tweaking their code resulting in frequent updates. The danger of this approach, and Elecraft fans admit it, is that sometimes an update to fix one problem or add a new feature breaks something else in the code. Or, worse yet, an update takes away a feature that somebody liked. This can create a customer support nightmare.

BTW, Icom added a waterfall feature in the recent IC-7700 firmware update. Supposedly, the IC-7600 architecture doesn't have enough processor power to support a waterfall display which is why we haven't seen a similar update for that model.

I think the reason for that is those companies are rushing to market products and the customers being the Beta testers, but paying for the privilege.

If the Japanese release an SDR radio, I highly suspect it will be pretty refined in terms of plug it and go like the Appliance transceivers they sell today.

The Italians are coming out with some real neat stuff that I would say is plug in and go/refined. ie such as the FDM-F2 and I suspect the FDM-DUO transciever they are releasing soon.

The ADAT A-200 has been release I think in 2008 but I never heard much about that product.
 

ElroyJetson

I AM NOT YOUR TECH SUPPPORT.
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 8, 2002
Messages
3,685
Location
DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP PROGRAMMING YOUR RADIO. NO.
It seems to me that Icom lags behind its competitors when it comes to implementing new features and technologies. For example, in the commercial sector, Icom was the LAST company (that I know of) to include the voice channel annunciation feature in any of their radios. Such a simple feature, and Icom was very late to market with it. Granted, it's not quite fair to compare Icom's amateur radio division with their commercial products division, but even when looking at their amateur products, I'm not seeing Icom taking the lead in HF rigs. I think Yaesu holds the high ground in HF products at this point, and do not expect to see Icom overtaking them any time soon.

I really look forward to seeing what Yaesu will do when they decide to create their first contest class full SDR based HF radio. Something to outdo the FT-DX9000 in an full SDR implementation.
 

RocketNJ

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
1,039
Location
Pequannock, NJ
BTW, Icom added a waterfall feature in the recent IC-7700 firmware update. Supposedly, the IC-7600 architecture doesn't have enough processor power to support a waterfall display which is why we haven't seen a similar update for that model.

Sorta reminds me of the DMU-2000 for the Yaesu radios. Built on a Celeron processor architecture and barely enough memory to do the things it does now. That's why people have been ditching the DMU in favor of an SDR receiver such as the SDR-IQ.

had Yaesu spent a little more money and at least had a hardware platform that they could upgrade they then could introduce new features. But why do that? Just sell the consumer a new radio!
 

RocketNJ

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
1,039
Location
Pequannock, NJ
Will be interesting to see what YaeKenCom comes out with (if anything) as far as SDR.

I have the Flex 6500 and it is definitely a lot more plug n play than the 3000 or 5000. Performance is great and best thing Flex did was get away from Firewire interface.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top