R.I.P. Icom R75?

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TailGator911

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I wish you luck with that. Even tho some popular hf radios have left the R75 in the dust, it still is, and always has been, a true Icom classic.
 

GB46

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I wish you luck with that. Even tho some popular hf radios have left the R75 in the dust, it still is, and always has been, a true Icom classic.
Thanks. Well, my portable does outperform the R75 in some respects. As an apartment dweller I can't install an outside antenna, so I have only an inside random wire on the R75. However, whatever I hear on the R75 comes in just as strong, sometimes even stronger, on the portable with just its 40-inch whip. Also, the portable's audio is much more pleasant.

The R75's biggest advantages, besides that nice, smooth tuning dial and selectable tuning steps, are the twin passband tuning and the filter selections. These help me make a weak signal more audible over the high noise level at my location. They actually help a lot more for that than the noise reduction feature of the DSP module.
 

mbott

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I rearranged my tabletop. I just might have room for one now. I was able to get my FRG-7 off the shelf and I just might have room the an R75, too ... if I come across one reasonably priced. Who knows. Good thing "need" has nothing to do with this.

--
Mike
 

n5rv

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I'll have to start stacking.... but I think I have enough. The RSP1A is attempting to hide behind the LCD clock on the right.

I'm pretty much a minimalist.....

81846
 

GB46

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I'll have to start stacking.... but I think I have enough. The RSP1A is attempting to hide behind the LCD clock on the right.

I'm pretty much a minimalist.....
Well, at least you have the emptiest computer desktop I've ever seen. :)

I'm probably even more of a minimalist, although I haven't come up with a decent shack photo yet. It's in the living room on a couple of those little 24-inch tables that slide under the sofa. Just two radios and my laptop.
 

n5rv

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Well, at least you have the emptiest computer desktop I've ever seen. :)

I'm probably even more of a minimalist, although I haven't come up with a decent shack photo yet. It's in the living room on a couple of those little 24-inch tables that slide under the sofa. Just two radios and my laptop.

I have to admit that I am a little OCD...... ;)
 

n5rv

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Also, the real mess is on my workbench directly behind me..... my radio bench is where I can be OCD, the workbench not so much....
 

GB46

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Also, the real mess is on my workbench directly behind me..... my radio bench is where I can be OCD, the workbench not so much....
Well, here's a photo of my listening post, which, being in the living room, isn't really a "shack":

GB46_shack.jpg

As for work benches, I don't have the necessary tools or know-how to work on these radios, so fortunately they're OK as-is.

There's actually one more radio, an ICF-2002 (aka ICF-7600D) which is still in perfect condition after 34 years, but so limited in features that I've put it out of use.
 

GB46

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Nice layout! Now, how do you decide which receiver to listen to? In my case I leave the portable tuned to a frequency on which I'm waiting for activity. The S meter can be seen out of the corner of my eye, so I know when to switch radios. I always use headphones, so I have a second pair for the portable to avoid wearing out the phone jacks in switching back and forth. The portable works fine with just the whip, which is good, because I only have one longwire antenna, and don't like having to disconnect it from the R75.
 

mbott

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Nice layout! Now, how do you decide which receiver to listen to?
Each radio has its advantage, and I'm not going to go into the boring details. The tabletops with the exception of the 7300 are all fed from my Pixel RF Pro-1B through a Cross Country Wireless multicoupler just so I don't have to disconnect the feed to make a change.

--
Mike
 

ArloG

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I read this and had to add. Many electricians and HVAC guys have been fooled by a correct voltage reading on a multimeter, open circuit.
But the device wont run. What's important to check on power supply's is the loaded voltage at the output.
You may read 18.2 VDC at 2A output on the name plate and measure it and call it good.
Once it's plugged into the radio, laptop, whatever and turned on that voltage may very well drop down to something much lower.
 

GB46

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I read this and had to add. Many electricians and HVAC guys have been fooled by a correct voltage reading on a multimeter, open circuit.
But the device wont run. What's important to check on power supply's is the loaded voltage at the output.
You may read 18.2 VDC at 2A output on the name plate and measure it and call it good.
Once it's plugged into the radio, laptop, whatever and turned on that voltage may very well drop down to something much lower.
That was one of the first things I checked when the R75 was malfunctioning. My 4 amp supply under load didn't show any voltage drop until the radio suddenly sprang back into life. There was a slight voltage drop then, but I forget by how much. I also tested the current drain during the malfunction by putting the multimeter in series between the receiver and supply. When the receiver wouldn't turn on there were still a few milliamps showing, so something in the logic circuit was still powered up, but couldn't activate the relay that switches the power on.

Now that a couple of months have passed with the radio operating properly I'm not worried about it. The only thing that occurs to me now is that when I put the radio back in place I also had to reconnect the power leads to the power supply's binding posts. That connection could have been intermittent all along, but it certainly didn't show up during my tests.
 

GB46

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I enjoy seeing shack pics, that include the couch and easy chair shacks.
I haven't gone the easy chair route yet. If I did I'd probably doze off watching digital transmissions being decoded. That can get pretty boring at times, especially when fax images are coming down, which is like watching the grass grow.
 
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