RadioBanter - View Single Post - Icom R-75 question

January 1st 04, 05:11 AM

In article ,
(Kenneth) wrote:

snip
= = = Telamon
= = = wrote in message

I¹m not spending hundreds of dollars on a radio that must be
modified to work as advertised.

The Icom R75 does not have QC problems I'm aware of. It does
have design problems and is the reason people have the units
modified.

For example a ten-tec RX-340? This one have some flaws too and cost
$3,950.The sync selectable sideband lose look relatively
easily,Passport recomend an external Sherwood SE-3 [500.00],poor
dynamic range,static crashes sound harsher than on analog
receivers.Spurious signal noted around 6MHZ segment,notch filter does
not work in AM,Sync selectable sideband or ISB modes,Noise blanker
not effective ect, ect, ect,.What about a Drake R8B? Cost $1,495,
This one have a lot of flaws too,for example the power supply run
very hot,[a remedy is to use an external power supply],bassy sound
"virtually requieres a outboard speaker" [Passport],a cheap
mechanical encoder used to have an above -average failure rate [Why
not an optical one like in the AOR 7030+],a lot of birdies and
background hiss [from the syntetiser board and some Poor shielding
and grounding techniques ect ect ect.....My R75 cost only $450.00
with free DSP included.It have installed 2.4khz,3.3khz,6khz filters,
Pete's sensitivity mod,339 comparator sync mod,Phidelity mod all this
mods for less than $50.00 and not only "work as advertised" but work
better than a R8B [and others expensive receivers] for dxing.

snip

The Ten Tec RX340, Drake R8B and AOR 7030 perform to their
specifications and function as expected based on the literature that
describe them. ICOM made the decision not to fix the R75 design problems
so people that want it to work right have to modify it. I consider the
R75 as described to be false advertising. Cost has nothing to do with
the issue of whether the radio performs as advertised.

I use all three radios with external bookshelf speakers or headphones
because they sound better than the internal ones. The internal speakers
are OK on all three radios.

The improvement an SE-3 would bring to the RX340 would not be worth the
money to me. I don¹t know where you got the information on static
crashes sounding worse than on other receivers. I have had no sign
spurious signals around 6 MHz either. All of the radios functions are
not available or even make sense in all modes of operation. All
functions are available and work as advertised. The noise blanker works
against some noise types and not others just like any other radio I¹ve
used.

The Drake R8B does not run hot. Warm would be the best description. I
have measured the case temperature to be just a few degrees above room,
which is perfectly normal for a unit with an internal power supply. It
is my understanding that ICOM has made several radios that you can¹t
keep your hand on however.

I¹m not going to drop $450 - $500 bucks on a radio that I need to hack
for the AGC and sync to work right and I disagree that even after doing
so the radio ³is better² than the Ten-Tec, Drake or AOR receivers that
is just your opinion not based on fact.

These days I¹m surprised someone has not sued ICOM.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California