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Old February 5th 07, 11:22 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
[email protected] abown68@gmail.com is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Feb 2007
Posts: 8
Default Icom R71: How well does it stack up today?

On Feb 5, 9:15 am, " wrote:
On Feb 4, 9:04 pm, wrote:





Andy - are you back in the US now? I had an Icom R70 for a while and
loved it despite the weird end of band tuning thing and the
ergonomics. All-in-all I would consider it one of the top "DX
machines". I sent it to a friend of mine in CO to use. My present
collection includes and R-5000, R72, and NRD-525.


I can't figure why my wife's name was in the header on the last two
posts of mine (???)


Frank
K3YAZ
Tucson


Hi Frank


I'm still living near Dubai working at a college. By the way, I'm from
the UK originally, not the US.


I must admit, I've been very tempted by both the R-5000 and the
NRD-525. I bought an R-5000 on eBay a few years back but it was
faulty. It had great audio, though. I really like the R71 and think I
may spring for an R75 some time soon. Mind you, I was telling you that
about 3 or 4 years ago. Still, I plan to buy one before the supplies
run out as I'd like to get one brand new.


If you had to choose between the 525 and the R-5000, which would you
keep?


Cheers


Andy


This is an extremely hard choice. They are comparable, however, I've
had three NRD-525's and two had the classic "JRC hiss" while the
present one is very quiet and clean audio wise. Despite being good
receivers the hiss was very annoying so I unloaded the first two. This
is my first R-5000 and it's a top notch receiver. It probably has the
best xtal filters of any radio I've had. I did upgrade the 6 kHz AM
filter (Inrad) and added the 500 Hz CW filter. I actually prefer it
over the R75 that I had only from a "feel" standpoint. The R75 was an
excellent performer but I tend to be a "knobulator!" The bottom line
is I think it would be a personal choice. Get both of them and let me
know which one you like best! I also like the R72 I have despite the
lack of advanced features. Very solid, simple receiver similar to the
FRG-100 but it doesn't have the local FM intermod problem that made my
FRG-100s rather useless in this location.

Frank- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I've often thought about getting another R-5000. I only had mine for
about 3 or 4 days but it had a bad connection somewhere, which caused
the sensitivity to drop intermittently, and bad key-bounce. If I could
find a perfect one running off 240 V, I think I'd be sorely tempted.
The audio was the best I've heard and made for really pleasant
listening.

Cheers

Andy