IC-7600 After a few months
I have now been using the IC-7600 for about 5 months. It has not been used heavily the entire time, but I have used it hard during several contests. Overall I am very impressed. The menus are very intuitive, rarely causing me to “RTFM.” The display is as good as any I have ever seen on a radio, and was one of the main selling points for me.
The ability to work RTTY and PSK-31 with just the addition of a Keyboard is outstanding. I have not used those modes heavily, but the built-in decoder and spectrum displays are great (although a bit small).
CW is a real joy with the flexibility of the digital filters. They are easy to customize. I also really like having the manual adjustments for the filter skirts (high/low cut), and the audio peak filter. These are features I have on my old Kenwood TS-930s and really missed on the K2, which I still enjoy using for CW work.
I am not a heavy SSB operator, but I have started making a few more contacts recently. Icom did a great job with the hand mic included with the rig. I figured it would be a piece of junk, but it matches up so well with the equalizer settings that I have had several unsolicited compliments on the audio quality. I also use a cheap Yamaha CM-500 headset in contests, and that also seems to work well.
The IC-7000 now lives permanently in my vehicle, where it belongs (and does a great job).
VA QSO Party 2012
Had a great time working the annual VA QSO party. This year I spent half my time from my fixed location in Lancaster county (LAN). Then I went mobile to attempt to provide contacts from several hard-to-find Counties in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula regions of Virginia.
The mobile operation included about 10 Counties and 200 miles of driving. Some of the Counties were Essex, Richmond, Middlesex, King and Queen, and Westmoreland. Our FARA club score looks great this year. Hopefully we won several categories as we did last year. But in any event, many of our Club members enjoyed operating VAQP, one of the best State QSO Parties in the US every year.
ICOM IC-7000 CI-V with WINDOWS 7
Had real trouble installing the USB CI-V interface for my IC-7000 on a WINDOWS 7 machine. Internet tells me everyone has this problem. The driver that Prolific makes available simply does not work. I tried the usual WINDOWS driver install process (install, uninstall, reinstall, uninstall, try various “compatability” settings which nobody understands), but no luck.
After many attempts, I finally loaded the VISTA version of the driver. It appears to have loaded. Why didn’t I think of this before?? Of course – load a version that is not intended for your operating system. I should know if this actually worked tomorrow when I try to talk to the radio. Expectations are low.
IC-7600 Antenna Tuner Testing
I did a bit of testing with 2 wire antennas this weekend. Here is a summary of the results, which I also posted to the IC-7600 e-mail reflector:
The antennas:
1 – A “long” 80m Dipole, ladder line, 4:1 balun, then a long coax run
to the rig
2 – A fan dipole with 80/40/20 meter elements (these are close-spaced
elements, with 80m and 40m using opposing legs of a single piece of
300-ohm twinlead), 1:1 balun, then a long coax run to the rig
This was a brief test. I tried only 10/15/20/40/80 meters, and tested
only a few frequencies on each band, including something close to the
bottom and top of each band.
The IC-7600 internal tuner was able to tune both antennas over most of
the 10/15/20/40/80 meter bands with the following exceptions:
1 – Could not match the 80m Long Dipole at the high end of 80m or
anywhere on 40 meters
2 – Could not match the Fan Dipole anywhere on 20 meters
The External LDG-100 PROII was able to match all the test frequencies.
The IC-7600 tuner is very good, and tuned most of the frequencies,
including some that appeared to be worse than 3:1 SWR (the stated
spec) on my antenna analyzer.
Please note – I am NOT knocking the internal tuner, and with a little
antenna work (pruning antennas and feedlines – not fun) I could
probably get matches everywhere I need to operate. So, while the
internal tuner is very good, the LDG (which has a nice ICOM interface)
covers a wider range. The LDG was sometimes very slow (10s of
seconds), but once a match is found it is stored and recalled quickly
next time you need it.
Icom IC-7600 Added to the Shack
I have been looking to purchase a new rig for some time and finally decided to go with the Icom IC-7600. I was torn between this rig, the Elecraft K3, and the Yaesu FT-2000 (because I can not afford the FTDX-5000). For my needs, this is the best of the three. and I will maintain my complete K2 station as my “second receiver” and for use in contests in SO2R mode.
I have had the IC-7600 for a few weeks and have had a chance to do a bit of testing. I worked a short stint on a RTTY contest, a 10-hour CW contest, and made a few SSB and PSK-31 contacts. Operating the rig has been very enjoyable so far. It just seems to be very well thought-out and the IF DSP filtering is outstanding. The built-in RTTY and PSK decoders are great. Just plug-in a USB keyboard and go.
The internal antenna tuner works great but only handles up to about 3:1 SWR. Since I have some “ugly” wire antennas, I have acquired an LDG external tuner – the AT-100 PROII. It has an Icom interface that integrates it nicely with the rig (as well as the internal tuner, in my opinion). It definitely allows me to match a broader set of antenna situations than the internal tuner (as the specs would lead you to believe).
