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).