ICOM IC-7000 review

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Page 1

A decade ago,

ICOM

revolutionized

ham

dio

with

mobile

generation"

a head-t

IC-

/VHF/UH F

1C-7000

head comparison

703. Here's

multimode

his

CQ Reviews:

stack

report:

1C-

706

up?

with

How

AD5X

the

classic

does

put

the

706

the

rig

company 's "next

and

the

test

ultra

, i

ncl

uding

-portable

The

ike many of you, I've been following the introduction of the ICOM

owned an IC-70 and

both in m ti

IC-7

it has served me extremely well

s. I have also owned

000

over the past year . I've

ile a

ICOM

KIIG since 1999,

rtable applica-

lC-703 for

IC-7000 Transceiver

BY PHIL

SALAS

," AD5X

nearly two years and have been well pl

sed with this transceiver as well.

Thus, when CO asked me if I'd be

interested in reviewing the lC-7000, I

jumped at the chance, not only so I could evaluate this new transceiver,but

also so I could answ

(1) How does the receiv

000

IC-706MKIIG and the IC-703 under the

same band conditions? (2) Is it time for me to upgrade my IC-706MKIIG to an

IC-7DDD?

compare to the receivers of the

two questions:

of the IC-

Photo 1- ICOM's new IC-7000has more features percubic inch than any other

compact transceiver on the market. (Photocourtesy of /COM America)

that the IC-7000 is ' the other radios (9 inches ove ratlle ngth

including knobs and heat sink) as you

can see in photo 2.

inch shorter than

driving an external video monitor. This is really nice for home station use.

Photo 5 shows the normal fonts on an

external LCD 13-inch monitor. Ex-

irstLoo

Right out of the box you can see the

more mod

-rooc

to the IC-703 and IC·7 7000 has

andflat panelbuttons more familiar protruding buttons

earliertransceivers.Also,thesize

IC-7000 main tuning

increased slightly. Al ing-dial diameter increase, ICOM

increasedthe front panel from 14 to panel looks less cluttered than that of the began setting could begin

-706MKIIG or

(see photo 1).When compared

, ztst-century look of the

MKIIG, the IC-

re subtly rounded comers ,

opposedtothe

the

number

the three radios so I

evaluation . I also saw

knob

g with the tun-

of buttons

. yet the Iront

-703. When I

has been

the

However, the really attention-grab-

bing physical feature of the IC-7000 is the incredible color displ

oh man, what a display! While the display is just 2.5 inches diagonally, it pro-

vides a huge amou nt of information. It is really something to power output, ALC, compression , and

SWR along with frequency, a-meter.

and heat-sink temperature all at the same time! Photo 3 shows how ICOM's

use of text, figures, and colors makes

all the information easy to see. Also, lor mobile operation, photo 4 shows the large text-font mode you can select to make it even easier to read the basic frequency information. You can select a black, white, or blue background . preference is the default black background. Unfortunately,

ay-a

able to meter

photos don't

nd man

panded fonts with a bigger display are

also available.

Ihad heard complaints that the exter-

nal display output did not look all that good. If that was the case in early IC-

7000 transceivers, it is certainly not the

case

play qua lity is excellent.

First, A Few Bas

While the n done in other publications, I did want to

make a few

actuallystarting operationalandco-theair

meters.

tor. For detailsof the IC-7000operati

in the VHF/UHF band s. refer to the

excellent review by Steve Hicks,

now

evaluations. I focus

. I think that the external dis-

Test s

bers game has bee n

mea

asIam

surements prior to

prima rily

on 1 HF opera-

60-6

AC.

•

Con

Dr.• Richardson. TX 75081

e-mail: <ad5xOcq-amateur-radio.com>

22 • CO • N

tributing Editor,

ovem

ber2006

, 1517

Creekside

justice to the display. You need to

see this in person!

To make things even better. the lC-

7000 has a composite video output for

in the Winter 2006 issue of CO VHF magazine. photo 6, transceivers is shown in p

and

test setup is s

a close-up of the three

hot

sit

wn in

o 7.

r Web

Site

Page 2

First I measured the typical current

requirements of the

IC-7000. The re-

ceivercurrentdrain.spec'dat t .s amps

max at norma l volume . measured just

1.3

mitter current measurements at 100

watts output into an

meter/dummy load displayed in Table I (spec is 22 amps maximum) .

continuous

160-6 also

amps

The

atn

transmit

meters. Forthoseof us who

inter

ormalvo

power

from

ted in using this radio for

lume . The trans-

MFJ-267

(160-6

can be varied

2-100

meters) are

watts from

watt-

may

OAP sured IC-7000transmit current require-

mentsat 5.3 ampsat 2 watts output and

5.8 Next I checked the

the IC-7

(SW A protection). I did this by putt ing an meter na

wattmeter.ItunedtheMFJ-902tora 1

match into the

varied the tune

and/or

amps

000

external Diamond

in serieswith an MFJ-902anten-

tuner

at 5 watts output.

starts tuming down power

and the

Packoperation , I mea-

dummy

inductor and capaci-

A point where

·1000 dummy load, and then

load!

Photo 2-

The

-TOOD

the left (

tice the fan),

the right!

and

the longer IC-703 is on

torsas necessaryuntil Icouldjustbare-

ly see the output powe rdecrease.Then

I measured the 5WR into the detuned

antennatuner. Ifoundthatbetween 160 and 6 meters, the IC-7000 would consistently begin turning down power at

Finally, 1checked the receiver sensitivity at 5-9 are

goocll Tracking is (the "standard" is 6 dB/S-unit), and the

A between 2

to 5

shown

-1

and

(dB below

in Table II and are pretty

and 2.5:1.

5-meter

5-9

abo

tracking from

The

s-6

results

dBl

S-unit

read the 706MKIIG oranIC-703, simila rities in the IC-7000

tem . However, there are differences, since so many more features ha

First of all, since the 1G-7000 is all

DSP-based , you 'll ing you are threedefaultfilter widths and 55

two

B and

manua

been added to the IC-7000 .

will ever need is built-in. There

filter shape factors f

l. If you have

still plenty of

find thatall the fitter-

filter width.

u'llfind many

per

ese filter

IC-

sys-

mode,

hasaa-bank

recorder that ed messages nals coming in over the air. a transmit monitor so you can hearhow you sound , and then , of course , you have speech process ing, split operation, band-stacking registers , directfre-

quencyentrywiththe microphone , etc., etc. Read the manua l to at least feel for where to look for information when you need

memory

n play back pre-record-

the air

keye rand a voice

record sig-

It also has

it.

get

5-9 meter reading is at

"standard" of consisted of a Tektron ix 191

ator

a pair Whilethere is a certain amountof i curacy

play

uation

desired reading

ments and make t

. a Hitachi V-35S oscilloscope, and

MFJ-762

ing

due

the IC-7000,I switchedin atten-

just

the IC·7000

to the coarse bar-graphdis-

above

My test equip

step

and

center

hem

fairly accurate.

close to the

attenuators.

just

below the

gener·

measure-

characteristics are easily changed if you don't likethe defaults. The IC-7000

In my case, Istarted outon

that is my preferred mode of operati

CW,

since

Right in your microphone, dia

ingfrequency,

out

the box, you can just plug

and

lln

startoperating

youroperat-

SSB

Since many functions have their own

front-panel buttons (such as noise

blanker,

and automatic notch filtering) , youdon't

have to However, modes, you need to read the manual.

And if you want to get all you can outof Photo

this transceiverI you

ise reduction, and manua l

into menus to enable them .

if you want to operate other

def

initely need to normalfont.

A tremendous amount

information can

displayed with the

www

.cq-tlmateur~lo .com

vember 2006 •

• 23

Page 3

hot

o 4- Ex

panded

font for frequ

ency

is nice f

mobile

Photo

Norma l di

lay

remote 13-inch LCD

mon

itor.

operation.

Without referring to the manual, I was able to

in time delay,and stan operating with a paddle at the default speed of 20 wpm. Howev

change the keyer qu

ite as conve 706MKIIGIIC you pushand abouta half-second .Assuming that

tum

on break-in, set the break-

, I h

to refer to the manual to

peed-whic

nie

·70

ld the DISPLAY key for

the earlierr

on the IC-

h is not

ios

expanded f

ont

may al

selected.

speed is selected.

speedwiththe mainluningdialandthen tapthe DISP LAYbun on to return you the previous the IC-7000 ,you first haveto

SET button to get into "set mode," then punch Assuming that change the tunin g dial and then push the MENU/

radios,

as for the Quick-Set men u.

GRP key twice to return you to

selected display. In the earlier

changing

men

u/display settinq. With

speed with the main

CW speed required

you

speed is selected,

change the

lap

the AF

Photo

The

thor's te

setup.

two pre sses of the same key to get in and out of the speed-settinqscreen .For

the IC-7000, you require four presses of three different keys to of the speed-setting screen. Aher a lit-

tlepractice . though without giving it mu

thing ICOM d base the number of dits. break-in time with changes in really lik

this feature. I norma lly oper-

eak- in time on a fixed

chang

wasableto

is is great , since Ihe

speed. I've always

get

thought.

s really well is

in and out

this

oocrnonauy

really need to dig out a weak signal, I leave the 250-Hz bandw idth alone. but then turn on the two manual notch fillers and set them just above and bel

the desired signalas displayed in photo

8.This really makes the signal seem to pop

using eithersemi- or full break-in. I normally operate

oul

of the noise fl

ope rati

was smooth and easy ,

first turn ing off break-

ate semi-break-in unless I

nail that OX switch

The

500 Hz, and

perfect. b

you prefer different filter widths . Just a tap on the cycles throug h the three filters. When I

24 •

10 full break-in.

def

aultfilters f

•

ation in a pile-up. Then I

orCW

250

they all are changeable if

FIL

Nov

. I think these are

soft-

ember 2006

key

in Menu

Irying to

e 1200Hz,

hot

o 7- Close-up of the

-7000. IC-706MKIIG. a

IC-703

Visit

Our

eb$ile

Page 4

160m

18.4A

80m

16.8A

40m

19.7A

30m

.2A

20m

19.6A

17m

19.3A

15m

.0A

12m

.0A

10m 6m

.6A 19.5A

extemal amplifier. I have an Ame ritron ALS-600 amplifier with an ARB-704 amplifier interface unit.

J was happy to

Table 1- Transmitt

in to zero-beat a station with a string of

curre

requirements

dits. As part of this operation. it is easy

to determ ine to be changed . Then I selecta filter basedon band

and

phone is a little more imposing than the mics of the

transmit.

'll noti

went

if my keying speed needs

tum

to SSB. The first thing

is that the IC-7000 micro-

rlier IC-706MKIIG

break-in,

nditions,

n03

100 watts output

QRM width

ea any time , you can just press the DEF

key to return to the defau ltfiltersettings.

My l

involved using the IC-7000 with my

cond iti

and

sy to change to suit your needs . At

s. In

lter

t operational testing eff

shape are extremely

power

cases, the band-

ort

see that et the same as

just plugged the same ARB-704 ICOM

interface

Everyth ingworked fine in SSB. The IC-

000

7 the sa only issue was that when using would n

"dit"

OM kept the accessory sock-

ble into the IC-7000.

ALC

ring break-in. I never really had

tting

as on the IC-706MKIIG. The

orma

lly shorten or lose

the

the ALS

IC~706MKIIG

·600 CW

was

, I

first

radios ,although itreallyisnotthat much

large r.The more imposing IC-7000 mic is a result of all the extra things you can do entry, band stacking registers, filter

selection, and are normally done through the display

men microphones is shown in photo

ing at

Both were transmitt ing into my

with it. such

. A good- size comparison of the

I first checked the mic

C,andthencompressi

perfect for my voice. When

ny of the things that

direct frequency

in by look -

pea

k-reading

level.

QUALITY.

wattmeter/dummy load, I really couldn't

see any differencewith the

the sa

power meter to read n could see a big differen compressor off, normal talking caused the meter needle to hover around the

compre ssor, the needle hovered

arou nd the 20-watt mark. I

with both the

or off, since the peak power stays

10-w

SX-

l000

. How

mark. When I

power meter, so it would

ever

J-267 and a Diamond

. w

hen

orma

tumed

mpresso r

I s

the

l power, I

. With the

on the

verified this

appear

your average power .

On-the-air reports

was told that the audio "sounds great,"

"has good fidelity." or "sounds natur-

al." When I ran tests with and withoutthe

compressor,Iwastoldby

my signal l

unit. Others told me they didn

S-meter "punchy" and easier to understand.

ters are 3000 Hz, 2

Hz. I normally

that the compre ssor double s

wer

el increased by up to an S-

change,but myvoice wasmore

SSB the three default recei

400

ope

rated with the 2400-

e excellent. I

mefolksthat

see any

Hz, and 18

fil-

You

Many

decade

know

Smartuners

since

contstruetion,

couplers

compare

outlive and

when

you

have

long

high-end

you

before

ootperform

need

want it.

been

components

fast

our

reliable

service

competitors

imitators

delivering

and

solid

every

tuning

precision

existed

engineering,

lime

The

Smartuneristhe

With

low

tuning

combination

SGC

cost

tOf

line

rugged

antenna

trimmers

industry

than

don't

gold

Hz filt when the often during

cond itions, and once on 6 meters when there was a greatopening and the band was wall-to-wall signals. With the 18

Hz filler, you

the selectivity i

makes a receive signal

py under hig h adjacent-channel

www

, but t

1800-Hz filter really helped -

.cq-amaleur-radlo.com

here

crowded

were seve ral times

lose some fidelity, but

rove ment etten

-meter band

mfortable to

standard

and

the

first

choice

users

around

the

globe

Stop tuning, start talking.

Novem

ber

2006 • CO • 25

Page 5

Band

5-9 level

160m

20m

Table I

this problem with the IC-706MKIIG. Since the HSEND out-

put of the IC-7000 enables the amplifier, I figured that the

HSEND-to-RF Output delay must be shorteron the IC-7000

thanon the IC-706MKIIG.Thus,Iconnectedmyoscilloscope to the RF output and triggered it with the HSEND output. I

found that on the IC-706MKIIG, RF output starts at 13 mil-

lisecondsaher HSENDgoes low, and full

5O~V

I-

S9 receiver sensitivity a

- 10 dB

- 10 dS

- 20 dB

- 20

- 20 dB

-32

S-mer

outputoccurs at

-44

tracking.

dB dB

15.5 ms. On the IC-7000, the RF output begins at 8 ms after HSEND goes low, and full output occurs at

sured the ALS-600 relay enable time al 13ms. Since typical open-frame amplifier relays take 10--20 ms to engage, you may need to usean external foot switchconnected to the IC7000 HSEND input/output to manually enable the IC-7000

transmitter (leave BRK off) when operating CW with a relayswitched external

when using an ICOM P easier to justify the purchase of a PWl if you have an IC756

Rece

This is the part of my testing that I was really loo to comparing the receivers 01the IC-7ooo, IC-706MKIIG, andIC-703under realbandconditions.The threetransceivers wereallconnected throughRFswitchessoany

beswitched on-line at any time. My IC-706MKIIGis equipped

withthestandard2.4-kHzSSBfilterandboth1.9-kHzand250Hzoptionalfilters.MyIC-703isequippedwith itsstandard2.3-

kHz filter and the optional

opportunity to compare alt three radios with their 250-Hz filters and standa and IC-706MKIIG with their narrow My listening lests spanned several weeks,and I t

PR03

iver

or IC-78

Com

amplifier. I know that this isn't an issue

parison Test

wide filters (2

amplifier, but in my opinion it is

ing

25O-Hz

.312

filter. This gave me the

kHz

8/1.9-

), and the IC-7000

a. I mea-

kin

g forward

rece

kHzSSB

ivercould

ried

filters,

to con-

Photo

First,theDSPnoise reductionin the IC-7000issignificantly

better than in the other two radios. I immediately noted far

lessof a"hoUow-echoey" sound on the IC-7ooo for the same apparentamountof noisereduction inthethreeradios.I a lot of impulse noise at night, and I found that the

blanker on the IC-7000did a great job of removing it.The IC-

7000

blanker on the IC-703, which is much better than that on the

IC-706MKIIG ove

problem was never apparent on either the IC-703 or the

C-700D

It is the IC-7ooo's IF DSP filtering, though, that really

shines. The IF DSP filtering is an integral part of the AGC control loops. Therefore, any interfering signal reduced or

removed from the filter pass-band is also removed from the

Comparing the IC-706MKIIG

7000

me (right).

mic

(left)

and

the IC-

~ve

norse

noise blanker actually perlorms much like the noise

also had occasional problems with front-end

oad on the IC-706MKIIG on 40 meters at night. This

cent

meters atter dark and 20 meters in the early evening), noise band conditions I really couldn't tell any difference

among the three receivers. All sounded great. However, it

was under crowded and noisy conditions that the IC-7000 stood head and shoulders above the other transceivers.

te on times when the bands were crowded (80 and 40

The first thing I observed was that under uncrowded low-

p~~:

ably sharper than any of the corresponding filter shapes on

the IC-706MKII

used the IF-Shift to cut out inte

desired signal. I found the combination of "Sharp-

tingand IF-Shift

Iwasfrequentlyabletotumanasty interferingadjacent-chan-

nel SSB signal into a minimally bothersome amount of inter-

ference.Then,ofcourse,thefilterbandwidthsonthe IC-7ooo

are

conditions. I used this feature more on CW, though, as nar-

rowing the SSB filter more than 1.8 kHz realty hurt signal

readability. However, as Imentioned

easily adjusted to optimize them for your particular band

~~;si~

~i~

d06

03. This was particularly useful when I rfe

particularly useful for SSB operation,where

rence above or below a

earlier, I found the twin

h ~

~~~

fil

ter set-

~~~

Photo

is just

The

o man ual notches are

low,and

2 is just a

easy

ve center.

to set.HereNF

manual notch filters to provide additional filtering in extremely crowded or weak-signal conditions.

All inall, the IC-7000 IF DSP filtering. noise reduction,and

noise blankermakethe receiver a realperformer.These tum

difficultcopy into comfortable

more difficult or impossible to do on the lC-706MKIlG

especially when band conditions are not optimal.

Possible

Thisisreallyquitearadio.However,therearejustafewthings that I'd like to see changed. I suspect that the changes could

Improvements

outstanding when used in CW to

copy-so

mething that is much

26 • CQ •

November

2006 Visit

r W

Stte

Page 6

be made with

firm

ware upgrades to the

Obviously, hav

ing

the speech synthe-

existing product.

For CW operation, I wouldliketo see

the commonly used CW functions on thesamemenu.Asanexample,putting

SAK,

menu would

rently

to where FIL was on the These changes would really make the

c-zooo

Then I'd liketo

Output delay fixed at This would ensure that you w

have allyany

Finally,the

thesizer

1/4, FIL,andSPEED

any CW break

the M3 menu) can

a great CW

relay-

enabledexternal amplifier. IC

ill in, whichworksvery

very nice. AGC (cur-

rad

see

-7000hasa speechsyn-

the

20 milliseconds.

-inissueswith

theM3

io.

HSEND-to-AF

moved

menu.

ld not

virtu-

ll.I

sizer

would

That's theendofmywi major, but maybe enough to make a great transceiver even better.

ann be

Conclus

I have to say that this is one incredible

transceiver, and there is

than

it available. The features. size, powe display, and overall capability are ab-

solutely amazing. For a new ham start-

ing out with no equipment, I think this

w then be relegated to permanent mobile

make

ounce the button presses

really nice lor them.

list. Not too

ion

much

I can cover in the review space

reat

firstrig,whichcould

more to

GET GET

Tum

high

Radio,

Radar,and

FCC

Ourprov beenused

from

toindivi them

yourinterestinelectroo

ying

Televis

COMMERCIAL

the

,it

Navy,to ind

dualsjustlike

will

A A

careerinCom

more!

by a

workforyou!

LIFE.

CAREER.

ion

, A

vion

Earn

homestud

wide

range

you.It

ics

mun

ics

Maritime

you

LICENSE

course

try,sch

int

ica

tion

has

clients

oolsand

rkedfor

really like hearing the mode-change

ann meter reading when desir have a menu option that enables the speech synthesizer to read out any menubutton push? I thinkthiswould

great for mobile operation, helping you

keep your eyeson the

several

IC-706MKIlGf703becausetheycanfind

theirwaythroughthemenusbylistening to differences

nced, as

blind ham friends who like

well

as fr

in the menu beeps.

equ

road

cyandS-

. Why not

. Ialso have

the

rta

or po

ceiver is

itispricey,

Years ago when

Radio, we had a saying that may be appropriate here: saver

Is it time for me to upgrade from my

IC-706MKIlGtotheIC-7ooo?I'llanswer thisquestionwith a secondquestion: Is

anyone interested in buying an IC706MKIIG that is in great condition?

ble use when a full-size t

rchasedata laterdate. Ye

butyou

getwhatyoupayfor.

I worked for Collins

"Go first class and

ran

all

for

our

FREE

information

kit

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ore-mailus

fcc@commandproductions.com

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~ociJiliA

io.com

Email:

sales@amidoncorp.com

www.amidoncorp.com

November 2006 • CO • 27

ICOM IC-7000 review

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual