[CQ-Contest] Elecraft size

[Bill Tippett]

K3BU wrote:
 >Incidentally, IC7800 passed FCC certification and is being shipped to US
customers. Looking at the specs, it appears superior to Orion, for about
double price. Anyone got it yet? It would be interesting to see the first
impression opinions. I am eager to get my hands on one.

         What specs are those?  If you click on ACTUAL specifications (bottom
left menu choice on the page below), you will find very typical Icom
"specifications", which say very little about receiver performance other
than sensitivity, filter selectivity and spurious/image rejection.

http://www.icom.co.jp/world/products/amateur/7800/index.htm

Beware of marketing hype like "Astonishing +40 dBm IP3" which is not qualified
with sensitivity or dynamic range.  If Icom is using the Rhode & Schwarz
technique of automatically switching in an attenuator for signals above a
certain level, the same "astonishing" result can be achieved on any radio
simply by pressing the attenuator button.  For $8-9k or whatever the street
price will be, I think I'll just press the attenuator on Orion and achieve
+43 dBm.  Time and independent 3rd party testing will tell, but I would
keep my hand firmly on my wallet until I saw some real measurements.

                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV