[CQ-Contest] Icom 756PRO as a CW contest rig

[Rick Lindquist, WW3DE]

I reviewed the IC-756PROIII for QST more than five years ago, and I own one.
It's not the greatest radio for really busy bands (I operate primarily CW),
but it has some features I would hate to part with. Mine has the Inrad
narrow roofing filter mod installed, and that does offer some improvement,
but I would not call it dramatic.

Just for the sake of comparison, the PROIII's two-tone, third-order IMD
dynamic range on 14 MHz at 5 kHz spacing (the narrowest HQ was testing at
that time) was 77 dB - Not so hot anymore. The third-order intercept was
calculated at a rather lame  -17 dBm. 

Far better performers, such as the Elecraft K3, have come down the pike in
the intervening time. The K3's DR on 14 MHz at 5 KHz spacing was 105 dB (103
dB at 2 kHz spacing), with a TOI calculated at +28 dBm. That's quite an
improvement!

The PROIII has been replaced by the IC-7600 in ICOM's lineup, as you
probably already knew. I reviewed that model in 2009, and it is a quantum
leap from the PROIII. The IC-7600's DR at 14 MHz, 5 kHz spacing came in at
94 dB, and the TOI was calculated at +10. A substantial improvement over the
PROIII but not quite a K3. As with the K3, the DR actually dropped slightly
at the 2 kHz measurement. 

Of course, if you have the bucks, it's hard to beat the FTdx5000 in terms of
receiver performance.

The above measurements were done in the ARRL Lab. I've cited the "preamp
off" measurement. See the respective reviews for more specifics.

73, Rick / WW3DE (ex-N1RL) 

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2011 8:47 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com; ICOM Reflector; okdxa at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Icom 756PRO as a CW contest rig

How does the Icom 756PRO do under heavy CW QRM?  Some of the eham.net
reviews weren't very flattering in terms of CW performance.

73s John AA5JG
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest