[TenTec] Opinions

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Well, everyone has an opinion, subject to change, but so far my opinion of the IC7800 remains the same as it has been since day one.  

I have looked at what specs Icom has released on the IC-7800 and they confirm my original opinion that the intended market is NOT the Amateur market but rather agency communications and monitoring.  A combination of the new ship has to have new equipment, plus intelligence (?) agency spook work, if you will, with heavy emphasis on audio and possibly digital operation - but with no emphasis at all on CW. Or on the other very narrow band modes.  

W8JI's results square quite well with the other IC7800  tests/review's floating around the internet, and they all tend to confirm my opinion.  That does not mean it would be useless to every segment of the Amateur Radio Service - but it will be rather limited under many circumstances.  And frankly, the very tentative specs for the new Vertex look much like more of the same to me.  

We shall have to wait and see who adopts and adapts to the '7800 and the FT9000 and what success they have. But I rather suspect both new rigs will be favorites among those who have to have the newest, biggest, and most expensive when they check into their every Sunday afternoon retirees ragchew - and can afford it.  

By the same token a rig whose vital specs seem much the same as a pair of IC751's receivers in a box with one transmitter plus some DSP circuitry does not seem to me to be all that likely to be a great favorite with either contesters or DXers.  Not after the first few weeks, at any rate.   And that's my quarter of a real on the subject. 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E





> I have been haunted by these numbers all night and all day. It seems
> that when Icom stated, "Specifications subject to change," that the
> "Best Receiver ever made" spec was one of the ones that changed, heh
> heh.
> 
> On a couple of these measurements, it's not even close! It's rather
> embarrassing.
> 
> I wish there was a receiver with the Icom's firmware and the Orion's
> performance. *That* would be the best receiver ever built.
> 
> My personal opinion is that this is, sadly, another case of Icom getting
> the minor things right-- fit and finish, display, knobs, etc.-- but once
> again falling far short of the mark on the important stuff-- like
> dynamic range! In this respect, it is the inversion of the Orion.
> 
> We will have to wait for the 7800 Mark II G Plus. And the Orion II.
> 
> Too bad.
> 
> Al W6LX
>