I have tried not to rush in to writing this review, as first impressions are not the complete story. Perhaps my biggest concern about IC-7800 ownership was how long would ICOM continue to provide service for this transceiver? Without the necessary replacement parts the IC-7850 can easily turn into an expensive doorstop.Įventually the IC-7850 and IC-7851 came out with improved RMDR specs, along with a much brighter screen. Two years later my IC-7800 was collecting dust so I sold it now use my Flex transceiver pretty much exclusively, although I do also own a IC-7300. I purchased a Flex-6700 but also kept my IC-7800 because I wasn't 100% convinced yet that I wanted to shed the 'knob & button' type rigs.
#ICOM IC 7800 BENCH TEST PLUS#
Cost was a bit over $1,000 plus shipping/insurance costs both ways. I only had to send my IC-7800 back for repair once for a board replacement. And since this is a very heavy transceiver, shipping and insurance to ship it back for repair can be costly, and repairs can also be costly. Also the IC-7800 has limited spectrum display settings, although this issue wasn't apparent until I purchased a Flex 6xxx series transceiver. First, it's display always seemed too dim (even with settings turned all the way up). It performed excellent for its day, with almost lab test instrument precision. dealers, and pricing should be available soon. There is even a separate preamp and mixer for the 6 meter band. It features two identical, fully independent, receiver circuits. The radio features an IP3 of +40dBm and 110db dynamic range. It utilizes four separate 32-bit floating point TI DSP chips, has a 7-inch wide TFT display, built in RTTY/PSK31 receive and transmit using a USB Keyboard interface, plus compact flash technology. ICOM believes it is the most advanced amateur radio ever developed. The ICOM 7800 HF/6M was first introduced at the Dayton Hamvention 2003. EMail SubscriptionRegistered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.