IC-7000_review_CQ_2006.pdf

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1、Adecade ago,ICOMrevolutionizedhamradiowithitsmobile HF/VHF/UHFmultimode1C-706.Howdoesthecompanysnext generation1C-7000stackup?AD5Xputtherigtothetest, including ahead-ta-head comparisonwiththeclassic706andtheultra-portable IC-703.Hereshisreport: CQ Reviews: TheICOMIC-7000 Transceiver BY PHILSALAS, AD

2、5X Photo1-ICOMs new IC-7000 has more features per cubic inch than any other compact transceiver on the market. (Photocourtesy of /COM America) L ike many of you, Ive been follow- ing the introduction of the ICOM IC-7000over the past year. Ive owned an IC-706MKIIG since 1999, andit has served me extr

3、emely well both in mobile andportable applica- tions. I have also ownedanlC-703 for nearly two years and have been well pleased with this transceiver as well. Thus, when CO asked me if Id be interested in reviewing the lC-7000, I jumped at the chance, not only so I could evaluate this new transceive

4、r,but also soIcould answertwo questions: (1) How does the receiverof the IC- 7000compare to the receivers of the 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-7D DD? FirstLook Right out of the box you can see the more modem,zt st-

5、century look of the rc-rooc(see photo 1).When compared to the IC-703 and IC706MKIIG, the IC- 7000 hasmore subtly rounded comers, andflat panelbuttonsasopposed tothe more familiar protruding buttons01the earlier transceivers. Also,thesize01the IC-7000 main tuningknobhas been increased slightly. Along

6、 with the tun- ing-dialdiameterincrease,ICOM increased thenumberof buttonsonthe front panel from 14 to17.yet the Iront panel looks less cluttered than that of theIC-706MKIIG orIC-703. When I began settingupthe three radios soI could beginmyevaluation. I also saw ContributingEditor,CO, 1517Creekside

7、Dr. Richardson. TX 75081 e-mail: 22 CONovember2006 that the IC-7000 is/2inch shorter than the other radios(9inches overatllength including knobs and heat sink) as you can see in photo2. However, the really attention-grab- bing physicalfeatureof the IC-7000 is the incredible color display-and man oh

8、man, what a display! While the dis- play is just 2.5 inches diagonally, it pro- vides ahugeamount of information.It is really something tobeable to meter power output, ALC, compression, and SWRalong with frequency,a-meter. and heat-sink temperature all at the same time! Photo 3 shows how ICOMs use o

9、f 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.My preference is the default black ba

10、ck- ground. Unfortunately,myphotos dont dojustice to the display. You need to see this in person! To make things evenbetter.the lC- 7000has a composite video output for driving an external video monitor. This is really nice for home station use. Photo 5 shows the normal fonts on an external LCD13-in

11、ch monitor.Ex- panded fonts with a bigger display are also available. Ihad heard complaints that theexter- nal display output did not look all that good. If that was the case in early IC- 7000 transceivers, it is certainly not the casenow. I think that the external dis- play quality is excellent. Fi

12、rst, A Few BasicTests While the numbers game has been done in other publications, Idid want to make a fewmeasurements prior to actuallystartingoperationalandco-the- airevaluations. I focusedon160-6 meters.asIamprimarilyanHF opera- tor. For details of the IC-7000 operation in the VHF/UHF bands. refer

13、 to the excellent reviewbySteve Hicks,N5AC. in the Winter2006issue ofCOVHF magazine.Mytest setup is shown in photo6,anda close-up of the three transceivers is shown in photo 7. VisitOurWebSite has a a-bankmemorykeyerand a voice recorder thatcan play back pre-record- ed messagesonthe airorrecord sig-

14、 nals coming in over the air.Italso has a transmit monitor so you can hear how you sound, and then, of course, you have speech processing, split opera- tion, band-stacking registers,directfre- quency entrywith the microphone, etc., etc. Read the manual to at leastgeta feel for where to look for info

15、rmation when you needit. In my case, Istarted outonCW,since that is my preferred mode of operation. read themanual.Ifyou haveanIC- 706MKIIG oranIC-703,youllfind many similarities in the IC-7000menusys- tem. However, there are still plenty of differences, since so many more fea- tures havebeen added

16、to the IC-7000. First of all, since the 1G-7000 is all DSP-based, youllfindthat all the fitter- ing you will ever need is built-in. There are three default filter widthspermode, andtwofilter shape factors foreach 55B andCWfilter width.These filter characteristics are easily changed if you dont like

17、the defaults.The IC-7000 Photo2-TheIC-TOODisonthe left (notice the fan),andthe longer IC-703 ison theright! First I measured the typical current requirements of theIC-7000.The re- ceiver currentdrain.specdat t .s amps max at normal volume. measured just 1.3ampsatnormalvolume. The trans- mitter curre

18、nt measurements at100 watts output into anMFJ-267watt- meter/dummy load(160-6meters) are displayed in Table I (spec is 22 amps maximum). Thetransmitpowercan be varied continuouslyfrom2-100watts from 160-6meters. Forthose of us whomay alsobeinterested in using this radio for OAPand/orHFPack operation

19、, I mea- sured IC-7000 transmit current require- ments at 5.3 amps at 2 watts output and 5.8ampsat 5 watts output. Next I checked the5WA point where the IC-7000starts tuming down power (SWA protection). I did this by putting anexternal DiamondSX10005WA meterin series with an MFJ-902 anten- natuneran

20、dthedummyload! wattmeter.Itunedthe MFJ-902tora1:1 match into thedummyload, and then varied the tunersinductor and capaci- tors as necessary until Icould just bare- ly see the output powerdecrease.Then I measured the 5WR into the detuned antennatuner. Ifound thatbetween 160 and 6 meters, the IC-7000

21、would con- sistently begin turning down power at anSWA between 2:1and 2.5:1. Finally, 1checked the receiver sensi- tivity at59and5-metertracking from 5-9to 5-1(dB below5-9).Theresults areshownin Table II and are pretty goocll Tracking isabouts-6dBlS-unit (the standard is 6 dB/S-unit), and the 5-9 me

22、ter reading is atorclose to the standard of50V.My test equipment consisted of a Tektronix 191AFgener ator. a Hitachi V-35S oscilloscope, and a pairofMFJ-762stepattenuators. While there is a certain amount of inac- curacydueto the coarse bar-graph dis- playonthe IC-7000,I switched in atten- uationjus

23、taboveandjustbelow the desired readingtocentermymeasure- ments and make themfairly accurate. Usingthe IC7000 Rightoutofthe box, you can just plug in your microphone,diallnyouroperat- ingfrequency,andstart operatingSSB. Since many functions have their own front-panel buttons (such as noise blanker,no

24、ise reduction, and manual and automatic notch filtering), youdont have togointo menus to enable them. However,ifyou want to operate other modes, you need to read the manual. Andifyou want to get all you can out ofPhoto3-Atremendous amountatinformation canbedisplayed with the this transceiverIyoudefi

25、nitely need tonormal font. www.cq-November 2006 ca23 Photo4-Expandedfont for frequencyisniceformobile operation. Photo5-Normal displayonremote 13-inch LCDmonitor.An expanded fontmay alsobeselected. Photo7-Close-up of theIC-7000. IC-706MKIIG. andIC-703 Photo6-Theauthors testsetup. 8.This really makes

26、 the signal seem to popoulof the noise floor! CWoperationwas smooth and easy, using either semi- or full break-in. I nor- mally operatebyfirst turning off break- really need to dig out a weak signal, I leave the 250-Hz bandwidth alone. but then turn on the two manual notch fil- lers and set them jus

27、t above and below the desired signal as displayed in photo Without referring to the manual, I was able totumon break-in, set the break- in time delay,and stan operating with a paddle at the default speed of 20 wpm. However, I hadto refer to the manual to change the keyer speed-which is not quite as

28、convenientason the IC- 706MKIIGIIC703.Onthe earlier radios you push andhold the DISPLAY key for abouta half-second.Assuming thatCW speed is selected.youchange the speedwiththe main luningdialandthen tap the DISPLAY bunon to return you10 the previousmenu/display settinq. With the IC-7000,you first ha

29、ve tolapthe AF SET button to get into set mode, then punchasfor the Quick-Set menu. Assuming thatCWspeed is selected, change theCWspeed with the main tuningdialandthenpushthe MENU/GRP key twice to return you to yourselected display. In the earlier radios,changingCW speed required two presses of the

30、same key to get in and out of the speed-settinq screen.For the IC-7000, you require four presses of three different keys togetin and out of the speed-setting screen. Aher a lit- tle practice.though,/was abletodothis without giving it muchthought. Something ICOM does really well is base theCWbreak-in

31、 time on a fixed number of dits.This is great, since Ihe break-in timechangesoroocrnonauy with changes inCWspeed.Ivealways really likedthis feature. I normally oper- ate semi-break-in unless ImIrying to nail that OXstation in a pile-up. Then I switch10full break-in. ThedefaultfiltersforCWare 1200Hz,

32、 500 Hz, and250Hz. I think these are perfect.butthey all are changeable if you prefer different filter widths. Just a tap on theFILsoft-keyin MenuM3 cycles through the three filters. When I 24 coNovember 2006 VisitOurWeb$ile Table 1 -Transmittercurrentrequirementsat100 watts outputpower. extemal amp

33、lifier. I have an Ameritron ALS-600 amplifier with an ARB-704 amplifier interface unit.Jwas happy to see thatrCOM kept the accessory sock- et the same asontheIC706MKIIG.I just plugged the same ARB-704 ICOM interfacecableintotheIC-7000. Everything worked fine in SSB. The IC- 7000ALCsettingonthe ALS60

34、0was the sameas on the IC-706MKIIG. The only issue was that when usingCW, I would normally shorten or losemyfirst ditduring break-in. I never really had Stop tuning, start talking. 10m6m l8.6A 19.5A 12m 20.0A 15m l7.0A QUALITY. Youknowyouwant it. ManySmartunershavebeeninservice.deliveringprecisiontu

35、ningtOfmorethana decade-sincelongbeforeourcompetitorsexisted.Withacombinationofrugged contstruetion,high-endcomponentsandsolidengineering,SGCHFantenna couplersoutliveandootperformimitatorseverylime.lowcostlinetrimmersdont comparewhenyouneedfast,reliabletuning,TheSmartuneristheindustrygold standardan

36、dthefirstchoiceofusersaroundtheglobe. 17m 19.3A QRMconditions. InaUcases, the band- widthandfiltershape are extremely easy to change to suit your needs. At any time, you can just press the DEF key toreturn to the defaultfiltersettings. My last operational testing effort involved using the IC-7000 wi

37、th my 20m 19.6A 30m l6.2A 40m 19.7A 80m 16.8A 160m 18.4A in to zero-beat a station with a string of dits.As part of this operation. it is easy to determineifmy keying speed needs to be changed. Then Itumonbreak-in, select a filter based on bandconditions, andtransmit. NextIwentto SSB. The first thin

38、g youll noticeis that the IC-7000 micro- phone is a little more imposing than the mics of theearlier IC-706MKIIGn03 radios,although it reallyis notthat much larger.The more imposing IC-7000 mic is a result of all the extra things you can dowith it. suchasdirect frequency entry, band stacking registe

39、rs, filter selection, andmany of the things that are normally done through the display menus. A good-size comparison of the microphones is shown in photo9. I first checked the micgain by look- ing atALC,and then compressionlevel. Both wereperfectfor my voice. When transmittingintomypeak-reading watt

40、meter/dummy load, I really couldnt see any difference with thecompressor onor off, since the peak power stays the same. However. whenI setthe power meter to read normal power, I could see a big difference. With the compressor off, normal talking caused the meter needle to hover around the 10-wanmark

41、. When Itumedon the compressor,theneedlehovered around the 20-watt mark. I verified this with both theMFJ-267 and a Diamond SX-l000power meter, so it would appearthat the compressor doubles your average power. On-the-air reportswere excellent. I was told that the audio sounds great, or hasgoodfideli

42、ty. or sounds natur- al. When I ran tests with and withoutthe compressor,Iwastoldbysomefolksthat my signal level increased by up to an S- unit. Others told me they didntseeany S-meterchange,but my voice wasmore punchy and easier to understand. OnSSB the three default receivefil- ters are3000Hz, 2400

43、Hz, and 1800 Hz.Inormallyoperated with the 2400- Hz filter, but therewere several times when the 1800-Hz filter really helped - often duringcrowded40-meter band conditions, and once on 6 meters when there was a great opening and the band was wall-to-wall signals. With the 1800- Hz filler, youdolose

44、some fidelity, but theselectivityimprovementetten makes a receive signalcomfortable to copyunderhighadjacent-channel www.cq-amaleur- November2006 CO25 Table II-S9receiver sensitivity andS-merertracking. Photo8-Thetwo manual notches areeasyto set.HereNF1 isjustbelow,andNF2 is just above center. Photo

45、9-Comparing the IC-706MKIIGmic(left)andthe IC- 7000me(right). First,the DSPnoisereduction inthe IC-7000issignificantly better than in the other two radios. I immediately noted far lessof a hoU ow-echoey sound on the IC-7ooo for the same apparentamountof noisereductioninthethreeradios. Ive a lot of i

46、mpulse noise at night, and I found that thenorse blanker on the IC-7000did a greatjobof removing it. The IC- 7000 noise blanker actually perlorms much like the noise blanker on the IC-703, which is much better than that on the IC-706MKIIG.1also had occasional problems with front-end overtoad on the

47、IC-706MKIIG on 40 meters at night. This problem was never apparent on either the IC-703 or the IC-700D. Itis the IC-7ooos 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 fil

48、ter pass-band is also removed from the rp:;sinnid06efihi ably sharper than any of the corresponding filter shapes on the IC-706MKIIGn03. This was particularly useful when I used the IF-Shift to cut out interference above or below a desired signal. I found the combination of Sharp-filter set- ting an

49、d IF-Shiftparticularlyuseful for SSB operation,where Iwasfrequentlyabletotumanastyinterferingadjacent-chan- nel SSB signal into a minimally bothersome amount of inter- ference.Then,ofcourse,thefilterbandwidthsonthe IC-7ooo are easily adjusted to optimize them for your particular band 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 I mentionedearlier,I found the twin manual notch filters tobeoutstanding when used in CW to provide additional filtering in extremely crowded or weak-sig- nal conditio