I wish someone could tell me why there is this trend towards do-everything shack-in-a-box radios instead of separate VHF/UHF rigs like the now discontinued IC-910H which I just bought? One of the reasons I switched from using a transverter to having a separate rig for VHF is that I can't use HF and VHF at the same time. An all-in-one radio would have just the same limitation.Just because technology makes it possible to cram everything into one box doesn't mean that there is no longer a reason to have separate radios. If you want a new multimode radio for 2m or 70cm you have to buy an FT-817, FT-857, FT-897 or TS-2000 - which are all compromise rigs with fairly poor performance - or wait for the IC-9100. No wonder good single VHF band multimode rigs like the IC-275H are now worth their weight in gold bullion.
7 comments:
>I can't use HF and VHF at the same time
You can with the 9100, it is dual watch, which means I only need five of these instead of the ten rigs I need to monitor what I do now.
Don't know who is going to buy me them yet though.
It would appear that the big boys can churn out 2m, 70cms or 2m/70cms FM dual banders every few months. Why or why can none of then produce a 2m/70cms multimode dual bander (mobile or handheld). From the people I talk to, I think that the demand would be there.
It must be about time for yet another 2m or 70cms handheld since it must be at least a fortnight since we had the last one.
Mike G4BLH
I'm sure the demand is there, otherwise people wouldn't pay silly money for 20 year old radios.
marketing, you can package it and sell it as the do all radio. you can sell one package that people are more likely to buy because it will "do it all" people can start out with a low level license and then move to a better one to use more of the radio. they can start out with FM SSB and 4 years later the same radio you can get into HF digital, two years later same radio you can work satellite.
all about the value to the buyer, they can get equipment that they feel will be "future proof" obviously older multiple radios will do the same thing but people like new and fancy!
makes it a easy sell for icom, buy this radio and a power supply and that is all you need! no antenna switchers bigger power supply ways to connect to that power supply. one stop icom shop
I too yearn for separates instead of all in one stuff. I just nabbed a Trio TS-700 2M multimode and it's great. Now what would I really like to see? Instead of a 2, 3 or 4 band handy which has dc to light RX coverage, but can only transmit FM - how about a 2M, 70cm handy that can TX FM and SSB? Now that would be brilliant and should sell like the proverbial hot cakes.
Latest news I hear, taken from the sales leaflet available at Dayton and now available online is that it also has optional D-Star. Great I can opt out.
Sorry Icom that really came like a lightning bolt out of the blue,not!
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