When it comes to Amateur Radio, I am an HF “meat and potatoes” guy. When I was first licensed in the mid-sixties CW and “phone”-along with some RTTY, was the “main event” for most.

We each have our favorite modes. Mine has always been CW. I see it as a language fluency–an art form, if you will.

CW is still my personal preference. Using this mode, I enjoy random QSO’s “rag chewing” with like-minded acquaintances and new friends about various topics such as family, geography, weather and the like. I also like chasing DX as well, and will switch to S SB on six meters to increase my grid square count.

When the time came to choose a new HF/6 Meter transceiver, I did my homework-deciding on the new Icom IC-7610.

I am now happier than ever with my choice of the Icom IC-7610! From the day I unboxed it to months later, as I use it (nearly every day!) I am happier than ever that I chose this brand and this model. For one thing, the very roots of Icom as a company were found in the owner and founders love of amateur radio. His commitment and those of the team he has built continue to this day–both at Icom America and at Icom world HQ! That speaks volumes to me! And over the years, I have owned a number of Icoms in my shack as I pursued DX (IC-735) chased contest awards (IC-765, IC-7800), had a blast with QRP (IC-703) and ran mobile SSB, FM and CW (IC-706MKIIG). Looking back, Icom has been my constant RF companion each step of the way!

So when I spoke with friends about their IC-7600’s I was really excited when Icom announced the IC-7610 as the industry’s first-in-class mid level stand alone SDR. I figured that as wildly popular as the IC-7300 has been, at the enhanced next level of like-design, the IC-7610 would be top rated as well.

I don’t think the delivery truck cleared the driveway before I had slit open the sturdy box and lifted this shiny new beauty out of the carton and unfurled the plastic surrounding it! To see the ad pictures in the radio magazines is one thing but when I sat the new rig on my shack desk for the first time, I was taken aback–this radio is simply beautiful! If that wasn’t enough, when I powered up the IC-7610 and the 7” display came alive, I found it to be stunning!

Looks is one thing, but the functionality and performance is yet another. It was like this radio was reading my mind. If I needed anything, I found it logically shown on the display and in multiple colors. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it at first, but finally did, so I had to hear this new rig! I have what most consider being a nice antenna farm (I run my IC-9100 very effectively on multi mode VHF and UHF monoband antennas). And now, I would put the IC-7610 to the test on my 80 Meter loop and tribander–both at modest heights. The basic shack connections were made in moments.

The radio came to life.

What immediately was noticeable was how very quiet the 7610’s receiver is. As I tuned slowly across 20 Meters, signals seemed to leap out of a very quiet noise floor! A transceiver is defined by the effectiveness of its receiver performance. In the old days, a common saying was “if you can’t hear ‘em you cannot work ‘em”….so true!

Using a well-designed rig over a weekend is like taking a long trip in a very nice car; you appreciate its quality and its design fine points more than ever! During my first weekend on the air with my Icom 7610, I was not disappointed! I immediately appreciated the radios internal speaker, which rivaled the performance of many an external speaker that I had tried over the years. Icom’s engineers put a lot of thought into its design, which was evidenced by its rich, full sound. It sounded worthy of the radio that I was fast becoming enamored with!

On Saturday, I was tuning on the 17-meter CW sub-band when I saw a beehive of activity about 10 kHz higher than where I was listening. A touch of the IC-7610’s display screen immediately took me to a DX-peditions frequency. The station was in the South Pacific, and due to conditions and the limitations of my humble HF antenna system, I was struggling to hear them. I had heard about the IC-7610’s APF (Audio Peak Filter) feature, so with nothing to lose, I pushed the button. I was astounded. The station rose up out of the band’s noise floor and morphed from being barely copyable to being easily heard. And this occurred with the factory default settings. I had not even optimized this filter to my ears via the menu!

Making my call, I put the radios CW full break-in (QSK) feature to the test. It was smooth as can be, virtually silent to my ears with a beautiful T/R turn around time that I first enjoyed in the fantastic IC-781 from back in the 1980s.

As if this wasn’t all good enough, my new IC-7610 provided me with an added treat that Saturday morning, as I put this new ATNO (all time new one) in my log for another notch on my DXCC belt. Six meters had come alive on my new rigs second VFO. It was on the 50.125 USB voice calling channel! And at a glance, I could tell that there were all kinds of activity on six across the spectrum, with a moment’s glance at my sub-receiver’s spectrum scope.

I quickly put three new grid squares in my log. Satisfaction!

After lunch I had some other things to do. As it was, I had a quick sandwich in the shack, before leaving for a ball game with my daughter Lauren and my grandsons. I must admit, at halftime, my thoughts were of spending more time that weekend with this new beauty in my shack.

This radio was a real value to me when I made the decision to spend my hard-earned money on it. And to this day I am glad I did! I cannot imagine outgrowing it. I am already looking forward to more contests, rag chews and adding to my DXCC and grid counts!

And most fun of all, I will be pleased and proud to host my buddies who have heard about my new Icom IC-7610. I think we will be using it as our main rig next Field Day!

What a hobby!

Check out the IC-7610 product page to learn more.

The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) started the event in 1952 with 600 in attendance, and moved to HARA Arena in 1964, where attendance climbed to near 30 thousand.

Now they have moved to the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio. What a fantastic venue and what a great job by DARA in getting this huge event up and running.

Hams to Japan – #H2JA

We’re really excited to hold the Hams to Japan Sweepstakes and wanted to incorporate it into the mix at the Hamvention® booth this year.  A kiosk was placed at the from of our booth, allowing visitors to sign up while at Hamvention®. We have had great participation so far and only expect more until our final drawing. The grand prize drawing, a trip for two to  2017 Tokyo Hamfair or an IC-7300, will announce the second week of July.

Excitement is building and we look forward to sending a ham on a dream vacation to the largest amateur radio event in the world. Enter each Tuesday for a chance to win an Icom radio or the grand prize! Follow our Facebook or Twitter feed for more information.

New Booth

One benefit of coming back to the same place year after year is you know what to expect. Plus, your staff and procedures run like clockwork as you’ve done it so many times before. Not so this year.

It was a new venue, which called for a new booth! We were able to redesign our booth and in the process allow for greater access to the equipment displays, more room for conversations between hams and our staff members. Hats off to our team that made it all work.

New Rigs

“New” was definitely the theme this year, so of course we had to showcase some new rigs. The big attraction was the IC-7610. It has not yet been approved by the FCC, but we expect it to be available this Fall. It’s the next step in the evolution of our direct sampling transceivers, following the success of the IC-7300. You can see the preliminary information on our website and Adam Farson, VA7OJ, has a quick review on his website.

We also brought our new entry level D-STAR mobile ID-4100, and all our other great rigs so attendees could see first hand the quality of our equipment and operate them.

Contest University

We have been a long-time sponsor of Tim Duffy’s Contest University. If you have not yet attended, I highly recommend it. It’s extremely well organized and the information that is shared can really boost your contest scores.

We also provide live streaming video of several of the sessions. You can find the full list on YouTube at Contest University 2017. One of my favorites was the presentation given by Rob Sherwood, NC0B, titled Disruptive Technologies, How They Change Our Hobby.

In this presentation he compares traditional superheterodyne receivers with direct sampling receivers. He particularly notes that this is one of the disruptive technologies that he is seeing today and notes that the IC-7300 has initiated a “tectonic shift” in the technology used in amateur radio. You heard it on this blog first, in my post titled “IC-7300 — A Game Changer.”

Youth Forum

One thing that did not change this year was the Youth Forum. In fact, Carole Perry, WB2MGP, celebrated 30 years of hosting the event. Congratulations Carole!

The 2017 Hamvention® Youth Forum lineup was, as always, fantastic. Here’s the list of presentations:

• Lucas Schroeder, W6LDS (15) “The SharkRF openSPOT”
• Carissa Ferguson, KJ4EZA(17) “Robotics and Ham Radio”
• Dakota Krzysik, KE8CVK(17) “Activations: Islands, Lighthouses, and Ships”
• Grace Lea, KM4TXT(9) “Solar Power Mania”
• Jerome Dinakar, KE0BBQ(16) “Tribute to Ellie Van Winkle”
• Evan Markowitz, KD2IZW(18) “Balloon Based Repeater for Emergency Applications”
• Ruth Willet, KM4LAO(18) “Plugging into Your Valuable Club Resources”
• Chris Brault, KD8YVJ(14) “Getting Started with SDR”
• Dhruv Rebba, KC9ZJX(13) “Community Services with Ham Radio Communications”

Ham Nation 300th Episode

Bob Heil’s Ham Nation produced their 300th episode “On Location From Hamvention®.” We are a proud sponsor and it was fabulous to be on the show.

Highlights — Too Many to Cover

There were a ton of highlights during the Hamvention®,  too may to cover in a brief blog post. In summary, the overall event went fantastic. It was indeed time for change and it went extremely well. Congratulations to DARA and all the Hamvention® volunteers that made it happen.

We will be back! I guess some things don’t change…

73,

Ray Novak, N9JA
Senior Sales Manager
Lifetime Amateur Radio Enthusiast