Some noise blankers open their receiver front ends to overload. Some rigs still have audio notch filtering that does not remove the offending carrier but only removes the heterodyne. At times… this is due to their front ends being overloaded for various reasons or signals leaking past their IF filtering. I am in two DX clubs with a combined membership of about 100 and I consistently hear DX stations that at times… my friends cannot copy and these other rig choices are connected to similar antennas and in some cases… the exact same antenna combinations. Direct RF sampling SDR systems eliminate these conversion schemes. BTW, in the 50’s and 60’s all of these companies experimented with the “in vogue today” down conversion IF scheme and dropped it due to its in band IF problems. The technology has already been accepted and is the current state of the art amongst high end communications manufacturers such as Marconi, Racal, Harris, R&S, Telefunken and Collins. Flex and their new direct RF sampling receiver will change that and other Amateur manufacturers will follow suit. the IC7800 is a supreme weak signal receiver for CW or any other mode… IMHO… the 7800 is the absolute best of the current crop of high end radios. I have been fortunate to be in a position to own or try out most of the top line rigs and I can testify without a doubt.
ICOM IC 7800 SN FULL
The user groups for different models are full of posts where DXers and Contesters have compared and contrasted most of today’s rigs side by side and have written their thoughts and opinions for us to peruse. There are a subset of DXers and Contesters that have been able to own/use the entire list of the top of the line rigs over the past 25 years. There has never been a time in my life… after becoming licensed… that I have ever been away from our Hobby. I have been a DXer since the first day that I was licensed… and a Contester on and off during those 40 years. Let me begin by stating that I have been a licensed Amateur for 40 years.
Run at 400 Hz selectivity for CW and RTTY(steep slopes). Often run it at 2.2 to 1.8 KHz selectivity for SSB contesting. The bandscope is extremely crisp, although it has limited usefulness in contesting if you are operating the assisted class. Easy to interface to DX Doubler for SO2R. Easy to interface to Rigblaster for RTTY. This is the older unit with only a 6 KHz roofing filter, but this seems to make no difference. The second receiver is mainly useful for me in DX pileups. I seldom use the second receiver, but it works extremely well. If this rig breaks I will get an IC-7700. I have not tried the new FTDX-5000 or the new TS-590S. It is a very expensive rig, but worth the money. Has been back to Icom for blown finals and blown driver. 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.
ICOM IC 7800 SN PLUS
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.