Latest / Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations / New ICOM Radios Steal the Show - Tokyo Ham Fair Reactions

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New ICOM Radios Steal the Show - Tokyo Ham Fair Reactions · Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hi everyone and welcome to the Everyday Ham.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm joined here by Jim N8JRD, rory W8KNX and I'm James K8JKU.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I wanted to share some of our opinions about what we saw from the Tokyo Ham Fair, which was on August 20.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Well, the past weekend it's currently the 24th, it was the 22nd and the 23rd, I believe.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'll double check the dates, but ICOM really stole the show.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So we just want to give you our thoughts and opinions.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And, jim, what did we see?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's first of all credit where credit's due.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Ray from ICOM was the gentleman that really put us in the driver's seat to see some cool stuff that ICOM had released, and he worked with him on Crash Course to deliver that content pretty much late, breakingly as the doors were opening.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So a couple of shout outs there.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We are not, obviously, in Japan, nor were we able to travel there.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We didn't have any connections, but, as with most of you, we were consuming the news as it was being delivered via all of the favorite things.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So thank you, josh, and thank you to Ray, of course, for taking time to share it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: But yeah, you're absolutely right, james, last year's show belonged to Yaesu with the FTX1.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: There is no doubt that they stole the show last year and this year ICOM it was their turn.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: It was awesome to see two new radios from ICOM that were very interesting.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: There were some new antennas, some other things there that Ray was excited about as well, but a little more specialized for those folks that are operating microwaves.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: So we won't belabor the fact that the big one was likely the 300 Mark II, which is ICOM's stalwart HF unit.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So we have a very interesting naming convention too.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I personally like the Mark II, but Yep, so they brought us a brand new one.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: It's something they borrowed from when they did the 706 back in the day, when the 706 got upgraded, so it's the same idea.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Physically.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: If you're looking at the front of this unit and you didn't look at the silkscreen, you would be looking at the same radio functionally as the 7300 for most intents and purposes.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: But ICOM went ahead and listened to a whole lot of, I think, user feedback here.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: They sure did.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I can really appreciate this because they are one of those radio brands and Ray said it, I think, when he met with us a couple of weeks ago now.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not worth just updating to update, and they knew that they had a good thing going with the 7300.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: The original one has sold extremely well.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: And if you don't know somebody that owns a 7300, I would be shocked.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: You may own one yourself, and so seeing the 7300 Mark II as kind of building on the tradition of the 7300, but adding many of the desired features that were perhaps showing it lagging behind what is available in the market right now was awesome to see.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: So, james or Rory, you want to talk a little bit about some of those features that you saw there that popped up.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the most important one is the enhanced performance.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So they are going to claim better noise performance, which I think is, when you look at what Yaesu has produced in radios lately, a big step forward to make the 7300 more competitive.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Should say 7300 Mark II, big step forward to make the 7300 more competitive.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Should say 7300 Mark II more competitive in that market.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Also lower power consumption and basically should make it more available.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: If you're going to take this radio remote, it should be more favorable for field operation.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Also, the temperature and the heat generation they're saying here is about 23% less than the current model.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I never had a problem.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: 7300 was actually my first HF radio.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: That's what I bought myself when I first got my general license.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Loved it.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So I'm glad to see that they didn't.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: What's not broke, it doesn't have to be fixed.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: So the format and everything is the same.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: It looks like the knobs and everything are the same, exact to the 7300 first gen.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: But I never had an issue with the overheating or it getting necessarily too hot when running FD8 or digital modes.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: But it's good to see.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's still more power efficient and it's running cooler, so that's never a bad thing.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I think, a lot similar to.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: I mentioned the naming convention earlier of the 706, back in the day, adding the 706 Mark II.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I think icom realizes that the 7300 is in it for the long haul that's they're.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: They're putting some some time and effort and listening to seeing how the users are are using the radio.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: So many more people are doing poda now than when the original 7300 came out.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: So they're answering to that and they're also realizing that it is a solid entry level rig as well.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: People coming into the hobby are able to buy this radio and pretty much do everything they want to do with HF and have a tremendous experience doing it.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: So ICOM definitely stayed tuned in to what the users are doing with this radio and made those changes.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: I'm excited to see the first ones roll off the line.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Of course we haven't heard dates or dollar values yet, but I will be curious to see the first ones of these come off the line and hear what some of the people because there's a lot of people that have run 7300s hard and long that will be first in line to pick up the 7700 Mark II and they'll be the ones giving us the reviews first.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Well, and they are saying shipments are planned by the end of 2025.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: So maybe it's a get on your Christmas list or whatever holiday you celebrate list.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Kind of treat yourself.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I got two things here.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: The ever cheap gentleman that I am, I am excited for those of you that don't already have an OG 7300 because that means the prices are coming down on those for the used market.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: It's true, and it's a hell of a radio if you're a starter in this hobby, even if you're a couple years into it and you don't have one with a big screen yet 7300s.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I saw one listed on QRZ this weekend for $650 in mint shape.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: A guy claimed that it hadn't been used much.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to keep seeing those prices come down with the release of the Mark III.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: You always find that when these fancy new radios get announced that the people that have the predecessor to it will do the quick dump because they don't want to get stuck holding the bag.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: So if you are looking for a radio, can't go wrong with the 7,300, and there want to get stuck holding the bag.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: So if you are looking for a radio, can't go wrong with the 7300.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And there's going to be plenty of them out there because, like I say, one of the best-selling HF radios that we're aware of on the market.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: So I think that's cool, right?
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Thinking a little outside, right, if you're not right, into the Mark II, which I would expect is going to be somewhere in the 1299 range, there you go.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: There's another N8JRD prediction right out of the gate.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Probably $1,299.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Calculation mode.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: But I am very, very excited for those folks that haven't picked up a $7,300 yet.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Those are going to come down in price and you're going to have the rush to the new one there.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: It's very exciting.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: One other thing.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: We exciting One other thing.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: We talked about all the phase noise characteristics and I heard 12 decibel reported over and over again as improved by 12 decibel.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I can't make heads or tails of it yet.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: The graphs don't make a lot of sense to me.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you if you could explain them to me.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to admit that I really fully understood what I was looking at.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Nope, I think that what we're seeing is some marketing hype number-wise.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: But what I think that what we're seeing is some marketing hype number-wise.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: But what I think will be very interesting is right now ICOM's original 7300, it looks like Sherwood's tested two of them now sits 25 on the list right, and we know that 710, dx10, dx101mp all sit 123 on the list.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: So it will be really interesting to see if Mark II brings that number on the Sherwood list up a little bit.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And honestly, I have not ever heard very much complaining about how the 7300 performs as a solo radio.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: The only thing that I've ever heard folks complain about is in a busy environment like a field day or multi-radio scenario where you have many radios operating close on bands, the 7300 doesn't do as well in rejection on the front end as some of the Yaesu stuff and that's why they're not always favored for busy, busy operating environments.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: But it sounds to me like ICOM has really taken some of what they've learned.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: They've made it more efficient, they've made it more sensitive and I'm really curious to see what the test results look like here.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: It looks like a really cool radio the back of it which James is showing now, I think on the screen.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Getting the SMA additional receive port is really cool.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: That's a feature that you only usually see now on the higher-end radios.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: A second receive antenna port that just adds flexibility to your operating style.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: In and out.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: So it's a.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: RX antenna in and out with SMA connectors, which is an interesting choice, but that means you could put a bandpass filter in line, for example, or a better receiving antenna.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Nice addition.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: What's that funny-looking video plug that we?
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Don't see often on amateur radio.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: What's that funny looking thing?
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That, my friends, is a trademarked HDMI port which is a new.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I guess there was a debate online which was interesting to me.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: There were people defending the DVI port.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect that, but this does have, to my knowledge, one of the first HDMI ports in, let's say, entry-level radio that is going out and does include audio out too.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: I heard yeah, that I.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I'm glad to see this finally coming around.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: I realize that it carries a licensing fee, which is why many of the manufacturers have not yet bought in to the idea of hdmi.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: But to be very honest with you, with the video stacks the way they are these days, most of our displays are digital.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Most of our displays have these ports.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: They're ubiquitous as hell.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: So having something that's a more standard port on an entry-level unit means that more folks are going to be able to use it than with the old DVI port Even five years ago, dvi port, you could have said, oh well, it's on every monitor.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: It's not anymore right, it's not.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: no, not in 2025.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So having this HDMI port, I think this makes it more accessible for folks that do want a big screen, and Rory has advocated for those folks before.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Those are harder of sight, older folks that are having trouble seeing the tiny screen.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: This is a big modifier for them.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely another thing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Icom has clearly listened to the customers and clearly listened to the peanut gallery out there of the ham radio community and it was worth it to them to spend the few bucks to get the HDMI output into this radio.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: I'm kind of glad to see USB-C there.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: That's a good change.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: For the longest time we had been using USB-A on most of the radio Type B I believe it was.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's a Type B.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: It's the other end of the A, those old printer cables we would all have to dig up to be able to connect to our radios.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: So it's good to see Type C and definitely interesting to see networking capability directly into the radio.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: That's a huge, huge addition.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I also really like that, the fact that it's a Type-C with a dual COM and audio port, so you basically get two virtual COM ports in unison that work separately.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So I know when I was first starting and I was trying to get WSJTX to operate and also my logging software, it was kind of a pain to get one to work and then the other one to work because you had to fiddle with COM ports and all sorts of other things, basically forwarding from WAJSTX to my logger app and ham logger or what is it grid tracker, I'm sorry.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And if you want grid tracker and your logger, god forbid.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: That was a forward of a forward of a forward.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So for an entry-level radio, again, I like that.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: That's an addition because I think it simplifies the process for hams getting started or really anyone just getting started with digital or using digital in a more efficient way.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: I 100% agree, and the funny thing was I had to look this up so that I didn't sound like an idiot here.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: The 7760, which was the big news two years ago, right, also doesn't have an HDMI port, and I remember the griping that happened alongside of that.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: How did the flagship radio not get the HDMI port?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: So it is really nice to see them understanding that that's important.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: And plus one to ICOM's choice there.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Usb-c also glad to see the printer interface, as Rory called it, the old school USB-B, being replaced and outmoded by, of course, usb-c, which is ever more prevalent here in the shack.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: So awesome to see that.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: And the multi-com functionality.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: The 9700 does have multi-com, but I don't know that it works quite the same.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I'll be curious if that means two com ports plus audio, or if I'm just getting com and audio, because I do get two com ports when I plug in my 9700, for example.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if it's a similar.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they don't operate.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So if I look at the 7300, which is my other one, and also the FTD-X10, they can't operate at the same time.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Aha, okay, they're not independent from each other.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: So this is offering some even additional functionality to that.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Very cool to see some of those things.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Like I said, this really does feel like ICOM watched the market, listened to what folks wanted and built us a new, more awesome version of a radio that has an excellent reputation already.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: So I don't think you're going to go wrong buying a 7300 Mark II.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And before we move on to the next radio that was also, let's say, announced, the thing I think that ICOM did right here was the 7300 was a long player for them.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: They had that in the market.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: They didn't really do any updates to it.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: They were able to maximize their investment in that radio and I think they did it again.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: They future-proofed this radio HDMI, type-c, usb, putting the SMA receiver antennas on the back.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: You really did a good job that this radio can be still a mainstay for the next five years plus, with maybe some slight modifications.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: So kudos to them.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I think they learned that this is how you do it.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: I will be exceptionally interested to see what improvements we see to the software in the radio.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Of course the CW decoder is an ad.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I would expect there's some other things.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Some of my, some of my ham friends have been longtime users of the 7300, as well as you, james, and I think I wish I should have thought about it.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: To reach out to my friend Sean Cade SAW.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: He has his 7300 user and there were a couple things I remember he used to always complain about that were absent in the radio.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: That would be nice to have and I wonder if those things again not knowing what they are, make that not a useful conversation at the moment.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: But I'm curious if some of those missing items will show up in this new version.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they did a good job.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: So kudos to ICOM.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: And maybe let's move on to the next announcement which we saw from I believe the only place we were able to find it was on ICOM's UK website.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Any kind of official press release, let's say, was they announced a ID5200 as well as an AH6 antenna tuner model as well?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Let's focus on.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Let me say I don't care at all about AH6.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Let me say that I'm extremely excited to see ICOM modernizing what was clearly something they were behind on in the VU space.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: We didn't have a modern mobile radio.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: This is exciting for me, you guys all know, and I've been talking about waiting for the Kenwood TMD750 to come out, and I am still waiting for that radio to come out.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I'll still buy the Kenwood, but, being a longtime ID5100 user, having two of them, one here on my desk in the shack and one in the mobile this is exceptionally exciting to see the color screen, the updated display, the updated controls.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: It's very, very nice to see that's something a couple of us that I know locally here have discussed that the black and white screen, the monochrome screen, is starting to look aged and it doesn't work that well in direct sunlight either, so hopefully this upgrade to the screen takes care of that.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Not a whole lot of information on this one.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: It seems like functionally a very similar radio, of course keeping the touchscreen and the wide receive that it has, adding in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which Bluetooth was something you could add as an option to the 5100, which I did in both of mine.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: But having Wi-Fi in it leads to the internal gateway function which will allow you to operate DSTAR without having to run a hotspot, which I think is pretty cool.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I don't run nearly as much DSTAR as I once did, so that's not as big of a selling point, but it is something to be nice to not have to have an extra item floating around in the car when you want to run DSTAR.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: We'll have to make note put that back up, oh sorry we'll have to make note.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Put that back up sorry, if you're listening, we have the specs up on the iCom UK site so the screen of the display, the picture of the screen on the radio.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: We didn't see this written anywhere, but it has an interesting frequency on the right hand side of the radio, 144.64, and that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to us folks in the US, but that is the Japanese APRS frequency.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: So there's some speculation going around that this will have real APRS in it, which that was a function that a lot of people lamented didn't exist in the 5100 because it had DPRS that ran through the DSTAR network.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: We might be getting real aprs on this radio and that, I think, will go a long way well, and I was going to switch over to the spy shots, or I should say the at fair photos taken by ham lifejp, if you give me a second, because it gives a little bit more of a close-up of the actual screen itself.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: The parts I really like about it, though, are Icom kept the big giant screen, which seemed what a lot of manufacturers are sort of getting away from Bigger knobs, less screen, which I think is maybe not the direction to go personally, so I was pretty excited to see that.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Just a direct shot at Yaesu, come on now.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I wouldn that, but I, you know, I don't need necessarily a big knob, I need a bigger screen that's my user preference.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: To be fair, I don't understand the big knob on the yesu 500.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: I don't, don't understand that not a knock, just a preference, not sure anybody understands the big stereo vf.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: No vfo style knob on the 500, but it does look cool and let me see if I can zoom in on these screens If you're watching.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: We have again hamlifejp.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: They did a whole write-up on what they saw at the ham fest there and I'll kind of scroll down.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: The other thing from the, let's say, concept announcement is it has a.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It appears to keep full duplex as well.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I wonder if you right-click on the image and open the image in a new tab if you'll get a higher risk.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: It didn't give me much better, unfortunately.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I did try that.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: I think there's a super zoom here coming up here in a second.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Here we go.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: So another another tell in that one, that well, two tells towards the aprs thing.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Um, you would see a gps indicator on the top top row that the radio is locked in the gps.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: And you also see that kiss 96, which aprs APRS in Japan is 9,600 baud.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So that's another potential tell.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: So very, very interested to see where this radio is going to lead when it comes out for real.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: It was interesting to me that they were playing so coy on the KISS 96, because we all know that it's definitely keep it simple, stupid style interface, right Like it's a data interface, and I do wonder if that might also be an indication that there's a couple of one more thing type announcements coming on the 5200.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: This is a really early look.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: As far as I can tell, this is under glass.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Ray made a comment about under glass.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: You can expect a year plus out at this point from ICOM, right, so we won't see this radio at the end of 2025.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: This will be probably the end of 2026 radio Again, speculation star, it is a concept.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's right.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I would say that's probably safe speculation at this point.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so before we exit, though, rory, you were excited about the Kenwood mobile radio that was under glass last year, announced at the Tokyo Ham Fair, under glass at Hamvention.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Still, we know that they had to go back and do some reengineering because of part components when we talked to the sales rep at the Hamvention.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: So anyway, these could come out maybe at the same time.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Again, speculation here.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because it looks like If you were going to the store.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: What are you buying?
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I'm buying the Kenwood, but we'll see the 5100, we'll see what it does.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: It might or, I'm sorry, the 5200 might have to get one.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: We'll see what happens.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: But no, the Kenwood has 220, and this does not have 220.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: So that's still the tell.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: I think I paid $649 for my very early 5100.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: So, jim, what's your guess on the 5200?
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: I'll go $789.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: $789?
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Okay, because I do think that Kenwood's going to be close to $999, if not a $1099 price.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping it's not over $1000.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be a shell shocker for the Kenwood, just all things known.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: So I think you're probably right on I'd say $799.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Manufacturers love that $799 price point and then probably with the discounts, we'll see it down in around the $689 or $699 mark, which would track with their ID52A anniversary, for example, about the same price-wise.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I think that yeah, like I said, we've seen that ever-creeping cost of radio happening and we've talked about that on some of our other shows.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: But I'm stoked about this radio.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: I think we had talked and we've alluded to the fact that we expected this year was going to be ICOM's year and I think we probably kind of nailed that.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: With Yezu having a big year last year, the cycle continues.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: 5200 looks awesome to me.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: A couple things on the 5200.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Love the big color screen, love that we are getting touch on that, which is something that the Kenwood will not deliver.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Kenwood is all button-driven, correct, but I do like that.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: They hybridized the control a little bit on the 5200, which is to say you see that button row below this display is a rubberized button row, so it should be nice and tactile.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: It looks like we'll have some pressure-sensitive buttons there that aren't just going to be capacitive.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: So if you still like buttons, it looks like they are there and then we have at least four knobs on the front of this thing too.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So I think they've come up with a pretty cool hybrid design here, and I personally like touch interface for many reasons.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I think that it gives more direct access to certain things in menus, especially when you are building a more graphical menu than some of these radios have.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: So I personally think they knocked it out of the park on the 5200.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: It's a sweet radio.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: If it had 220, it would be a real conversation for me.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: On whether or not it was going to be that or the Kenwood.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: But I agree with Rory Really wanting the tri-band functionality on the Kenwood is the thing that might sway me in that direction.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: But if it has APRS built in, if KISS 96 means we get real APRS with the modem, good work on ICOM's part, that's awesome.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: That's the one thing that I think is missing from a lot of their VU handhelds right now.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: It's APRS fanatic.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Over here I've said it over and over we have a pretty good installation of APRS around the metro area and I see a lot of hams that run it at ham fairs and whatnot too.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: So I just think it's a cool function.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to lie.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I think, depending on what the price point of the Kenwood is, the 220 for me is definitely a nice to have.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I'd like it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: However, I'm currently running my mobile and FTM 400.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: So I've been looking.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Great radio, by the way.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I love it, but I've been looking for an update, depending on where the price point is.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I have my ID 5100 sitting here next to me.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: I've really grown to love it more and more.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: That radio looks really great to me.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: It may be my mobile radio.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Then I could see myself going that direction again to save a little.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Save a little.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for me being so very familiar with the 5100, having run it, and I think it's 12 years in the car between the current Jeep and the previous Jeep, 12, maybe 10 years.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: That's a long time with the radio and I'm still very happy with it.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: So as long as the 5200 is on par with functionality and how it operates and quality, um, we'll see.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: I mean I I keep talking about the kenwood um, maybe it'll come down to price, maybe kenwood will come out with some asinine price point of 14.99 we can dream right and and I'm gonna say nope, sorry, kenwood not this time for you right, but uh, yeah, I think, uh, I think under 800 bucks would be fully acceptable for the added technology in that radio.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Plus there's inflation since the the 5100 came out years ago I'm chuckling.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: James is still using the 400, which I know many folks hung on to the ftm 400, because it's considered to be one of yesu's last great mobile rigs as far as that's concerned.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: There there's nothing that has made me think I'll upgrade.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: So if you're one of those FTM 400 users out there, post it down below and let James know that he's in good company, I'm not alone.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I sold my 400.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: I have two 500s and a 510.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: But I will tell you that those bigger displays are super nice to my fingers when I'm driving along in the truck and I want to quickly use the meat mitts to poke the screen.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: The 500 has a tiny display comparatively, and so I do love what they've done on the 5200.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And Icom does menus really well.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Icom does clear menus.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: They do direct access to things in pretty cool ways.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: I've heard lots of comments that say that Icom does it better than any of the other brands.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: As far as that's concerned, and that touchscreen, I think is going to shine when I can see it more clearly than that old-school gray touchscreen that the 5100 has so really cool.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: I was hoping to see and I'll make this last comment if you guys are getting ready to wrap it here.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah we got a net to catch.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got a net to catch.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: I was hoping to see some other cool stuff from vendors.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Watch the rest of the news at the Tokyo Ham Fair this year and it did seem quite quiet.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: The one cool thing that.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: James found.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: James, do you want to say Uniden made a return to a ham fair after 40 years of being out.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: According to, again, hamlifejp, they had some nice shots of their booth and their exhibits.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: They had some old ham radios on display as a welcome back kind of celebration, themselves showing their history and legacy in the ham radio world.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: They had a wide band scanner I think.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Big wide band receiver.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: So I think there'll be a couple of different options for you in the market.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: But it's nice to see Uniden exhibiting, spending the money to be back in this market, and it does make me wonder if they're going to resurge with something, perhaps HF related, that we can transmit on, not just Listen, or some other things.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Uniden's got a pretty good following for folks that are operating scanners here locally in our South Lion region.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: I'm hoping we see some improvement to their scanner line, because the Uniden scanners, even their most current ones, do struggle with the simulcast Motorola systems which is what we use here in Michigan on the MPSCS system.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: So I'm hoping to see maybe they're taking a look at that and realizing that there's still a market there that needs to be tapped.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: So with that, hey guys, it's a great time to be alive.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Yezu had last year, icom had this year, ham Radio is alive and well.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: We got manufacturers competing again in the space, maybe a new Uniden coming back into the space heavily.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So if this doesn't get you excited, I don't know what does.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: New toys for us to look at and debate about if we're going to purchase them or not.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Well, six months till Hamcation, Maybe we'll be able to get our hands on some of these things.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I I'm looking forward to it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So with that, guys, hope you enjoyed this kind of our thoughts on what we saw from the Tokyo Ham Fair and if you're looking for more episodes like this, everydayhamcom is the place to go.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Find our socials, find our Discord, find all our links to YouTube and the audio version of the podcast.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And with that, 73s, 73, guys.