{"id":45540,"date":"2020-09-25T10:54:10","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T14:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=45540"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T14:54:10","slug":"my-icom-ic-705-is-inbound-sharing-my-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/my-icom-ic-705-is-inbound-sharing-my-predictions\/","title":{"rendered":"My Icom IC-705 is inbound&#8230;sharing my predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39392\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg 597w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705-300x135.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was contacted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universal-radio.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Universal Radio<\/a> yesterday afternoon with\u00a0 a tracking number for my<strong> Icom IC-705<\/strong>. It will arrive by Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p>A number of <em>SWLing Post<\/em> readers in the US and UK have notified me that their IC-705s have also been shipped and a few have even been received already.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really looking forward to checking out the IC-705. The preliminary reviews (overviews, really) have been pretty positive. I found the <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/a-review-of-the-icom-ic-7300-direct-rf-sampling-transceiver\/\">IC-7300 to be a fabulous rig<\/a> and the IC-705 smacks of the &#8216;7300. The &#8216;705 even includes more features than the &#8216;7300 (multi-mode VHF\/UHF, D-Star, Wifi, and built-in GPS to name a few) although lacks an internal tuner.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve received more questions about IC-705 and the <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/lab599-discovery-tx-500-answers-to-your-questions\/\">TX-500<\/a> than I have any other radios this year. Both, in many senses, are ground-breaking in their features, (and in the case of the TX-500) form-factor and build.<\/p>\n<p>If I&#8217;m being honest, I was more excited about the TX-500 because it simply suits my field operating style better (my full TX-500 review will be in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespectrummonitor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oct 2020 issue of TSM<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Since I haven&#8217;t received the IC-705 yet and haven&#8217;t read any truly detailed reviews or comparisons, I&#8217;m going to do something I&#8217;ve never done before and share a few of my personal predictions.<\/p>\n<h1>Predictions<\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IC-705_400x281.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39384\" src=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IC-705_400x281.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IC-705_400x281.jpg 400w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IC-705_400x281-300x211.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m human and can&#8217;t help but form a few expectations\/opinions prior to a thorough rig evaluation. That and, having owned a number of their products, I&#8217;m very familiar with Icom as a company. I&#8217;ll probably regret this later, but here goes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>I suspect:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ll like the touch screen display more than I think I will. I&#8217;m not a big fan of color backlit displays in field radios. I prefer simple high-contrast LCD displays that are readable in full sunlight. I&#8217;m hoping Icom will have optimized the IC-705 display for reading outdoors.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll be able to operate the radio without referring to the manual because I&#8217;m so familiar with the IC-7300.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll really miss having a built-in ATU on a rig in this price class. Feels like a missed opportunity, however <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/icom-ic-705-check-out-this-video-of-a-cabinet-breakdown\/\">seeing the inside of the IC-705<\/a>, there really isn&#8217;t a lot of spare room. With that said, I plan to review the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vibroplex.com\/contents\/en-us\/d9185_MAT-705.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mAT-705 ATU compact external tuner<\/a> and hope it&#8217;ll pair nicely.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll be disappointed with the amount of run time I&#8217;ll get from a fully-charged BP-272 battery pack. I really hope I&#8217;m wrong about this one. Icom did some serious engineering on the IC-705 to lower the amount of current needed in receive. We&#8217;ll see if that paid off and if it can compare, for example, to the run time I get from the rechargeable battery pack in my <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/a-review-of-the-elecraft-kx2-general-coverage-qrp-transceiver\/\">Elecraft KX2<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll be very pleased with some of its features like CW and Voice memory keying for POTA and SOTA activations.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll still find D-Star complicated to use even though, hypothetically, the IC-705 can connect directly to D-Star via WiFi. I hope I stand corrected on this point.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll struggle to find the perfect padded pack to house the radio. I&#8217;m a bit of a <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/assembling-a-new-compact-field-radio-kit-in-the-red-oxx-booty-boss\/\">pack geek<\/a>\/snob and don&#8217;t really like the Icom LC-192 backpack. I&#8217;ve no intention to order it even though it&#8217;s designed to work with the radio. So while this doesn&#8217;t apply to 99% of my readers, it&#8217;s a big deal in my world. \ud83d\ude42 I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll sort out a solution.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll feel some buyer&#8217;s remorse when, in 6 months, the IC-705 price drops a couple hundred dollars. That&#8217;s okay. I see it as taking a bullet for my readers (and, let&#8217;s face it, I love new radio gear). Plus, I&#8217;m banking on the notion that the IC-705 will make for <a href=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/lockdown-lunacy-qrp-eme-has-now-been-added-to-the-social-dx-bucket-list\/\">a capable QRP EME transceiver<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll love the built-in digital recorder for making off-air shortwave broadcast recordings (although I do fear I&#8217;ll find the AM audio filter too narrow).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, these are completely off-the-top-of-my-head predictions and based on no hands-on time with th IC-705. Next week, I&#8217;ll start to see how many of these predictions are correct and how many I totally missed.<\/p>\n<p>I can tell you this: I&#8217;m not sure I want to see the invoice from Universal Radio. It includes the IC-705, two Yaesu FT-60R HTs, and some Anderson PowerPole connectors! Although I&#8217;ve had the IC-705 on order for ages, I added the HTs and connectors at the last moment because they don&#8217;t seem very pricey when you&#8217;re already at the $1300 US mark, right&#8211;? (Shhhh! The FT-60Rs are a gift for my daughters who take their Technician test this weekend!)<\/p>\n<p><strong>How about you?<\/strong> Do you have an IC-705 on order? What are your predictions and thoughts? Please comment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was contacted by Universal Radio yesterday afternoon with\u00a0 a tracking number for my Icom IC-705. It will arrive by Monday evening. A number of SWLing Post readers in the US and UK have notified me that their IC-705s have also been shipped and a few have even been received already. I&#8217;m really looking forward [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[545,836,3,5099,43],"tags":[7978,2884,7977],"class_list":["post-45540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ham-radio","category-new-products","category-news","category-qrp","category-shortwave-radio","tag-ic-705","tag-icom","tag-icom-ic-705"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-bQw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49089,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/icom-ic-7300-and-ic-705-swl-frequency-files\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":0},"title":"Icom IC-7300 and IC-705 SWL frequency files?","author":"Thomas","date":"June 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave, who writes asking if any Icom IC-705 or IC-7300 owners have created a database of SWL frequencies that could be imported into memory. I think this is a great idea as both transceivers are quite capable shortwave listening receivers. If you have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Icom-IC-705-Audio-Tests-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Icom-IC-705-Audio-Tests-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Icom-IC-705-Audio-Tests-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Icom-IC-705-Audio-Tests-2.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Icom-IC-705-Audio-Tests-2.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":39390,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/could-the-icom-ic-705-be-a-shortwave-listeners-holy-grail-receiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":1},"title":"Could the Icom IC-705 be a shortwave listener&#8217;s Holy Grail receiver?","author":"Thomas","date":"September 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I just published an announcement about the new Icom IC-705 portable transceiver, but omitted an important question for SWLing Post readers: How well could the IC-705 serve shortwave listeners and DXers? Keeping in mind that the IC-705 is not yet in production, we can only go by the features and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-LC-192-Backpack.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41244,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/icom-ic-705-price-and-availability\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":2},"title":"Icom IC-705 price and availability","author":"Thomas","date":"December 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Note: We will update this post as pricing information is confirmed by retailers. Many thanks to several SWLing Post readers who have been carefully tracking the price of the Icom IC-705 transceiver which is expected to start shipping around the second quarter of 2020. Pricing in Japan: 124,800 yen Paul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Icom-IC-705.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46520,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/comparing-the-icom-ic-705-and-icom-ic-7300-with-the-xiegu-gsoc-g90-combo\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":3},"title":"Comparing the Icom IC-705 and Icom IC-7300 with the Xiegu GSOC G90 combo","author":"Thomas","date":"November 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I was recently asked to make a table comparing the basic features and specifications of the new Xiegu GSOC\/G90 combo,\u00a0 and comparing it with the Icom IC-7300 and IC-705. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I plan to add to it as I test the GSOC. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ham Radio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/GSCO-IC-705-IC-7300-table-v2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/GSCO-IC-705-IC-7300-table-v2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/GSCO-IC-705-IC-7300-table-v2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/GSCO-IC-705-IC-7300-table-v2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47976,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/a-review-of-the-icom-ic-705-qrp-portable-sdr-transceiver\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":4},"title":"A review of the Icom IC-705 QRP Portable SDR Transceiver","author":"Thomas","date":"March 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The following review was first published in\u00a0the February 2021 issue of The Spectrum Monitor\u00a0magazine: It sometimes seems that one of the biggest enemies of a radio enthusiast these days is RFI (radio frequency interference), which is to say, human-originated noise that infiltrates\u2013\u2013and plagues\u2013\u2013vast chunks of our radio spectrum. Yet I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Icom-IC-705-Elecraft-AX1-T1-K3378-3-768x1024-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Icom-IC-705-Elecraft-AX1-T1-K3378-3-768x1024-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Icom-IC-705-Elecraft-AX1-T1-K3378-3-768x1024-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Icom-IC-705-Elecraft-AX1-T1-K3378-3-768x1024-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47470,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/the-icom-ic-705-is-about-to-achieve-holy-grail-status\/","url_meta":{"origin":45540,"position":5},"title":"The Icom IC-705 is about to achieve &#8216;Holy Grail&#8217; status","author":"Thomas","date":"January 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In 2019, shortly after Icom announced the Icom IC-705, I speculated that this rig might be a contender for \"Holy Grail\" status. I must admit...the more I use this radio, the more I love it. It is a proper Swiss Army Knife of a radio. Even though I've owned and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Icom-IC-705-Display-Files-Playback-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Icom-IC-705-Display-Files-Playback-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Icom-IC-705-Display-Files-Playback-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Icom-IC-705-Display-Files-Playback-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}