August 24, 2025 • 27 mins
The tides of amateur radio innovation ebb and flow as manufacturers take turns showcasing their latest technological marvels. While Yaesu dominated last year's Tokyo Ham Fair with the FTX1, this year unquestionably belonged to ICOM, who unveiled two significant new radios that have the ham community buzzing with anticipation.
ICOM's IC-7300 Mark II represents a thoughtful evolution of what has become perhaps the most popular HF radio of the past decade. Rather than reinventing the wheel, ICOM listened carefully to user feedback, maintaining the beloved form factor while modernizing crucial aspects. The enhanced receiver offers 12dB better noise performance, addressing one of the few criticisms of the original – its performance in crowded band conditions. Lower power consumption and 23% less heat generation make it more field-operation friendly, while connectivity gets a complete overhaul with HDMI output, USB-C with dual COM functionality, and SMA receiver antenna ports.
Equally exciting is the ID-5200 mobile radio, which finally brings ICOM's VHF/UHF mobile lineup into the modern era with a vibrant color touchscreen replacing the aging monochrome display of the ID-5100. Evidence suggests it may include native APRS functionality – a feature long requested by ICOM users – alongside Wi-Fi for internal D-STAR gateway functionality without requiring an external hotspot. Though still "under glass" as a concept, this hybrid-interface radio maintains ICOM's reputation for intuitive menu systems while adding modern connectivity options.
Perhaps most encouraging for the hobby was Uniden's return to the Ham Fair after a 40-year absence, potentially signaling renewed corporate interest in amateur radio markets. As manufacturers continue pushing innovation forward with substantial upgrades rather than incremental changes, there's never been a more exciting time to explore the evolving world of amateur radio technology. Which of these new offerings has captured your interest, and what features would you like to see in future ham radio developments?
Short show intro audio clip
Short outro audio clip
The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.
Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayhampodcast/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone and welcome to the Everyday Ham.
I'm joined here by Jim N8JRD,rory W8KNX and I'm James K8JKU.
I wanted to share some of ouropinions about what we saw from
the Tokyo Ham Fair, which was onAugust 20.
Well, the past weekend it'scurrently the 24th, it was the
(00:20):
22nd and the 23rd, I believe.
I'll double check the dates,but ICOM really stole the show.
So we just want to give you ourthoughts and opinions.
And, jim, what did we see?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it's first of all credit where credit's due.
Ray from ICOM was the gentlemanthat really put us in the
driver's seat to see some coolstuff that ICOM had released,
and he worked with him on CrashCourse to deliver that content
pretty much late, breakingly asthe doors were opening.
So a couple of shout outs there.
We are not, obviously, in Japan, nor were we able to travel
(00:50):
there.
We didn't have any connections,but, as with most of you, we
were consuming the news as itwas being delivered via all of
the favorite things.
So thank you, josh, and thankyou to Ray, of course, for
taking time to share it.
But yeah, you're absolutelyright, james, last year's show
belonged to Yaesu with the FTX1.
There is no doubt that theystole the show last year and
(01:13):
this year ICOM it was their turn.
It was awesome to see two newradios from ICOM that were very
interesting.
There were some new antennas,some other things there that Ray
was excited about as well, buta little more specialized for
those folks that are operatingmicrowaves.
So we won't belabor the factthat the big one was likely the
(01:34):
300 Mark II, which is ICOM'sstalwart HF unit.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So we have a very interesting naming convention
too.
I personally like the Mark II,but Yep, so they brought us a
brand new one.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It's something they borrowed from when they did the
706 back in the day, when the706 got upgraded, so it's the
same idea.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Physically.
If you're looking at the frontof this unit and you didn't look
at the silkscreen, you would belooking at the same radio
functionally as the 7300 formost intents and purposes.
But ICOM went ahead andlistened to a whole lot of, I
think, user feedback here.
They sure did.
I can really appreciate thisbecause they are one of those
(02:14):
radio brands and Ray said it, Ithink, when he met with us a
couple of weeks ago now.
Sometimes it's not worth justupdating to update, and they
knew that they had a good thinggoing with the 7300.
The original one has soldextremely well.
And if you don't know somebodythat owns a 7300, I would be
shocked.
You may own one yourself, andso seeing the 7300 Mark II as
kind of building on thetradition of the 7300, but
(02:35):
adding many of the desiredfeatures that were perhaps
showing it lagging behind whatis available in the market right
now was awesome to see.
So, james or Rory, you want totalk a little bit about some of
those features that you sawthere that popped up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, I think the most important one is the
enhanced performance.
So they are going to claimbetter noise performance, which
I think is, when you look atwhat Yaesu has produced in
radios lately, a big stepforward to make the 7300 more
competitive.
Should say 7300 Mark II, bigstep forward to make the 7300
more competitive.
Should say 7300 Mark II morecompetitive in that market.
Also lower power consumptionand basically should make it
more available.
If you're going to take thisradio remote, it should be more
(03:15):
favorable for field operation.
Also, the temperature and theheat generation they're saying
here is about 23% less than thecurrent model.
I never had a problem.
7300 was actually my first HFradio.
That's what I bought myselfwhen I first got my general
license.
Loved it.
So I'm glad to see that theydidn't.
What's not broke, it doesn'thave to be fixed.
(03:35):
So the format and everything isthe same.
It looks like the knobs andeverything are the same, exact
to the 7300 first gen.
But I never had an issue withthe overheating or it getting
necessarily too hot when runningFD8 or digital modes.
But it's good to see.
Hey, it's still more powerefficient and it's running
cooler, so that's never a badthing.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think, a lot similar to.
I mentioned the namingconvention earlier of the 706,
back in the day, adding the 706Mark II.
I think icom realizes that the7300 is in it for the long haul
that's they're.
They're putting some some timeand effort and listening to
seeing how the users are areusing the radio.
So many more people are doingpoda now than when the original
(04:17):
7300 came out.
So they're answering to thatand they're also realizing that
it is a solid entry level rig aswell.
People coming into the hobby areable to buy this radio and
pretty much do everything theywant to do with HF and have a
tremendous experience doing it.
So ICOM definitely stayed tunedin to what the users are doing
(04:39):
with this radio and made thosechanges.
I'm excited to see the firstones roll off the line.
Of course we haven't hearddates or dollar values yet, but
I will be curious to see thefirst ones of these come off the
line and hear what some of thepeople because there's a lot of
people that have run 7300s hardand long that will be first in
(05:03):
line to pick up the 7700 Mark IIand they'll be the ones giving
us the reviews first.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, and they are saying shipments are planned by
the end of 2025.
So maybe it's a get on yourChristmas list or whatever
holiday you celebrate list.
Kind of treat yourself.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I got two things here .
The ever cheap gentleman that Iam, I am excited for those of
you that don't already have anOG 7300 because that means the
prices are coming down on thosefor the used market.
It's true, and it's a hell of aradio if you're a starter in
this hobby, even if you're acouple years into it and you
don't have one with a big screenyet 7300s.
(05:41):
I saw one listed on QRZ thisweekend for $650 in mint shape.
A guy claimed that it hadn'tbeen used much.
I think we're going to keepseeing those prices come down
with the release of the Mark III.
You always find that when thesefancy new radios get announced
that the people that have thepredecessor to it will do the
quick dump because they don'twant to get stuck holding the
(06:01):
bag.
So if you are looking for aradio, can't go wrong with the
7,300, and there want to getstuck holding the bag.
So if you are looking for aradio, can't go wrong with the
7300.
And there's going to be plentyof them out there because, like
I say, one of the best-sellingHF radios that we're aware of on
the market.
So I think that's cool, right?
Thinking a little outside,right, if you're not right, into
the Mark II, which I wouldexpect is going to be somewhere
(06:21):
in the 1299 range, there you go.
There's another N8JRDprediction right out of the gate
.
Probably $1,299.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Calculation mode.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But I am very, very excited for those folks that
haven't picked up a $7,300 yet.
Those are going to come down inprice and you're going to have
the rush to the new one there.
It's very exciting.
One other thing.
We exciting One other thing.
We talked about all the phasenoise characteristics and I
heard 12 decibel reported overand over again as improved by 12
decibel.
I can't make heads or tails ofit yet.
(06:51):
The graphs don't make a lot ofsense to me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I was going to ask you if you could explain them to
me.
I'm not going to admit that Ireally fully understood what I
was looking at.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Nope, I think that what we're seeing is some
marketing hype number-wise.
But what I think that whatwe're seeing is some marketing
hype number-wise.
But what I think will be veryinteresting is right now ICOM's
original 7300, it looks likeSherwood'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.
(07:20):
So it will be reallyinteresting to see if Mark II
brings that number on theSherwood list up a little bit.
And honestly, I have not everheard very much complaining
about how the 7300 performs as asolo radio.
The only thing that I've everheard folks complain about is in
a busy environment like a fieldday or multi-radio scenario
(07:40):
where you have many radiosoperating close on bands, the
7300 doesn't do as well inrejection on the front end as
some of the Yaesu stuff andthat's why they're not always
favored for busy, busy operatingenvironments.
But it sounds to me like ICOMhas really taken some of what
they've learned.
They've made it more efficient,they've made it more sensitive
and I'm really curious to seewhat the test results look like
(08:02):
here.
It looks like a really coolradio the back of it which James
is showing now, I think on thescreen.
Getting the SMA additionalreceive port is really cool.
That's a feature that you onlyusually see now on the
higher-end radios.
A second receive antenna portthat just adds flexibility to
your operating style.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
In and out.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So it's a.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
RX antenna in and out with SMA connectors, which is
an interesting choice, but thatmeans you could put a bandpass
filter in line, for example, ora better receiving antenna.
Nice addition.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
What's that funny-looking video plug that we
?
Don't see often on amateurradio.
What's that funny looking thing?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That, my friends, is a trademarked HDMI port which is
a new.
I guess there was a debateonline which was interesting to
me.
There were people defending theDVI port.
I didn't expect that, but thisdoes have, to my knowledge, one
of the first HDMI ports in,let's say, entry-level radio
that is going out and doesinclude audio out too.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I heard yeah, that I.
I'm glad to see this finallycoming around.
I realize that it carries alicensing fee, which is why many
of the manufacturers have notyet bought in to the idea of
hdmi.
But to be very honest with you,with the video stacks the way
they are these days, most of ourdisplays are digital.
Most of our displays have theseports.
They're ubiquitous as hell.
(09:26):
So having something that's amore standard port on an
entry-level unit means that morefolks are going to be able to
use it than with the old DVIport Even five years ago, dvi
port, you could have said, ohwell, it's on every monitor.
It's not anymore right, it's not.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
no, not in 2025.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's right.
So having this HDMI port, Ithink this makes it more
accessible for folks that dowant a big screen, and Rory has
advocated for those folks before.
Those are harder of sight,older folks that are having
trouble seeing the tiny screen.
This is a big modifier for them.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, it's definitely another thing.
Icom has clearly listened tothe customers and clearly
listened to the peanut galleryout there of the ham radio
community and it was worth it tothem to spend the few bucks to
get the HDMI output into thisradio.
I'm kind of glad to see USB-Cthere.
That's a good change.
For the longest time we hadbeen using USB-A on most of the
radio Type B I believe it was.
Oh yeah, it's a Type B.
It's the other end of the A,those old printer cables we
(10:27):
would all have to dig up to beable to connect to our radios.
So it's good to see Type C anddefinitely interesting to see
networking capability directlyinto the radio.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's a huge, huge addition.
I also really like that, thefact that it's a Type-C with a
dual COM and audio port, so youbasically get two virtual COM
ports in unison that workseparately.
So I know when I was firststarting and I was trying to get
WSJTX to operate and also mylogging software, it was kind of
a pain to get one to work andthen the other one to work
(10:59):
because you had to fiddle withCOM ports and all sorts of other
things, basically forwardingfrom WAJSTX to my logger app and
ham logger or what is it gridtracker, I'm sorry.
And if you want grid trackerand your logger, god forbid.
That was a forward of a forwardof a forward.
So for an entry-level radio,again, I like that.
That's an addition because Ithink it simplifies the process
(11:19):
for hams getting started orreally anyone just getting
started with digital or usingdigital in a more efficient way.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I 100% agree, and the funny thing was I had to look
this up so that I didn't soundlike an idiot here.
The 7760, which was the bignews two years ago, right, also
doesn't have an HDMI port, and Iremember the griping that
happened alongside of that.
How did the flagship radio notget the HDMI port?
So it is really nice to seethem understanding that that's
(11:46):
important.
And plus one to ICOM's choicethere.
Usb-c also glad to see theprinter interface, as Rory
called it, the old school USB-B,being replaced and outmoded by,
of course, usb-c, which is evermore prevalent here in the
shack.
So awesome to see that.
And the multi-com functionality.
(12:08):
The 9700 does have multi-com,but I don't know that it works
quite the same.
I'll be curious if that meanstwo 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, forexample.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
So I'm wondering if it's a similar.
Yeah, but they don't operate.
So if I look at the 7300, whichis my other one, and also the
FTD-X10, they can't operate atthe same time.
Aha, okay, they're notindependent from each other.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So this is offering some even additional
functionality to that.
Very cool to see some of thosethings.
Like I said, this really doesfeel like ICOM watched the
market, listened to what folkswanted and built us a new, more
awesome version of a radio thathas an excellent reputation
already.
So I don't think you're goingto go wrong buying a 7300 Mark
II.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And before we move on to the next radio that was also
, let's say, announced, thething I think that ICOM did
right here was the 7300 was along player for them.
They had that in the market.
They didn't really do anyupdates to it.
They were able to maximizetheir investment in that radio
and I think they did it again.
They future-proofed this radioHDMI, type-c, usb, putting the
(13:16):
SMA receiver antennas on theback.
You really did a good job thatthis radio can be still a
mainstay for the next five yearsplus, with maybe some slight
modifications.
So kudos to them.
I think they learned that thisis how you do it.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I will be exceptionally interested to see
what improvements we see to thesoftware in the radio.
Of course the CW decoder is anad.
I would expect there's someother things.
Some of my, some of my hamfriends have been longtime users
of the 7300, as well as you,james, and I think I wish I
should have thought about it.
To reach out to my friend SeanCade SAW.
(13:53):
He has his 7300 user and therewere a couple things I remember
he used to always complain aboutthat were absent in the radio.
That would be nice to have andI wonder if those things again
not knowing what they are, makethat not a useful conversation
at the moment.
But I'm curious if some ofthose missing items will show up
in this new version.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, they did a good job.
So kudos to ICOM.
And maybe let's move on to thenext announcement which we saw
from I believe the only place wewere able to find it was on
ICOM's UK website.
Any kind of official pressrelease, let's say, was they
announced a ID5200 as well as anAH6 antenna tuner model as well
(14:36):
?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's focus on.
Let me say I don't care at allabout AH6.
Let me say that I'm extremelyexcited to see ICOM modernizing
what was clearly something theywere behind on in the VU space.
We didn't have a modern mobileradio.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
This is exciting for me, you guys all know, and I've
been talking about waiting forthe Kenwood TMD750 to come out,
and I am still waiting for thatradio to come out.
I'll still buy the Kenwood, but, being a longtime ID5100 user,
having two of them, one here onmy desk in the shack and one in
the mobile this is exceptionallyexciting to see the color
(15:13):
screen, the updated display, theupdated controls.
It's very, very nice to seethat's something a couple of us
that I know locally here havediscussed that the black and
white screen, the monochromescreen, is starting to look aged
and it doesn't work that wellin direct sunlight either, so
(15:34):
hopefully this upgrade to thescreen takes care of that.
Not a whole lot of informationon this one.
It seems like functionally avery similar radio, of course
keeping the touchscreen and thewide receive that it has, adding
in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, whichBluetooth was something you
could add as an option to the5100, which I did in both of
(15:57):
mine.
But having Wi-Fi in it leads tothe internal gateway function
which will allow you to operateDSTAR without having to run a
hotspot, which I think is prettycool.
I don't run nearly as muchDSTAR as I once did, so that's
not as big of a selling point,but it is something to be nice
(16:19):
to not have to have an extraitem floating around in the car
when you want to run DSTAR.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
We'll have to make note put that back up, oh sorry
we'll have to make note.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Put that back up sorry, if you're listening, we
have the specs up on the iCom UKsite so the screen of the
display, the picture of thescreen on the radio.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We didn't see this written anywhere, but it has an
interesting frequency on theright hand side of the radio,
144.64, and that probablydoesn't mean a whole lot to us
folks in the US, but that is theJapanese APRS frequency.
So there's some speculationgoing around that this will have
real APRS in it, which that wasa function that a lot of people
(16:56):
lamented didn't exist in the5100 because it had DPRS that
ran through the DSTAR network.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We might be getting real aprs on this radio and that
, I think, will go a long waywell, and I was going to switch
over to the spy shots, or Ishould say the at fair photos
taken by ham lifejp, if you giveme a second, because it gives a
little bit more of a close-upof the actual screen itself.
The parts I really like aboutit, though, are Icom kept the
(17:25):
big giant screen, which seemedwhat a lot of manufacturers are
sort of getting away from Biggerknobs, less screen, which I
think is maybe not the directionto go personally, so I was
pretty excited to see that.
Just a direct shot at Yaesu,come on now.
I wouldn that, but I, you know,I don't need necessarily a big
knob, I need a bigger screenthat's my user preference.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
To be fair, I don't understand the big knob on the
yesu 500.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I don't, don't understand that not a knock,
just a preference, not sureanybody understands the big
stereo vf.
No vfo style knob on the 500,but it does look cool and let me
see if I can zoom in on thesescreens If you're watching.
We have again hamlifejp.
They did a whole write-up onwhat they saw at the ham fest
there and I'll kind of scrolldown.
The other thing from the, let'ssay, concept announcement is it
(18:12):
has a.
It appears to keep full duplexas well.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I wonder if you right-click on the image and
open the image in a new tab ifyou'll get a higher risk.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It didn't give me much better, unfortunately.
I did try that.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I think there's a super zoom here coming up here
in a second.
Here we go.
So another another tell in thatone, that well, two tells
towards the aprs thing.
Um, you would see a gpsindicator on the top top row
that the radio is locked in thegps.
And you also see that kiss 96,which aprs APRS in Japan is
9,600 baud.
So that's another potentialtell.
So very, very interested to seewhere this radio is going to
(18:52):
lead when it comes out for real.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
It was interesting to me that they were playing so
coy on the KISS 96, because weall know that it's definitely
keep it simple, stupid styleinterface, right Like it's a
data interface, and I do wonderif that might also be an
indication that there's a coupleof one more thing type
announcements coming on the 5200.
This is a really early look.
As far as I can tell, this isunder glass.
(19:17):
Ray made a comment about underglass.
You can expect a year plus outat this point from ICOM, right,
so we won't see this radio atthe end of 2025.
This will be probably the endof 2026 radio Again, speculation
star, it is a concept.
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I would say that's probably safe speculation at
this point.
Yeah, so before we exit, though, rory, you were excited about
the Kenwood mobile radio thatwas under glass last year,
announced at the Tokyo Ham Fair,under glass at Hamvention.
Still, we know that they had togo back and do some
reengineering because of partcomponents when we talked to the
(19:53):
sales rep at the Hamvention.
So anyway, these could come outmaybe at the same time.
Again, speculation here.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, because it looks like If you were going to
the store.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What are you buying?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I'm buying the Kenwood, but we'll see the 5100,
we'll see what it does.
It might or, I'm sorry, the5200 might have to get one.
We'll see what happens.
But no, the Kenwood has 220,and this does not have 220.
So that's still the tell.
I think I paid $649 for my veryearly 5100.
(20:25):
So, jim, what's your guess onthe 5200?
I'll go $789.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
$789?
Okay, because I do think thatKenwood's going to be close to
$999, if not a $1099 price.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'm hoping it's not over $1000.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think it's going to be a shell shocker for the
Kenwood, just all things known.
So I think you're probablyright on I'd say $799.
Manufacturers love that $799price point and then probably
with the discounts, we'll see itdown in around the $689 or $699
mark, which would track withtheir ID52A anniversary, for
(21:04):
example, about the sameprice-wise.
I think that yeah, like I said,we've seen that ever-creeping
cost of radio happening andwe've talked about that on some
of our other shows.
But I'm stoked about this radio.
I think we had talked and we'vealluded to the fact that we
expected this year was going tobe ICOM's year and I think we
probably kind of nailed that.
With Yezu having a big yearlast year, the cycle continues.
5200 looks awesome to me.
A couple things on the 5200.
Love the big color screen, lovethat we are getting touch on
(21:26):
that, which is something thatthe Kenwood will not deliver.
Kenwood is all button-driven,correct, but I do like that.
They hybridized the control alittle bit on the 5200, which is
to say you see that button rowbelow this display is a
rubberized button row, so itshould be nice and tactile.
It looks like we'll have somepressure-sensitive buttons there
that aren't just going to becapacitive.
(21:47):
So if you still like buttons,it looks like they are there and
then we have at least fourknobs on the front of this thing
too.
So I think they've come up witha pretty cool hybrid design
here, and I personally liketouch interface for many reasons
.
I think that it gives moredirect access to certain things
in menus, especially when youare building a more graphical
menu than some of these radioshave.
So I personally think theyknocked it out of the park on
(22:09):
the 5200.
It's a sweet radio.
If it had 220, it would be areal conversation for me.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
On whether or not it was going to be that or the
Kenwood.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
But I agree with Rory Really wanting the tri-band
functionality on the Kenwood isthe thing that might sway me in
that direction.
But if it has APRS built in, ifKISS 96 means we get real APRS
with the modem, good work onICOM's part, that's awesome.
That's the one thing that Ithink is missing from a lot of
their VU handhelds right now.
It's APRS fanatic.
(22:39):
Over here I've said it over andover we have a pretty good
installation of APRS around themetro area and I see a lot of
hams that run it at ham fairsand whatnot too.
So I just think it's a coolfunction.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm not going to lie.
I think, depending on what theprice point of the Kenwood is,
the 220 for me is definitely anice to have.
I'd like it.
However, I'm currently runningmy mobile and FTM 400.
So I've been looking.
Great radio, by the way.
I love it, but I've beenlooking for an update, depending
on where the price point is.
I have my ID 5100 sitting herenext to me.
I've really grown to love itmore and more.
(23:11):
That radio looks really greatto me.
It may be my mobile radio.
Then I could see myself goingthat direction again to save a
little.
Save a little.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, I mean for me being so very familiar with the
5100, having run it, and I thinkit's 12 years in the car
between the current Jeep and theprevious Jeep, 12, maybe 10
years.
That's a long time with theradio and I'm still very happy
with it.
So as long as the 5200 is onpar with functionality and how
(23:40):
it operates and quality, um,we'll see.
I mean I I keep talking aboutthe kenwood um, maybe it'll come
down to price, maybe kenwoodwill come out with some asinine
price point of 14.99 we candream right and and I'm gonna
say nope, sorry, kenwood notthis time for you right, but uh,
yeah, I think, uh, I thinkunder 800 bucks would be fully
(24:02):
acceptable for the addedtechnology in that radio.
Plus there's inflation sincethe the 5100 came out years ago
I'm chuckling.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
James is still using the 400, which I know many folks
hung on to the ftm 400, becauseit's considered to be one of
yesu's last great mobile rigs asfar as that's concerned.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
There there's nothing that has made me think I'll
upgrade.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So if you're one of those FTM 400 users out there,
post it down below and let Jamesknow that he's in good company,
I'm not alone.
Yeah, I sold my 400.
I have two 500s and a 510.
But I will tell you that thosebigger displays are super nice
to my fingers when I'm drivingalong in the truck and I want to
quickly use the meat mitts topoke the screen.
The 500 has a tiny displaycomparatively, and so I do love
(24:46):
what they've done on the 5200.
And Icom does menus really well.
Icom does clear menus.
They do direct access to thingsin pretty cool ways.
I've heard lots of commentsthat say that Icom does it
better than any of the otherbrands.
As far as that's concerned, andthat touchscreen, I think is
going to shine when I can see itmore clearly than that
old-school gray touchscreen thatthe 5100 has so really cool.
(25:09):
I'm excited about it.
I was hoping to see and I'llmake this last comment if you
guys are getting ready to wrapit here.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah we got a net to catch.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, we got a net to catch.
I was hoping to see some othercool stuff from vendors.
Watch the rest of the news atthe Tokyo Ham Fair this year and
it did seem quite quiet.
The one cool thing that.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
James found.
James, do you want to sayUniden made a return to a ham
fair after 40 years of being out.
According to, again, hamlifejp,they had some nice shots of
their booth and their exhibits.
They had some old ham radios ondisplay as a welcome back kind
of celebration, themselvesshowing their history and legacy
in the ham radio world.
They had a wide band scanner Ithink.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Big wide band receiver.
So I think there'll be a coupleof different options for you in
the market.
But it's nice to see Unidenexhibiting, spending the money
to be back in this market, andit does make me wonder if
they're going to resurge withsomething, perhaps HF related,
that we can transmit on, notjust Listen, or some other
things.
Uniden's got a pretty goodfollowing for folks that are
operating scanners here locallyin our South Lion region.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I'm hoping we see some improvement to their
scanner line, because the Unidenscanners, even their most
current ones, do struggle withthe simulcast Motorola systems
which is what we use here inMichigan on the MPSCS system.
So I'm hoping to see maybethey're taking a look at that
and realizing that there's stilla market there that needs to be
tapped.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yep.
So with that, hey guys, it's agreat time to be alive.
Yezu had last year, icom hadthis year, ham Radio is alive
and well.
We got manufacturers competingagain in the space, maybe a new
Uniden coming back into thespace heavily.
So if this doesn't get youexcited, I don't know what does.
New toys for us to look at anddebate about if we're going to
purchase them or not.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Well, six months till Hamcation, Maybe we'll be able
to get our hands on some ofthese things.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
I'm looking forward to it.
I I'm looking forward to it.
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So with that, guys, hope you enjoyed this kind of
our thoughts on what we saw fromthe Tokyo Ham Fair and if
you're looking for more episodeslike this, everydayhamcom is
the place to go.
Find our socials, find ourDiscord, find all our links to
YouTube and the audio version ofthe podcast.
And with that, 73s, 73, guys.
Hi everyone and welcome to the Everyday Ham.
I'm joined here by Jim N8JRD,rory W8KNX and I'm James K8JKU.
I wanted to share some of ouropinions about what we saw from
the Tokyo Ham Fair, which was onAugust 20.
Well, the past weekend it'scurrently the 24th, it was the
(00:20):
22nd and the 23rd, I believe.
I'll double check the dates,but ICOM really stole the show.
So we just want to give you ourthoughts and opinions.
And, jim, what did we see?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it's first of all credit where credit's due.
Ray from ICOM was the gentlemanthat really put us in the
driver's seat to see some coolstuff that ICOM had released,
and he worked with him on CrashCourse to deliver that content
pretty much late, breakingly asthe doors were opening.
So a couple of shout outs there.
We are not, obviously, in Japan, nor were we able to travel
(00:50):
there.
We didn't have any connections,but, as with most of you, we
were consuming the news as itwas being delivered via all of
the favorite things.
So thank you, josh, and thankyou to Ray, of course, for
taking time to share it.
But yeah, you're absolutelyright, james, last year's show
belonged to Yaesu with the FTX1.
There is no doubt that theystole the show last year and
(01:13):
this year ICOM it was their turn.
It was awesome to see two newradios from ICOM that were very
interesting.
There were some new antennas,some other things there that Ray
was excited about as well, buta little more specialized for
those folks that are operatingmicrowaves.
So we won't belabor the factthat the big one was likely the
(01:34):
300 Mark II, which is ICOM'sstalwart HF unit.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So we have a very interesting naming convention
too.
I personally like the Mark II,but Yep, so they brought us a
brand new one.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It's something they borrowed from when they did the
706 back in the day, when the706 got upgraded, so it's the
same idea.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Physically.
If you're looking at the frontof this unit and you didn't look
at the silkscreen, you would belooking at the same radio
functionally as the 7300 formost intents and purposes.
But ICOM went ahead andlistened to a whole lot of, I
think, user feedback here.
They sure did.
I can really appreciate thisbecause they are one of those
(02:14):
radio brands and Ray said it, Ithink, when he met with us a
couple of weeks ago now.
Sometimes it's not worth justupdating to update, and they
knew that they had a good thinggoing with the 7300.
The original one has soldextremely well.
And if you don't know somebodythat owns a 7300, I would be
shocked.
You may own one yourself, andso seeing the 7300 Mark II as
kind of building on thetradition of the 7300, but
(02:35):
adding many of the desiredfeatures that were perhaps
showing it lagging behind whatis available in the market right
now was awesome to see.
So, james or Rory, you want totalk a little bit about some of
those features that you sawthere that popped up.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, I think the most important one is the
enhanced performance.
So they are going to claimbetter noise performance, which
I think is, when you look atwhat Yaesu has produced in
radios lately, a big stepforward to make the 7300 more
competitive.
Should say 7300 Mark II, bigstep forward to make the 7300
more competitive.
Should say 7300 Mark II morecompetitive in that market.
Also lower power consumptionand basically should make it
more available.
If you're going to take thisradio remote, it should be more
(03:15):
favorable for field operation.
Also, the temperature and theheat generation they're saying
here is about 23% less than thecurrent model.
I never had a problem.
7300 was actually my first HFradio.
That's what I bought myselfwhen I first got my general
license.
Loved it.
So I'm glad to see that theydidn't.
What's not broke, it doesn'thave to be fixed.
(03:35):
So the format and everything isthe same.
It looks like the knobs andeverything are the same, exact
to the 7300 first gen.
But I never had an issue withthe overheating or it getting
necessarily too hot when runningFD8 or digital modes.
But it's good to see.
Hey, it's still more powerefficient and it's running
cooler, so that's never a badthing.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think, a lot similar to.
I mentioned the namingconvention earlier of the 706,
back in the day, adding the 706Mark II.
I think icom realizes that the7300 is in it for the long haul
that's they're.
They're putting some some timeand effort and listening to
seeing how the users are areusing the radio.
So many more people are doingpoda now than when the original
(04:17):
7300 came out.
So they're answering to thatand they're also realizing that
it is a solid entry level rig aswell.
People coming into the hobby areable to buy this radio and
pretty much do everything theywant to do with HF and have a
tremendous experience doing it.
So ICOM definitely stayed tunedin to what the users are doing
(04:39):
with this radio and made thosechanges.
I'm excited to see the firstones roll off the line.
Of course we haven't hearddates or dollar values yet, but
I will be curious to see thefirst ones of these come off the
line and hear what some of thepeople because there's a lot of
people that have run 7300s hardand long that will be first in
(05:03):
line to pick up the 7700 Mark IIand they'll be the ones giving
us the reviews first.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, and they are saying shipments are planned by
the end of 2025.
So maybe it's a get on yourChristmas list or whatever
holiday you celebrate list.
Kind of treat yourself.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I got two things here .
The ever cheap gentleman that Iam, I am excited for those of
you that don't already have anOG 7300 because that means the
prices are coming down on thosefor the used market.
It's true, and it's a hell of aradio if you're a starter in
this hobby, even if you're acouple years into it and you
don't have one with a big screenyet 7300s.
(05:41):
I saw one listed on QRZ thisweekend for $650 in mint shape.
A guy claimed that it hadn'tbeen used much.
I think we're going to keepseeing those prices come down
with the release of the Mark III.
You always find that when thesefancy new radios get announced
that the people that have thepredecessor to it will do the
quick dump because they don'twant to get stuck holding the
(06:01):
bag.
So if you are looking for aradio, can't go wrong with the
7,300, and there want to getstuck holding the bag.
So if you are looking for aradio, can't go wrong with the
7300.
And there's going to be plentyof them out there because, like
I say, one of the best-sellingHF radios that we're aware of on
the market.
So I think that's cool, right?
Thinking a little outside,right, if you're not right, into
the Mark II, which I wouldexpect is going to be somewhere
(06:21):
in the 1299 range, there you go.
There's another N8JRDprediction right out of the gate
.
Probably $1,299.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Calculation mode.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But I am very, very excited for those folks that
haven't picked up a $7,300 yet.
Those are going to come down inprice and you're going to have
the rush to the new one there.
It's very exciting.
One other thing.
We exciting One other thing.
We talked about all the phasenoise characteristics and I
heard 12 decibel reported overand over again as improved by 12
decibel.
I can't make heads or tails ofit yet.
(06:51):
The graphs don't make a lot ofsense to me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I was going to ask you if you could explain them to
me.
I'm not going to admit that Ireally fully understood what I
was looking at.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Nope, I think that what we're seeing is some
marketing hype number-wise.
But what I think that whatwe're seeing is some marketing
hype number-wise.
But what I think will be veryinteresting is right now ICOM's
original 7300, it looks likeSherwood'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.
(07:20):
So it will be reallyinteresting to see if Mark II
brings that number on theSherwood list up a little bit.
And honestly, I have not everheard very much complaining
about how the 7300 performs as asolo radio.
The only thing that I've everheard folks complain about is in
a busy environment like a fieldday or multi-radio scenario
(07:40):
where you have many radiosoperating close on bands, the
7300 doesn't do as well inrejection on the front end as
some of the Yaesu stuff andthat's why they're not always
favored for busy, busy operatingenvironments.
But it sounds to me like ICOMhas really taken some of what
they've learned.
They've made it more efficient,they've made it more sensitive
and I'm really curious to seewhat the test results look like
(08:02):
here.
It looks like a really coolradio the back of it which James
is showing now, I think on thescreen.
Getting the SMA additionalreceive port is really cool.
That's a feature that you onlyusually see now on the
higher-end radios.
A second receive antenna portthat just adds flexibility to
your operating style.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
In and out.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So it's a.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
RX antenna in and out with SMA connectors, which is
an interesting choice, but thatmeans you could put a bandpass
filter in line, for example, ora better receiving antenna.
Nice addition.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
What's that funny-looking video plug that we
?
Don't see often on amateurradio.
What's that funny looking thing?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
That, my friends, is a trademarked HDMI port which is
a new.
I guess there was a debateonline which was interesting to
me.
There were people defending theDVI port.
I didn't expect that, but thisdoes have, to my knowledge, one
of the first HDMI ports in,let's say, entry-level radio
that is going out and doesinclude audio out too.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I heard yeah, that I.
I'm glad to see this finallycoming around.
I realize that it carries alicensing fee, which is why many
of the manufacturers have notyet bought in to the idea of
hdmi.
But to be very honest with you,with the video stacks the way
they are these days, most of ourdisplays are digital.
Most of our displays have theseports.
They're ubiquitous as hell.
(09:26):
So having something that's amore standard port on an
entry-level unit means that morefolks are going to be able to
use it than with the old DVIport Even five years ago, dvi
port, you could have said, ohwell, it's on every monitor.
It's not anymore right, it's not.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
no, not in 2025.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
That's right.
So having this HDMI port, Ithink this makes it more
accessible for folks that dowant a big screen, and Rory has
advocated for those folks before.
Those are harder of sight,older folks that are having
trouble seeing the tiny screen.
This is a big modifier for them.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, it's definitely another thing.
Icom has clearly listened tothe customers and clearly
listened to the peanut galleryout there of the ham radio
community and it was worth it tothem to spend the few bucks to
get the HDMI output into thisradio.
I'm kind of glad to see USB-Cthere.
That's a good change.
For the longest time we hadbeen using USB-A on most of the
radio Type B I believe it was.
Oh yeah, it's a Type B.
It's the other end of the A,those old printer cables we
(10:27):
would all have to dig up to beable to connect to our radios.
So it's good to see Type C anddefinitely interesting to see
networking capability directlyinto the radio.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's a huge, huge addition.
I also really like that, thefact that it's a Type-C with a
dual COM and audio port, so youbasically get two virtual COM
ports in unison that workseparately.
So I know when I was firststarting and I was trying to get
WSJTX to operate and also mylogging software, it was kind of
a pain to get one to work andthen the other one to work
(10:59):
because you had to fiddle withCOM ports and all sorts of other
things, basically forwardingfrom WAJSTX to my logger app and
ham logger or what is it gridtracker, I'm sorry.
And if you want grid trackerand your logger, god forbid.
That was a forward of a forwardof a forward.
So for an entry-level radio,again, I like that.
That's an addition because Ithink it simplifies the process
(11:19):
for hams getting started orreally anyone just getting
started with digital or usingdigital in a more efficient way.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I 100% agree, and the funny thing was I had to look
this up so that I didn't soundlike an idiot here.
The 7760, which was the bignews two years ago, right, also
doesn't have an HDMI port, and Iremember the griping that
happened alongside of that.
How did the flagship radio notget the HDMI port?
So it is really nice to seethem understanding that that's
(11:46):
important.
And plus one to ICOM's choicethere.
Usb-c also glad to see theprinter interface, as Rory
called it, the old school USB-B,being replaced and outmoded by,
of course, usb-c, which is evermore prevalent here in the
shack.
So awesome to see that.
And the multi-com functionality.
(12:08):
The 9700 does have multi-com,but I don't know that it works
quite the same.
I'll be curious if that meanstwo 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, forexample.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
So I'm wondering if it's a similar.
Yeah, but they don't operate.
So if I look at the 7300, whichis my other one, and also the
FTD-X10, they can't operate atthe same time.
Aha, okay, they're notindependent from each other.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So this is offering some even additional
functionality to that.
Very cool to see some of thosethings.
Like I said, this really doesfeel like ICOM watched the
market, listened to what folkswanted and built us a new, more
awesome version of a radio thathas an excellent reputation
already.
So I don't think you're goingto go wrong buying a 7300 Mark
II.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And before we move on to the next radio that was also
, let's say, announced, thething I think that ICOM did
right here was the 7300 was along player for them.
They had that in the market.
They didn't really do anyupdates to it.
They were able to maximizetheir investment in that radio
and I think they did it again.
They future-proofed this radioHDMI, type-c, usb, putting the
(13:16):
SMA receiver antennas on theback.
You really did a good job thatthis radio can be still a
mainstay for the next five yearsplus, with maybe some slight
modifications.
So kudos to them.
I think they learned that thisis how you do it.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I will be exceptionally interested to see
what improvements we see to thesoftware in the radio.
Of course the CW decoder is anad.
I would expect there's someother things.
Some of my, some of my hamfriends have been longtime users
of the 7300, as well as you,james, and I think I wish I
should have thought about it.
To reach out to my friend SeanCade SAW.
(13:53):
He has his 7300 user and therewere a couple things I remember
he used to always complain aboutthat were absent in the radio.
That would be nice to have andI wonder if those things again
not knowing what they are, makethat not a useful conversation
at the moment.
But I'm curious if some ofthose missing items will show up
in this new version.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, they did a good job.
So kudos to ICOM.
And maybe let's move on to thenext announcement which we saw
from I believe the only place wewere able to find it was on
ICOM's UK website.
Any kind of official pressrelease, let's say, was they
announced a ID5200 as well as anAH6 antenna tuner model as well
(14:36):
?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's focus on.
Let me say I don't care at allabout AH6.
Let me say that I'm extremelyexcited to see ICOM modernizing
what was clearly something theywere behind on in the VU space.
We didn't have a modern mobileradio.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
This is exciting for me, you guys all know, and I've
been talking about waiting forthe Kenwood TMD750 to come out,
and I am still waiting for thatradio to come out.
I'll still buy the Kenwood, but, being a longtime ID5100 user,
having two of them, one here onmy desk in the shack and one in
the mobile this is exceptionallyexciting to see the color
(15:13):
screen, the updated display, theupdated controls.
It's very, very nice to seethat's something a couple of us
that I know locally here havediscussed that the black and
white screen, the monochromescreen, is starting to look aged
and it doesn't work that wellin direct sunlight either, so
(15:34):
hopefully this upgrade to thescreen takes care of that.
Not a whole lot of informationon this one.
It seems like functionally avery similar radio, of course
keeping the touchscreen and thewide receive that it has, adding
in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, whichBluetooth was something you
could add as an option to the5100, which I did in both of
(15:57):
mine.
But having Wi-Fi in it leads tothe internal gateway function
which will allow you to operateDSTAR without having to run a
hotspot, which I think is prettycool.
I don't run nearly as muchDSTAR as I once did, so that's
not as big of a selling point,but it is something to be nice
(16:19):
to not have to have an extraitem floating around in the car
when you want to run DSTAR.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
We'll have to make note put that back up, oh sorry
we'll have to make note.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Put that back up sorry, if you're listening, we
have the specs up on the iCom UKsite so the screen of the
display, the picture of thescreen on the radio.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
We didn't see this written anywhere, but it has an
interesting frequency on theright hand side of the radio,
144.64, and that probablydoesn't mean a whole lot to us
folks in the US, but that is theJapanese APRS frequency.
So there's some speculationgoing around that this will have
real APRS in it, which that wasa function that a lot of people
(16:56):
lamented didn't exist in the5100 because it had DPRS that
ran through the DSTAR network.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
We might be getting real aprs on this radio and that
, I think, will go a long waywell, and I was going to switch
over to the spy shots, or Ishould say the at fair photos
taken by ham lifejp, if you giveme a second, because it gives a
little bit more of a close-upof the actual screen itself.
The parts I really like aboutit, though, are Icom kept the
(17:25):
big giant screen, which seemedwhat a lot of manufacturers are
sort of getting away from Biggerknobs, less screen, which I
think is maybe not the directionto go personally, so I was
pretty excited to see that.
Just a direct shot at Yaesu,come on now.
I wouldn that, but I, you know,I don't need necessarily a big
knob, I need a bigger screenthat's my user preference.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
To be fair, I don't understand the big knob on the
yesu 500.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I don't, don't understand that not a knock,
just a preference, not sureanybody understands the big
stereo vf.
No vfo style knob on the 500,but it does look cool and let me
see if I can zoom in on thesescreens If you're watching.
We have again hamlifejp.
They did a whole write-up onwhat they saw at the ham fest
there and I'll kind of scrolldown.
The other thing from the, let'ssay, concept announcement is it
(18:12):
has a.
It appears to keep full duplexas well.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I wonder if you right-click on the image and
open the image in a new tab ifyou'll get a higher risk.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It didn't give me much better, unfortunately.
I did try that.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I think there's a super zoom here coming up here
in a second.
Here we go.
So another another tell in thatone, that well, two tells
towards the aprs thing.
Um, you would see a gpsindicator on the top top row
that the radio is locked in thegps.
And you also see that kiss 96,which aprs APRS in Japan is
9,600 baud.
So that's another potentialtell.
So very, very interested to seewhere this radio is going to
(18:52):
lead when it comes out for real.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
It was interesting to me that they were playing so
coy on the KISS 96, because weall know that it's definitely
keep it simple, stupid styleinterface, right Like it's a
data interface, and I do wonderif that might also be an
indication that there's a coupleof one more thing type
announcements coming on the 5200.
This is a really early look.
As far as I can tell, this isunder glass.
(19:17):
Ray made a comment about underglass.
You can expect a year plus outat this point from ICOM, right,
so we won't see this radio atthe end of 2025.
This will be probably the endof 2026 radio Again, speculation
star, it is a concept.
Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I would say that's probably safe speculation at
this point.
Yeah, so before we exit, though, rory, you were excited about
the Kenwood mobile radio thatwas under glass last year,
announced at the Tokyo Ham Fair,under glass at Hamvention.
Still, we know that they had togo back and do some
reengineering because of partcomponents when we talked to the
(19:53):
sales rep at the Hamvention.
So anyway, these could come outmaybe at the same time.
Again, speculation here.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, because it looks like If you were going to
the store.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What are you buying?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I'm buying the Kenwood, but we'll see the 5100,
we'll see what it does.
It might or, I'm sorry, the5200 might have to get one.
We'll see what happens.
But no, the Kenwood has 220,and this does not have 220.
So that's still the tell.
I think I paid $649 for my veryearly 5100.
(20:25):
So, jim, what's your guess onthe 5200?
I'll go $789.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
$789?
Okay, because I do think thatKenwood's going to be close to
$999, if not a $1099 price.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'm hoping it's not over $1000.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I think it's going to be a shell shocker for the
Kenwood, just all things known.
So I think you're probablyright on I'd say $799.
Manufacturers love that $799price point and then probably
with the discounts, we'll see itdown in around the $689 or $699
mark, which would track withtheir ID52A anniversary, for
(21:04):
example, about the sameprice-wise.
I think that yeah, like I said,we've seen that ever-creeping
cost of radio happening andwe've talked about that on some
of our other shows.
But I'm stoked about this radio.
I think we had talked and we'vealluded to the fact that we
expected this year was going tobe ICOM's year and I think we
probably kind of nailed that.
With Yezu having a big yearlast year, the cycle continues.
5200 looks awesome to me.
A couple things on the 5200.
Love the big color screen, lovethat we are getting touch on
(21:26):
that, which is something thatthe Kenwood will not deliver.
Kenwood is all button-driven,correct, but I do like that.
They hybridized the control alittle bit on the 5200, which is
to say you see that button rowbelow this display is a
rubberized button row, so itshould be nice and tactile.
It looks like we'll have somepressure-sensitive buttons there
that aren't just going to becapacitive.
(21:47):
So if you still like buttons,it looks like they are there and
then we have at least fourknobs on the front of this thing
too.
So I think they've come up witha pretty cool hybrid design
here, and I personally liketouch interface for many reasons
.
I think that it gives moredirect access to certain things
in menus, especially when youare building a more graphical
menu than some of these radioshave.
So I personally think theyknocked it out of the park on
(22:09):
the 5200.
It's a sweet radio.
If it had 220, it would be areal conversation for me.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
On whether or not it was going to be that or the
Kenwood.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
But I agree with Rory Really wanting the tri-band
functionality on the Kenwood isthe thing that might sway me in
that direction.
But if it has APRS built in, ifKISS 96 means we get real APRS
with the modem, good work onICOM's part, that's awesome.
That's the one thing that Ithink is missing from a lot of
their VU handhelds right now.
It's APRS fanatic.
(22:39):
Over here I've said it over andover we have a pretty good
installation of APRS around themetro area and I see a lot of
hams that run it at ham fairsand whatnot too.
So I just think it's a coolfunction.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm not going to lie.
I think, depending on what theprice point of the Kenwood is,
the 220 for me is definitely anice to have.
I'd like it.
However, I'm currently runningmy mobile and FTM 400.
So I've been looking.
Great radio, by the way.
I love it, but I've beenlooking for an update, depending
on where the price point is.
I have my ID 5100 sitting herenext to me.
I've really grown to love itmore and more.
(23:11):
That radio looks really greatto me.
It may be my mobile radio.
Then I could see myself goingthat direction again to save a
little.
Save a little.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, I mean for me being so very familiar with the
5100, having run it, and I thinkit's 12 years in the car
between the current Jeep and theprevious Jeep, 12, maybe 10
years.
That's a long time with theradio and I'm still very happy
with it.
So as long as the 5200 is onpar with functionality and how
(23:40):
it operates and quality, um,we'll see.
I mean I I keep talking aboutthe kenwood um, maybe it'll come
down to price, maybe kenwoodwill come out with some asinine
price point of 14.99 we candream right and and I'm gonna
say nope, sorry, kenwood notthis time for you right, but uh,
yeah, I think, uh, I thinkunder 800 bucks would be fully
(24:02):
acceptable for the addedtechnology in that radio.
Plus there's inflation sincethe the 5100 came out years ago
I'm chuckling.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
James is still using the 400, which I know many folks
hung on to the ftm 400, becauseit's considered to be one of
yesu's last great mobile rigs asfar as that's concerned.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
There there's nothing that has made me think I'll
upgrade.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So if you're one of those FTM 400 users out there,
post it down below and let Jamesknow that he's in good company,
I'm not alone.
Yeah, I sold my 400.
I have two 500s and a 510.
But I will tell you that thosebigger displays are super nice
to my fingers when I'm drivingalong in the truck and I want to
quickly use the meat mitts topoke the screen.
The 500 has a tiny displaycomparatively, and so I do love
(24:46):
what they've done on the 5200.
And Icom does menus really well.
Icom does clear menus.
They do direct access to thingsin pretty cool ways.
I've heard lots of commentsthat say that Icom does it
better than any of the otherbrands.
As far as that's concerned, andthat touchscreen, I think is
going to shine when I can see itmore clearly than that
old-school gray touchscreen thatthe 5100 has so really cool.
(25:09):
I'm excited about it.
I was hoping to see and I'llmake this last comment if you
guys are getting ready to wrapit here.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah we got a net to catch.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, we got a net to catch.
I was hoping to see some othercool stuff from vendors.
Watch the rest of the news atthe Tokyo Ham Fair this year and
it did seem quite quiet.
The one cool thing that.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
James found.
James, do you want to sayUniden made a return to a ham
fair after 40 years of being out.
According to, again, hamlifejp,they had some nice shots of
their booth and their exhibits.
They had some old ham radios ondisplay as a welcome back kind
of celebration, themselvesshowing their history and legacy
in the ham radio world.
They had a wide band scanner Ithink.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Big wide band receiver.
So I think there'll be a coupleof different options for you in
the market.
But it's nice to see Unidenexhibiting, spending the money
to be back in this market, andit does make me wonder if
they're going to resurge withsomething, perhaps HF related,
that we can transmit on, notjust Listen, or some other
things.
Uniden's got a pretty goodfollowing for folks that are
operating scanners here locallyin our South Lion region.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
I'm hoping we see some improvement to their
scanner line, because the Unidenscanners, even their most
current ones, do struggle withthe simulcast Motorola systems
which is what we use here inMichigan on the MPSCS system.
So I'm hoping to see maybethey're taking a look at that
and realizing that there's stilla market there that needs to be
tapped.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yep.
So with that, hey guys, it's agreat time to be alive.
Yezu had last year, icom hadthis year, ham Radio is alive
and well.
We got manufacturers competingagain in the space, maybe a new
Uniden coming back into thespace heavily.
So if this doesn't get youexcited, I don't know what does.
New toys for us to look at anddebate about if we're going to
purchase them or not.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Well, six months till Hamcation, Maybe we'll be able
to get our hands on some ofthese things.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
I'm looking forward to it.
I I'm looking forward to it.
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So with that, guys, hope you enjoyed this kind of
our thoughts on what we saw fromthe Tokyo Ham Fair and if
you're looking for more episodeslike this, everydayhamcom is
the place to go.
Find our socials, find ourDiscord, find all our links to
YouTube and the audio version ofthe podcast.
And with that, 73s, 73, guys.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.