AL7X Station - Part E:

The Icom IC-7410 Transceiver

Updated 9/18/2013

That's the Radio. Now the Details!"

The Radio I Chose

I chose the Icom IC-7410 for several reasons:

• It is a top-end radio, albeit with a single receiver.
• It is full featured for CW, with filters, keyer, etc.
• Neighbor Marty WL7MR has the excellent IC-746Pro. This is the successor model.
• The reviews rate its receiver at the top of the pile.

At left, I am unboxing it. Notice the double-packaging.

I ordered it from Pat Nobel K7PWN, at HRO in Portland, Oregon on Friday afternoon, 9/13, and I got it at noon on Tuesday, 9/17 via USPS Priority Mail. Not bad for instant gratification.

First Glimpse

With some of the plastic still clinging, the Radio starts to emerge from its long period of darkness inside the box ...

What I got from HRO is:

• The Icom IC-7410
• The 3.0 kHz Roofing Filter
• A pair of Kenwood HS-5 headphones.
• The Palstar SP-30HB compliant speaker

The total bill, landed in Nome came to $2079.80.

The Accessories

Besides the Roofing filter which HRO installed, the only other items in the box were:

• Hand microphone, in the foreground.
• The DC Power Cord, in the background.
• A bag of trinkets: spare fuses, key and accessory plugs.

Most of these radios do not have very satisfying speakers because by neccessity they are small. Coming is a Palstar SP-30HB, which is a rather large speaker in about a 10 x 10 box, and has a frequency response tailored for the human voice.

That frequency response reduces hiss and noises on received signals.

But I also got a pair of cushioned monaural headphones. If you do CW, you need headphones!

On the Air!

Here is the radio during a QSO with Andy, KN6ZA in Paradise, California. Frequency reads 14,025.95 and the CW filter is set to midpoint.

I love CW, so you see the Vibroplex Vibrokeyer hooked to it; and the computer running the XLog program.

Someday I may hook up a microphone to it!

I am also making out a QSL card to Andy for this QSO.

For the curious, the computer is a Dell 530N, running Mint Linux 14. Internet service by Starband Satellite. You can see the big dish in some of my Hex Beam pictures.

I am pleased with this Radio

It has a very sensitive receiver; there is a preamp but it digs to the noise floor with the preamp off.

There is a plethora of filters, dual passband tuning, notch filters, noise blanker and noise reduction.

It has a full featured CW keyer, which works really well. There are four CW memories, so I can set it send out "CQ CQ CQ DE AL7X AL7X AL7X" at the push of a button. In a contest, this may be useful.

There was a bit of residual SWR at the low end of 20 meters ... a push of the tuner button and it is now 1:1.

The overall feel is simply "smooth." But there is sure a learning curve to this unit.

Way to go, Icom!

Copyright 2013, Ramon Gandia