My new copy of RadCom is due towards the end of next week. I wonder, if as in PW, there will be a "tight lipped" policy as appears to be the case for all advertising in PW a few weeks ago? You can almost hear ICOM saying, "do NOT sell the IC7300, as this is for NEXT year, if at all".
Certainly the UK selling price of the Yaesu FT991 has, as predicted, dropped some way. This will go lower still in the months ahead. If the IC7300 has had to be delayed (software issue maybe, or are they afraid the lack of 2m/70cm will be a problem, or is there a major design issue, or are they worried about the selling price versus the Yaesu FT991?) this would be a great shame.
I was expecting to see this in the UK by Christmas and selling for less than the FT991. I now have my doubts. The next RadCom may give us some clues.
See http://www.cqdx.ru/ham/new-equipment/icom-ic-7300-hf-50-mhz-transceiver/ .
Hi Roger
ReplyDeleteThe wait is a bit frustrating, I agree. However, the preliminary leaflet states in small print that the product cannot be sold or leased until the relevant approvals (i.e. FCC, CE, etc) are obtained - and this all takes time.
I don't think the 991 and 7300 are totally direct competitors. The 991 is a compact shack-in-the-box, and covers VHF/UHF. However, it's relatively poor non-real-time slow panadapter is not very good in my opinion (I have only seen one real-life example). The 7300 forgoes VHF/UHF (although covers 4m), but it's panadapater appears to be much more usable - in this video at least https://youtu.be/ux26dtXb6k4. So it might be a better choice if you don't need 2m and 70cms.
It will be interesting to see how well the/ 7300 works when it finally arrives.
Phil
G4HFU