9 Oct 2016

IC7300 and FT991 prices

The price of the FT991 from Yaesu has dropped below £1000, but the IC7300 is still £1049. At the moment Yaesu is working on an FT991A, having seen the real-time spectrum display in the IC7300. There is plenty of margin in the price of the IC7300 but I guess dealers are presently holding the current price and not reducing it, despite the weaker pound, because people are buying at the high price. At less than £1000 I might be tempted by the IC7300. There is no doubt it is a good radio but please get it below £1000. Note that the FT450D retails at £599. The IC7300 should be comparable - it has a simpler RX architecture. No, despite the weaker pound against the dollar and the yen, I am convinced the dealers can afford to drop the IC7300 price and still make good margins. In the meantime, I shall wait.

UPDATE 1616z:  I see ICOM has announced a firmware update for the IC7300. See http://www.icom.co.jp/world/support/download/firm . Each firmware update improves functionality or fixes bugs.

4 comments:

  1. I would of thought the 991 might be heavily discounted, with the A version due to market very soon, but that doesn't look like it is going to happen at the moment?

    There is always after Christmas discounting!

    They both are great radios, I will be more interested when both have a couple hundred off their current asking prices. Mind you, things could go in quite the opposite direction with the state of the £, who knows?

    73 Steve

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  2. A Rule of mine for any appliance like a car or even a radio is to wait for a few years first to let the prices drop. I sometimes go for the last production batch of something because it is usually cheaper and they have fixed the bugs.

    Therefore,I would personally be looking at buying a IC-7200 or FT-857 although it doesn't have all the new SDR stuff.

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