11 Mar 2022

SHF rig from ICOM?

ICOM may be developing an SHF rig. 

They have been doing some experiments at 5.6GHz and have asked for inputs.  At one time microwave bands seemed far too high to be of interest from the major Japanese manufacturers. 

Back in the 1970s we were amazed when the Liner 2 transformed 2m SSB for the masses.

See https://www.icomjapan.com/lp/shf/ .

3 comments:

  1. I just cannot see it coming off, they wouldn't sell enough to make it viable 1.2GHz is a challenge to most..


    73's Steve

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  2. I cannot see this being commercially viable. Maybe, just maybe, they could do a multi-band microwave transceiver, but as Steve points out, I cannot see this happening. Oscar 100 is screaming out for a "black box" solution, but I cannot see this at an economic price. At sub £1500 some might buy it, but I cannot see a profit or mass market.

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  3. They MIGHT have a mass market if they produced a 5W QRP SDR rig, with internal auto_ATU etc based on the IC-705. The design is already there and the FT818 is poor.

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