Yaesu FT-710 and ICOM IC-705

Both are excellent radios. 

On the Sherwood tests the FT-710 came 4th, which is very good.  It is disappointing Yaesu has chosen to, effectively, ignore the QRP market it once dominated. It is almost as if Yaesu has given up. 

The FT818 was really about component obsolescence and really had none of the features expected in a modern QRP rig. To many, it was a total disappointment. 

Yaesu introduced the FT-710 which is SDR based. Personally, I found the ergonomics easier than on the IC-705. The FT-710 includes 4m, but does not do 2m and 70cm which I missed.  It also has an auto-ATU. 

ICOM launched the IC-705 some years ago. It is a 10W portable unit covering 160m-70cms, all modes, but it omits 4m and the auto ATU. It is also too expensive. Having tried 4m both in the Es season and before, 4m has proved a disappointment. Personally, I was expecting more from the band.

In the end, I went back to the IC-705 as I missed 2m and 70cm more than I missed 4m and the auto-ATU. It is a 10W radio and far smaller. As a QRPer, 10W is quite enough, especially on FT8 and WSPR. On its battery it is a 5W radio. Had Yaesu announced a new QRP rig, I might have traded my FT-710 in for one. Sadly, I see no new QRP rigs from Yaesu on the horizon.

Personally, I give Yaesu a maximum of 36 months in the amateur radio business. 

As a Yaesu fan of old, I very much hope I am wrong.  They have had chances and blown them.  To my mind, they are a company floundering.

Yaesu FT-710 versus ICOM IC-705

My IC-705 was traded in some months ago for the Yaesu FT-710. Both are excellent radios and I have enjoyed them both. The FT-710 has 4m but no 2m or 70cm. The FT-710 also has an auto ATU which I find quite useful. The FT-710 is a 100W  radio whereas the IC-705 is a 10W radio (5W with the attached battery). As a QRPer, 10W was more than enough for me.

I was hoping that Yaesu would announce a new QRP SDR transceiver at Dayton as a proper replacement to the FT817. Sadly, no such product was announced. Had one been announced, I might have traded it for the FT-710.

In my view amateur radio is at a crossroads. In many countries, amateur radio appeals mainly to older males. As these age, fewer new rigs will be sold and magazines will lose advertising revenue from dealers. Some will get smaller, less frequent, or close. In my view, several larger manufacturers will leave the amateur radio market as they will be unable to make profits. My prediction in the UK is that amateur radio will cease to be a service supported by OFCOM. I can see (not many years ahead) when CB, ISM and amateur radio will all become a "free for all" as these generate no income and are unnecessary hassle. The watchwords will be "no interference".

ICOM IC-705 transceiver

One of these was owned by me until last year when I traded it in for a Yaesu FT710. At the last minute ICOM dropped the internal auto-ATU and 4m in the European version. Personally, I find the auto-ATU feature in the FT710 useful as well as 4m. Sadly, the FT710 does not cover 2m and 70cm.

The IC-705 is a great rig, although it did have noise issues when a USB cable was connected between the rig and a PC. This issue was overcome with a decent, filtered, cable, but this was a design fault that should have been fixed.

I am still surprised Yaesu seems to have dropped out of the HF QRP market when they were clear market leaders at one time.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/icom-ic-705 .

IC-705 out of band?

As you may recall, I have an 8m UK permit for a year. Currently, I use my widebanded FT817ND on 8m FT8, but it would be good to use the IC-705 instead.

Many were disappointed when 4m was not included.

I am wondering if there is a wideband mod (possibly allowing 4m and 8m access, although maybe not to spec) that can be accessed via keyboard presses only, so the inside is untouched?

Having been in production for over a year, I am sure this will have been published if possible.

BTW, after misplacing my Radiotoday Guide to the IC-705 after many months I found it again..... on my shack bookshelf!

ICOM IC-705

For about a year now, I have owned an IC-705. As I only ever run QRP, this was a good choice for me as it is multi-band and 10W. It is mostly used on VHF and UHF FM nets and SSB. Until recently I had not used it for FT8 as it picked up lots of noise from the PC when the USB cable was connected. I continued to use my FT817ND and SignaLink interface for FT8.

I was recommended a screened, choked, cable by Jason M0NYW, and this seems to have done the trick. I am being spotted from across the world on 10m FT8 using the IC-705 at 5W and on RX I am spotting plenty. Thank you Jason for the good suggestion. My FT817ND is now almost exclusively used for 8m FT8 TX now.

The IC-705 is still far too expensive. As I rarely buy gear, I looked at it as an investment. The only thing that disappoints is the lack of 4m, which all were expecting.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/icom-ic-705 .

IC-705 and FT8?

The ICOM IC-705 is a great 10W radio with many wonderful features. I love the waterfall and many of the things it has as standard.

It is regularly used on 2m and 70cm (FM and USB, but I have not used it on FT8. Instead, I have used my FT817ND on 8m and other bands for FT8. Why? With the USB lead (even choked) I get desensitisation. I believe the simple solution is to use the IC-705 with wi-fi (yes it has this too!), but I have been too lazy to set this up yet. I am sure there are YouTube videos showing how to set this up! One of my projects in the coming weeks must be to set this up.

If you can point me in the right direction this might save me time. What is the simplest and clearest please?

IC-705 firmware upgrade

ICOM has announced that the firmware for the IC-705 has been upgraded to v1.26.

See https://www.icomjapan.com/support/firmware_driver/3343/

ICOM IC-705

This QRP radio has been on sale now for several months and is proving very popular. It has its own battery pack (5W) or can run off an external PSU (10W).  

Although I have had mine for several months now, I have only scratched the surface of what it can do.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/commercial-rigs/icom-ic-705 .

160m FT8 last evening

 

Yesterday evening (not overnight) I went on 160m FT8 with QRP using the IC-705 and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. Although no QSOs, I was widely spotted across Europe (see map).

10m FT8 RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna

Since before breakfast I have been on 10m FT8 RX with the IC-705 and the tiny indoor loop on the shack windowsill. It is now 0815z. No spots yet.

UPDATE 1540z:  No spots so far today. On the local WSJT-X screen there are a few stations showing, but these were not loaded to PSKreporter maps. This could be problem at their end or the internet was off here. I have restarted WSJT-X "just in case".

UPDATE 1630z: 2 stations spotted. I am suspicious that when I restarted WSJT-X I started to see my spots on PSKreporter. G0LRD has had 155 spots today on his dipole. Even assuming my loop is several dB poorer than David's dipole, I would still have expected better here.

UPDATE 1655z: Now 9 stations spotted, most in the last hour. Odd. Must try to get my dipole up this week!

IC-705 goals this week

 This week, I have 2 main aims:

1.  To get D-star (DV) working;
2.  To get WiFi working.

Well, that is the aim!

FT8 TX and the IC-705

 My new USB leads have come and I still can't TX FT8 with the IC-705. This is most probably finger trouble. It is just possible it is a rig issue. When less tired I shall investigate. CAT control seems fine and RX. 

UPDATE 1604z:  I am still struggling! I have had two offers of help, but so far no luck. One person has offered help over Zoom, and I may have to avail myself of his help if all else fails. I have reloaded the drivers, swapped leads to make sure they are carrying data, rechecked settings in the IC-705 and WSJT-X. At the moment, I just cannot understand why it does not work. RX works fine.  Darn my muddled brain! Years ago this would have been so easy to fix, or at least understand why it is not working.

UPDATE 2045z: Solved!! My problem was RF getting back into the rig. When I tried 2m on the external antenna all was well. It seems that 10m on the internal loop is not acceptable. Now I know what the problem was, I can try chokes on the USB lead. It seemed odd that despite everything I was doing seeming OK things still would not function. First 2m QSO on FT8. Now QRT.

FT8 on the IC-705

It works on RX, but not (yet!) on TX. The drivers have been correctly installed on the PC and appear in the device manager. The audio CODECs appear too. Yet it still says the TX does not work as it cannot see the TX audio CODEC. 

Perhaps the lead does not have the TX audio connection? I have a new lead (USBmicro to USB) coming and will try this tomorrow. 

It could be finger trouble!

FT8 on the IC-705

I have the USB drivers and audio CODECs set up now on the rig, but have not got FT8 working yet. 

Years ago this would have been a trivial task, but with my "brain fog" this is like doing it blindfold: tasks that would have been easy in 2012 are now really hard, taxing and exhausting.  I also thought a USB-C was the same as a micro-USB!! It isn't! Luckily I had one around. 

I think for FT8 on the IC-705 I shall need a lead with isolation as the PC introduces noise I think.

ICOM IC-705 USB drivers

This afternoon I had every intention of loading the USB drivers for the IC-705 on my shack Window 10 PC. However, every time I tried recently it said the site for ICOM Japan was "not available" and I got pointed to the Wayback Machine.

This must be a temporary glitch as I managed to upgrade the firmware OK from this site recently. I can wait.

Perhaps I should learn a new schematics capture package instead!

Connecting the IC-705 to the shack PC

Later I hope to download some USB drivers allowing me to connect the IC-705 and the PC. This should allow CAT rig control and audio connections. I hope to try FT8 later. As a precaution I shall choke the cable.  

Up to now I have taken small steps only. Getting FT8 to work with the IC-705 would be great.

IC-705 features

Every day, I seem to discover something new. It seems that now there is an SD card inserted it records both RX and TX. Imagine my surprise when I could play the East Cambs Net from last Monday. 

My USB-C lead has come so I hope to try FT8 in the coming days. No doubt there will be some surprises there too!

PC, FT8 and IC-705

Thankfully, I have managed to locate (in the house) a lead that connects the PC to the IC-705, so may be able to try communicating later. This can only be to see if it works as I need the wire for other things. I shall have to buy a suitable cable longer term. 

The function of the new icons has been found after reading the manual again. One is speech recording and the microSD symbol flashes when it is being used. Possibly some of last night's 2m net is recorded?

IC-705 firmware updated

Following the instructions in "The RadioToday Guide to the IC-705", I have successfully upgraded the firmware from V1.12 to V1.24. All appears to have gone correctly. The next thing is to get a suitable interface cable from the rig to the PC and try FT8 and rig control.  Some have used cables with ferrite toroids on or isolators to minimise ground loops.

As you can tell, I am taking things very slowly. With my "brain fog" (probably as a result of my 2013 stroke) it is all too easy to make mistakes. Jobs that would once have seemed trivial are now quite hard. Even just unpacking the microSD card from the packaging was a challenge!

UPDATE 2029z:  Since doing the firmware update, a couple of new icons have appeared. The SD card is there, but flashing (why?) and there is an adjacent red circle. I am sure I shall find out what these are soon! I was able to have a 2m FM net OK this evening, but avoided touching anything just in case it all went wrong!  Investigation needed, HI.

IC-705 firmware upgrade

The micro-SD card for the IC-705 has arrived. Tomorrow, I may try a firmware upgrade. Others tell me this is straightforward. I certainly hope so!  I am not sure of the latest firmware (1.24?), but I am sure I shall find the latest on ICOM Japan website.