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The Icom IC-718 HF Transceiver: A Review Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
Icom IC-718 160 through 10 meter transceiver
In recent months, I had been looking for a small and affordable, HF rig,
which would
be useful for portable or emergency operation, and which would serve as a
"back-up"
to my main HF rig, an Icom 746. As a blind ham, I needed to be especially
careful
to select a rig that would be "user friendly".
I purchased the IC-718 at the Dayton HAMVENTION® in mid-May, and had the
interesting
challenge of trying to get the rig up and running for our local club's Field
Day
operation in late June. This meant that I really had my work cut out for me.
Nevertheless,
the UT102 speech synthesizer chip, a very well-written manual, and some
patient assistance
from my wife and son, who are sighted hams, made the task quite manageable
and enjoyable.
As with any new rig, reading the manual was essential before attempting even
the
most basic operations. A number of settings in the "initial set" menu, had
to be
customized to my preferences. These included UT102 speech synthesizer
parameters,
CW key type specifications, RF/squelch settings, and IF filter designations.
Sighted
assistance was required to work through these "initial set" menu items.
Once the rig was initially set up, my next challenge was to figure out a way
to access
the items in the "quick set" menu. Items in this menu included things like
RF power,
microphone gain, VOX settings, CW key speed and weighting, CW break-in, CW
pitch,
etc. This was indeed a moment of truth for me, since, as we all know, these
are items
that need to be changed to meet various operating situations. What a relief
it was
to find out that the various menu items can be accessed via the "up" and
"down" arrow
keys, with a long beep to tell me when I was at the first menu item (RF
power), and
short beeps to indicate later selections on the menu list! All I needed now
was an
ordered list of menu items, and I was basically "good to go". Then, another
pleasant
surprise followed. For those items in the "quick set" menu for which
specific values
are set via the tuning knob, the scale from "low" to "high" values was not
continuous.
In other words, if I turned the tuning knob counter-clockwise for several
turns,
it would stop at the lowest value, while several turns clock-wise would
result in
the highest value. The UT102 speech synthesizer chip was also helpful in
terms of
facilitating the everyday operation of this rig. The speech was clear, and
provided
helpful information such as the frequency in megahertz, s-meter readings for
received
signals, and mode selection information.
Are there any shortcomings to the 718? Yes, there are a few, and some are
easier
to deal with than others. First: The rig doesn't have much in the way of
filtering,
which can be a problem if an individual is going to do a lot of CW and RTTY
work.
I solved this problem by purchasing a 400 HZ CW filter from INRAD, which was
easily
soldered in place with the help of clear manual instructions. Second: The
rig doesn't
have an automatic antenna tuner, which could be of concern if
less-than-resonant
antennas have to be used. Auto-tuners are available for the rig, if you're
willing
to pay the extra bucks to get one. Third: the UT102 synthesizer chip does
not provide
speech output for the ALC, power, and SWR meters on the rig; this obviously
would
be helpful information to have available without having to resort to sighted
assistance.
And finally: here's a problem I have not yet resolved. There is no way for a
blind
ham to know whether the "speech compressor" function is "on" or "off". This
can make
a big difference if the microphone gain is set for one setting, when you
think you
are on the other.
All and all, I can say with confidence that the Icom IC-718 is a terrific
bargain,
and an outstanding rig for its price. In addition, it would be a great
beginning
HF rig for any ham who has just upgraded to General class. No, it doesn't
have all
of the bells and whistles that the more "up-scale" rigs have, but it's got
the important
stuff. The rig certainly provided me with all the features I needed for a
successful
Field Day operation.
Handi-Hams has a tape-recorded version of the manual for the IC718. In
addition,
thanks to the help of my wife, Sue, KC8IFP, a text version of this manual is
now
available from Handi-Hams as well. This text-based version is divided into
chapter
files, for quick and easy reference. I invite anyone with questions or
comments on
the Icom IC-718 to contact me. I hope your experience with this rig is as
positive
as my initial experience has been. I want to thank Handi-Hams for bringing
the rig
to my attention.
Best 73 from Tom Behler, KB8TYJ, E-mail:
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