I was going to buy the Icom 706 from Ham Radio Outlet here in Denver, along
with a number of other things, antennas and the like, and so I talked with a
guy, faxed in my long list of add on CW filters, narrow SSB filters, voice
card for the 706 and the like, and the guy at the store called me back to
ask me some questions.  He told me that the 706 will only handle two filters
of your choice but the 7000 had all filters built in including the speech
card.  Plus, if you go to the Icom America sight and read about both rigs,
you will see that the 7000 is a far superior receiver with filtering up the
ying yang.  Furthermore, the 7000, purchased in the store at HRO, is 1300
dollars.  The 706, with my extra filters, was going to cost me 1,350
dollars.  Plus, Icom is giving a 50 dollar rebate on the HF radios right
now.  So, I emailed John, who builds the QSYers, and he confirmed he could
wire the QSYer keypad for the 7000 and strongly recommended I get the 7000
instead.  The Digital Signal Processing, adjustable crystal filtering, not
to mention the noise blanking capability, reads like a Star Wars movie.
Anyhow, if you are going to spend 1300 dollars on a new radio, it is the
better deal when you read all the filtering capability that is built in.
Plus, I am a big shortwave listener, love hunting for beacons, love tuning
the low wave bands below 500 KHz, and I have, my whole life, just about,
been a big timer A M broadcast band listener for DX.  The 7000 is the CW
operators dream beyond the imagination, but all
that filtering for broadcast listening and shortwave listening is beyond
anything I can imagine.  I never even looked at the IC 7000 because I
figured it was one of those 7000 dollar radios, with that big model number,
or at least 2 grand, which I couldn't afford at the moment, but I'm glad
this salesman told me, plus I've heard others talk about the 7000 on this
list.  The DSP description alone blows me away and I already have that in my
Icom R75 receiver but have never felt it was worth bothering with after
hours of trying it.  I hate learning new stuff, on the other hand, but this
will be worth it.  It took me long enough just getting used to using and
tuning the R75 receiver but I also noticed the 7000 runs 35 watts on 70
centimeters instead of 20 with the 706.  No, that isn't any big deal but it
is just one more improvement.  I like the recording ability, too, for
contesting, calling CQ, or whatever you wish to record plus other incoming
recording capability.  Anyhow, I just typed in a google search for the
IC-7000 and found the full description, of course, on Icom America's site
and the features list alone read like science fiction.  And to think I was
in hog Heaven, as a novice 42 years ago, with a DX20 running 10 watts
output, a 100 foot long wire and no tuner, and a BC 348 receiver with a 2
KHz crystal filter that didn't filter anything out.  Just thought some of
this might be of interest.  I'll report more once the antennas are on the
tower, the amp is up and running, and the bands are opened, which could be
11 years from now the way things are going.  Besides, it may take me that
long just to learn how to switch this radio on.  I hope I don't forget the
code before I learn how to use the radio.

Phil.
K0NX