A little help, please indulge me. Icom 2800 replacement

[matt s]

I have an Icom 2800h that I loved. Sadly it has given up the ghost. The head unit will not power up and I found that the negitive power supply lead had gotten hot enough to burn through a butt connector. The positive side was fused and didn't ever pop. Guess I will head the advice of those that say both sides must be fused from now on.

On to the discussion. I loved this dual band. Mine was modded for extended rx and I had all the local emergency, forest service, parks etc pre programmed. When the storms hit it was always nice to have a heads up on what's going down.

Things I liked.

Expanded TX/RX mods available and in this case already done by previous owner (please lets not get in a legal debate here, I NEVER tx'd out of ham bands, but it was nice to know I could have in an emergency)

Dual receive (although not on the same band, it was still really nice I would love same band dual receive in the new one)

Great display with both bands displayed at the same time.

Separate dials for each band

Good TX power output

Remote head- Very important for me

Speaker located in the remote head- loved that feature

1/4" "tripod mount" hole in bottom of remote head. Allowed me to mount it on an adjustable post on my console instead of to my dash

Audio outs that allowed me to run audio through my truck stereo when and if desired.



So I am looking for some opinions on replacement units that live up the old one.
I am considering these two primarily.

Yaesu FT-8900R Quad band. I only have a tech, but that will likely change over time.

ICOM 2820H - Basically the updated replacement for my current radio. But in some ways not as cool.



Not sure it's in the running but this one too
Kenwood TM-V71A. Doesn't seem to be remote face, but otherwise a nice unit and a bit less expensive.

Let me know what you think, or what radios I'm missing here.

 

[matt s]

I should have included this one too

Yaesu FTM-350AR

 

[1911]

The Kenwood TM-D710A has a remote head. Nice dual-band, APRS ready radio. I have one and really like it for a mobile dual-band.

 

[gary in ohio]

Go with the 2820 and get the d-star option. This gives your gps, APRS (DPRS) and dstar mode a swell.
The 8900 is a great little radio, but if there is not an active 6m fm repeater or group active in your area that band is pretty much useless and the 10m fm is
fun band right now with all the openings but most of the year it was a dead band. so your really only getting a dual band with 2 occasional bands.

 

[Phreak480]

I'd recommend the Yaesu 8800 or 8900. I own them and a 7800 and like them all. If there aren't any 6m or 10m repeaters in your area save your money and get the 8800. I can't remember when i last used either of those bands on my 8900. The face is nice and small and very easy to mount nearly anywhere in the vehicle, heck you don't even need to buy the remote kit. Save your money and get the appropriate cable (i believe it is a 6 conductor telephone cord) from radio shack and a long 1/8" hedphone extension from there as well to hook in your remote speaker. I even remoted the mic connector because i ahve the head mounted above my rear view mirror and dint want the wire hanging there.

 

[matt s]

Go with the 2820 and get the d-star option. This gives your gps, APRS (DPRS) and dstar mode a swell.
The 8900 is a great little radio, but if there is not an active 6m fm repeater or group active in your area that band is pretty much useless and the 10m fm is
fun band right now with all the openings but most of the year it was a dead band. so your really only getting a dual band with 2 occasional bands.

I'd recommend the Yaesu 8800 or 8900. I own them and a 7800 and like them all. If there aren't any 6m or 10m repeaters in your area save your money and get the 8800. I can't remember when i last used either of those bands on my 8900. The face is nice and small and very easy to mount nearly anywhere in the vehicle, heck you don't even need to buy the remote kit. Save your money and get the appropriate cable (i believe it is a 6 conductor telephone cord) from radio shack and a long 1/8" hedphone extension from there as well to hook in your remote speaker. I even remoted the mic connector because i ahve the head mounted above my rear view mirror and dint want the wire hanging there.

Thanks for the input. I think the decision I really need to make is whether or not APRS is important to me. I've never used it so I don't really even know what I'd be missing.

Further looking onto the quad band has me in agreement that they won't likely be used. So the 8800 would be more likely for me.

APRS worth the extra $$$ or not?

 

[1leglance]

I used to be into the idea of APRS but with no one else on the trail with me (so we can see each other on the laptops) then my SPOT works much better for letting others see where I am at.
I would like the dual rec on the same band so I can have the simplex & repeater running at the same time, that is the feature I think I would like the most and use the most.

 

[hochung]

I haven't looked at the radios lately, so I had to google IC-2820 to see what you were talking about. man, what a great looking unit.

the IC-2820 has my vote. plus, I'm guessing the controls are similar to your previous radio.

I vote against the FT-8900. are 6m and 10m FM bands of any decent use? or are they good just "in theory"? and what kind of antenna would you need for the 10m FM? a CB stick? I'd ditch the 8900 and go 8800 instead.

Now, the FTM-350AR...

Looks like it would be right at home in some ricer honda civic. Although, with 8 display colors to choose from, I guess you could find one to satisfy your mood of the day.

nah, I vote for iCOM.

This is high speed:

wow, turns out the IC-2820 also offers different display colors!!

 

[matt s]

The Kenwood TM-D710A has a remote head. Nice dual-band, APRS ready radio. I have one and really like it for a mobile dual-band.

This one is growing on me.

I've been busy reading reviews on eham. It's really nice to get the info that the brochure doesn't have.

 

[matt s]

Well I pulled the trigger on the 8800. I really was liking the kenwood but not $100+ more than I liked the 8800. If down the road I get the APRS bug I can upgrade, really it sounds like APRS is in it's infancy, but in a few years I expect it will integrate well with ipads and other tablets and mapping software. Then I might get excited.

It's not a 100% done deal, as the ham outlet is sending me a shipping quote before payment processing. Provided they don't kill the deal with crazy shipping and handling I will hit the approve button.



On a side note the reason I didn't go for the ICOM was the reviews on eHam. My current 2800h has great, even fantastic, reviews. The 2820 has quite a few unhappy customers. I guess they dropped the ball with the upgrade. At quite a bit more money than the Yaesu I just couldn't justify the risk.

 

[bj70_guy]

I've been really happy my FT8800. I miss the big backlit buttons of the 7800, but the dual receive is really nice.
Check out the G4HFQ programming software, it's excellent and a great deal:

http://www.g4hfq.co.uk/ftb8800.htm

 

[matt s]

HRO will ship it to you for free if the other place is too high.

That's who I bought it from. Free shipping is only for the lower 48. AK and HI have to pay. Thankfully they were willing to use USPS and it was only $30 insured. UPS and FedEx would have been double that or more.

I'm excited for it to arrive and to start playing with it. I wish my old power head would work so I could copy down all my programed repeaters, but then again if it was working I wouldn't be getting the new one. I expect I will be shelling out for the programing software before long. In the mean time I'll just plug them in the old fashion way.

 

[MrAntsy]

I have an Icom 2800h that I loved. Sadly it has given up the ghost. The head unit will not power up and I found that the negitive power supply lead had gotten hot enough to burn through a butt connector. The positive side was fused and didn't ever pop. Guess I will head the advice of those that say both sides must be fused from now on...

Hope I'm not too late, but check and make sure your battery-to-engine block and battery-to-body cables are good & securely connected before you install your new radio.

It sounds like one or both of these connections may be bad and your starter motor and other loads are seeking a ground and finding it through your radio, which was probably mounted to sheet metal floor or dash in your truck. Your radio's ground wire was the best connection between your battery negative terminal and the vehicle chassis and was carrying most of the current every time your started the engine.

Good luck with your new radio.

 

[matt s]

That's good advice. I will check on those things. The radio was mounted under my Tuffy Console (metal) and it's bolted to the body so you could be on to something. It adds up for a couple of other reasons too, I won't bother writing it all out but I have just fixed a couple of simple but not good electrical issues on the truck. I also think I will in-line fuse both sides of the radio this time.


The new radio was to arrive yesterday, but I didn't get over to the post office yesterday to check.

EDIT: So just wondering would it be overkill to insulate between the metal console and radio on the new installation?

 

[MrAntsy]

So just wondering would it be overkill to insulate between the metal console and radio on the new installation?

Insulation shouldn't be needed as long as -battery has a good connection to the vehicle chassis and the engine block. I've seen the burned up ground wire a few times before and it usually happens after a vehicle goes into the shop for major work and the mechanic forgets to reattach the block -battery cable.