Icom M 801 E

[purplerobbie]

I have an Icom 801 E that I bought to fit to my boat but I’m now having second thoughts. I have an kenwood ham set on there at the moment and thought fitting the dsc set would be a much better idea.
Is it?

If I leave the set up as is what is the 801 E and the AT130E worth?

Rob

 

[KellysEye]

It depends what sort of sailing you do SSBs are the lifeblood of long distance sailing weather, ocean nets, marina nets, bay nets and chatting to friends.

 

[purplerobbie]

Well I have one fitted at the moment but it’s a ham set. It’s on its last legs too.
If I replace the head unit I’d need to replace the tuner too and the tuner is buried deep in the boat.
So is it worth all the trouble of fitting the Icom type approved set or just leave the ham set up and replace the radio when it dies with another ham set?

 

[RobbieW]

Depends on your aspirations; if you're in the, or aspire to go trans, Pacific there is an argument for having DSC capability on HF. If you're using the ham set for Winlink you may need to figure out how to 'open up' the 801 to the same frequency set - by default I think it works in the predefined channels of the marine bands rather than the open frequency selection selection of ham use.

 

[KompetentKrew]

If I were equipping a boat for HF today I would choose the Icom 7300 ham set.

The spectrum display allows you to visually see signals on other nearby frequencies, and hence you can more easily tune to them and listen in. Most other spectrum display rigs (most other Icoms and all other Yaesu and Kenwoods) are not as good. Happy to give a more technical explanation of this if required.

 

[SPWiddy]

If I were equipping a boat for HF today I would choose the Icom 7300 ham set.

The spectrum display allows you to visually see signals on other nearby frequencies, and hence you can more easily tune to them and listen in. Most other spectrum display rigs (most other Icoms and all other Yaesu and Kenwoods) are not as good. Happy to give a more technical explanation of this if required.

I have been looking at the FT911a and have been swaying either way.

Why do you think the Icom is a better choice?

 

[KompetentKrew]

I have been looking at the FT911a and have been swaying either way.

Why do you think the Icom is a better choice?

The latest evolution in radio is SDR - "software defined radio".

There have been a few good SDRs around for the last few years, but those made for the ham market have all required plugging into a PC. Amongst the geekiest hams, www.flexradio.com is a market leader.

The Icom 7300 is the first fully SRD ham radio from one of the "big three" manufacturers (Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood), and with it Icom have rather caught the others resting on their laurels. It's leaps and bounds ahead.

I think the waterfall on the FT991 may lag a bit, but I'm not sure. The 7300 has a built in soundcard, so you can plug your lappy in via USB to send or receive weather fax, morse or tty. Not sure if the FT991 has this - it might do.

In short, the 7300 is simply next-generation technology and reviews of it are rave.

• https://www.reddit.com/93uofw
• https://www.reddit.com/akskuz
• https://www.reddit.com/93rob6

Icom have now released two SDR companions to the 7300 - the £3500 IC-7610 is the big brother, also an HF rig but with extra features for contesters; the 9700 is a 2m/70cm/23cm rig.

Neither Yaesu nor Kenwood have released a fully SDR transceiver yet. Based on the recent launch of the TS-890S Kenwood, at least, are years behind.

 

[G12]

I own an IC7300 and have had a 7610 as well. They really are decent radios. On the boat I run an IC7100 but I miss the 7300 when onboard.

I would say that the 801E would be a good bit of kit to fit for the DSC and the fact that it'll give you a full 150W output at 12v rather than 100W at 13.8v which will drop to about 70W at 12v.
If you have an amateur licence it can be opened up to work on amateur bands too.