| IC-9700 |
| Wrażenia Conrada PA5Y. Kto pracuje w SPACu ten zna tą stację. I had the opportunity to test the IC-9700 on 432 during a major EU contest at weekend, I listened for about 8 hours and made a few QSOs as well. Before the contest I took measurements of the noise floor in a 500Hz BW using the on board audio codec as a source for SpectraVue which has a continuum mode which is particularly suitable for these measurements. I tried 3 configurations. Masthead LNA 0.3dB NF 22dB gain (including RX/TX relay)>, 30m Ultraflex 7 (4dB loss)>, BPF (0.6dB loss)>, IC9700 internal preamp off - system NF 0.65 dB Masthead LNA 0.3dB NF 22dB gain (including RX/TX relay)>, 30m Ultraflex 7 (4dB loss)>, BPF (0.6dB loss)>, IC9700 internal preamp on system noise figure 0.36 Direct connection to antenna on TX cable 1.5dB loss >, IC9700 internal preamp on At its worst I recorded 10 signals over S9+10 and up to S9+30. There were typically 20-30 signals visible on the waterfall on the SSB portion of the band. I checked the noise floor in all 3 configurations and saw absolutely no increase in the noise floor from IMD products during the contest. My impression was that the receiver was VERY clean and in fact a pleasure to listen to. For general use in contests I recommend configuration 1, the sensitivity was excellent. However despite configuration 2 being very harsh for the receiver I still did not experience any IMD products and never saw any signs of ADC clipping or AGC desensitisation outside of the filter passband. I was very impressed indeed. The radio is at least 100 times better than my TS-2000, signals stay well articulated at much lower levels and the band sounds very clean. Unsurprisingly configuration 3 sounded decidedly deaf compared to Options 1 & 2 I did not test on 144 MHz but I expect it to be slightly better. So for the average EU contester with a good site I can recommend the IC-9700, it is better anything else I have ever used before on 432 MHz. The frequency drift for SSB and CW use during is a complete non-issue. I will measure the composite TX noise on Thursday evening. I expect this to be quite good if the RX is any indication. Regards Conrad PA5Y |