Icom IC-7600 Announced

Just a short post today.

About a week ago, I received an invite to a new Yahoo Group devoted to a new Icom HF/6-meter transceiver, the Icom IC-7600. It seems that this new radio has been unveiled at the Tokyo Hamfair. As of this morning, there are only 17 messages on the Yahoo Group, and there is a lot of speculation about this radio. Some people believe it will be quite some time until it hits the U.S. market; perhaps a year from now. Other people are speculating on where in the Icom lineup this radio will go. Some of those people believe that it will replace the Icom IC-756ProIII, but fall somewhere below the IC-7700. With a model number like IC-7600 that makes sense, but you can't trust model numbers. Finally, some of the messages on the group are talking about the price. I would imagine the price would fall somewhere between the IC-756ProIII and the IC-7700.

This brings up a dilemma for me. I would like a nice, small radio for portable operations. The current IC-7000 fits that bill nicely. However, I am also interested in a radio that has a better receiver than my Kenwood TS-2000 (which, by the way, has held its own quite well). I'm sure that the IC-7600 (assuming that it is a 756ProIII "Plus", or a IC-7700 "Minus") has a pretty good receiver, and assuming that its price is not too far removed from the 756ProIII, at least I stand a chance of being able to buy one. I always have my Yaesu FT-897D for portable operations.

73