After a year of careful saving my new rig finally arrived: the ICOM IC-7610!

In 2016 I was one of the first Dutch ham’s buying the ICOM IC-7300 SDR radio. When that radio arrived, I was completely blown away with the new (in amateur world) SDR technology combined with the conventional housing of ICOM. Begin 2019 I did read about the IC-7300 bigger brother; the IC-7610. Actually it is a revamped IC-7600 (ICOM also added SDR-technique to the 7600). The IC-7610 has many options the IC-7300 hasn’t. External display connection, I/Q-output for external SDR-processing, two separate identical receivers, bigger display, RX-antenna input to name a few. After reviewing all these options, I came to the conclusion this is the ultimate DX-radio for home use!

When the IC-7610 first arrived and I started unpacking, the bigger display is the first most striking detail. It really is huge! Switching on the radio the sound is noticeably better then the IC-7300. Of course I am already familair with the IC-7300 menu’s. I could bring this knowledge in practice on the 7610. After a few hours of operating (mainly FT-8) the radio it did really strange things. In the middle of transmitting it just turns off and a second later on again. After a little search it turn out it smoked my Samlex SEC1223 power supply. With me for 17 years, never had any issues. Reading the mailinglist at groups.io-7610 learned that many IC-7610-owners experienced this problem. Apparently the radio makes considerable demands on your power supply. For now I run the IC-7610 on my backup Kenwood PS-53 power supply. I have to fix my Samlex later.

Funny detail: my new radio room is almost ready for usage. So the arrival of the IC-7610 nicely coincides with the end of the renovation. It is so nice to sit down on your chair in your new room at the end of a busy day and hurl a beautiful radio like an IC-7610. Let the solar cycle 25 start with a long and fierce top, PA8E is ready for it!