A couple of months ago, Dinesh, AB3DC, and I were talking about our IC-7610s. Both of these radios were early production units and the displays exhibited the “image retention” problem. (Oddly, even though it was widely discussed when the IC-7610s first came out, I wasn’t able to find anything on the internet describing the problem, although there were several posts with the warranty repair notice.)
As we discussed this, it occurred to me that we have an authorized Icom Service Center here in Michigan (SAR Technical Services), and that we might be able to have both radios serviced at the same time and avoid shipping charges by driving the radios over to SARTS. So, I emailed Matt at SARTS and proposed this to him. He was very agreeable to this, and after checking the serial numbers of our units to make sure they qualified for the warranty repair, he replied that it would be a couple of months before he could get the displays.
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from Matt saying that he now had the parts, and we arranged to bring the radios over to him yesterday, October 9. In order to make sure that he could get both radios serviced, Matt suggested that we get there by 9:00 am. Because it takes about two hours and fifteen minutes to get to St. Joseph, MI, where SARTS is located, from Ann Arbor, MI, where I live, we started out while it was still dark. After an uneventful drive, we got there just after 9:00am and dropped off our radios.
Since we had five or six hours to kill, I had suggested that we take our POTA gear along and activate a couple of parks. The park closest to St. Joseph is Grand Mere State Park, so we stopped there first, arriving a little before 10:00 am. It’s a rather small park, without a lot of amenities, and as it turns out, it was quite a hike to get to the beach from the parking lot. We got partway in, and after trudging up one sand dune, and finding that it was still a long way to get the to beach, we retreated to a picnic shelter close to the parking lot. We set up my 66-ft. doublet antenna, making sure to avoid any poison ivy, and I made 13 CW contacts in a little less than 20 minutes. I then passed the antenna over to Dinesh, who made 13 FT-8 contacts in about 25 minutes. We then packed up and headed to Warren Dunes State Park.
Warren Dunes is a great park. Since we were there on a Thursday afternoon in the fall, there weren’t many people there, but I can imagine that it gets quite crowded on a warm summer weekend. You can tell that it was made to hand a lot of people. It even has a gift shop!
We set up on picnic tables just outside a pavilion, and I pounded in the stakes holding up my telescoping mast easily into the sand there. I managed 14 CW contacts in 19 minutes and then passed the antenna over to Dinesh, who made about 20 FT-8 contacts in a little over 20 minutes. By the time we packed up, it was a little after 12:30 pm and time for lunch. We found a little brewpub in a nearby town and enjoyed a glass of beer with our sandwiches.
After lunch, we stopped to charge my friends car (he drives an EV), and just as we were on our way to the charging station, Matt from SARTS called and said that our radios were ready. After charging the car, we headed back to St. Joseph to pick up the radios.
When we got there, Matt explained what he had done. For me, Matt had not only replaced the display, but also the clock battery (free of charge). In addition, he upgraded the firmware to the latest version. The invoice also noted that he tested transmit and receive functions, the antenna tuner and antenna tuner connector, the CI-V connector, and the USB and DVI ports. My friend’s radio received the same services, except his clock battery was good, so it was not replaced.
Matt also replaced the power connector on my radio (he called while we were at Grand Mere SP to get my approval), as the tabs holding it to the back panel had become compressed and was kind of just floating there. The charge for that was $35.
I was pretty tired when I got home, so I took a nap, then ate dinner before hooking the radio back up again. When I did, the first thing I noticed is how bright the screen is. Seriously, it almost feels like I have a new radio. I had to actually turn down the brightness to operate it comfortably.
Having to get a radio serviced is usually a real pain. You have to box it up and hope it gets there in one piece. Then, you have to wait for the radio to be worked on and for it to be shipped back to you. By contrast, this was a really nice experience. Although the drive was a little long, we were able to get our radios serviced the same day, and we each activated two new parks. The weather even cooperated. I was a little concerned that it would be kind of cool, but with the temperature in the lower 60s, it was just fine. Thanks to my friend who did all the driving and to Matt for a great service experience.
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