A little over three years ago, I got a pretty good on a Flex 6400. So, although I’ve been an Icom guy since the 1980s, I bought the Flex and sold my IC-7300.
The Flex is a great radio, but after three years, I got a hankering for a radio with real buttons and knobs. The obvious choice for me was the IC-7610. I’d been thinking of getting one for more than a year now, but got serious about looking for one about three weeks ago.
My first stop was QRZ.Com Swapmeet. I had really only intended to see how much used IC-7610s were going for, but found someone selling one for $2,300. I noted that there were a couple of guys already interested in purchasing it, but I emailed the seller and told him that if neither of them came through with the cash, that I’d buy it from him.
A day or two later, he emailed back saying that both of them decided not to buy it after all, and if I still wanted it that it was mine. I sent him a cashier’s check for $2,378 (shipping was $78), and about a week and a half ago, it was delivered to my door.
Honestly, I was a little concerned about buying it sight unseen. Yes, there were pictures on QRZ.Com, and it did look like a well cared for radio, but unless you can play with it, you don’t really know if there are any problems or not. I was relieved that when I took everything out of the box (which, by the way, was the original packaging) that everything looked to be in mint condition. There wasn’t a single scratch on the radio.
The next day, I crimped some PowerPoles onto the power cable, disconnected the Flex, and installed the IC-7610 on my operating desk. I had to either make or find the proper cables to connect the headphones and key to the rig (the Flex used 1/8-in. phone jacks while the IC-7610 still uses 1/4-in. phone jacks for these two connectors), but once I got those in place, I was ready to roll.
So, here are some first impressions:
- I love being able to use my Motorola speaker again. I wasn’t able to use it with the Flex because the Flex requires an amplified speaker. I chose some amplified PC speakers based on recommendations on the Flex mailing list, but I was never happy with the sound. They’re probably great PC speakers, but for ham radio, especially CW, the Motorola speaker is much better. It has a nice, crisp sound.
- The IC-7610 receiver is definitely quieter than the Flex receiver. I noticed that when I changed from the IC-7300 to the Flex, too. Of course, that may mean it’s more sensitive. I don’t really have the equipment to test that out.
- The Flex bandscope is a lot more flexible than the IC-7610 bandscope. The IC-7610 bandscope has only a select number of spans, while the Flex bandscope span is continuously variable. I really like that feature. On the computer monitor, the display is larger, too. You can hook up a bigger monitor to the IC-7610, but I haven’t tried that yet.
- With the Flex, you can display all of the meters in one window, while the bandscope is in another. The IC-7610 crams all this information into a smaller screen, meaning that you can’t see it all at the same time.
- The Flex has a separate setting for output power when tuning, while the IC-7610 does not. So, if you want to reduce the output power when using the IC-7610, you have turn it down, tune, then turn it back up.
- The Flex has separate outputs for the speaker and the headphones, and you can turn them on or mute them separately. This is nice if you switch often between headphones and speaker, as you don’t have to keep plugging and unplugging the headphones. You can also use the headphones while a visitor in the shack is listening to the speaker.
- The effort to set up the radios with third-party software, such as N1MM contest logging software, is pretty much a wash. I did have to install the Icom USB drivers, but that wasn’t a big problem.
- The SWR meters read differently on the two radios. I’m not really sure why. I should have connected an external meter and compared readings before I disconnected the Flex.
Overall, these are two great radios, but they do offer two distinct operating experiences. I think that as we move forward, it’s the user experience that is really going to differentiate products. They’re all going to offer great performance, so it’s the ergonomics that’s going to become important.
