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I'm in the market for an all-band, all-mode transceiver with remote-mounted control head capability. Thus far, the Icom IC-7000 and Kenwood TS-B2000 (w/ remote head) look to be the best choices for my application. Whatever I end up with, 'DSG will also get for her car.
I would like to hear some opinions from owners of these rigs...likes, dislikes and reliability issues, please.
Wasn't aware that Kenwood came out with a control head for the 'b' 2000. Looks like they did, though, the RC-2000 (for a little under 4 bills).
I've never used the TS-2000, but it seems pretty popular. Huge radio for mobile, I'm thinking, but with the RC-2000, you could trunk mount it (or are you thinking motorcycle??).
I do have an IC-7000 though, and pretty much love it. Mine's old enough that it doesn't have most of the factory mods they've come out with, and I still haven't had any problems with it. It does suffer a bit from menu-itis (too much stuff, not enough KNOBS), but that's easy to overcome with practice. Great little rig and it's really meant for mobile.
My one big complaint about the Icom is their implementation of the microphone controls. The IC-7K has a built-in DTMF encoder, but you can't control it with the microphone - really stupid! If you want to use DTMF, you have to program it into a DTMF memory and play the memory. Also, the microphone doesn't seem to understand the difference between TX and RX. When transmitting, all the frequency controls on the mic. still work. You can change bands while transmitting. Yeah, kind of a so-what, but a missed opportunity to do something better, I think. This is all firmware stuff, so you'd think it might be fixed? Love the IF-DSP.
I have two IC-7000s. I'm also particular to Icom radios in general, so my bias is upfront.
If you need the satellite capability, then I'd say go with the TS-B2000. If you want to do cross-band repeat, then get the TS-B2000.
IMO, the IC-7000 has a much better HF RX than the TS-B2000. If your main concern is HF, then I'd go with the IC-7000.
You definitely need to prioritize what is important to you and assure that what you are looking at has that working well. A few years ago, I used a TS-2000 in a FD contest. The internal keyer sucked. Maybe it is not important to you, but you really need an external keyer with that rig. Maybe they fixed it with the "b" version. The thing really didn't want to respond to the dots and dashes properly and no one could get it adjusted properly. But it had nice memories and eventually, you could get the contest exchanges stored and working well. From that point on it was cool.
The rig was owned by a guy who really only likes phone, so he really loved it and I can see why. It was really good except for that one glitch in the design.
Agreed. (Think I may pick up a second 7k for the car beings I use the other one in the shack. )Quote:
Originally Posted by KJ3N