ICOM IC703 HFand 6m all mode 10watt amateur radio.

Well i have used this radio for a couple of weeks now and must say i am very impressed with it.Again as with the review for the YAESU FT817 i won't go into the spec,this can be found on the internet easily. My first impressions were very good apart from the cheap feel and look of the mic.This still stands and feel ICOM could of done a better job cosmetically with this.There are lots of functions on this radio that simply won't ever get used by me,im not a gadget person and feel some functions are not needed . The internal atu seems to work very well and will match a wider range of impedences than specified and seems to find a good match quickly. I have noticed people commenting that the internal atu finds a match on allsorts of antennas,many of which i'd expect to have a higher impedence than the icom is rated for but it seems to cope with the wider ranges.The relays do chatter a bit when tuning as with any auto atu but this isn't very loud. This radio did have a few issues with the earlier models with driver failure but new boards have been fitted in the newer versions. As with the review on the 817 i feel the internet highlighted any problems to be a bigger problem than it actually was.

The menu is quite simple to use and i quickly managed to remember most of them. Adding frequencies to memory is very straight forward as is recalling them. Overall the radio is very simple to set up and the menu is easy enough.The manual describes the set up and functions quite clearly as i found with other ICOM manuals.DSP ,well i'm not a lover of DSP and find it hard to actually make (or hear)any improvement on audio quality but this may simply be my ear.Other reports state it works very well. I have used DSP speakers in the past and never fell in love with them. For those who do like the DSP function then you'll like it.The noise reduction levels are fully adjustable so it can be set up how you like it. The noise blanker level is adjustable also.

On air reports have been pleasing with reports of clean crisp audio. This has been after asking for a true report as apposed to a polite one. I keep the compressor turned on all the time and i set up the mic gain and compression level accordingly.

I don't like the build quality of the mic and the mic socket being placed under the front panel. These are about the only two things i can say i don't like about this radio. This radio gets a solid 9/10 from me. It loses a point for the mic and socket but if these were sorted i would give a 10/10 as it will do exactly as i want it to.This radio is marketed as a foundation /entry level qrp tranciever and this may lead some to believe it is inferior to other more expensive radios,this is not the case . Again as i stated with the YAESU,if you know what you are getting regarding low power then you won't go far wrong with this radio. One tip when setting up is to scratch the paint from around the earth lug housing to obtain a good earth point as it all seems to be coated with paint,even the thread.