The IC-9100

By Jose B Rivera - N2LRB

May 11, 2016 - After much toil and trouble obtaining the Icom IC-9100 from UPS I finally had the rig in hand. I walked the 35 lbs box home using my hand truck. And I heft the heavy load up a few flights of stairs to my apartment.  It was happy that the delivery ordeal was over. Once home, made an unboxing video while opening the boxs (box within a box). I do this so that others can enjoy the unboxing and to hopefully protect against some unseen damage which may have occurred. That way the ham radio dealer can see that the product arrived damaged or broken. There was a hole in the box, but fortunately the foam protected my radio from any damage.

First Observations:I found the radio to be big, huge, and very heavy. This is my first ever Icom radio and it was built solid.  The first thing I did was attached an HF antenna and make a call. I was able to make contact with a station from Germany! My first contact with the radio was with DL3ANK in Germany, 3935 miles away!  My second contact was with a station in the state of Georgia.  Not bad.

First Contacts: My first VHF contact was with Carmine, N2QEN on 2 meter SSB (144.200Mhz).  I was lucky to make those contacts considering I did not know how to work most of the radio’s features.  The weekend of the 7th of May I programmed HF, VHF and UHF frequencies in the radio’s memories. Each band has 99 memories, More than enough for my needs. I did eliminated over 50 repeaters which I have never heard in operation from my repeater listing.

I have since made more contacts, but mostly on 2 meter SSB with a few of the locals including Bill, N2FKF, Harlold, KC2BPP and N2QEN.  I look forward to working more 2M and 70cm SSB. I find it more challenging than HF, thought I love working all bands. I also would like to try my hand at satellites. I did it before with my FT-736R in the early 90s. And now with the digital modes, I will also attempt those new ways of operating. I hope there is some digital activity on 2M.

The radio itself is a thing of beauty.  I have learned how to use most of the features. It’s a great radio.

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