I'm interested in hearing from other owners of the Icom IC-7000 on their overall impression of the effectiveness of the DSP function built into this radio. I'm interested in hearing your opinion when used in both a mobile and fixed environment. After having the radio for a few months, here's my subjective take:
Twin Pass Band Tuning - It works like a charm. I was hesitant about how well it could be used by mobile, but it works great. It's just as effective as my Icom 746 Pro
Filter widths and Shapes - Works as advertised. Just hold the filter button in, adjust the width and set the shape desired (sharp or soft) and you're done.
Noise Blanker - I think this works better than my IC-706MKIIG did. It might be the best noise blanker in an HF mobile rig that I've used
Automatic Notch Filter - Works about as good as any ANF I've used. It does not attenuate the speaker volume nearly as much as the 706 did. I presume this is attributed to IF versus AF DSP.
Two Point Manual Notch Filter - I love this feature. The 706 ONLY had ANF, which just doesn't cut it sometimes. With this, you can notch out two signals and also set the notch filter width. Brilliant in a mobile
SSB Transmit Bandwidth - Running the TX bandwidth through the DSP like Icom's bigger radios do lets you adjust it without having to buy filters. Nice touch.
AGC control - According to ICOM, the AGC loop is controlled by the DSP to help prevent blocking and AGC pumping. It definitely is an improvement over the 706MKIIG where anything but the slowest setting while mobile was a nightmare to listen to.
Digital Noise Reduction - I saved this one for last on purpose. Despite all of the other DSP control functions working great, the NR doesn't seem that great to me. It is adjustable from values of 0-15, with 4 being the default. To me, anything more than about 6 starts to distort audio signals and and by the time you get to 10, they are very choppy and badly distorted. NR in a mobile is one of the most valuable features for me, and I was hoping this would be better. However, I found an absolute killer combination that really makes copying weak and moderate signals a joy. I set the Icom 7000 NR DSP to about 5 (which does help) and then turn on the Clearspeech AF DSP filter to clean it up even more. The DSP speaker does attenuate the audio a little, but it's not bad because it's not having to do much work in conjunction with the Icom IF DSP. I think I'll make an audio recording to show how well this works. Reglardless, does anyone else think that the NR in a mobile environment (a challenging environment, I know) with this radio isn't all that great?
Let's hear your thoughts.
Twin Pass Band Tuning - It works like a charm. I was hesitant about how well it could be used by mobile, but it works great. It's just as effective as my Icom 746 Pro
Filter widths and Shapes - Works as advertised. Just hold the filter button in, adjust the width and set the shape desired (sharp or soft) and you're done.
Noise Blanker - I think this works better than my IC-706MKIIG did. It might be the best noise blanker in an HF mobile rig that I've used
Automatic Notch Filter - Works about as good as any ANF I've used. It does not attenuate the speaker volume nearly as much as the 706 did. I presume this is attributed to IF versus AF DSP.
Two Point Manual Notch Filter - I love this feature. The 706 ONLY had ANF, which just doesn't cut it sometimes. With this, you can notch out two signals and also set the notch filter width. Brilliant in a mobile
SSB Transmit Bandwidth - Running the TX bandwidth through the DSP like Icom's bigger radios do lets you adjust it without having to buy filters. Nice touch.
AGC control - According to ICOM, the AGC loop is controlled by the DSP to help prevent blocking and AGC pumping. It definitely is an improvement over the 706MKIIG where anything but the slowest setting while mobile was a nightmare to listen to.
Digital Noise Reduction - I saved this one for last on purpose. Despite all of the other DSP control functions working great, the NR doesn't seem that great to me. It is adjustable from values of 0-15, with 4 being the default. To me, anything more than about 6 starts to distort audio signals and and by the time you get to 10, they are very choppy and badly distorted. NR in a mobile is one of the most valuable features for me, and I was hoping this would be better. However, I found an absolute killer combination that really makes copying weak and moderate signals a joy. I set the Icom 7000 NR DSP to about 5 (which does help) and then turn on the Clearspeech AF DSP filter to clean it up even more. The DSP speaker does attenuate the audio a little, but it's not bad because it's not having to do much work in conjunction with the Icom IF DSP. I think I'll make an audio recording to show how well this works. Reglardless, does anyone else think that the NR in a mobile environment (a challenging environment, I know) with this radio isn't all that great?
Let's hear your thoughts.
