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Railfan Technology > IC-2730A Review.Date: 06/21/18 09:31 IC-2730A Review. Author: K3HX I recently purchased an ICOM IC-2730A for use as a railfan-ham mobile radio.
They are available from DX engineering, GigaParts, Universal radio and other merchants catering to amateur radio buyers. I've used the former version, the IC-2720 for over 15 years and it still gives good service. Pros: For the railfan, the ability to independently monitor or scan 2 different channels on the same or different memory banks such that the road channel comes out of the left side and the dispatcher appears on the right side (you will need 2 external speakers for this trick) is something I find very helpful. It is a modern, current production radio and has a large black against lighted white display. Made in Japan, not China. It boasts 999 channels. It will cover all the AAR channels and the UHF portion of the radio will cover EOT. Comes with a "separation cable" so that the readout can be placed remotely from the main radio unit. Mike will go into either the readout or main unit. Cons: The mounting hardware is not included with the radio. The mounting hardware to connect the readout to the main radio, hardware to mount the main radio to something like a desk or under an auto dashboard or transmission hump is not included and is offered as an accessory. In my opinion, the mounting kits are wildly overpriced. Programming for railfan purposes manually is a pain. Each channel (all 999 of them!) must be programmed individually in a precise sequence of keystrokes. Get a keystroke wrong and you get to start over. I STRONGLY recommend the RT Systems programming software and cables. Buy the package with the CD disc rather than have them send you software to download from the 'net. @$50 for both the cable and disc. I don't know if there is a functional "Chirp" program for this radio, it was worth the money for me to buy the RT Systems hardware and be able to access their great customer service. Mounting tips: I mounted the readout on a steel hinge that I had modified so it was a little stiff. Used RTV to adhere the hinge to the dashboard at about the same eye level as the rest of the instruments. The main radio is mounted under the driver's seat. My new car has rather "nappy" carpeting and I found that using the "hook" part of Velcro stuck to the bottom of the radio keeps it in place. I used 4 pieces around the outside of the bottom of the radio which, in hindsight, was a bit too much. It will take tools to pry it out of the current location. For the 2 speaker installation, I used a pair of very small speakers: http://www.mpja.com/Speaker-8-ohm-Micro-in-Cube-Case/productinfo/31867+SP/ with one on the left side and another on the right side of the dashboard. Use caution so the operation of the airbags does not turn the speakers into projectiles. Despite their small size, they work fine although the new car is very quiet. An alternate is to put a right-side speaker under the passenger seat and the built-in speaker in the radio will make left-side audio under the driver's seat. Note that it takes a 3 circuit 1/8" plug for the external speakers with the tip and barrel used as "hot" and ground. I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding this radio. Be Well, Tim Colbert K3HX Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/18 09:28 by K3HX. Date: 07/20/18 16:47 Re: IC-2730A Review. Author: Gateway97 Thanks for the review Tim!
Jeff doty KC8YAH. Date: 07/26/18 05:12 Re: IC-2730A Review. Author: WW Not to sound like a broken record, but this radio, like so many of amateur radios, will NOT tune at the 2.5 kHz steps in the VHF railroad band that are required to use the "splinter" analog channels created in the AAR band with narrow banding. Those splinter channels are not in any wide use that I am aware of at this point, but they could be in the future.
In short, radios that won't do the 2.5 kHz steps in VHF are no better than most of the amateur radios that have been sold for 20 years or more--they tune the 197 "original" AAR channels and no more than those in the VHF railroad band. Even the relatively pedestrian Uniden BC-125AT portable scanner will tune the AAR analog splinter channels. |