Andrew Barron - The Radio Today guide to the Icom IC-9700

Congratulations on buying or being about to purchase the amazing Icom IC-9700. It is always exciting unboxing and learning how to use a new transceiver. The IC-9700 is a groundbreaking amateur radio transceiver. It is the first full power, multi-mode, VHF/UHF amateur radio transceiver to be based on SDR technology. The receiver uses direct digital sampling for the 2 m and 70 cm bands and a single down conversion stage followed by direct digital sampling for the 23 cm receiver. The transmitter uses direct digital up-conversion for the 2 m and 70 cm bands and a heterodyne up-conversion stage for the 23 cm band. The IC-9700 is also the first VHF and UHF transceiver to feature a panadapter spectrum and waterfall display.

The IC-9700 is in the same family as the Icom IC-7300 sharing an almost identical front panel layout, weight, and size. The release of the IC-7300 created something of a revolution in the amateur radio world, bringing the benefits of SDR technology to thousands of hams. With this radio, Icom provides the perfect companion to the IC-7300. It is a transceiver for VHF and UHF DX operation, working satellites, EME, and repeater operation, supporting both traditional FM repeaters and D-Star digital. Many of the features included in the IC-9700 have never been available on VHF/UHF amateur radio transceivers before.

If you already own an IC-7300 or an IC-7610 you will be familiar with the touch screen display and the positions of many controls. But you will quickly find that the IC-9700 is very much more complicated than either of those radios. This radio is crammed with exciting new features. For a start it has two receivers, so you can receive signals on two bands at the same time. It is also capable of full-duplex crossband operation. Being able to receive signals on one band while transmitting on another band. There is provision for the connection of a 3 rd party GPS receiver for use with the D-Star and digital voice gateway modes and for connection of an external 10 MHz frequency reference for superior oscillator stability. The high-power output on the 2 m and 70 cm bands will be great for long-distance work and Meteor Scatter operation. There are an astounding number of memory slots and scanning functions. 99 channels per band, plus 99 satellite memories, 300 GPS memories, and 2500 D-Star repeater memories.

Icom has borrowed some functions from the IC-7300 that you dont normally see in VHF/UHF radios. You get a voice message keyer and recording functions and even an RTTY decoder. Unfortunately, just like the IC-7300, the built-in RTTY is crippled by the lack of any way to connect an external keyboard. You cant easily enter the other stations callsign or chat. I would even settle for the ability to use the onscreen QWERTY keyboard. Perhaps this can be added in a future firmware release.

This revised edition of the Radio Today guide to the Icom IC-9700 includes the new features added in the February 2021 v1.30 firmware update. These include the very useful Preset mode, which can be used for all external digital modes, scrolling the spectrum display if you tune off the edge of the currently displayed span, four fixed edges for the FIX display, the D-Star picture sharing mode, and the ability to apply custom functions to three of the front panel buttons and two microphone buttons.

If this is your first SDR I am sure that you will be excited about the panadapter. I particularly like the FIX spectrum display mode where you can pre-set a band segment. For example, you might set a band edge to cover the SSB part of the 2 m band, a satellite linear transponder downlink, or the segment used by EME enthusiasts.

For CW operators, there is full or semi break-in keying from 6 to 48 wpm and eight message memories including an auto-incrementing contest number. Im sure that the message memories will be very useful for CW operation through linear satellite transponders. The CW mode functions are lifted directly from the IC-7300 and are much more comprehensive than you would find on other VHF/UHF radios.

Compared to other transceivers there are quite a few changes to the way that you operate the radio. These are mostly due to the touch screen controls. As I have got to know the radio by using it and through delving into every control and menu setting, I have discovere d many cleve r design features. You can certainly see the benefit of decades of Icom technical development and experienc e .