4nradio wrote:

A new receiver in the shack here is actually a transceiver-- a mint
condition, late serial number ICOM IC-756Pro. My Racal RA6790/GM was
auctioned on Ebay to acquire the ICOM. As it turned out, the Racal sold for
more than twice what I paid for it, so in the end I upgraded radios with
money left over. The RA6790/GM is a fine receiver but tedious at times to
use for DXing, with only a single bandwidth available for SSB (unless
variable BFO is used in CW mode). In addition, the Racal lacks 12-volt power
capability for DXpeditions "off the grid".

The IC-756Pro is an all-DSP transceiver that accomplishes all filtering (51
bandwidths on SSB), modulation/demodulation, and AGC in the 24-bit IF DSP
circuits. The centerpiece of the radio is it's colorful active-matrix LCD
screen with useful spectrum display scope. With the MW attenuator mod (2 SMD
chips removed and a jumper added) it hears trans-Pacific MW DX as well as my
R-75. It's great fun to see the foreign mediumwave stations rise above the
noise and show a "peak" on the scope between the 10-kHz domestics. In every
tough DX situation, the 756Pro has outperformed the modded R-75 (which is a
hot DX rig in its own right). The audio quality is fine too, for pleasant
listening and SWLing. I carefully considered a Winradio G313, but was
concerned about strong signal handling. So far I'm very pleased with the
choice of the 756Pro. Dave Zantow's lukewarm review of the radio at Davez's
receiver pages notwithstanding, I've found this detailed technical review of
the IC-756Pro and IC-756ProII to be accurate and informative:
http://www.qsl.net/ab4oj/icom/ic756pro_notes.html

A good product description is found at ICOM-Japan's web site:
http://www.icom.co.jp/world/products...pro/index.html
(2nd page http://www.icom.co.jp/world/products...o/details.html

At less than half the cost of a WJ-8711A/HF-1000A or RX-340, the IC-756Pro
is worth considering; and if you're a radio amateur you can use the other
half of the radio, too g

Next thing you kow you'll be looking at one of those ICOM IC-7800's!

dxAce
Michigan
USA