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Monster Media 1993 #2
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ICW21AT
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1993-03-23
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69 lines
Review of the new ICOM W21AT ....
forward from the Internet....
Gary / KE9ZM
From uchinews!linac!att!cbnewse!k9un Wed Mar 3 12:01:12 CST 1993
Article: 35037 of rec.radio.amateur.misc
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Path: uchinews!linac!att!cbnewse!k9un
From: k9un@cbnewse.cb.att.com (j.w.ague)
Subject: IC-W21AT - an opinion
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 18:29:39 GMT
Message-ID: <1993Mar1.182939.25686@cbnewse.cb.att.com>
Keywords: W21AT, ICOM, Dual Bander HT
Lines: 48
When I saw the add for the new ICOM ICW21AT Dual Band HT in QST a month
ago, I thought I was "in love". It looked good, was the "right" size,
and had some interesting new features over the ICW2AT. I briefly saw
(and touched) one at a local hamfest and without getting an opportunity
to listen to it, I ordered one through a local ham store. After several
weeks of waiting, I got the call that IT arrived :-)
I was sadly disappointed when I got the chance to really play (and compare)
the radio at the store :-(
NOTE that I was interested in the broadband capabilities as much as the
ham capabilities. That is, this was to double as my handheld public service
band scanner.
Physically, it looked and felt great! Then I turned it on. The following
reasons, caused me to by the older W2 instead:
1) The receive audio is terrible! It sounds like a speaker hooked
up to an old crystal set. The speaker mic improved things
greatly. It seems that ICOM designed the radio to be used
withOUT the DTMF pad. In that configuration there is a
direct port for the speaker. In the DTMF model, the pad
covers most of the speaker and what little audio comes out
of s few holes to the right of the speaker.
2) The receiver sensitivity on the out of (ham) band frequencies was
considerably less than that of the W2 (at least in the
800MHZ range). Both W21 and W2 antennas were used on both
radios in the test.
3) The W21 stock antenna is very tightly tuned to the ham bands thus
affecting the broadband receiving capabilities. Had I bought
the W21, I would have bought an extra W2 antenna.
4) The W21 requires YET ANOTHER drop-in charger! I already have
a drop in charger for my old u2AT as tell as for my wife's
(ka9kdy) P2AT. It turns out the P2AT charger will work with
the W2 with in insert.
For me, this radio (W21) did not pan out as I had hoped. I am now a happy
owner of a W2. ICOM needs to address the receive audio problem for sure.
On the positive side, ICOM has gone back to supporting the "standard" ICOM
speaker mic accessories on the W21. I never did understand why they went
to the new configuration on the W2! I suppose there are some people who
like seperating the audio from the 2 receivers. It seems that they could
have provided that capability without changing the basic configuration.
Wes Ague - k9un
[Received via CLOVER]