At the 2024 Dayton Hamvention in the USA in May, ICOM gave away some details about a new product called the 'X-60'. I covered this in an earlier post HERE
In late August 2024, it was finally revealed by ICOM that the new product was the IC-7760, a fully featured HF & 6m transceiver with a 200-watt output power.
As can be seen above, the radio comes in two parts... a control head and a RF deck. These are the dimensions...
RF Deck - 425 × 149 × 442 mm (16.7 × 5.9 × 17.4 in)
Control Head - 340 × 118 × 103.5 mm (13.4 × 4.6 × 4.1 in)
The radio has two receivers which allows for the monitoring of one band while tuning another. The two receivers can also be locked to each other allowing diversity reception. It's possible say to listen to one receiver with a horizontal antenna and the other receiver to a vertical antenna. You can listen with headphones and hear the received signal with one polarization in one ear and the other polarized signal in the other ear.
The rear of the Control Head has a number of connections including a RJ-45 socket to connect a LAN cable to the RF Deck. This could be a few metres or up to 100 metres. The obvious attraction here is that the RF deck could be placed at the bottom of a mast and doesn't need to be inside the house. This obviously reduces the need to run coax cables into the house.
There is also provision for an external monitor to show the displays in more detail if required.
The front of the RF Deck is pretty bland while the rear panel has a host of connections.
The unit is mains powered which eliminates the need for a high power 13.8 volt supply. There are multiple RF sockets as well as multiple other connections.
There's no doubt that it's a superb looking radio with a lot of features but what about the price?
The current guideline seems to be around the $6,000 mark. In the UK, it seems to be about £5,700. WIMO in Germany are saying €6,600.
I suspect for most, this is an eye-watering price that is just way too expensive. After all, it is at the end of the day just a HF & 6m transceiver and any good operator could work 99% of the stations with a radio costing a quarter of the price.
I'm sure there are a minority though that could justify the price for a fully featured radio with a fully rated 200-watt output.
Over the weekend, WIMO Germany released this video previewing the new radio.
Remote Operation... One thing that is not totally clear is whether remote operation is possible?
The one obvious thought is that someone might want to say put the RF Deck in a holiday home while keeping the Control Head at home and connecting the two over the internet. Apparently this is not possible due to latency issues.
ICOM's solution is to use their Dualwatch compatible IP remote control software to control the remote radio. As the chart shows below, the IC-7760 is a supported radio.
I would assume that this has more limited functionality as compared to a direct connection from the Control Head to the RF Deck.
For more information, have a look at the WIMO video above or go to the ICOM website... https://www.icomjapan.com/lineup/products/IC-7760/
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