ICOM 7100 reveiw

Belive it or not the 7000 , 7100, and 7300 are all the same rigs , just with some tweaking and the addition of a crappie monochrome display ( why did they think we wanted that ?) And dstar ( for a lot of places the only way to do dstar is an additional 400+ dollars for dongles) then they put in a desk based body with color screen and waterfall.

I have a 7000 love the thing to death nice color screen with all the most used buttons immediately on either side of the display, it very covent and intuitive , they really made a mess of a great rig when they did the 7100.

I have known a lot of pigs and lipstick doesn't help, same deal with the 51a and 5100a cheap monochrome display that is gray on gray they don't have the contrast ability to make the text black with a grey background and what kind of a bone head move the 5100a was with a 600 buck rig that everything you need like Radio Mounts and such is an expensive option, back on the rig your thinking of I would actually say save your bucks.

There is a company coming out with a new rig before the end of the year that does fusion, dstar, aprs,dmr, NXDN, and p25 that's gonna be my next toy, aside from that if you want a super all band/ mode rig ,buy a used 7000 with the beautiful color display and for in the Shack hook it to an external monitor for an awesome experience ,with conveint use due to actual buttons instead of monochrome touch display.

The 7000 does everything the 7100 does minus dstar, and why pay for a feature you aren't going to use ( unless of course you plan on spending 400 + on dongles and stuff that will make every radio dstar) I can honestly say every ham I know who had a 7000 and sold it for a different rig mourn it's loss and many have gone and bought another 7000 because they missed it so much.