The IC905 is the latest radio fresh from the Icom stable and comes fully loaded with many features. All modes including digital voice, digital data, ATV and even Dstar with full gateway functions.
A brief overview
With the IC905, technology has advanced to the point of where you no longer need to consider how far your antennas are from the radio. The remote unit does all the back-end work and is located virtually at the antenna, whilst the head unit can be located anywhere up to 100mtrs away thanks to advanced POE technology. Some very powerful processing is done within the head unit with many monitoring functions available including full GLONASS GPS features, SWR reading or sweeping on all bands and up to 100mhz bandwidth of spectrum monitoring in real time.
The radio has a maximum output of 10 watts, which is more than ample considering that you have no loses to worry about and the receiver is considered to be ‘hottest’ receiver on the market.
Thoughts from VK8DNT
If you’re an ICOM user and have a 705, 7300 or 9700 the operation of the 905 is seamless. It just flows and is very easy to navigate. The IC905 is the same size as the 705 and it’s a great portable radio to use in any format. The Audio is typical ICOM being crisp, sharp and clear from the internal speaker. The touch Screen front panel is easy to see in all working conditions. Both Gary & myself entered the Spring VHF – UHF Field Day this past November as a last-minute decision. Setting up the IC905 and external RF Unit/antenna’s as a ‘rover’ required a quick disconnect solution. A quick and easy setup was required to facilitate moving to the next Grid squares. We managed to find some aluminum tubing to use as a telescopic mast fixed to the headboard of my Toyota. Gary made up a quick release bracket for the RF Unit which also held the 2 and 5ghz antennas. The 2/70 & 1296Mhz vertical sat nicely on top of the pole. Overall performance of the setup worked very well and I look forward to our next Field Day.
Summary
The IC905 is the perfect field day or portable radio for VHF/UHF and SHF bands and you only need modest antennas for great results. Jeff (VK8DNT) recently tested a IC905 in the field and was surprisingly amazed he received +20db reports on the 1Ghz band using a vertical and +10db reports on the 2Ghz and 5Ghz bands over 30km using nothing more than a 10el LFA measuring a few inches, constructed by Gary (VK8AW).
As a base station radio, the sky and beyond is the limit. Full ATV features, Dstar gateway, contesting functions on all modes, plug and play USB for digital modes (including pre-loaded FT8 functions within the unit) and loads more functions to long to mention here.
de Gary VK8AW & Jeff VK8DNT