Icom ID-880H D-Star....

[WX2MIG]

At great risk to my testicles....(that is when the wife see's UPS deliver the package)....I went ahead and ordered a new Icom ID-880H Dual Band D-Star radio, and an Alpha-Delta surge protector.....

The ID-800H I purchased for OEM will be leaving my shack by the end of the week, the Uniden VHF Marine radio sold today on eBay, the FT-2800M has hit reserve with 5 days left of bidding, the Uniden SMK250 has a couple nickle & dime bids, but should reach reserve before it ends in 5 days, and the Comet duplexer should move at the price I'm asking.

All combined will take some of the pain out of this $549.00 purchase. Had I acted a week sooner I could have saved $100.00 by jumping on the close-out specials HRO was running on the ID-800H's, but they went quick.
At least I'll be able to give an honest comparison between the two models since I'll be operating both. Of course the 800 for OEM will get limited use, the 880 will get a lot more stuff programmed into it since I'll be using it on D-Star gateways and reflectors.

If the order ships out of the Delaware store before the end of the day, I should see it by Wednesday afternoon......

 

[WR0220]

Congrats on the new radio! After you've played around with it for a bit be sure to let us know how it performs.

 

[WX2MIG]

Congrats on the new radio! After you've played around with it for a bit be sure to let us know how it performs.

Will do.....

So far the only thing I can say against the ID-800H is the fact that it gets hot when running it at high power. Not as bad when on analog as it does in digital mode, but it still heats up to the point where I can't hold my hand on it.

I don't know if Icom addressed this with the newer model ID-880H, but it is rated at 5 watts less output power than the 800H.

A full review and comparison will follow after I've had time to program the new radio and use it.....

 

[Moleculo]

Does that 880H do crossband repeat?

 

[WX2MIG]

Does that 880H do crossband repeat?

No Mole, the IC-2820H does cross band, but both the ID-800H and ID-880H are single band operation.

I looked at the IC-2820H, but it's $600.00 + without the D-Star circuit, much like my IC-2200H it's a $200.00 option, and that would make the radio cost over 800 bucks....if I could get away with spending that kind of money I would have said the hell with D-Star and replaced my HF radio with an IC-718 and an AH-4 auto tuner .....

Got an e-mail this morning that my goods were shipped out of Delaware this morning, so there's a real good chance I'll get them tomorrow anyway, the only thing that sucks is our UPS guy doesn't get here until late afternoon, so I'll be waiting around for it all day......

 

[WX2MIG]

Initial impressions

The ID-880H arrived today, it's set up in the shack, and I've started to program it....

Initial impressions are....
It's more complicated to program manually than the 800H was....:thumbdown:
The 880 does not get hot like the 800 does......
The 880 has a ton of interesting features I have yet to explore.....
It going to take me months to figure them all out.....:thumbdown:

The very first thing one must do when taking delivery of either model is to program the mic gain from low to high, or your audio will not be heard.

You can pretty much fumble through the 800 and get it programmed without too much difficulty, but if you get the 880....READ THE BOOK FIRST.....:blink:

More to follow after I've spent some time with it.....

 

[WX2MIG]

Another feature that is different than most every other model Icom radio that threw me a curve at first, but once discovered and figured out can be an asset is the split tones programming....

The down side to this is the book doesn't cover this feature to any needed extent, leaving the first time programmer somewhat in the dark as to why he can use the "Tone" feature, but the "T-SQL" won't open the repeater it's programmed for.....

In order to program for Tone - Squelch operation you have to access the DUP.T setting, then go to R-TONE and set the CTCSS or DTCS tone of your choice, then go back and dial in C-TONE, and do the same thing, if you only program R-TONE as the instruction book would have you do, and you set the Tone to function on "T-SQL" you won't be able to open the repeater, but if another station does open it, you'll hear it.
This little aspect had me pulling my hair out for two days, then I called another ID-880H owner who figured it out and explained it to me....

Once I had it figured out, I could see how this can be a good feature, it takes just one more step in programming, but offers you the ability to work split tones.

The feature gets a......
The writers of the instruction manual get a........:thumbdown:

More to follow as I discover other things about this new radio......

 

[kf5jrp]

order this radio

I just order this radio well get it tomorrow can wait any other thing you find out about it please let me know

Matt
KF5JRP

 

[Moleculo]

I just order this radio well get it tomorrow can wait any other thing you find out about it please let me know

Matt
KF5JRP

If you wouldn't mind...start a new thread to give us YOUR thoughts on the radio. We all like all the feedback we can get!