Review: ICOM IC-Q7A - Unboxing, Widebanding, and Use

 

The ICOM IC-Q7A was one of the smallest handheld amateur radio transceivers of its time in the pre-millenial electronics age. Offering 2M and 70M milliwatt-level transmit, along with some wideband reception, the little HT was a lot of fun.

Initially.

I had one of these little buggers nearly 20 years ago after getting licensed; it was an impulse buy and was fun for a while but then i wanted an HT with more power out - i was also disappointed with the wideband receive, which did not include AM BCB... i sold it at a hamfest for a slight loss...  

Fast forward 20 years later: i recently purchased a new-in-the-box old-stock unit from a fellow on the evil Internet auction site; the Q7A was in its plastic, and came with antenna, clip, lanyard, charger and two corroded and unusable rechargeable batteries

 

Note the use of a silver foil seal - this is not something i've seen on any other HT boxes or even rigs for that matter (folks may want to comment). Perhaps to 'foil' tampering? LOL!

 I did know one thing, however. This HT came with rechargeable NiCads. What kind of shape do you think they may be in after sitting on a shelf for 20 years in storage?

 

Yep, you guessed it - corroded, somewhat exploded and unusable - who cares now that we have much better rechargeable AAs. It also means that I could confidently shit-can the included BC-127A/D recharger:

I like that a small 'cheat sheet' for the HT was included. I wish other manufacturers would do the same. Really, if you're going to develop a nice manual, why not do a little sheet at the same time - even if for download? There was also a regular manual (which you can still download from ICOM) in the box.

But ICOM could have saved some money by just including two AAs and no recharging gear with this milliwatt HT, IMHO.

Widebanding the IC-Q7A

I had forgotten how small, yet easy to use and program the Q7A is... and lo and behold, i also discovered that with a single mouse click, the HT could possibly be widebanded to receive BCB AM - if i had known this 20 years ago i would not have sold my original unit!

So i dug out an old Asus Eeepc w/Windoze 7 Starter out of the closet, and plugged in an FTDI 4-pole USB cable (any cable for the VX5 and VX3 will also work with the Q7A); after waiting 10 minutes for the cable and its drivers to install, i clicked on Goran Vlaski's 1999-vintage IC-Q7 Programming Utility (http://www.digital-laboratory.de/)... it ran - but horror of horrors, only offered COM1 thru COM4 ports, while the FTDI serial adapter came up as COM6... initially dismayed, i then edited the driver using Properties->Port Settings->Advanced->COM Port Number to an available port in range - voila!

 

Plugged in the Q7A, ran the programming utility, downloaded the HT's memory, and then with one mouse click on the 'SuperRX now' button (just above the Download button) the utility re-uploaded the memory and enabled reception down to 0MHz!

According to Vlaski in his README file, the IC-Q7A uses the same hardware and firmware as the ICOM R2 but was 'hobbled' by ICOM for some reason (as to not cannibalize R2 sales?)

His software apparently toggles an enabling bit or masks the transceiver's identity; and Vlaski's utility also provides an adjustment mode for the HT, used in conjunction with the Q7A's service manual (not for the faint of heart and unnecessary to me)

TIP: If you experience a problem re-uploading out-of-band programmed AM freqs between .5 and 30MHz, pull one end of a AA battery out of the HT within one second after seeing the 'Upload done' message in the utility - this sidesteps an error-checking routine programmed into the rig's firmware - nasty!

 Other software  you can use to conventionally program the IC-Q7A is Chirp (https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home) and Bob Parnass' tk7 (http://parnass.com/tk7/).

So now my Q7A receives not only AM BCB, but also all SW bands (WWV, etc.); the change is retained between power on/off, and AM stations can be saved and retained in memory (i did those manually)

Fortunately you can still get a case that fits the Q7A - ICOM's LC146a, which has a cutout for the R5, but works FB (see title photo). A good alternative antenna for is the Diamond SRH519, but honestly i use a Comet SMA24 most often.

 

 I'm very happy that i have rediscovered my nice little pocket transceiver that now receives BCB AM, SW, airband, NOAA WX, VHF marine, BCB WFM, with transmit on 2M and 70M!