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K4FX's Icom 756 Pro II

Ever since I spent the summer in Herridia, Costa Rica operating Marcos Fonseca's IC-751A, I have always had a soft spot for Icom radios, and nothing has hit the spot as well as the latests in a long line of Icoms I have owned, the IC-756 Pro II,
After about 6 weeks of running this radio, it's easily the best radio I have used, it beats the Flex SDR-1000 in pure functionality hands down, and the DSP is just as good if not better. I have come to love the Digital Voice Recorder, it really sounds nice and I find I am using it more and more in the contests and when I am in a huge pileup, also on the record side its very handy for recording a serial number or call for later reference.
The Icom IC-756 Pro II is a very nice radio, it is loaded with features like 32 bit IF DSP that eliminates the need for traditional filters, after a few weeks of using this one I am very happy with this radio, the DSP filtering is sharp as a tack, the FSK operation is out of this world! The color display is really nice and clear, not plagued by the LCD failures the earliest in the 756 series was, the non-Pro model, which I also had the pleasure to own. While some claim the 756 non-Pro was made of superior components and a higher grade transceiver, I have to disagree. The Pro II leaves my old 756 in the dust in all areas. The non Pro was a good radio, but severely limited in the filtering department. Only 1 filter in each IF could be installed, so you had to decide if you wanted a CW rig or a SSB rig. While the Twin Passband Tuning was pretty decent, I installed CW filters in mine and depended on the PBT for SSB interference fighting. On my Pro II, I have 3 filters for CW (500, 250 and 100hz) and Phone (2.7, 2.4 and 1.8Khz) that can easily be changed to any width you desire and PBT can also be set in a filter has well as hard or soft shaping, and a killer twin peak filter for RTTY (set at 250hz for contest mode at present). The 756 Pro series is one serious RTTY radio, in fact if you are a RTTY operator, this is probably the best choice you have for that mode, it's made a huge difference in my RTTY operation. Although I don't have the old 756 for side by side testing, my memory isn't that bad! There is no way it could hang with the DSP of the Pro II...

Any of the Pro series would be a welcomed addition to any hamshack, 2 notch filters, an automatic and manual make carriers disappear, adjustable noise blanker, a very user-friendly menu system makes the 756 Pro series one of the few modern radios you can operate out of the box without consulting the manual.. most of the features are easily figured out by pressing and holding the button in question, all the menu settings have a DEF (default) option to take it back to the factory default. I built an interface using AA5AU's simple transistor FSK to com port device and I must say it works as well as my old Rigblaster Plus on FSK for about 5 bucks! Thanks Don. This radio really shines on FSK, I had been using the SDR-1000 on AFSK, and with all it's fancy DSP it could not compete with this 756 ProII, the twin peak filter at 250 hertz is really something,
I really find myself using features never before available like the Digital Voice Recorder in the phone contests, it really takes a load off the vocal chords...

A Simple FSK/PTT interface
Why spend money needlessly? Try this simple FSK interface from Don AA5AU, it works great and costs very little, no need to buy a high priced interface with FSK keying when this one can be made in minutes. I have used this one for a few weeks and in one contest, and it works just as good as a $150 rigblaster plus, add one additional connection to the ACC connector for a regular audio xmit line and you have a full sound card interface for all modes with FSK keying, try one, you'll get a certain satisfaction building it!!

The Softrock! A poor man's introduction to a Software Defined Radio (SDR) You don't have to pay THOUSANDS for an SDR, just call Tony and you can experience SDR for less than 40 bucks!


This is a 38 dollar kit, yep that's with the shipping included, for a 1 watt QRP transceiver that covers 20 and 30 meter ham bands, your bandwidth will depend on the quality of your sound card, with the crappiest sound card like I am using I get 48 Khz bandwidth, with a center freq of 14.047 I can cover most of the general CW band on 20 and of course all of 30 meters

I recommend the Rocky software for beginners, easy to use, built in electronic keyer and PSK31 capabilities, this little radio has DSP that rivals the expensive rig, dial the bandwidth down to 60 Hz and copy signals on top of each other with no ringing, just solid copy.

I will be posting some screen shots in the coming days,

Here is the daughter board used on the 20-30 meter rig,



Everyone whines about winding coils and transformers in kit radios, I found it to be relaxing and the results look pretty good to me. The radio works better than I could have ever dreamed!

You want one? Contact Tony Parks raparks AT ctcisp.com you send the correct amount via Pay Pal and Tony is fast, you will soon be soldering!

For more about Rocky Software, Click HERE

For more info on Softrocks in general, click HERE

Newest Addition to our audio

The Icom 756 non-pro model is a very reliable radio, these can be found in the 700 dollar price range, a good radio,
The newest addition to K4FX is an EQ Plus from W2IHY, as Julius says, "world class audio can be yours with a 8 band EQ and EQ Plus" Very true very true, the audio is truly amazing and there even more combinations that before, if you have an 8 band and think that's impossible, think again! The pair, the 8Band EQ and the EQ Plus is a match made in heaven, on my 756 non-Pro the mic circuit lacks pre-amplification, so the Heil Goldline just didn't cut the mustard, however the addition of the EQ plus makes all the difference in the world, great audio, and it drives the mud outta the 756! I noticed in the contests, many stations took the time to make comments about my audio, that tells me all I need to know!
IC-756 is main radio, and man do I love this radio, the more I use it the more I love it
The backup is now the FT-857D Yaesu.,
Got the Winkey in and built, about a 15 minute job. works great!
UPDATE! Now replaced the Winkey 1 with the new Winkey 2 Serial,
nice unit, now has the ability to key 2 rigs with dual outputs NICE!

This is the new Winkey 2 as seen on Steve's site, I will replace this with a pic of mine shortly
It's the only way to fly. Took a tad longer than the WK1 to put together, but that was due to the fact it has a few more parts, but even an inexperienced builder should be able to have one of these up and running in less than an hour. You won't find a better keyer out there for 35 bucks! Little features like Watchdog, which turns off the keyer after 128 dits or dahs are sent continuously, I heard one chap who was on the lower end of 40 meters for over 1/2 hour that I heard him sending dits at Lord only Knows how much power and how long he had been sending before I noticed him. With headsets, it would be very easy to bump the paddle and key your rig for a long time. Not with WinKey. Still waiting for a CW contest to really put this toy thru it's paces..... contact Steve K1EL and he will have you keying in this century in a flash.
The 756 is a nice radio, can be had at reasonable prices and performs right up there with the 3K buck rigs. One of the reasons people were scared of this rig was the lack of replacement LCD's in case of a failure, now it has come to my attention that Icom has another supplier and they are once again available. The IC-756 is a nice radio, small and compact the 756 is loaded with features, dual watch allows for monitoring of the dx stations listening frequency making split frequency pileups a breeze. The antenna tuner is fast and tunes about anything, triple bandstacking registers and 5 or 10 memo pad memories just about cover any memory needs for the average operator, but there are 99 fixed memories should those not be enough for you. The auto-notch actually works on this rig, that's something I have heard a lot of people complain about. Menu's, something else most people complain about, are not bad at all on this radio, the menu's have things that are for the most part "set and forget" items, the stuff you need to adjust often are on buttons and knobs on the front panel! All in all the IC-756 is a keeper! For way under 1000 dollars ($750-$850) you can't beat it!
I am using a Heil Gold Line GM4 for my mic and I love it!

With the W2IHY gear it stays in the wide position on the studio cartridge, this picture is only to show off the pretty gold, I use a wind screen in all my operations.
SB-220 (the best amp for the money out there) and for my Windom my tuner is a MFJ-989D, I am beginning to have a little more faith in this tuner, before its 5 month vacation to Mississippi, it was doubtful but since it's return, its almost given me a year of decent service, one thing for sure, it will take 1500 watts all day and not even get warm.
My main antenna is my reliable old Cushcraft A4S (this is to antennas what the SB-220 is to amps) at 23 meters up on Rohn 25G tower
Here is the a one-of-a-kind paddle, look at this.
The best mobile FM rig has been made IMHO, and it's the FT-8900R It's now gone and replaced with a FT-857D, but certainly not forgotten.
My Goldline is on a short-boom, it sounds like a broadcast station (without the broad). Whatever the need the mic needs to be Heil. I have used his Icom mic on the IC-746 and I have used the headset for the IC-706 and all of Bob's products are tip top in quality and performance.

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