The IC-7110 Made Me Ask: Why Do We Really Prefer One Radio Brand Over Another?

The new Icom IC-7110 has finally been revealed.

And almost immediately, the conversations started.

Does it have Bluetooth?

Does it have Wi-Fi?

USB-C?

How’s the menu system?

Does it have D-STAR?

What about APRS?

How does it compare to Yaesu?

How does it compare to the IC-7100?

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking those questions. I ask them too. When we’re spending this kind of money on a radio, we want to know what we’re getting.

But watching the reaction to the IC-7110 got me thinking about something else.

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Are those really the reasons we end up liking one radio more than another?

Because I’m starting to think they’re not.

We Spend a Lot of Time Talking About Features

When a new radio comes out, we immediately go to the specification sheet.

Manufacturers know this too.

Bluetooth. Wi-Fi. Touchscreens. USB-C. Spectrum scopes. Digital modes. GPS. Remote operation. APRS. D-STAR. Fusion.

Then we get into the menus.

Icom guys will tell you how intuitive Icom’s interface is.

Yaesu guys will defend—or complain about—Yaesu’s menus.

Someone else will point out that another manufacturer gives you a dedicated button instead of burying something three menus deep.

Those things matter.

But think about a radio you’ve owned for a while.

After you’ve had it for six months, how often are you really thinking about the USB connector?

Probably not very often.

You’ve learned where the menu items are. You’ve programmed the radio. You’ve configured the features you actually use.

Eventually all of that stuff starts fading into the background.

Then you’re left with something much simpler.

You’re listening to a radio.

And when you press the PTT:

Someone else is listening to you.

I think that might be much closer to the reason we develop such strong preferences for certain radios and manufacturers.

What Does the Radio Sound Like to You?

I’ve used enough radios now that I don’t think receivers all feel the same.

I’m not necessarily talking about laboratory measurements.

Those are important. Receiver sensitivity, dynamic range, filtering, selectivity and noise performance can absolutely be measured.

But I’m talking about something slightly different.

I’m talking about what happens after you’ve been sitting in front of the radio for an hour.

Do you enjoy listening to it?

That’s harder to put on a specification sheet.

There are radios where I can listen to HF for a long time and the audio just feels comfortable.

There are other radios where I find myself constantly adjusting something.

RF gain.

Noise reduction.

Filtering.

Audio.

Trying to make the signal sound the way I want it to sound.

Both radios might technically be receiving the same station.

Both might have perfectly respectable specifications.

But I might enjoy listening to one of them considerably more.

And if I’m going to spend hundreds or thousands of hours operating a radio, that matters.

A lot.

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Then There’s the Other Half of the Equation

What does your signal sound like?

I think this gets overlooked even more.

We obsess over what the radio can do while we’re sitting in front of it, but amateur radio is a two-way activity.

Every time you transmit, someone is experiencing your radio from the other side.

And we’ve all heard it.

Someone comes on frequency and you immediately notice the audio.

Maybe it’s punchy.

Maybe it’s warm.

Maybe it cuts through noise incredibly well.

Maybe you hear a station and think:

That guy sounds good.

Then comes the question we’ve probably all asked:

“What radio are you running?”

That’s interesting when you think about it.

We didn’t ask what USB connector he has.

We didn’t ask how many menu presses it took him to turn on Bluetooth.

We heard the transmitter.

And we liked what we heard.

Maybe That’s Where Brand Loyalty Really Starts

This is where I think the Icom-versus-Yaesu-versus-Kenwood discussion gets more interesting.

We tend to explain our preferences with features because features are easy to describe.

“I like this because it has Bluetooth.”

“I bought this because it has D-STAR.”

“I prefer this menu system.”

Those are tangible things we can point toward.

But maybe underneath some of those arguments is something much simpler.

We like how certain radios sound.

Not necessarily because one manufacturer is universally “better.”

That’s where these conversations usually go off the rails.

The better question might be:

Which receiver do you enjoy listening to?

And:

Which transmitter produces the signal you want other operators to hear?

Those are very different questions from asking which radio has the longest feature list.

The IC-7110 Is Actually a Great Example

That’s what makes the IC-7110 interesting to me.

On paper, there’s plenty to talk about.

It’s the successor to the IC-7100. It covers HF, 6 meters, 2 meters and 70 centimeters in the U.S. configuration. There’s a detachable controller, touchscreen, spectrum scope, D-STAR, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C and dual-band receive.

It’s exactly the kind of radio that can create an enormous feature-by-feature comparison chart.

And I’m sure we’re going to see plenty of those.

But there’s one question that can’t really be answered from the announcement.

What’s it like to operate?

More specifically:

What’s it like to listen to?

The IC-7110 uses a direct-sampling receiver architecture similar to other modern Icom radios. That tells us something about its design, but it still doesn’t tell me what sitting in front of one for three hours is going to feel like.

And we know even less about what it’s going to sound like on the other end of a contact.

That’s something we’re only going to learn when these radios actually get into operators’ hands.

This Is Also Why Buying a Radio From a Spec Sheet Is So Difficult

If you’re new to amateur radio, this is one of the hardest things to understand.

You can research yourself into oblivion.

You make the spreadsheet.

Radio A has Bluetooth.

Radio B has a better tuner.

Radio C has APRS.

Radio D has the better screen.

Radio E is $200 cheaper.

Eventually you have 27 rows of features and somehow you’re less certain which radio you want.

Maybe that’s because we’re trying to quantify something that isn’t entirely quantitative.

There is an experience associated with operating a radio.

How the controls feel.

How quickly you can get the radio doing what you want.

How the receiver sounds.

How fatiguing the audio is after a long operating session.

How effective the filtering feels when the band gets crowded.

How your transmitted audio sounds.

How confident you feel using it.

Eventually you stop interacting with a feature list and start interacting with a radio.

That’s when you find out whether you actually like it.

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Features Get You Interested. Operating Makes You Keep It.

I think that’s probably the distinction I’ve been trying to put my finger on.

Features help sell radios.

But the operating experience is what makes us keep them.

Bluetooth might get my attention.

USB-C might make my portable setup easier.

A good touchscreen might make configuration faster.

Built-in Wi-Fi might open up some interesting possibilities.

I absolutely want manufacturers to keep improving those things.

But five years from now, I’m probably not going to tell you:

“I love this radio because it has USB-C.”

I’m much more likely to say:

“I love the receiver in this thing.”

Or:

“I always get great audio reports with this radio.”

Or maybe simply:

“I just like operating it.”

That last statement is incredibly subjective.

But amateur radio itself is an experience.

Maybe subjective matters more than we sometimes want to admit.

So I’m Not Ready to Judge the IC-7110 Yet

That’s probably my biggest takeaway from the announcement.

I can look at the specifications and tell you whether Icom checked certain boxes.

They did.

I can look at the design and decide whether I think the detachable control head makes sense.

I can compare features against other radios.

But I’m not sure I can tell you whether the IC-7110 is a great radio yet.

For that, I want to hear it.

I want to sit in front of it.

I want to tune across a noisy HF band.

I want to pull a weak signal out next to a strong one.

I want to listen to it for a couple of hours.

I want to transmit through it.

And I want someone on the other end to tell me what they hear.

Because after all the announcements, specifications, comparison charts and YouTube videos are over, that’s what we’re actually buying.

A receiver we have to listen to.

And a transmitter everyone else has to listen to.

Maybe the next time we’re arguing about which manufacturer makes the “better” radio, we should spend a little less time comparing feature lists.

Instead, ask two questions:

Which radio do you want to listen to?

And:

Which radio do you want people listening to you on?

I think the answers to those questions might explain our brand loyalty better than any spec sheet ever will.