Here in Europe, even the ham bands are very quiet most of times. It seems only active at nights on 40m and 80m for local rag chews and inter European contacts only.
I was only ham band operator, but because the bands has gone silent, I now turned to BCL.
You need to listen to the right bands at the right times for where we are in the solar cycle. 20m is still quite active in the daytimes, and I am getting plenty of SSTV here in the USA from both Europe as well as South America and even Australia/New Zealand. It's summer right now, so static levels on 80/40 can be high at night, but there's still DX to be found. Plus we're back to the previous conversation where a good antenna can be far more important than which receiver you are using.
Talking about pricey, ICR75 seems very expensive for what it is just because of the name? And ICOM is now no longer a Japanese company, sold to a Chinese company, so it is the name only but inside could be TECSUN or XHDATA :DD
Icom is still well respected, the IC-7300 is a highly regarded recent radio of theirs with overall excellent reviews, especially the performance for the price. I have one, it's a a great rig. Also, any used R75 you buy was made years ago anyway
I read ICR75 reviews on eham, and most are positive, but there are some very critical negative reviews on it. It is the negative reviews one must pay attention I feel. Most positive reviews seem under emotional hikes of how much they lashed out the cash for a little box just sits in front of them and muffles away when switched on
/
This is certainly a problem with reviews overall, and something I consider for example when looking at reviews on Amazon. I also factor in that someone who is unhappy with their purchase is much more likely to take the time to post a negative review, than the typically happy customer. So that skews the reviews towards more negatives.
But the negative reviews on ICR75 seem common for, 1. The audio quality is bad. 2. PBT and filters don't work at all. 3. Has much noise generated by the receiver itself.
Yes, ICR75 is about 2-3 time more expensive radio than S2000, and was wondering if it is worth the money.
I seem to recall we have some R75 owners here, perhaps they can chime in eventually. As I have said before, I don't have one, but from what I recall hearing over the years:
(1) Is true but probably something you can solve via an external speaker like I did with my R71A, but I have never heard of.
(2) Never heard of this. Might just be users who never RTFM.
(3) Seems to be an issue with the supplied power supply, substitute your own 12 linear supply and you solve it.