Stacking up the Kenwood R-1000 to ICOM R-70

[RCCI]

I currently use a R-1000 and FRG-7 as my main radio(s). Thinking of updating. I had a FRG-8800 but never used the memory function, the clock, scanning function, etc. I'm strictly a meat and potatoes listener with no personal need of lots computerized bells and whistles. Looking to upgrade the radios I have and wondered if a used R-70 would fit my need. Any comparisons between the R-1000 and the R70. Any other no frills radio might work, i.e. Lowe? (My real choice would be the NRD 515 but hoo wee, the price!)   Suggestions welcomed.
TIA...
Steve

[ChrisSmolinski]

I have an R-71A, fairly close to the R-70. I used to have a Kenwood R-1000, actually just before the R-71A. I found the R-71A to be much much better than the R-1000.

[Jolly Roger]

I had a R1000 when they were new. Liked it. Got A JRC 525. Love it. Got a Icom R71A. Love it. There is nothing wrong with the R1000, and it is way cheaper then the rest. The JRC 525 is built like a Swiss watch and is a beauty but expensive. The Icom R71A is about as expensive, built like a tank, and I think works at least as well if not better then the JRC.
But my current love? An Icom R9000. None of the others are even close to it but it costs about 6 times as much as the R71A or 525.

[RCCI]

Thanks for the replies. I was also thinking about the R-71A but from what I've read, if the power supply goes out the rig is cooked. (of course isn't that true for most rigs?) Are the R-71A's prone to power supply failure? My budget is about $300.00 - $375.00, if that helps. ...Steve

[ChrisSmolinski]

I had a failure in the AC power supply in my R71A, so I switched to running it from 12V DC. Works fine, and runs cooler that way.

The Icom radios of that time period used a battery backed memory for both storing the radio memory channels as well as some programming information for the micro controller in the radio. So if the battery dies, your radio won't work. A solution is to replace it with a third party board that has the programming information in ROM, so you never lose it. I bought such a board years ago (sorry, I forget who made it). An upside was that it gave you more memory channels as well.

[Jolly Roger]

I had power supply trouble with the JRC 525, both the R71a and R1000 were trouble free.

[BoomboxDX]

It sounds like you already have two excellent radios, at least for broadcast and some ham listening. hope you hold onto them. They're classics.

Have you thought about a used R75? A used one could be within your price range.  They seem to have a good rep.

PS -- The only thing I've heard about Lowe radios is the 150 has a tendency to overload.

[57Hemi]

A friend has an R-75, it seems to be pretty much the equal to the R71A without the "senior citizen" worries, as the first R71As are pushing 30 years old. I had an R70 for a short time, and the lack of a keypad made me sell it off. Not bad at all though.

I don't have my NRD-515 anymore, I had a cash flow issue and it more than paid my mortgage for a month when I sold it, but I really miss it. It was a "Gilfer" modded (and other mods too, I don't know who did them) one, with the knobpot added by Universal in place of the delta tune (The detent on it was annoying, and it was too coarse for digital modes anyway). It was super quiet and with an old speaker I found in my basement, it sounded great in SSB modes, but still wooly in AM.

I still have my NRD-525, an R-1000 that's almost mint, a couple of FRG-7s (One looks brand new, the other not so nice, but both work great), two R71as, one is dead, I'm not sure what happened to it. The PS failed almost as soon as I got it, but it worked on 12V, for a while, then it popped loudly and died. I think I'm going to just sell it on Ebay for a parts radio, as I don't think it's worth the time and $$ to fix it. The other one has one of the replacement memory boards in it that wont lose everything if the battery dies, and an audio mod that solves almost every complaint I've had about the way an R71A sounds. It's just a couple of resistors, but you have to take a PC board out to do it. That one's had all the caps changed out and a previous owner put a fan on it, the top of the case had slots cut into it and it was done perfectly. The fan really does a good job of keeping it cool on 115V. The fan is a good one, very quiet, about 4" in diameter. Even running as slow as it will go will keep the radio pretty cool. It has a built in pot to vary the speed, and even on high, it's not that bad. Getting back on subject, I would say the R70 is a couple of notches better than the R-1000, mostly in stability and filtering. The R-1000 does sound better though.