Icom IC-705
All-mode, all-band QRP portable transceiver. Backpack-friendly, big colour touchscreen, built-in D-STAR and GPS. The daily driver.
The IC-705 is the heart of the portable station. It’s lived on summits, riverside benches, and the kitchen table in equal measure. Ten watts from the mains, five from the internal battery — more than enough for QRP activations on HF.
What makes it a keeper:
- Full-colour waterfall that reads band conditions at a glance.
- GPS-tagged logging that gets exported straight to ADIF at the end of the trip.
- USB-C audio and CAT in a single cable — one less thing to forget.
A few rough edges: the internal battery is small, the speaker is thin, and the D-Sub on the rear is mildly infuriating. None of them get in the way of making contacts.
Used on these activations
Hunsrückhöhenweg
Rain, then sun, then conversations across half a continent on twenty metres. Best DX was a W4 through a hole in the …
Laacher See
Eifel, Rhineland-Palatinate — A volcanic caldera lake. End-fed wire slung into a young birch. Good afternoon, good coffee, good propagation.
Hohe Acht
The highest peak of the Eifel. Windy enough to steal a logbook page, cold enough that the coffee turned slushy.
Burg Eltz
Moselle Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate · castle — A medieval castle perched above a forest stream. Set up in the visitor meadow with a wire in a …
Festung Ehrenbreitstein
Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate · fortress — A Prussian fortress overlooking the Deutsches Eck. Operated from the ramparts with a clean shot …
Naturpark Moselland
Moselle Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate — A cold, sunlit afternoon between the vineyards. The wire was in an apple tree and the contacts came steadily.