Awh man... Big disappointment on that PIEXX board. They give ya choice of ordering the damn thing for what rig to set it up to, so I told them IC-745, it came jumpers for the IC-271A with a sticker marked that as well, while my paperwork from them shows a check-off for an IC-745. Gee, nice QA control. So, I figured, no biggy, just rejumper it for the IC-745. Soldering / unsoldering those mini jumper pads sucks and it took me a few tries to do, but got it according to my ohmmeter. I swap boards and try to figure out the directions for initial start-up. It give directions for only two types of rigs, the IC-751A and the R71A, and to use the keypad for initial FREQ punch in. The IC-745 has no such animal, as most of ya know. The rig boots up at a display of 1.5KHz. Directions tell ya to use HAM mode and = the A/B VFO. That just throws it back to 1.5KHz again. It did band and 1MHz steps, but didn't RX anything, or TX anything. That, and the memory didn't save my settings at all. the +3VDC batter is good on it. So, either I'm doing something wrong, (Which I deem a possibility.), or this board just doesn't work. So, then reswapped back to the Icom VRAM. Luckily, its battery still measures +3.2VDC. YEA!!! Did an initial check, the rig is back to where it was in RX / TX. Wow...... So, now I'll contract PIEXX and ask WTF. At the very least, I hope that I can get my $$$$$$ back.
BTW, that IC-745 is well worth saving to me. Yeah, the Kenwood TS-2000X sounds superb and it can pretty much hear everything, but the IC-745 can actually "listen" to what's down in the mud on the TS-2000X. I did another side by side comparison last night. The TS-2000X can detect that Old Time Radio on 6770KHz, but the IC-745 bring it in at a solid S1. I also heard Ghost Radio sign-off last night on 6930AM with the IC-745. All without the preamp on. To me it's like comparing a Porsche to a Range Rover. On pavement, the Porsche blows the Range Rover away. Off-road, on uneven terrain, the Range Rover kicks ass. Radio-wise, that's what this is like. Just sayin'.
So has anyone else tried those PIEXX boards on your Icom rigs?
