For almost 8 years I have owned a 706. I bought a MKII in October 97 and sold that in January 2005 to make way for the MKIIG. I would never have got a MKIIG at all, but I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse from a close friend M3OCE. I will never be able to thank him enough.

The MKIIG is far better than I thought it would be.

Cosmetically the MKIIG has a better finish then the MKII. The MKIIG has a Matt finish and the front doesn’t look as plastic because of it. Other noticeable differences are the buttons that now light up but because of this the text on the menu and function buttons is hard to read, the text should have been black, also the heat sink on the rear is a slightly different shape.

In use, the receiver has been improved especially in the VHF range and I was noticing a 2 S point improvement on the majority of signals. The receive Audio has also been improved but not sufficiently as the internal speaker is still very high pitched in tone. There is a reason for this standard of audio in a radio that is meant for mobile use. The audio from the internal speaker uses high audio frequencies in order to pierce the noise generated while driving and it works great. I never use the internal speaker from my home QTH as I hate the audio. I use some monitor speakers and in doing so they make the MKIIG sound every bit like a big radio.

Extra features included with the MKIIG are, obviously 70cms included with up to 20 watts output. Up to 50 watts output on 2 meters. Built in DSP, Tone Squelch, SWR Graph, Dual RF gain/Squelch and Illuminated buttons to name a few.

On TX I am pleased to report that Icom have finally conquered the low volume of the TX audio which the MKI and MKII had. On my MKII I had to set the mic gain on 10 to prevent complaints of quiet audio on FM and I had to use the compressor to get the correct reading of ALC on SSB. My MKIIG mic gain is set at 3 and the TX audio is loud. This is a massive improvement.

I still have some of the same gripes that I had with the MKII.
I do not like having to power on the radio to get into the main menu. It’s a pain if all you want to do is adjust the display or something like that. Why Icom could not just have the main menu activated by holding the menu button for 3-5 seconds I don’t know.

The SWR meter not functioning on VHF/UHF is another pain but one I can live with.

With my QTH being in the UK it would have been nice for UK spec 706’s to cover the 4 meter band. They don’t and never have so I won’t lose sleep over it. Once again a modification can cure that issue although is not recommended. TX on 70 MHz using a modified 706 also means you TX on the air band. This I have been reliably informed is because there is an IF near the 70 MHz band

Even though the MKIIG receive has been improved I still find it hard to tune a station on SSB if the band is noisy. Fitting the FL-223 SSB filter improves things greatly and is highly recommended. If I still struggle I then start to use the DSP and IF Shift. I am not a big fan of the DSP on the 706 because I don’t like the sound of the audio but some times it is a must.

Ease of use is still the same and for a radio with so many features it is very easy to use. I love the MKIIG even more than I did the MKII. The extra features and improvements make this the best mobile shack in the box around.

Well done Icom on improving what was already an excellent radio.