Icom
| Icom | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public company (Tokyo Stock Exchange) |
| Founded | 1954 as a sole proprietorship; incorporated 1964 |
| Founder | Tokuzo Inoue |
| Headquarters | Osaka, Japan |
| Amateur radio | |
| Known for | HF, VHF and UHF transceivers, handhelds, mobiles and receivers |
| Well-known models | IC-2A, IC-706, IC-7300, IC-705, IC-9700 |
| Digital voice | Main manufacturer of D-STAR radios |
| US subsidiary | Icom America, founded 1979, now in Kirkland, Washington |
| Today | |
| Status | Active |
| Website | icomjapan.com |
Icom (Icom Inc.) is a Japanese maker of two-way radio equipment and a long-established manufacturer of amateur radio gear. Its ham products run from pocket handhelds to large base-station HF transceivers, and it is the main manufacturer of radios for the D-STAR digital voice system. Alongside amateur equipment, Icom builds land mobile, marine and aviation radios and communications receivers. The company is headquartered in Osaka and its shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
History
Icom was founded by Tokuzo Inoue, who began assembling electronic equipment as a sole proprietor in April 1954 under the name Inoue Denki Seisakusho (Inoue Electric Manufacturing). The business was incorporated in Osaka in July 1964 and began making and selling amateur radio equipment at that time. One of its first products, according to Icom's own history, was the FDAM-1, an all-transistor AM portable for the 6-meter band. Icom's first HF radios, the IC-700T transmitter and IC-700R receiver, followed in 1967.
The company took the name Icom Incorporated in 1978. A year later it set up Icom America in Bellevue, Washington, to sell its products in the United States; that subsidiary is now based in nearby Kirkland. Icom's shares were first listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in 1990 and on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2001. The company also has sales offices in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China.
Icom's own history credits its IC-211 of 1976 as the first amateur radio with a large-scale integrated circuit for system control, and its IC-280 of 1978 as the first with a microcomputer in the main unit. Its later work includes D-STAR, a standard developed by the Japan Amateur Radio League for which Icom brought out the first radios in the mid-2000s, and IDAS, its version of the NXDN digital standard for commercial users, which it developed jointly with Kenwood.
Amateur radio products
Icom's amateur line covers nearly every kind of station.
- HF and multiband transceivers. The IC-720 of 1980 added built-in general-coverage receive, so the radio could also tune the shortwave broadcast bands between the ham bands. The compact IC-706 of 1995 put HF, 6 meters and 2 meters into a radio small enough for mobile use in a car. The IC-7300, announced in 2015, brought a direct-sampling software-defined design with a spectrum display to a mid-range 100-watt radio; Icom says more than 100,000 have been sold, and an updated IC-7300MK2 was announced in 2025. Higher-end models such as the IC-7610 add a second receiver.
- Portable and VHF/UHF all-mode radios. The IC-705, a QRP radio for portable operating that began shipping in 2020, covers HF through 70 centimeters at up to 10 watts and includes D-STAR. The IC-9700 is a base station for 2 meters, 70 centimeters and 23 centimeters, with a mode for working satellites.
- Handhelds and mobiles. Icom says its IC-2A, a 2-meter handheld introduced in 1980, sold more than two million units. Current FM and D-STAR handhelds and mobiles, such as the ID-52 and ID-5100, can link to D-STAR repeaters and reflectors, and some can act as their own internet access point.
- Receivers. Icom also makes wideband communications receivers for listeners and scanner users.
Most Icom transceivers use the company's CI-V command set for computer control, so logging and digital-mode programs can read and set the frequency and mode. Recent models with USB or network ports can also be operated remotely with Icom's software; see Remote operation.
In the hobby today
Older Icom models are common at hamfests and on the used market. The company publishes firmware updates, instruction manuals and programming software on its websites, and many Icom models are also supported by third-party programming tools such as CHIRP.