I recently sold my SGC 2000 radio after 8 years of on and off again
service. I kept the SGC 230 tuner to use with my new Icom
IC-706MKIIG. The SGC 2000 had been back for repair 3 times and the
tuner in twice. The last time they returned the tuner to me, it
failed to tune. I opened up the case and found the prongs of the fuse
holder folded over and the fuse MISSING, as in not in the case! This
is on a newly serviced tuner. I called them up with a blood vessel
pumping in my neck, and finally got it fixed. In any case it's worked
well for 6 years now, but I certainly wouldn't buy anthing else from
them. I have installed Airmail/Winlink systems on quite a few Icom
marine SSB's, mostly 710's and 802's, and although the radio's are
bullet proof, the user interface is a pain for anyone who want's to
use them on any freqs other than the standard marine ITU channels.
You can always tell when you're talking to a 710 or 802 user. If you
tell him to meet you on 6245.0, you'll get a "ok, give me a couple
minutes to program". GGGRRRRR! Give me a Icom 706 ANY DAY.

The M802 is actually quite easy to tune. If you go to the frequency display,
and hit "clar/rx", the left hand knob acts just like the "TS" (tuner step)
button on the 706, and the right hand knob tunes frequency in the increment
selected by the left hand knob. You can also key in the frequency with the
keypad, which you can't with the 706. I agree that the 710 is a pain, but think
the 802 has really fixed the problem-but has certainly not documented in the
manual. I had to hound Icom technical support to get a copy of the missing
pages from the manual via fax. I also have a 706-II at home, BTW.
(Mark Reichow) wrote:

I recently sold my SGC 2000 radio after 8 years of on and off again
service. I kept the SGC 230 tuner to use with my new Icom
IC-706MKIIG. The SGC 2000 had been back for repair 3 times and the
tuner in twice. The last time they returned the tuner to me, it
failed to tune. I opened up the case and found the prongs of the fuse
holder folded over and the fuse MISSING, as in not in the case! This
is on a newly serviced tuner. I called them up with a blood vessel
pumping in my neck, and finally got it fixed. In any case it's worked
well for 6 years now, but I certainly wouldn't buy anthing else from
them. I have installed Airmail/Winlink systems on quite a few Icom
marine SSB's, mostly 710's and 802's, and although the radio's are
bullet proof, the user interface is a pain for anyone who want's to
use them on any freqs other than the standard marine ITU channels.
You can always tell when you're talking to a 710 or 802 user. If you
tell him to meet you on 6245.0, you'll get a "ok, give me a couple
minutes to program". GGGRRRRR! Give me a Icom 706 ANY DAY.