My last post was a little harsh toward ICOM. After thinking more about this, I realized the Yaesu FT-991A has a different but very similar problem. The fact is, neither the IC-7100 or the FT-991A are good for use with digital voice hotspots, if you are going to use them with repeaters at the same time.
As previously discussed, the drawback with the IC-7100 is… the level of mic gain that is suitable for regular FM repeater work is totally unsuitable for D-Star use. So trying to use the radio with both regular FM repeaters and D-Star hotspots requires a ton of knob twisting to adjust the mic gain back and forth every time you change what you’re doing. This is because there is a single stored mic gain setting for the entire radio. All they would need to do is store separate settings for each mode and the problem would be solved.
A similar drawback with the FT-991A is… the power level setting is not stored with the memory channel info. So whatever your power level is set to, it applies to all memory channels. This means extensive knob twisting to move the power level from one end of the scale to the other every time one switches between a repeater and a local hotspot. I guess we’re all spoiled with the newer Yaesu radios where each memory channel has its own stored power level.
The IC-7100 doesn’t store the power level with the memory channel info either. But at least it is stored separately for each band. So… that technically works if all your hotspots are UHF and most of the repeaters you work are VHF.
All this being said, the answer to these problems is EASY. I cannot believe I didn’t see it sooner. If one uses a handheld for their local hotspots, then none of these aforementioned problems really matter. To be clear… I think there are obvious problems with some of the design decisions made for both the IC-7100 and the FT-991A. But the level of impact these have totally depends on your use case. And there is probably a good reason why virtually no one I’ve spoken with has really understood what I’m griping about. They simply aren’t using their radios the way I want to use mine.