E1740: ICOM REVEALS New Radio for Hamvention 2026!
ICOM is dropping a brand new ham radio at Hamvention, the X-026, which has been teased for months. We look at concept renderings and images of this new icom mobile ham radio. This reveal is generating discussion among amateur radio enthusiasts and we'll cover what's expected.
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Speaker 1: Icon is dropping a brand new radio at Hamvention. They've
been teasing this for a little while, and this week
we get to see kind of like a concept rendering
and maybe some actual pictures of this brand new radio
from Icom. Check it out. ICOM's been teasing a new
reveal at Hamvention for a couple of months now. I've
been getting emails about it. There's been some speculation online.
I know they don't like speculation. Wait wait, no, that's
another company. Never mind, But there's been some speculation online
about what it is. And this week I saw a
few pictures that I wanted to share with you. Guys.
This is probably not new news to you. I mean,
I'm guessing that you've probably seen this before, but check
this out right here. This is from the icon LinkedIn page.
It's on their Facebook page. Also, it's not I mean,
it doesn't really tell you much at all. Yeah, a
little bit of the image of the radio right there,
and then a car with an intenna and two intennas
on it, so two Intena ports presumably presumably and two
Intena ports and a door handle, and I doubt that
that's part of the thing. So I did quick Google
search here and one of you sent me a listing
on Facebook. This picture that's just came up from Facebook somewhere.
I mean, I don't know it's certainly AI, but they're
planning to announce something, is what the comment says down there.
So this picture right here I've seen in multiple places.
So I just did a quick Google search. Right here
their LinkedIn post which we just looked at. There's a
couple of very short speculative videos on YouTube about it.
MLS and Son Martin lynchensn Over in the UK. This
is probably going to be the best information we get
so far. We're not going to know anything at all
until Hamvention. I suspect new Icon Mobile will present the
concept mock up X zero two six is not going
to be the model member. That's like an experimental or
a mock up or a beta version or whatever at
World Premiere dayton Heam Vention held in the United States
from May fifteen May sixteen. More info will be added
this page as we know more. They've got that same
video right there on their page, if it's listed and
they're taking deposits, If it's listed on Martin Lynchin Son's page,
and they're taking deposits, that tells me it's real. Sometimes
you can get stuff in here that's like, oh, speculation here,
guessing they're not really anything. I don't know. But if
it's on Martin lynchen Son, and if it's on gigabarts
and HRO or this kind of thing, here's something on
Twitter that's a better picture of it right there. I mean,
I still think that this is kind of a mock
up artist's rendering. You can clearly see it as an
HF frequency right there on forty meters and a waterfall, okay,
and a separated head from the deck. So that's kind
of cool. So exciting news. This is from radio Mania.
I don't really know who that is. Exciting news ICM
X zero two six coming soon. They tagged I Coom
Japan and Icon Spain in that post. This one here
ICOM X zero two six. What could the company unveiled?
Datingham mention, this is a bunch of speculation as well.
But they are working on something. They totally are working
on something, because I got an email from ICOM saying
be ready for him vention okay, and I thought, but
maybe they were going to actually have the ID fifty
two hundred's there, Okay, They've been teasing the ID fifty
two hundred for a long time. The ID fifty two
hundred is supposed to be the mobile version of the
ID fifty two is supposed to be dual band, have
D Star. It's an upgrade from the ID fifty one hundred,
which is actually what I've been running in my truck
for a long long time. I believe it has a
color screen as touchscreen. I have a large black and
white screen. I really like my ID fifty one hundred.
It works very well. It's seven years old since I
bought it. The radio has been out longer than that.
I bought mine seven years ago. It's still working very well,
one of my go to radios in the mobile station.
So I've been looking forward to seeing the I fifty
two hundred that they've been sort of somewhat teasing. It
was kind of a pre COVID thing, you know, there
was talk about it. I'm not speculating specifically. I'm telling
you what I've heard from other speculation, Okay, but there's
certainly something that's going to be revealed from icon at hemvention,
or at least according to this that is going to
be the case. This picture right here says it all.
If you're coming to Handvention this year, you may want
to stop buy er booth. This is from ICAM America
on their Facebook page. This is directly from the horse's mouth,
just saying hashtag Hamvention, hashtag ham Radio, and somebody comments
hf VHF UHF hundred watts. Somehow I just end up
with the photos of Okay, my guest is an updated
IC fifty one. It's an ID fifty one hundred with
a color screen. Okay, well, your HF radios TX out
to four K wide. The fifty two hundred is coming
with ICOM's version of a MS. Regardless of what it is,
it's going to be something. Something's going to be revealed
at Daytonhamvention. I will be there early. I'm always there early.
I'm not getting there early for this, but I will
be there early. I will be there early to see
what it is. Regardless of what is revealed. I come's
going to reveal something, Okay, regardless of what it is.
If it's going to be a mobile radio or a
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So what do you guys think about this? A couple
of quick thoughts on Icon in general. Okay, I really
like Icom radios. I'm pretty much radio agnostic when it
comes to radios that I use in my vehicle and
in the field. I have a Kinwood, a Yazu, and
an Icon and a walks of my walks on radio
is my gm RS radio. I have a Kinwood HF radio,
an Icon ID fifty one hundred dual Ban vhf UHF
with d Star, and I have a Yazu FtM five
hundred dual Ban vhf UHF with Jesu system Fusion and
more importantly with full fledged APRS full court. Not the
greatest messaging interface in the world, but nevertheless full fledged APRS.
So I have a Yaesu, a Kinwood in Icon, and
I really like Icon radios. I've got their ID fifty
two anniversary edition HT that I carry with me sometimes,
and I've been very much looking forward to the ID
fifty two hundred. I've heard speculation the ID fifty two
hundred will have a full Bluetooth kiss tn C. That
seems out of character for ICM to me. They haven't
done anything like that in the past, And that's what
I'm told, not by ICM. ICOM hadn't said that, and
I haven't read that anywhere officially, but I've been told
by other people whose opinions I trust that that's going
to be part of the ID fifty two hundred. So
I wonder if we'll see an ID fifty two hundred
at M vention, and more importantly, I wonder if they
will be for sale at Daytonham Vention. Okay, because that
radio has been supposedly on the being worked on behind
the scenes for a long long time. This X twenty
six would be a very fun radio as well, if
you see it pictured as it was in some of
these renderings and some of these AI renderings and artist
renderings and whatnot. The great thing about it's already ready.
I mean, it's not in production yet, I don't think.
But and I looked on the FCC's website, and I
couldn't really find much as far as and that again
that's an experimental model number I suspect, but I didn't
find anything under x DASH zero two six. But they
need a new mobile HF radio. They need something that
is one hundred watts and something that has a better
form factor than the than the IC seventy one hundred.
IC seventy one hundred is fine, it's there's nothing wrong
with it, but it's got the big funky head on it.
It's cumbersome to install, it's cumbersome to carry in a
man pack portable, it's cumbersome to install in some vehicles
because of the funky head. And it's an older design
with touchscreen, yes, but it's a black and white screen.
The jesu FT eight ninety one right now kind of,
in my opinion, kind of owns the game for portable
mobile one hundred watt full powered HF radios right now
because it does not have VHF UHF, It does not
have any digital mode. But it's full one hundred watts.
It's small compact, you can easily put it into a backpack.
You can stick it into a bag and take it
on an airplane, and it will fit in various locations
in smaller vehicles, much easier than the big honking head
of the ID seventy one hundred. I really like the
IC seven thousand was a predecessor to the seventy one hundred,
and I wish that icon would bring something like that back,
And my gosh, that would be Wouldn't that be like
the freaking most awesome thing in the world if this
X zero two six. I'm not speculating that this is
what this is right now, I'm just saying, what if?
If this is what it is, wouldn't that be great?
If they were to call it the Icy seven thousand
Mark two. They just did an Icy seventy three hundred
Mark two. They're famous for their Mark two radios. They
did a seven h six Mark two. They've done a
something else. Seems like they did a seven fifty six
marked I don't remember, but they've done Mark two radios before.
Wouldn't that be phenomenal to have an Icy seven thousand
Mark two with a full color display, full waterfall, one
hundred watts vhf uhf. It's probably gonna have d star,
which I really don't care about I mean, take the
d Star out and drop the price by three or
four hundred dollars, it would be my opinion, would be
my preference. But whatever it is, it's gonna be a
fan freakingtastic radio. I'm really looking forward to seeing this
and at HAM Venchan, So you guys keep watching the channel,
let me know in the comments below what you think
this might be. And we get close to hamvention with
our calendar, more information is probably gonna come out. So
you're gonna watch this video in three weeks be like, oh,
we already know what that well, look at the date
on the video. Let me know what you think about this.
Are you interested in this product? Are you excited to
see it? Are you coming to him? Vench? Put a
comment in the video below, And if you like this video,
check out these over here YouTube things you want to
watch those next and we will see you next time