Icom IC-2N comparison with IC-2E

The IC-2N was the Japanese home market version of the popular IC-2E sold in Europe or the IC-2A sold int he USA from 1980 onwards. In the UK the IC-2E originally sold for £159.


Once production of the IC-2E ceased, it was cloned by Kenpro as the KT-200, which accepted the same battery packs and accessories.


The Japanese version (denoted as IC-2N) has a number of differences to the European version.


Differences that do not affect operation:

1. Supplied with dry cell case instead of rechargeable battery and charger (not a problem as you can fill the dry cell case with NiMH batteries that work better than the old Nicad packs).

Important differences affecting its useability:

1. No repeater shift (switch is completely missing from the rear panel).


2. 10 KHz channel steps instead of 5 KHz. There is no +5KHz switch (the switch in this position is used to go from a preset frequency of 145.000 to whatever frequency you have set on the thumbwheel switches). This means that you can not use this radio on frequencies like 145.525.


3. No toneburst (the volume control does not depress to provide a 1750 hz tone)
   This means that you can not use this radio through repeaters.