Note: In order to prevent violating Ebay's key word spamming policy, we have included asterisks * in the historical detail contained below.  Specific info related to this R-75 is in red following this background info.  

Icom has a nice history of providing receivers for the amateur and shortwave listening market.  Without going into the full history, for the sake of the shortwave listening community out there, the receivers in the general receiving range were introduced in 1982 with the highly regarded R*70 receiver.  This receiver introduced shortwave listeners to the high quality production standards and state-of-the-art communications products that amateur radio operators discovered with Icom came to America in October of 1979.

The R*70 was followed by the even more highly acclaimed R*71 in 1984 and this receiver was manufactured and sold until 1996 and was an excellent DX unit and still highly sought after today.  The R*72 was introduced in 1990 and actually overlapped the selling of the R*71, but the R*72 never achieved the same popularity of the earlier R*70 and R*71 units.

In 1999, Icom introduced the R75 with much interest and a large following and this unit ran in production until 2005 when it discontinued making this product.  Then something interesting happened.  While the discontinuance of a great product usually brings about some grief among followers, this usually is among a small group of loyal enthusiasts whose words and urgings to continue production fall on closed ears.  However, with the R-75, the outcry was immense and to their credit, the folks at Icom listened.  Thus, the R75 was again placed back into production and remained so for several years, but Icom once again discontinued the unit in March of 2016 so that the receiver is now once again only available on the used market.

If you are shopping for a nice shortwave or amateur receiver, you would need to search awhile to find a better value in this Icom IC-R75 unit.  This does not offer all the bells and whistles of units selling for over $1,000, but again, it is priced lower and offers some great features for the money.  Cosmetically, this R75 looks to be in good overall condition.  We noticed some minor marks commensurate with ownership, but nothing outstanding.  Please review our HD pictures designed to enable you to get a proper grasp of cosmetics.  Operationally, the receiver performs beautifully with excellent sensitivity and with no operational issues. 

This unit has the factory installed sync detector.  Later units did not include the sync detector as the part supplier no longer made the chip for the detector.  Thus, you will not find this on later production units.  The sync is activated by depressing the AM mode button a second time.  An "S" blinks on the display momentarily until it locks onto the signal and then you can hear the sync as it works to improve the signal from selective fading distortion.  Basically, if the signal is a good strong one, you will not hear any significant difference.  But on weak or fading signals you can hear an improvement.  The sync in these R75's was not as stellar as the sync found in some other receivers, but it does work.  

The unit comes with the UT-106 DSP installed and this is most helpful when controlling noise and in using the notch.  This module can make a huge difference when operating on noisy bands or in high noise environments. The notch filter is great for ridding the signal of those nasty heterodynes that whine within the signal during reception. 

In purchasing this R75, the buyer will get the IC-R75 receiver and: 

• 120 VAC to 15 VDC low noise adapter 
• copy of the user manual
• copy of the service manual 
• Passport review - 2000 (Passport to World Band Radio)
• Passport review - 2003 (retested)
• Passport review - 2009
• copy of Icom IC-R75 four page brochure
• NASWA review - Alan Johnson (North American Shortwave Association)
• WRTH review - 2000 (World Radio & Television Handbook)
• QST review - Jan. 2000 
• More for Less advertisement - Monitoring Times -  Sept '99
• Radio Netherlands review 
• Medium Wave circle review 
• Drake R8B versus Icom R75 comparison 
• Phil's Tuning Tricks (a good tool to use with the R75 since it does not have a sync detector)
• Phil's excellent summary or "Cookbook" which is a "crash course in using the R75....containing tricks to improve reception and other useful information".  Phil's contributions to the shortwave hobby have been outstanding and his "papers" are nice offerings for hobbyist.   
• Finally, you will receive a CD that contains both manuals plus files of mods and other information to help with listening to the R75.  This CD is free with this purchase, contains 437MB of documents, and we do not sell this CD or offer it for sale separately.  Much of this documentation is no longer available online or from any other source.  Please do not email and request copies of this documentation.

So what is it that makes the Icom R75 special?  It basically comes down to performance value. If you have been wanting a table top receiver but did not want to pay a fortune to get a decent unit with good sensitivity and a slew of features, then the R75 is a nice selection.  While the receiver has strengths as a primary shortwave receiver, it seems to be especially appreciated by those listeners who tune in to hear utility signals.

Here are some of the features of the R75: