Hi Andy,
As you say the ICOM 905 box that looks like the IC-705 is only the control unit - all the RF components are mast mounted and there is just a Cat-6 cable with PoE running from the control head to the RF Box (es). The basic configuration has one Mast head box with (as far as I have seen) separate connectors for 2.4 and 5GHz but I think you are then referring to the 144/432/1296 connection which is probably intended mainly to be connected to a tri-band “white-stick” colinear antenna rather than three separate beams - where as you say a triplexer would be needed. (I believe Comet sell one). There is also an optional 10GHz transverter that connects to its own port (I believe) on the first RF unit and has its own antenna socket.
This set-up is really (I think) designed around the same approach used in commercial microwave systems, getting everything possible up the mast, which for a home installation is a good idea but I didn’t really see this set-up as a portable set-up.
There are options from Kuhne and I think also SSB-Electronic for QO-100 operations that would work with an FT-818 or IC705 and they may be a better option. Perhaps you can check those out in Friedrichshafen in a couple of weeks? I’m not sure but the Ukrainian transverter company may have an offering as well.
It’s nice to have the choice of commercially built equipment rather than having to build yourself.
73 Ed.
This. 3.9l V8 auto. Up for sale soon 
The most practical and unpractical car you don’t need but want!
I have a new project that has (ahem!) one additional axle.
I’m tempted by an E46 330Ci Cabrio. They go for much more sensible prices than an E46 M3 and have “enough” performance. Finding a 20 year old one that is good is the issue.
The 10GHz unit connects to the 2.4GHz antenna socket and it uses it as the I.F.
There are antenna sockets for 2.4GHz and 10GHz on the 10Ghz unit.
All in all it makes for a very heavy unit if you want to take all bands portable.
The price of the dish alone is eyewatering.
73, Stuart
What I found perplexing about this rig was the lack of full duplex capability.
I was considering replacing the IC-9700 thats on my wishlist for one of these for satellite coms from home, without full duplex I’ll leave the 9700 on the list or even get my FT-736 refurbished.
Ian
For fixed use, you’re probably still better with an average 2m/70cms multimode pumping a group of transverters. Or if you have more cash, an SDR based IF setup. My contest group have worked a lot of DX and earned a lot of contest points with some hot-rodded FT-736s on 2/70/23 but the difference between a 736 and a K3 + Kuhne 2m transverter is hard to explain. The simplest description is an hour of listening to 2m on the 736 left you feeling exhausted whilst the K3+Kuhne was effortless.
If only I had a better antenna option, my combination would be the TS890S (which I owned for a while) with Kuhne transverter…
But this way I use my savings to fill the pension gap and make SOTA trips.
73 Armin
Conversely, a certain contest group I used to be with shunned my 736 in favour of a homebuilt 23cm transverter with 145MHz (as opposed to 144MHz) IF despite the potential issue of RF breakthrough from the 2m station and the fact that the RF performance was largely dictated by the masthead preamp anyway. Some vote Labour, others Conservative…
Looks like the sort of vehicle that would be useful when going up Broad law for the Winter bonus.
Yes. I think you just don’t really grok how much RF designs have improved when you compare the 80’s vintage 736 2m performance with the modern Kuhne 2m performance. And there’s just so much less noise from the K3 as an IF it’s easy on the ears. In many ways the 736 seemed as noisy as when you were sat by the blower for the twin 3CX800P PA and you could hear the blower from across the site! Even factoring inflation etc. a K3 + Kuhne is a whole heap of cash more than an FT736 was. It should be better and is. But if a 736 came floating past at the right price I’d buy one. But I’d buy an IC-275 quicker. They have to be the right price for a 35yr old radios. And I still have found a TR-7010 worth buying yet either.
I’m really quite disappointed the IC-905 is at least a twin box solution. As Ed suggests, I’ll be giving any 905’s a close scrutiny at FN in a few weeks just in case it’s better in the flesh than on Youtube!
Those old 2m allmode TRXs (IC 275, FT 736) were really great radios. I doubt that any modern TRX can compete with them.
Unfortunately they are old!.. and that affects Cs, encoders, and many other components. So the danger of getting a permanent construction site is quite high.
73 Armin
I found G(M)3TCU/P et al. up there doing a 4m contest. They had something I never knew existed… a 4WD Ford Transit van with pump Clarke mast. I think it was ex Fire Brigade.
I walked up from the Megget Stone with HF and 13cms and could see a big 2m Yagi as I walked up the long gentle slope. It was sometime before I was close enough to see it wasn’t a big 2m Yagi but a modest 4m Yagi. Their contest van was a nice setup and they were absolute gentleman ( as all 4m ops are) and made me cups of tea and a bacon roll. The refreshments and fellow minded people on the summit made it a splendid activation.
Do you need the extra box for 2m/70cm/23cm or is it just 13cm and higher bands?
On the IC9700 you can listen and do full duplex on different bands but despite the “2 VFOs” you can’t listen to two parts of the same band at the same time e.g. 144.300 and 145.500.
The IC-705 style unit is just a head unit, audio, knobs and display. All the RF gubbins is in the other box. With 3cms in another optional box.
Mine was 4 band with 6m and 23cms. I regret parting with it, but I needed something more portable for higher power from the summits, so p-ex’d it for a FT-857D. Heap big mistake!
You can’t have mine which must be the only one to work over 250 locator squares with just the help of a 70W linear and masthead preamp. Which reminds me, I need to get sorted for the coming meteor showers.
I still rue the day I sold my 7010, some 25+ years after. Mine had been re-crystalled so it covered 144.300-144.399 on the normal band and 144.200-144.299 on the alternate band which meant it was ideal for the “modern” bandplan. It had been carefully aligned for minimum mixing sproggies and PA nasties and gave about 7+ W instead of the 8 or more you could screw out of them.
Now at the time I was a young man with two children under 5 and mortgage and an expensive-ish hobby. I had many radios (6m multi, 2m multi, 70cm multi, 70cm FM, handhelds) and also other stuff including the 7010 and an MM 2->70 transverter made obsolete by a mint FT-780 + 50W BNOS PA. So like a fool I sold it. And I’ve been looking for something as good for at least the last 23 years because. Well because it makes me feel like a young ham again.
That’s probably why I have an FT290R1 on the shelf. I worked most of Europe with one of those, a 25 watt linear and an 8/8 slot fed yagi. Happy days!