The Icom IC-T90A Tri-Band Handheld Amateur Transceiver
(all pictures via Dave Z)

(A test of a few HT antenna's using the IC-T90A can be found at the bottom of this page )
A few large pictures on this web page, allow additional time to download entire page.

(Note : I no longer own this model)

COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE :
IC-T90A: Japan
BP-217 Lithium Ion Battery: Japan
BC-110AR Charger (for BP-217 charged on set) : Taiwan
FA-S6270D antenna : Japan (a guess here ?)

Accessories:
LC-152A Case: Japan
BP-216 AA Battery Case: Japan
BC-139 Desktop Charger: Japan
BC-123A Adapter (comes with BC-139): China
HM-131 Speaker Microphone (a.k.a. Pryme ?) : Taiwan

Dave N9EWO's Review : ICOM IC-T90A (USA Version)

Serial Number on Test Sample : 025xx area

Good News: Very easy to use with no function button and no 3 function buttons. Overall excellent receive sensitivity across it's entire range, SW sensitivity being the best in the lot of current crop of HT's that allow HF receive (at time of writing). Good contrast LCD with excellent lighting. Standard mic/speaker jacks on top of set where they should be. Good transmit audio quality and loudness out of the box (using internal microphone and speaker). Attenuation setting. Pre-set memories for US TV audio and weather frequencies. External BC-139 desktop charger option (see con). Built in weather alert feature.

Bad News: No dual receive. Serious receiver images noted from the 160 mhz area into the 2 meter part of the set. Hissy receive audio with a internal speaker that breaks into distortion ay only moderate volume. Only 2 RF output selections and not stored into memory. TX PTT/Sql buttons press fairly stiff. No SSB on short-wave coverage. Clumsy stock FA-S6270D antenna even with it's club not attached. Memory bank system not easy to use. Can only display frequency OR alpha tags, does not allow both at the same time. Useless "Low" battery indications. Computer cable and software grossly overpriced. No schematic or block diagram included with set. 15 hour wait time when charging battery on the set. The equally overpriced desktop charger option BC-139 runs extremely "HOT" in operation, and sometimes has intermittent glitch when first inserting a dead battery.

So What's The Word ? : I feel that it's the best showing by Icom in the "High Power" handie talkie market since the IC-2A(T) back in the late 1970's. But it's still a bit heavy and clunky, so don't expect to carry in ones pocket.

Note: My tests were done within a city of a population of approx. 80,000 people. Overloading in the VHF-UHF segments was not a problem. No tests were done in a larger metro city area where such overloading might be more of a concern. Please treat these findings with this in mind.

Why A IC-T90 and what is it ?

In my view Icom has not had a winner in the handheld "ham" transceiver market in a couple of decades (yes decades). Were just about all dogs, and the battery disasters over the years with the IC-W2A series and even worse models IC-T8 and IC-T81 series sets sure left a nasty sour taste in owner's mouths. Icom was just striking out time and time again to my eyes!

The now discontinued IC-Q7A was an exception, however it lacks real RF power of any kind. But still has about the best "wide band" receive section using a triple conversion scheme. I don't know of another HT that uses triple conversion receiver (including the IC-T90A we are looking at here which is only dual).

So I had written off Icom with HT's until now. We of course should have had the IC-T82 awhile back but being that the sets FM wide receive was a total disaster, Icom decided to stop the distribution just as it was being released in Japan (I guess a few exists in the world but not many).

So the waiting game after the excitement for this updated model to appear.

The IC-T90A is a triple band handheld transceiver. Transmit is on 6 Meters, 2 Meters and 70 cm. The receiver coverage is between 495 kHz and 999.990 Mhz (with the usual stupid cell phone gaps for the USA version). Receive modes are AM (wide), FM and FM Wide for FM and TV broadcast reception. 555 memory channels, with really 500 being useful. No SSB receive mode I'm afraid.

The IC-T90's mic / speaker jacks are the 2 plug "standard Icom fare" and on the top where they should be.
No strange connectors on this HT. Also an internal picture of the set.
(sorry, picture credit's are unknown)

Still Made in Japan. / Speaker-Microphone jack on top.

Just about all parts of this set are made in high cost Japan. With an exception of the ac chargers and the HM-131 speaker microphone which come from either Taiwan or China.

All parts of the set look well made indeed. We have the same battery latch system that is used with the IC-Q7A. I will agree the plastic is a bit thin on this latch.

Whew...the speaker microphone jack is on top where it should be. Thank goodness.

Confusing External DC - Charge Jack Operation / 15 hours to charge the battery using the included wall charger / Manual OK

When charging the supplied BP-217 lithium ion battery on the radio, one uses the included BC-110AR (USA version) wall wart and plugs it into the external 11V DC jack. Humm, this charger is rated at 12V at 200ma. The owners manual states that you NEVER should connect a power source over 11.5V EVER.

I guess leave the radio off when charging, but this is confusing indeed. I guess when you use the optional 11vdc car cord it will not charge the battery. Oops , but it says it will on page 4 of the owners manual.

Well not so fast again as on page 5 it sezs :

"If a battery pack is attached, the voltage of the external power supply must be within 11.5~ 16 volts, otherwise the battery power may be used for operation"

BUT hey wait a minute, you are NEVER supposed to connect anything over 11.5 volts to this jack. Icom needs to make it more clear on this one...or include a couple of Tylenol with the set. This is not good!

And again you have the gremlin that it takes 15 hours to charge a BP-217 pack. This is way too long in my view to charge a lithium ion battery.

Other than this very confusing part of the manual, it does a pretty good job of explaining the set. Much better than Vertex-Standard-Yaesu (or my term "VSY") manuals which are total horror stories, at least the last couple I have tried to read.

BC-139 Desktop Charger OK, but overpriced and runs very hot ! / A bug maybe when you start to charge a battery ?

Good to see Icom to offer a desktop charger, the BC-139 (see picture). It comes with a 1-amp 12volt-wall wart to use with it. Being that the battery takes super long to charge in the set (15 hours), you almost have to think that Icom had this in the game plan to sell lots of the BC-139's (as a must), as the price of this charger is absurd.

Well, it's somewhat for good reason. There are some guts to the BC-139. It's not just a cup to hold the battery and a pretty light. As you can see in the picture below we have some fairly major innards here.

External and Internal photo's of the BC-139 desktop charger.
(photo's via DaveZ)

An internal 2 amp fuse, couple of IC's, a relay and other circuitry make up the bulk of the charger (see picture above again).

It does the job too in about 2 1/2 hours. However one bug that a prospective buyer/owner needs to know about this charger (I have heard this from a few owners now, and I too have experienced this so it's not a fantasy):

"Once in awhile right after you drop in a dead battery in the BC-139, the LED shows that it's charging-orange. After only about 1 min (or right away sometimes) to goes green showing that it's charged, which it is not. Just pulling it out and placing it back in the stand again does the trick."

Only other gremlin with the BC-139 is with excessive heat. This is really a MAJOR problem especially with the first half of charging cycle of a dead battery. The bottom metal cover will get so hot that you will be unable to touch it without a burn.

This is not good, and I had a peek inside the BC-139 and a BA10T voltage regulator (the TO-220 device shown in picture above...left side of board) is what's getting so hot. It's "sinked" to the steel bottom over on the BA10T's back mounting screw (nut) using a small pad (cube) of thermo material between the nut that mounts the BA10T to the board and the cover. "This is really poor engineering ICOM", especially at this price point. Poor for sure....

Only one screw holds the bottom cover on this charger. Mine was about to fall off (it was that loose) when I open this up from the package (purchased new).

Watch out if you take a BC-139 apart, there is a very small plastic pin on the floor of the chargers cup that can be lost very easily. It's a "filler" pin that helps push down on a micro switch on the PC board as a battery is inserted.

No CTCSS delay problems

The first thing I checked out on this set was to see if we had the dreaded CTCSS delay problem that plagues the Vertex-Standard-Yaesu HT's. Thank goodness we do not. Works the way it should even in scan.

No Dual Receive / Good LCD / Frequency or Alpha Tags, but not both at same time / Weather alert fearture (USA version only)

Here is an area where the TH-F6 will shine. We only have one receiver. So you cannot listen to 2 signals simultaneously. You can use that priority stuff...but I find these to be a pain and more of a annoyance than being useful. A built in weather alert feature is part of the IC-T90A (USA version only). But be aware if you operate this the receiver will act like a priority circuit , that is it will cut out the received regular signal for second while it checks the WX channel for the alert tone.

The LCD is ample big and features a 4-step contrast setting. The default is 3 and I found that the max setting of 4 worked best for my eyes.

Downside is that one can choose frequency or alpha tags to be displayed. Not both at the same time. Bit of a downfall, as I know the Yaesu VX-5R does this.

Very easy to use, no function button and no 3 duty ones either / PTT a bit stiff to push / Only 2 Transmit power levels.

I was able to pull this set out of the box and use it without touching the manual. Try and do that with your Yaesu VX-5 or VX-7R. No way charley...

No function button and no mazes of one button doing 3 things either. Buttons have a good tactile feel and we will cross our fingers that the lettering will not rub off down the road? Some do wiggle a bit more than what I would have liked to see (say the volume up/down buttons), but is not a problem either at this stage of use. The rotary encoder has a bit of "giggle play", but again is not bad enough to be serious (at least not at time of writting).

The PTT button is a bit hard to push to my liking. Yes, it's the good old rubber PTT. I guess you get used to this in time but why does this practice continue? Kenwood's TH-F6 is much better in this regard.

Also just as it is on the Kenwood TH-F6A, we only have 2 "useful" transmit power levels (I don't count that "EL" setting on the Kenwood...just about totally useless). 5 watts and 1/2 watt. One is needed around 1-watt area.

Another little smirk is the fact that the power level is not saved to memory channel. But not a real big deal either. Yaesu is about the only one that I have ever seen do this.

Receive Sensitivity Good / Short-wave broadcast best around, but no SSB / Stock Antenna OK / 10 dB attenuation selection.

I have found that the overall receive sensitivity is very good over it's range. You might have to revert to a different "Rubber Antenna" to strut its stuff, as the stock FA-S6270D antenna may not do the set justice in certain area's. Low band VHF area (30~50 MHz) proves to be much better when compared to the Kenwood TH-F6, which is fairly crummy even with a better antenna on it. My local power utility, which still uses 47 MHz, came in super on my IC-T90 sample (using the stock antenna).

I still find the stock FA-S6270D antenna to be useful but unfortunately is real clumsy on this pocket set, and that's without it's added 6 meter club attached. With that thing on it, it makes it even worse. I have a few other antennas tested with the stock one on this web site and I hope this helps choosing a less bulky and maybe better performing (or even worse) replacement.

Short-Wave broadcast reception on this HT to my ears the best in the lot (for one that can do that). Now don't get excited here as it will still not rival a better short-wave portable, It simply will not. Selectivity is of course wide, but useable.

Now as can be expected, the rubber antenna will not even begin to work to properly receive short-wave signals. I found the best and easiest way was to connect a 25 foot piece of "thin" wire to the "bolt" on stock ducky (remove the tip). A small "gator" clip on the wire end worked for me, and this can be easily pocketed for use wherever.

Nope, no SSB on the SW side, and again the Kenwood TH-F6 has this. But unfortunately as we already know the F6 is as deaf as a toothpick on HF even with a decent chunk of wire attached.... So no match up here, the T90 rules.

Large outdoor antennas on SW will of course overload the set and this can be expected. We have a 10-dB attenuation setting, and of course will help with any overloading anywhere in its received range.

A finding that is actually common to many HT's but it appears to be worse on this radio, if I hold the set in my hand...signals can be much improved on any frequency (HF/VHF/UHF). A signal being full scale in hand and when set down dropped to nothing.

Not entirely all red roses however. Aircraft band was one area that I felt was a bit lacking, but being I'm not into listening to this band, my input here should be taken lightly.

FM broadcast is only so-so. Capture ratio being in the poor area. Sensitivity is useable, but for any weak stations...well fair is what I have to give it.

Audio Quality: Transmit and Receive

Right out of the box the IC-T90A has more than adequate transmit audio level. Nice and clean/crisp and not muffled. So one should not have to resort to either having to turn up trimmer pots inside or dealing with some silly software setting to bring it to life.

Receive audio quality is OK, perhaps a bit more punch would have been nice. I do hear a disconcerting amount of "hiss" from the set during a received signal. This does bother me a bit as the IC-Q7A does not have this all to my ears and overall it's audio is better. One should get used to this in time...but a bit of "oh no" creeps in here!

The real gremlin with the receive audio lies with the internal speaker. It breaks into distortion at only moderate volume levels. This varies a bit with the signal being received, but is nevertheless a sticking point with this set for me.

A great package...however

I very much like the Icom IC-T90A. Receiver performance that pushes the competition aside.

Accessories are stiff in price to my eyes. The computer cable and software is so overpriced to be unacceptable. I would have liked to see dual receive, at least one more RF power output setting (say 1 watt), and a shorter charge time using the included wall wart (15 hours is way too long).

Dave N9EWO

ver 2.6
© 2008 N9EWO

(Note : I no longer own this model)

IC-T90 in the LC-152A case, also Icom's HM-131 Speaker-Mic (made by Pryme ?).
It features a rotating rear clip.
(photos via DaveZ)

N9EWO's Duckie "shootout", are these all rubber "Dummy Loads" ?

We have 4 SMA "rubber" antenna's to compare here, all tested on the Icom IC-T90A . Connecing these to another HT may not give the same results. Do not want to get too long here, so I used a chart to help in the report. All tested with the transceiver being held in the hand. The 4 tested antennas are : * ICOM FA-S6270D (included with IC-T90A USA version) * YAESU VX-1R's (stubbie) 4.25 inch long * Maldol MH-511 (stubbie) 4.25 inch long Tri-Band * Maldol MH-510 "Active Hunter" (or should that be "hunting spear" ?) 21 inch Tri-Band I know it's not fair to test "stubbie" ducks with longer ones, but I feel it will give a better feel if one is choosing a antenna for purchase. Dave N9EWO's "Duckie" Test Chart (revised) 1= Best 4= Worst 50Mhz FM BC AIRCRAFT 2 Meter 155 Mhz + WX US CH13TV UHF 446Mhz 800 Mhz ICOM FA-S6270D 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 1 YAESU VX-1R n/a 3 4 3 4 3 2 2 Maldol MH-511 3 4 3 4 2 4 " DEAF " 4 4 " DEAF " Maldol MH-510 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 The ICOM FA-S6270 with it's added club works well for 6 meters (adds weight and "thugly-ness" to the antenna). Hard in my view to carry around to any extent. The Maldol MH-510 adds a few db improvement but as you can see, no way one is going to carry this around at all. The stress to the SMA is really there nasty. Yaesu's VX-1R's antenna...forget it at 50 mhz (as can be expected). The only antenna that did any good at all on the FM broadcast band was the Maldol MH-510, all others failed pretty much. In the aircraft band only small improvements were noted between the antennas (all poor here but could be due to the set just being poor here ?) ,except for the MH-510 which did a touch better. VHF 2 meter was a bit strange. The Yaesu VX-1's antenna did OK (nothing top either) in the Ham bands, but just above say at 155 and WX frequencies went down hill fast. On the other hand the Maldol MH-511 was "OK" in the 2 meter band and went to fantasic in the 155 Mhz and WX band area. In fact the best performance of a "stubbie duck" I have ever tested in this part of the spectrum. But alas it's not all roses I'm afraid. Being I have no 220 Mhz signals in my area to use a testing, I used TV audio on CH 13 (USA)..so as close to 200 Mhz as I could get. The Maldol MH-511 was so deaf here as to be unacceptable. The Maldol MH-511 works fair at best in the 400~500 Mhz UHF area, is indeed at the bottom of the pack. The Yaesu VX-1R's antenna works very well here. The ICOM is pretty close 2nd. After second tests in transmit the Maldol MH-510 really improves UHF (TX) signals by almost double and is in first place . 800 mhz receive is not good at all ,this is the area that the Maldol MH-510 takes a dive. 800 Mhz area (receive) is also where the Maldol MH-511 falls totally flat on it face (it's unnacceptable). Kills signals to nothing that I receive ok on all other antennas tested. Again the MH-510 only a bit better than that. Ok , lets face it the overall winner is still the Icom stock antenna (one that comes with the set). But you will have to achive your own view by looking at the chart above. But even with the so-so showing I found the Maldol MH-511 to still be very useful. It's a great length for all 3 bands and even works on 6 meters (so be it very limited) without a hunting spear shooting out of it , perfect for any very local crossbanding use to a base transceiver. Dave N9EWO ver 1.5 © 2008 N9EWO

"Comments and Views" from others

Jeremy, N2PQS checks in with his input on his IC-T90.

I am now playing with Icom's IC-T90. I have the software and no problems with anything, I am hearing things on VHF low, high and UHF I have never heard with my VX-1, 5 or 7. Software could do with some tweaking though to include multiple CUT COPY and PASTE and NEXT and PREVIOUS buttons in the channel edit screen.

Keyboard trick: Press and hold the BAND key while powering up radio, gives a full display read-out. Releasing the BAND key allows radio to continue normal power-up.
Jeremy, N2PQS

2 from unknown sources.

Uh oh ....radio complaint, channels can only be assigned to one bank at a time. Too bad. I was told there are only about 3 radio designers in Japan. If this is true I see the evidence between the VX-5/7 and the IC-T90A's battery.

BC-139 I now realize why it costs so much. The BC-139 is not just a charging cup, it includes a power supply to make it work. A closer look at the back of the cup reveals 2 power sockets. one for using a 13.5 volt source and the other for using the supplied wall wart BC-123A marked "AC Adapter". My only complaint is not really important, but a matter of principle. No Paperwork in the box. I assume that all the instructions you need is in the box with the radio.

LC-152A is a cheap case. Material with a rectangular piece of plastic on the front with holes for the mic. and speaker. No straps to secure the radio. The case is very tight fitting though and the there is an access hole for the power socket. VX-5 and VX-7 has a better quality product.

Quite pleased with my t90,

Just to inform aspiring buyers what the lifespan is whilst listening on one frequency (beacon)and squelch opened to allow small amount of audio (in the background).

On one charge it managed to stay listening for 10 hours with a full battery pack. No scanning was done (uses more juice),just listening.

The other pleasing aspect (which some of you were kind enough to test for me before i had one myself), Is the fact that it will work split-band in any two band configuration
by using the two vfo's for frequency input and activating "skip" from the "set" menu(key8).

At the same time any duplex settings you may have in your vfo's are reset until "split" is set to off,in which case the "dup" is re-instated as before;so it's either "split" or "dup" For instance:52 to 145 , 52 to 450 , 145 to 450 etc.

Just one funny thing on mine;some sort of oscillation around 147.500, it manifests itself when you get something (your hand)close to the antenna,is it just mine or have others noticed something similar?

Other than that its very sensitive,even on shortwave and am broadcast.

In my experience, a fully charged T90a battery will last between 4 and 7 hours depending on how much high power transmitting one does. When the battery is close to exhaustion, the battery symbol on the display goes to half size for about 5 minutes and then the radio just shuts down. When I insert a new charged battery, the radio comes back to life in the same operating mode as when it shut down.

The antenna supplied with the T90a is a monstrous joke. It is a glorified dummy load that neither transmits with any sort of range or receives with any range. Either an MFJ
or Maldol replacement will provide infinitely better performance (see my antenna shootout above if you have not already, I don't totally agree with Frank on this one, perhaps he had a bad one, but it's not real good either..Dave Z).

I believe Icom owes all exiting T90a owners a written apology and a replacement antenna that does a decent job. The antenna supplied with the Icom F30GT works very well so it's clear that Icom is capable of providing an adequate rubber flex antenna.

Icom also owes us an apology for the numerous design flaws that, frankly, are an embarrassment to an otherwise quality manufacturer. I'm referring to the radio's inability to function from any sort of 12 volt supply without the use of (a clearly profit-oriented and completely unnecessary) external voltage regulator, the inability to purchase accessories for this product as much as 4 months after the product's release and transmit power levels that either offer insufficient range or kill the battery in a hurry.

If the radio is used for any sort of lengthy QSO in high power, it becomes uncomfortably hot to hold. The only conclusion one can draw is that Icom rushed this baby to market without doing all the homework and testing required to produce a truly superlative product.

These are the fruits we reap from the price war in mini-handheld transceivers.

Please understand that while I reprimand Icom for the inadequacies of their design, the T90a is still a better product in many ways than those offered by the competition. As a long time Icom owner (over 15 different Icom products purchased over the years) I am disappointed that the T90a doesn't measure up to their usual standard of excellence.

Frank N. Haas KB4T

A couple more from unknown sources.....(sorry lost the credits)

I own an IC-R2 as well as an IC-T90A.  In most regards the T90 is a much better receiver than the R2.  The T90 is far less prone to saturation and intermod, however; it still is affected by intermod when connected to an external antenna such as a mobile. I expected this and am quite surprised at how well it does. 42 MHz is usable on a mobile antennna where as it is not on the R2 which gets saturated very easily.  The T90 is as good rejecting intermod as most HTs, but certainly not as well as some like the Yaesu FT-50 and Kenwood TH-G71A i own. Those 2 units do not have as wide a frequency range as the T90. 

Frankly I think the T90 does quite well for as broad as the front end is. It is quite good rejecting interference with a handheld antenna.  On AM broadcast it does only a little better than the R2 with the supplied antenna.  It can receive some nearby AM stations with the supplied antenna and the R2 cannot.  I was suprised at how well it did receive AM broadcast when connected to the dual band mobile antenna on my car, the R2 did not do nearly as well.  The T90 is much stronger from 0.5 - 30 MHz than the R2, in fact i think if the receiver were not so hot that it would do quite well rejecting interference in the amateur bands on a mobile antenna, but using the attenuator cuts reception too much.  If it were a 3db or a 6db attenuator, it would really make a big difference.

I do notice a very, very short delay in Tx to Rx, but it is not annoying and I don't lose any part of a Rx transmission. I have owned 3 VX-5's including 1 European and a a VX-7. They are all gone, the T90a is doing what I want. The drawbacks I find with the T90A are doubled on the VX-7.

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