Icom IC-M73 Handheld VHF Marine Radio

This radio was under salt water for 22 hours

I have been a fan of ICOM Handheld Marine Radios for 10 years. Late Monday night while getting off my inflatable boat, it fell in the water. Last night I went back at low tide and managed to retrieve it with a fishing net. This radio was under salt water for 22 hours, covered in mud, was still turned on and working. I'm an ICOM fan forever.

ICOM GAVE ME THE WRONG POWER ADAPTER FOR THE CHARGER

This is a great little radio for a small fishing boat. I purchased it last August, used it a few times, stored it indoors for the winter; this spring it would not charge on the 120V adapter, but did fine on the 12V adapter. I came to the obvious conclusion that the 120V adapter was faulty, but it's too late to return anything. Will see if the Icom folks will replace it and update my review.

ICOM would not replace the adapter, in fact they had never heard of the part number I gave them. Suspicious the Amperage was inadequate I found another adapter with the same Voltage @ 1Amp instead of the original 350 mA. I should have looked closer.

The adapter I received with the Radio had an output of 18VAC @350mA as you can see from the photographs.

The adapter I replaced it with had an output of 18VAC @ 1000mA - totally compatible as you can see from the photographs.

The new adapter failed almost immediately, prompting a closer look, because the charger had worked well on the 12V car adapter.

As you can see from the photo the charging dock is rated for 13.8VDC - NOT 18VAC - ICOM SENT THE WRONG ADAPTER!

I used a 12VAC adapter @750mA and the charging dock worked perfectly, charging the battery with an orange light, full charge on green.

I WAS LUCKY THE RADIO OR THE BATTERY WASN'T DESTROYED - OR WORSE CAUSED A FIRE OR EXPLODED!

I like the radio but gave it only one star because a person who did not understand or discover this egregious error would not discover the error until it was too late to return the radio - or worse - be placed in danger by such a stupid mistake.

CHECK YOUR RADIOS IF YOU HAVE ONE - IF NOT - BUY ANOTHER BRAND - THOUGH WE SEEM TO BE AT THE MERCY OF CHINA.

Well I sent all of this to ICOM and got the following non-responsive reply from:

Icom America Inc. 12421 Willows Road NE Kirkland, WA 98034

BC123SA COST IS $25.00 Is what they recommend using with the M73 base.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - LET THE BUYER BEWARE