Sadly, after many fun months of running my IC-7200 at the unheard of power of a few watts, at 20% duty cycle, the radio finally has died the "Icom" death: No display backlight and no transmit. Receive has pretty much gone, too.
So I am sad to report that I will not be participating in WSPR activities for a while I am sure.
If I can get the 7200 repaired under warranty, I might not burden it with being powered up all the time, and get something else for WSPR. (HELLO DAYTON!)
I would think that at a few watts at 20% duty cycle, at an ambient temp of 65 degrees, nearly any radio would last a little less than a year...
Needless to say, I have little charitable to say about Icom at the moment. If all goes well with repairs, I would be pleased to recant, but golly, it's been used at 100 watts perhaps for sixty seconds since it was new.
Oh well. I will miss being on wspr while I resolve my radio problem.
That does bring to mind a question: What qualifies as a "reliable" WSPR radio these days???
N8LWF
Andy Mac