Over the weekend in VK3, we had a local hamfest. On one of the tables, i found a cheap and cheerful Icom FL-223 narrow (1.9kHz) SSB filter for the early 2000’s generation icom radios.

I have a IC-706Mk2G that was used in a car for a while but is now relegated to a contest/portable 100w radio and spends most of its time in the cupboard. The idea of a cheap narrow SSB filter to help when the bands are noisy and busy has always appealed, and the price was right!

Now, installing this thing is simple.

Remove 5 screws on the top cover, 3 across the middle and the two at the back. Then carefully remove the top cover and disconnect the speaker with the connector to fully seperate the top cover and radio body.

Then carefully remove the orange/brown ribbon cable (it pops out) and insert the new filter into the desired spot. The middle spot is filter option spot 1 and the top location filter option spot 2.

Carefully re-insert the ribbon cable, plug the speaker back in and re-install the top cover.

Now one last step, go into the function menu by powering on the radio while holding the lock button, then find menu 9 and menu 10, ensuring you have selected the correct filter type for each filter you have installed, select the correct filter and then power cycle the radio! Now you have all the glory of narrow (or wide).

So, how does it work, it just works, you can now select the filter options you have (wide or narrow or standard) using the filter button on the normal radio menu, and in my quick bench top test, it works as expected. A cheap add on to the IC706Mk2G to help with noise and performance.