Hi once again, well I have carried out the mod to expand my IC-Q7E ICOM HANDHELD and it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
The most important thing about this mod is to do it slowly and carefully, do not use force and if you are unsure stop and study it for a while and then proceed.
You must have a good quality Soldering Station such as HAKKO, WELLER, etc with a 0.5mm conical tip, a very small jewelers screwdriver and some good quality de-soldering braid, If you do not have the above tools then I suggest that you leave the screws in the radio.
Remove the batteries and the two screws under them, remove the antenna and dial knob, remove the slotted retaining nuts below the knob and antenna, the back half of the case can now be removed which will expose the top board and next stage.
There are three solder points and one screw to be removed on the AUSTRALIAN E MODEL at the top board shielding, two at the top, one next to the blue channel switch and on the other side next to the antenna connector, the third is above the speaker to the left with the speaker closest to you, the screw is at the right bottom corner of the big shield, very slowly lift this board until it clears the multi pin white connector in the centre of both boards and with pressure applied to the end of the antenna connector with the thumb cautiously remove the top board.
The rest is pretty easy, remove the two screws from the bottom main board, one close to the speaker at the bottom of the small tin shield and the other between the PPT and FUNCTION switch, DO NOT TOUCH THE TWO AT THE TOP OF THE BOARD, de-solder the two speaker wires at the speaker and being very careful of the rubber seals lift the board out and turn over and carry out the mod as per my jpeg pictures.
Re-assemble in the opposite manner USING EXTREME CARE my radio will now transmit from, 136 - 174 and 400 - 470.
I have not checked to see if there is any drop off in performance specs now, the mod works and seems to work well so I guess that is the most important thing.
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