⚡ Live Updates
[August 28] Icom UK confirms the global livestream: Saturday, August 29 at 10:30 JST (02:30 BST) with Ray Novak, N9JA, and Josh Nass, KI6NAZ, of Ham Radio Crash Course, live from booth B12. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/r-V0BtmEcQg
The Reveal the Ham World Has Been Waiting For
After four months of carefully orchestrated suspense, Icom is finally showing its hand. The production version and official name of the X-026 will be revealed at Tokyo Ham Fair 2026 (August 29–30, Ariake GYM-EX), closing a teaser campaign that began with a short video in April and continued through concept mock-up appearances at Dayton Hamvention, Ham Radio Friedrichshafen and WRTC 2026 in the UK.
Each of those showings followed the same script: a physical model behind glass, no specifications, no name, and a booth staff politely declining every technical question. The strategy worked — speculation has filled forums, YouTube channels and social feeds for an entire summer. Now Icom delivers the answers in a global YouTube livestream hosted by Ray Novak, N9JA, together with Josh Nass, KI6NAZ, of Ham Radio Crash Course, broadcasting directly from the Icom booth.
What the Concept Showings Actually Told Us
Strip away the AI renders and the clickbait, and the verified picture is remarkably consistent. The mock-up displayed since Dayton shows a transceiver with a fully detachable control head built around a touchscreen, four control dials arranged around the display, and a large tuning knob in the lower-left corner — a layout that departs from recent Icom designs. Multiple antenna connectors on the RF body point to multiband coverage.
Icom’s own promotional material adds the most telling clue: the X-026 is shown operating not only in a vehicle, but also in a home shack and in portable settings, with HF antennas visible alongside the usual VHF/UHF verticals. Everything suggests an all-mode transceiver covering HF through 50 MHz plus 144 and 430 MHz — precisely the territory left vacant by the discontinued IC-7100, which soldiered on for over a decade without a successor.
There’s a precedent worth remembering: the IC-7760 also toured hamfests under a project codename, “Project X60,” before receiving its final designation at launch. Expect the X-026 name to disappear the moment the real one is announced.
Where It Fits and Why It Matters
Icom’s current amateur lineup covers portable QRP (IC-705), entry-level HF base (IC-7300MK2) and high-end base (IC-7760), but the mobile/do-everything segment has been left untouched for years — while POTA, mobile DXing and emergency communications have grown steadily, and Yaesu has moved aggressively into the compact multiband space with the FTX-1 series. A modern IC-7100 heir with SDR architecture and a wireless or detachable head would not be just another product refresh: it would be Icom re-entering a category the community has been asking about for a decade.
The counter-intuitive detail: Icom chose to reveal the concept in America and the product in Japan. That two-stage rollout let the company gauge reaction from Dayton’s vocal crowd before locking the final definition for the home-market announcement — a luxury few manufacturers can afford.
For background on the concept phase, see our previous coverage: [LINK: DXZone article — Icom X-026 Concept at Dayton Hamvention 2026]. For the current mobile transceiver landscape: [LINK: Mobile HF/VHF/UHF Transceivers category]. Ongoing Icom product news: [LINK: Manufacturers — Icom category]. Tokyo Ham Fair coverage: [LINK: Hamfests and Conventions category].
How to Follow the Reveal
The livestream starts Saturday, August 29 at 10:30 JST (02:30 BST / 21:30 EDT Friday) on Icom’s YouTube channel. Beyond the X-026, booth B12 hosts the new ID-5200E D-STAR mobile, the IC-7300MK2 with external display output, full remote-control demos of the IC-7760, and 24 GHz SHF demonstrations with the IC-905.
One note of caution: Icom UK has confirmed that pricing, production and delivery schedules are not expected at the reveal — full specifications will follow in the days after the event. This page will be updated in real time as official information and photos arrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on official promotional material, the X-026 is expected to be an all-mode transceiver covering HF, 50 MHz, 144 MHz and 430 MHz with a detachable touchscreen control head. Official specifications are being announced at Tokyo Ham Fair 2026 — see the live updates section above.
The production version and official name are revealed at Tokyo Ham Fair 2026, August 29–30 at Ariake GYM-EX in Tokyo, with a global YouTube livestream on Saturday, August 29 at 10:30 JST from the Icom booth.
Icom has not officially confirmed it, but all evidence points that way: the concept combines HF-to-UHF coverage with a separate control head — the same formula as the IC-7100, which has lacked a successor for over ten years.
The official model designation is announced at the Tokyo reveal. X-026 is a project codename, following Icom’s established pattern: the IC-7760 was originally presented as “Project X60.”
Icom UK has confirmed that pricing, production and delivery schedules will not be disclosed at the Tokyo reveal. Full commercial details are expected in the weeks following the event.
The official reveal streams live on Icom’s YouTube channel, Saturday, August 29 at 10:30 JST (02:30 BST), hosted by Ray Novak, N9JA, and Josh Nass, KI6NAZ, of Ham Radio Crash Course.