Finally got around to doing the MARS mod on my IC-705 this weekend. Followed the standard procedure of removing the diode in the lower left corner and everything seems to work fine on non-ham frequencies. Question: Has anyone noticed any odd behavior after the mod? I'm getting intermittent display artifacts on startup - nothing major, but curious if this is normal post-surgery. Also, there's conflicting info about whether the second diode (D1302) needs removal for full 60m capability - thoughts?

I did mine about 6 months ago and experienced similar display quirks for the first week. They eventually cleared up on their own. Make sure you used proper ESD precautions and documented everything with photos - those ribbon cables are finicky!

HRO charges $120 for the mod and you keep your warranty - probably should have gone that route. The D1302 is only needed for certain firmware versions according to mods.dk database.

Display artifacts are common if you didn't fully seat the main board ribbon connections. Take it apart again and reseat everything - learned this the hard way on my first attempt.