IC7300 from A to Z #45 Version 1.40 Firmware - Part 3

[@bahathir_]

The configurable mic's buttons is very convinience and quic during contest. Example: Set the UP button to voice keyer 1 which may contains CQ CQ, CQ voice. Not need to reach and touch the screen anymore. Nice. THank you for explaining all the changes in the the 1.40 updates. 73

[@DonBrowne]

The default for mic button in the Memory mode is to move up or down to the next memory. In VFO mode the buttons change the frequency up or down.

[@donnrooks7506]

Tom is truly awesome, providing the most, best and most easily understood operations and features of the 7300. I've told several other 7300 newbies to spend time with the site and beginning at #1 and follow through to #44. 5 stars for sure.

[@1crazynordlander]

Thanks for this series! I really appreciate what you do for the Ham Radio Community!

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Thank you.

[@g4kfjve7kfj34]

Tom many thanks for 1 ,,2 and now 3 lovely steady concise presentation 73,s from uk

[@nigelkneale6809]

Can't agree more!! Just the right speed to let my memory to keep up :-)

[@andrewchurchley6779]

Thankyou for this clear, instructive 3 part series on the firmware update. I'm likely to buy a '7300 soon, so find the insight particularly valuable. Much better than trying to grasp it from the printed pages. Andy G4EAQ

[@ErnestGWilsonII]

Thank you so much for doing all these video series on the 7300. I really appreciate everything you have created and shared with all of us. I am of course subscribed with notifications turned on and thumbs up! 73 W3GUY

[@rondurand8403]

Thanks for these three presentations. Very informative.

[@colin1117]

Thank you Tom ... brilliant series of videos

[@bbaumgar2]

Thanks Tom, great series, well explained

[@swflKVNC]

Thank you Tom.

[@ifpo238]

Excellent work as always, sir. Thanks for these videos!

[@larrypicard5969]

I had the courage to do the firmware update after watching the first in this series of videos. Thanks for making them. There a a lot of functional improvements in the user interface. However, it is a little disappointing that there is nothing with regard to the function of the radio itself. The one area where the 7300 has been short in my experience is with the noise blanker. It would also be nice to have more customizations for the noise reduction functions. On another video, someone pointed out that the UP/DOWN buttons will switch memory entries. It is possible to switch them during transmit and put the radio in jeopardy if the chosen memory means you are transmitting into a high SWR. The mic button customizations are especially welcome. I don't see a lot of value in having frequency changing buttons on a base rig's mic. Presumably they are there because they used a mic compatible with portable rigs.

[@bahathir_]

Hi.. Regards on Noise Blanker, it functioning very well. My base station is near a faulty street lamp which emits very high RFI impulse noises around 2MHz band. THe NB reduces it more thand 20dB. Thank you. 73

[@BrianMorrison]

HIgh VSWR should be detected and cut the PA output power down immediately, even if you accidentally transmit into a load that changes a lot with frequency. I suppose that in theory a band change like this should trigger the internal antenna tuner to retune or reload known values for the new frequency.

[@chagan]

Thank you! I did notice that the default multi-knob setting displays KHz regardless of the set tuning steps. This threw me off as I was set to hundreds of Hz.

[@peterwright4224]

Do one on using the ACC connector and for what ?

[@juliancleak5376]

This is an excellent set of videos on the updates to the 7300, thank you. Nothing to do with v1.4 but I have a question about using RTTY afsk on the 7300 that I have been unable to find the answer to, would you be able to answer it ? and how do I go about asking the question ?

[@HamRadioA2Z]

I’ll try. You can ask the question right here. Maybe it will help other viewers.

[@juliancleak5376]

@@HamRadioA2Z Thank you, I can use RTTY connected to N1MM+ via FSK quite happily and it works a treat but it's a bit of a faf to set up as it requires either a second CI-V cable or VSPE configured for data transfer. It is far easier to use AFSK (one cable no additional configuration) with MMTTY via N1MM. While using 2125 Mark in MMTTY the 7300 1.2k filter is centered on 1.5k so the only way to put the audio signal within pass band of the filter is to turn the Twin PBF know fully clockwise shifting it upwards otherwise the received audio is right on the fall off slope of the filter. Is there any way to change the center frequency to 2.1k when in USB-D as it is when in RTTY Mode. Sorry for the ramble but hope it makes sense. Julian (GW4JBQ)

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Hi Julian. You can press and hold the Filter button then adjust the filter shift upward by turning both inner and outer PBT knobs to the right. It’s effectively the same as using the Pass Band tuning, except it will be programmed into the filter. However, you really don’t need to do that. When you’re using any digital mode software that decodes the audio on your PC, the filtering is built into the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) software that’s part of the program. In fact, if you read the documentation for WSJT-X, it specifically recommends that you set the receive filters in the radio as wide as possible. That gives the program the purist form of the received signal to work with. When I use FL-Digi, WSJT-X or any other digital mode software, I use Filter-1 and set the bandwidth all the way out to 3.6khz (as wide as it will go). I have not had any issues decoding RTTY or any other digital modes. I hope this helps. 73, Tom

[@juliancleak5376]

@@HamRadioA2Z Hi Tom, thanks for the reply. I thought that might be the only thing to do, I have 10,15,20 & 6m on the FT920 and the wire for everything else on the 7300 so switching from narrow filter on 920 to open band on 7300 is a bit noisy. I get around it by narrowing the filter in open mode but it would be much better for me to just centre the bpfilter on 2100. Thanks for taking the time to reply and keep up the good work. 73 de GW4JBQ

[@peterwright4224]

Many people have usb port problems do one running the laptop on internal battery to cure one type of gremlin or using a usb isolator to give a permanent fix

[@mikemeadows7086]

Thanks for the very comprehensive tutorial. Learned lots. 73 Mike G4GUG

[@tomhonda77]

Greeting Tom I updated from 1.30 to 1.41 and when my rig re booted instead of saying Khz it was set to RIT, i able to do RIT adjustments but i not able to move to any other settings, so far every thing else on my 7300 sems normal. I was wondering if you have heard of this problem, worst case for me a new feature that dosen not work correctly . Tom open to any suggestions you have to correct my problem. Thanks Tom Partridge

[@BrianMorrison]

About the CW tuning step, in CW mode the main tuning knob is set to 10Hz steps but the MULTI knob is now set to 100Hz increments by default, the same step you get by selecting the kHz digits on the display for faster tuning. However, in previous versions this default setting was 1kHz so if you saved your old settings and then restored them after installing the v1.40 firmware you would have restored the 1kHz value over the newly changed default of 100Hz. Icom changed this default, but then encouraged you to restore your old settings thus obscuring this particular change. I'm guessing that for a given setting they store its value (1kHz) or its position in a list rather than storing its state (default). If you really want to see this then reset everything (you've got your settings saved already haven't you :-p) and look at what the default MULTI knob step is now in CW mode. Naturally you could be picky and suggest that the text in the MULTI label should change to 100Hz, but maybe the generic 'kHz' is enough to tell you that it's acting as a fast tuning knob and Icom expect you to know how much each step is.

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Thanks Brian! That makes sense. When I first read the section I figured it was talking about the multi knob, but when I tried it it still tuned in 1khz steps so I figured it must be something else. Of course as you pointed out, I had already reloaded my previous settings after loading the firmware. Good catch!

[@Denveradoo]

Thank you

[@jlocana1]

thanks

[@roadie6153]

Thank you, great series.

[@nickaxe771]

A few of my pals with 7300s....have said they are not updating.....I got my radio brand new last week....I dont want to just yet till I have a better idea of the improvements to be had.....still getting to know my version 1.30 set. Is the anything to be said for sticking with version 12.30?? Many thanks Tom.

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Hi Nick. You certainly don’t have to update. There is nothing wrong with V1.30. That said, V1.40 doesn’t remove any existing features. It just adds new ones. So I can’t think of any good reason not to update.

[@nickaxe771]

@@HamRadioA2Z Thank you Tom.

[@peterwright4224]

Do one on building the 4 button external key pad its in the manual its a must for calling

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Stay tuned...

[@andyquattro]

Thank you Tom, liked and subscribed. 73 Andrew G1PPZ

[@russkruse]

Great job. Icom needs to pay you a salary 💰! 73's KD0EIA

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Thanks!

[@denislacroix654]

I can't quite figure out how to use my microphone for CW. I get a tone, no TX with the down button. I however can get tone and TX if I press both on the down and ptt. Any ideas?

[@HamRadioA2Z]

In CW mode, without break-in, you have to put the radio into Transmit mode otherwise you will just get the keyer side- tone through the speakers. You can put the rig into transmit by pressing the Transmit button or, as you discovered, by pressing PTT. The transmit button is located just below the power button. It works as a toggle. Press it once to go into transmit mode. Press it again to go back to receive. Another option is to put the rig in Break-in or semi-break-in mode. You do this with the VOX/BK-IN button (2 down from the Transmit button). In either break-in mode, the rig will automatically switch to Transmit when you start sending CW and will switch back to receive when you stop. Hope this helps. 73, Tom

[@denislacroix654]

@@HamRadioA2Z thanks a million. Thé breakin solution works fine. I don’t remember if I had it set up this way before the firmware update. 73, Denis

[@Capecodham]

Is there a way to filter out contests?

[@BrianMorrison]

Isn't that what unattended automated FT8 is for?

[@jameskeough4620]

Thanks!

[@peterwright4224]

Do one on setting the 60 meter channels in memories many get the dial and channels mixed up

[@jeepien]

I think REF adjust has to do with the sensitivity of the waterfall.

[@HamRadioA2Z]

Hi. You are correct. There is a REF setting for the Spectrum Scope waterfall. It is a little confusing. This REF Adjust is in the settings menu and is used to calibrate the radio’s frequency reference. They are both named REF.

[@rtrjmk5]

Thanks