Thank you very much Steve. I have just purchased this wonderful radio and I am very happy with it. I just want you to know that for me you have been a great helper when setting this thing up. Without a doubt Icom should thank you for your great job on RU-vid explaining a lot of things about this little gem. You are the one Steve.
You have answered my prayers! I was hopping that Icom would add this in a future firmware upgrade and it's already in the radio! THANK you for figuring this out
I'd sure like to get my hands on the 7300 I bought!!! Just wanted to let you know that I just bought a 7300 at DX Engineering @ 3:00AM this morning for $899.xx, charged transaction to my VISA! Now at 10:00AM I get a call from DXE saying ICOM won't let them honor the sale! I said then let ICOM know that the 7300 was my second ICOM HF Base purchase from you (and them), previously having purchased a new 7200. They said sorry, but they can't fulfill the transaction!!! I said...well, you're not yet sorry enough! I'll rate the product higher if the marketing and sales folks can just get their heads on right and deliver it as purchased.I'll rate the product & companies involved higher if the marketing and sales folks can just get their heads on right and deliver it as purchased. 73's K4WWK
Excellent Steve - thanks. After one week of ownership I still have not opened the manual, so I didn't know that you could adjust these parameters by pushing and holding the expand button. I have my settings like yours now, which is much better....just like my Flex !
Thank you for some very nice videos. I appreciate the clean lines on your waterfall. Not such a mess. Have been debating on that and the 590SG. I enjoy CW more than SSB and am in hopes it will do me well. Have already purchased a new fan, screen protector and some stylus pens to preserve the integrity of the screen. Am in hopes it will serve me well. I think my favorite Icom I ever owned was the 751A. As time goes by I shall see. Thank you again for the quality of you videos and content. 73, Dennis KK7XE
The black fill with green waveform for the spectrum is nice, I use this combination as well. However, I adjust the waterfall for a more optimum display and ignore the spectrum, because there's no way to arrange to have both optimized under the current firmware (at this time, that's Main CPU 1.12, Front CPU 1.01, DSP 1.06, Data 1.00, FPGA 1.11). The way the waterfall is adjusted in this video, there is very little contrast available; the background is bright, the signals are bright, and weaker signals barely show, or don't show, at all. Another way to say this is that the waterfall is not providing as much information as it could, and what information it does provide, could be more easily understood. Here's what I do: I set the Waterfall Peak Color Level to 2. Then I adjust REF so that the noise level results in mostly the darkest color with just speckles of the next color (also a blue.) When set like this, the waterfall clearly indicates signals that are just barely readable; and stronger signals change color so you know they're stronger. The down side is that the spectrum (the waveform above) is hidden at the base noise level, as it falls behind the waterfall. I have pointed out to Icom that an independent adjustment for the spectrum waveform would solve this. It looks like this: fyngyrz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/7300-wf.jpg The thing about favoring a better waterfall over a better spectrum is that the signal information is on-screen longer on the waterfall than it is on the spectrum, which is more-or-less instantaneous. This makes it easier to tune to a signal you've spotted, and gives you more time to look over what's going on in general. Hopefully Icom will respond and give us independent baseline adjustment of the spectrum. But until they might decide to do so, this approach will produce the most useful display. --AA7AS Ben
@@n4lq Your noise floor fluctuates rapidly? Maybe you are dealing with local line noise? I don't see rapid fluctuations in the noise floor. But I don't adjust the ref until the noise floor is completely invisible but to the point where it's just barely visible and I don't miss any weak signals. I just reduce the visible noise to make signals stand out better.
Nope. It doesn't work that way. .... Atmospheric noise always fluctuates, especially on the lower bands as distant lightning causes constant rise and fall of the noise level. Setting REF or RF gain below this will assure that you miss many signals. It sounds like you are having trouble discerning weaker signals in the waterfall. To cure this you need to adjust your "GRID" level in the waterfall menu. Look for "Waterfall Peak Color Level" . Try the different "Grids". Mine is set for Grid 3 and I can see very weak signals in the waterfall noise. Keeping RF gain at the noise threshold will disable the AGC. You are repeating an old idea that originated back before receivers had product detectors and AGC was normally turned off. We had to "ride the RF gain" as it was called. Those days are gone with modern receivers.
@@n4lq I set my spectrum scope and waterfall settings as you instructed in the video and I like it. No point in having that tiny bit of waterfall at the bottom of the spectrum scope and if I want to see it I can expand and see it. But now I just see the spectrum scope with signals in green. Very effective that way! Thanks for the tip. I just wish the buttons on this radio were larger and illuminated.
Very nice Steve. You made the 7300 into an honest SDR! Had I figured this out I might not have sold my 7300 so fast. Now... Can you get the display to properly display Upper/Lower sideband signals? 73 Mike
+wb8cxo You need to go into the EXPD/SET menu and set CENTER Type Display at "Carrier Point Center and Marker Position (Fix Type) at Carrier Point. When tuning SSB, look at the spectrum scope for the side of the signal that is straight vertical and tune your marker to that position. Of course the scope is a bit small but it does the job.
+Steve Ellington I finally read ALL the comments over at "The Radio Hobbiest" channel where OZY described how he made his 7300 look more like SmartSDR. Have you tried his menu settings? and does this enable the 7300 panadapter to better display Upper/Lower Sideband signals? Love to see a good example of that! In your latest 7300 vids the panadapter looks GREAT but they only showed CW and AM. Looking good! Hope folks with 7300s catch on to this... The default panadapter settings for the 7300 out of the box are not impressive IMHO. Thanks for your efforts!
+wb8cxo I can get my IC-7300 to display correctly as it does on my Flex equipment. You just need to activate the bandscope, then push and hold the "EXPD/SET" button. It will take you to a set of menus. Select "centre type display", and choose "carrier point centre (ABS. Freq.)
+wb8cxo I posted these settings a few months ago. IC-7300 SmartSDR-like Display settings Under Scope Set: Scope during Tx (CENTER Type): ON Max Hold: OFF CENTER Type Display: Carrier Point Center (Abs. Freq.) Marker Position (FIX Type): Carrier Point VBW: Narrow Averaging: 2 Waveform Type: Fill+Line Waveform Color (Current): R:0 G:0 B:0 Waveform Color (Line): R:172 G:191 B:191 Waterfall Display: ON Waterfall Speed: Fast Waterfall Size (Expand Screen): Small Waterfall Peak Color Level: Grid 4 (Change to tastes, much like GAIN in SmartSDR) Waterfall Marker Auto-hide: ON De K6OZY
Thanks. REF level depends upon band conditions, receiver sensitivity and antenna gain. There is no one perfect setting and it varies even with time of day. Fortunately you can adjust the RF gain to compensate a bit.
I have looked hundreds of these videos. This buttom, that buttom, the new radio, it is incredible, . Bla bla bla. And if you look of what they hear, is empty band, a few that exchange names, a few morse transmitions, a few asia, afrika broadcast radios and nothing more. So, what a crap you spend all this money for? To play with the buttons?
To the new or non Amaterur the bands can look empty especially during the solar minimum. I was on air two nights ago and on what appeared to be an empty band worked 19 countries and gained two new ones. Don't be so Judgmental and learn about a great technology hobby. :-)
@Scott 1 part of the reason they can be quiet is many hams will just sit and keep an eye on scope for activity. Problem occurs when 100s of others are doing the exact same thing . Lift your mics more often and put out cq calls , you all just might be surprised how many you may log . Just my thought for today .
