ICOM IC-7300 / WSJT-X FT8 Latest 2021 Setup Guide V1.4 or Higher 

On the IC7300 once you have completed settings and have a fully working rig. Save the settings onto a dedicated SD card. When you have problems you can revert using the saved option.

Dude! Finally no BS! I've been fighting this for over a week! Couldn't get my Yaesu FT-817 w/Signalink USB to work. Wanted to wait and get a Digirig to try with my Xiegu G90 but ended up getting an ICOM 7300! I ran into exactly the same problems with it, Hamlib Errors! Well I found your video late last night, but was too tired and aggravated to mess with it! So this morning, I started off praying that I would get help from above!!! I followed your guidance and it came up and ran perfectly on the first attempt ! The Lord is my Shepherd, Amen and thank you for your help! None of the other gurus even mentioned that the 7300 came with preset FT8 if after version 1.40! I actually have version 1.41, plus I still had to download the ICOM USB Drivers... Thank you so much! I'm gonna subscribe!!!

Thank You so much for the information. I had struggled for weeks trying to get FT8/wsjtx to work on my Icom IC-7300. Your information and guidance had got me going in less than an hour! Kudos to You, "HAM RADIO DUDE!" I'm on the air with FT8! :-D

Thanks for the excellent video. My WSJT-X just quit communicating fully with my 7300. I did the usual D/L everything new and updated including firmware, and you got me back on line, my friend! Great job and thanks again. Bravo Zulu!! K1LHJ

I'm a new IC-7300 owner, this was outstanding - a full and complete explanation of FT8 setup. Worked perfectly. 73, K4GE

Thank you so much for sharing an information to help fresh ham radio operators to setting up FT8 on Icom7300. You describes every steps are cleared.

THis was one of the best. Others just run through configs and even jumps some bits. Thanks a lot!!

Great job. I've watched four or five similar videos on setting up FT8 on the Icom IC-7300, but never been able to make it all work. Could always receive FT8 signals, but never able to transmit--until today. Thank you for making it very easy to follow. Had my first FT8 contact, and now on my way to many more. Again, cannot thank you enough. I owe you a cold adult beverage. 73, DE Les N1LF

Great video just got a 7300 and with your help am loving it....Love the sarcasm at the end if I didn't know you were from the USA I would think you were a Brit like me....Keep up the good work 73

It really is amazing what people will find to complain about it the comments.

Nicely done! Thorough and presented easy enough for even me to follow.

Your videos were instrumental in me solving my FT8 problems and getting on the air. Actually made an FT8 contact with you earlier. Thanks W5EZR

Good job dude! Nice explanation of how the ALC witchcraft works.

Good stuff and way more helpful than the time I spent in my bosses office for my corrective interview. 😉

Wow thanks for the effort it took to produce this tutorial. Very informative.

Thank you, just one of the best explanations I have seen on youtube.. right on the money.. Thank you again

Thank you very much! your explanation can definitely help me to setup F8 on the Icom IC7300

Thanks for the video, I had it setup before but reset the radio. About 17:46 I'm trying to transmit CQ and not getting any ALC level at all, at least I know that I'm not getting anything out, ha. Now I can troubleshoot.

you are a good man, thank you for your help. best regards from the UK.

Great Video, very comprehensive and helpful. Can I just clarify something, when you say to set the power level for zero ALC, do you mean zero Blue points or zero Red Points?

Thanks Very Much! Nice Guide! .So Step By Step, I,m also Connected. This Is Seoul Korea 73!

Thank you for a very concise video that covers everything.

Great video. Finally got on FT8 with your suggested settings. Thanks. 73

You did a great job, thanks for your help.

Very nice video -- especially timely after the Icom firmware update. I just noted a few additional items that should be considered. 1) It is important that your computer's clock be accurate and using some type of clock synchronizer would be helpful. 2) the Icom drivers must be installed BEFORE connecting the radio to the computer per Icom. 3) it is unclear if these settings are now part of the FT8 preset in the radio and how to return to the mode the radio was in prior to the setup.

Great video, very simple to understand. I’m gonna try this later today 73s

Okay, I have audio on the screen, I can see my signal, my power is at 40%, and my rig and external wattmeter show zero power out into my dummy load. I think that my rig is set up correctly, and most likely wsjt-x is also. When I switch to SSB I get power out. So that leaves my PC. Any suggestions?

Everything worked great ,,,,,,,,except when I rename my Microphone Icom7300 no signals were sent to WJST and the was no ICOM7300 listed in the WJST settings, rebooted and still did not see the new mic name, renamed mic back to Microphone and all is well again.

Awesome job ! I updated firmware recently, and this was the perfect video for step by step set up and getting back on the air with FT8 - Thank you ! -KE8OTO- 73

Thanks Dude, I made my first FT8 contact

I've got a friends 7300 and have WSJT-X set up correctly as I can see but no power output no matter what power level. The USB codec is set as output correctly, it's copying signals great, etc. But can't get any PO. It's much more complex than my TS-890s to set up which was simple. It's driving me crazy why there is no power output. Any thoughts? Also, noted you didn't suggest people use something like Dimension4 to sync the clock in Win 10. Thanks, W1AST

I wish I could see the ALC on your radio when you are making those adjustments.

Thank you, excellent job!!

If you have your IC 7300 set to 20% on the radio (20 watts) how do you know your "getting 20 watts out"? Like you describe

A ll was well until the WSJT-X reset. All I get now is a rig control error. Help!

If after installing the driver what if you don’t have a com port?

So what happens when the device manager com port (COM6) doesn't appear as an option on the drop box in the program? My only options in the drop box are COM1 and USB and neither recognise the radio.

Thanks Dude, great info…..I’ve just coming back into the hobby after a 3 year break and need to setup my 7300 for JT 8 so, much appreciate your advice Cheers Mick VK4NGW.

Like Bc of ur sass at the end lol. KE8TIG 73

Great video. Thanks!

Another question. What does the "-------------10m" on 10m mean in WSJTX FT8 reception. Thank you for the answer. Cordially.

Great Video! I did all the settings as set forth in your video and had Ft8 going great for about a year. A month ago, my laptop went down and I purchased a new laptop with Windows 11. I did all the settings as before. This time evrything came up fine on the screen and the the receive looks good. However it will not transmit. I have tried everything to get it to do so. Is there something different with windows 11 that I am missing? Have you heard any stories such as this? If so, it may be a good time to update the video if something is different with Windows 11. Thanks for your good work. Really enjoy your videos.

well You never explained how to tune on frequency to receive valid data signal I have data signals I can hear them very well but how to tune the IC-7300 on them?? my RECEIVE WINDOW is blank.

Thanks! Good stuff & a lot of help.

Thank you for such a well-laid out video. Do you have an idea when Icom will release the same firmware update for the IC-7610? (it's only 1.3 for my 7610)

why does my radio show split and its a different than mane freq

Awesome video, thanks for much for doning it. Though overall I'm still unable to transmit. I've gone over this video about half a dozen times and confirmed I have anything set correctly, and have the drives, and see that I can control the radio by changing bands etc. I can do the test CAT and it's green, I can test the PTT and I can see that the radio is going into transmit mode. I can decode things coming in but when I enable Tx.. everything blows up. I get error opening sound card type errors, can't control the rig, want to go into configuraation again messages, etc. my IC7300 is stuck in transmit mode, I have to hit the tranmit button to get it to stop transmitting. I've reset the radio, rerun though setting changes, unplugged and plugged in the usb cable. rebooted windows countless times. it seems that all I can do is listen and see the list of call signs, I'm unable to transmit. Also addition if I hit the tune botton, either I can't get any ALC at all no matter where I put the PWR slider, or again I get the errors of unable to control rig, revisit the configuration again, which yet again the transmit is stuck open. v2.5.4 of the software... anyone else run into this? Is there different software thank WSJT-X for FT8?

The FT8 presets available when using firmware version 1.4 appear to set the modulation to USB-D. This seems fine for the higher frequency bands but it seems that for a lower frequency band like the 40 meter band the mode should be LSB-D. I’ve seen numerous youtube videos showing use of USB-D modulation in the 40 meter band. If I’m correct, it seems that Icom’s FT8 presets only apply to higher frequency bands. Your thoughts on this matter will be appreciated. To deal with this on my radio, I’ve configured two additional presets, one I named FT8-USB and a second called FT8-LSB, but I’m not sure that my new presets are necessary. - Thanks! (KK7CSC)

Thanks for the help but how do i keep it on Fil1? Every time i put it to fil1 but then transmit it changes to fil2?

Its like seeing a friend and saying only "what's up dude". I'm going to try it, but its sort like collecting bottlecaps. Not sure if this has a place in my idea of radio.

Can i upgrade old firmware from v 1.13 to the newest???? The radio works fine now without the extras.

Thanks for the great tutorial...Everyone else's tutorials always left something out, getting me nowhere. This got my 7300 to actually key up the xmtr...but...while I don't get any reading on the ALC I am not getting any power output. I have my RF set to 22% and MIC gain at 49%. The PWR slider bar is at about 60%. What am I missing?

just upgraded to full windows 11 do the 7300 icom drivers support 11 yet ? and great video by the way :D

Great tutorial, THANKS Ham Radio Dude! I'm up and running with FT8 on my 7300, but with one BIG glitch that I haven't been able to resolve. My output power level when transmitting FT8 is low, down in the sub-100 milliwatt zone. I see on PSK Reporter that my signal is being received, albeit weakly, by a few PSK reporters, but I'm getting zero completed contacts at such a low transmit power level. I checked and rechecked the settings you recommended, and my rig's settings all match the recommended settings in the tutorial. I tried raising the "USB MOD level", raising it from 40%, but that didn't seem to have any impact so I brought it back down to 40%. The 7300 works fine with normal transmit power levels in other modes, SSB AM etc. If anyone has a suggestion, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!!

Thanks mate, sorted first time

Thanks for the excellent video on setting up FT8, just got my 7300 this week all the menus and settings have me a little nuts. I do have a question, how do I get it out of data mode? And does 7300 default to working split in data mode or do I have a setting wrong? Thanks again for the great video.

Thanks good video, well explained, but I don't think its for me,,,,,, doesn't seem real using a computer,,,,,,on Hf radio,,,,,,73 from Rotterdam

Complete nube question(s)..... I've never worked digital modes before so this is a bit confusing to me. Please bare with me. So is your FT8 tx/rx frequency completely control by the FT8 software? Or do you still need to use the vfo on the radio? Is the radio "mode" controlled by the software as well? When I wanna go back to SSB voice, do I need to go through the radio menu and select all the previous settings? I try digital modes but I might be in over my head here! My head is spinning! LOL!

I've followed line by line, but I am getting a "Rig Failure" message from WSJT. What do I need to adjust? My rig is working just fine. Thanks, Mark W4UTX

at 6:12 if you are using an external tuner you would leave the PTT to Off, correct? At least that is what I do. Thanks for the video! 73, K8JLW

you help me a lot with your video! tks bro 73s CT5JWY

Hi, great video! I have just got the IC 7300 and covered your suggestion, but I have a issue. Nothing on the meter on the bottom left of the screen, and nothing on the waterfall. the audio setup is on USB audio codec. I read that other guys have similar issue.....someone fixed it? '73 Stefano

Fantastic video. Thx .

I set my rig up step by step. Now I have a split pop-up . I turned it off but it comes back on when I transmit. Is this normal?

I've been trying FT8 on my 7300 for the past few days and cannot get the damn thing to get anyone to respond. I have all my settings set exactly the way it supposed to be. I have tuned it and have my power turned down to around 5 watts and have everything set exactly how I've seen every video youtube says it's supposed to be. I think I have come to the conclusion FT8 just sucks. This seems like it's alot of headache for not that big of a payoff. 73s.

Hamlib error: Protocol error while testing getting current VFO

Hi really nice tutorial video but I have a question maybe u can help me I was following your tutorial step by step and everything was fine but I don’t know why now I don’t see the db bar on it was green at about 68 or 70 and now there’s nothing I will really will appreciate if u can help me with that and thank you this is an awesome video👍👍👍

"I know I talk too fast.... you can slow it down by 50%" - he says to the impatient guy who is watching / listening at 1.5 playback speed.

Just subbed 😀👍💪

tnxs KQ4CD

Very helpful...great ending...KJ6DQ

FT8🤣🤣🎙🎙

Great Video. The only issue is that you loose the laptop audio output when you change to Speakers (USB Audio Output). You work around this by watching the video on your iPad or iPhone. I had it working fine four a couple of years and then let my younger brother (Rick - N9DAZ) fiddle with it and I lost all connectivity :). Mom always like him best :)

Great video. Thanks!

#MNHR #TeamReplay for the win! Rock on Dude! Very very helpful!

Great video and, because of your great instructions, I've decided to buy the 7300. All that info on the sound car setup is priceless. Thanks! If you have any updated videos of the IC 7300 that you think I should watch, please suggest.

A nice detailed series of steps. It would be helpful if you had an inset video of the alc metering while you were making power adjustments on the FT8 software. One more thing... I think you missed the time sync step in the computer -> 4th Dimension... Everything else is great! 73 KK6RSL

Very helpful presentation. Thank you! One question follows: When I am NOT conducting WSPR testing and instead using SSB, do I need to go back to the presets and choose “Normal”? I’d like to be able to switch between normal mode and ft8 mode and would like to do so in a way that requires the fewest configuration changes possible. Now, about that tilted desk…. 😂 73 - Jim (KK7CSC)

Great video, but I still have no receive on FT8. Nothing on the meter on the bottom left of the screen, and nothing on the waterfall. It just stopped overnight after working for 6 months with no problem. Sometimes I get the following: 'Error in sound input'. An error has opening the audio input device has occurred.' I've installed the latest firmware update on the 7300, reinstalled WSJT-X, and went over all the settings 5-10 times. All the settings are as you described in the video. The Icom works fine on SSB. Anyone have any ideas?

very helpful thanks M0RMW

Everyone smash that thumps up button.

I had no idea about a lot of those adjustments. Thanks.

Just landed here after the replacements stream replay, fresh sub here and hope to grow along with you.

Thank you for the information! I did not find the way to slow it down. But I didn't need it, I know how to back it up 5 sec.

When I'm done with FT8, do I go back to the Preset and select Normal for regular radio use?

Awesome video! I've had my Extra ticket for a while, but haven't done anything with it until now. I bought the IC-7300 and put up a end fed 71' random wire antenna (not very high). I've been trying on voice to make a contact, but have been unsuccessful. So, I thought I'd give FT8 a try with your video. Instantly, I had a contact 1,558 mi (2508 km) away. Great job.

Brand new to WSJT-X many thanks for your guide 👍 73's M1BZH

Thank you for taking the time to explain the WSJTX software and the upgrade 1.40 the Icom 7300 Ευχαριστώ ....73 de #SV2ROC

Good vid 👍🏻

Hi there from the UK, Just what I wanted, now up and running. Great video, just subscribed, be coming back for more!!! Regards

will the USB cable need RF chokes?

Thank you - I’ve looked at 6 different tutorials but yours was the best. It’s up and running - now I have to figure out what to do with it. Might use it for some POTA. Thanks for taking the time.

lol ... thumbs up when you got to the house leveling comments

looked and did not see the drivers for Mac. I looked on the Icom website before posting this and did not see it. I saw the drivers for Windows but not Mac.

Good info! Now subbed!

what does "Rig Control Failure' msg. I have issue with it. 73 De VU2EII

I am further ahead than I was a few hours ago, I need to deal with the ALC I think still, but I am getting real close.

I get rig failure Himlib error

thanks so much N4LDL

Hello Dear Om First of all I use the French English translator from Google because I'm not very good in English. LOL. But I hope you will understand anyway. I have a problem with my ICOM 7300 connected with WSJT-X- and I did exactly as described in your video. Everything works fine but!!! There is a problem. On my ICOM 7300 when I set the RF POWER button on the ICOM 7300 to 25% it tells me 50 w and +. So even adjusting very gently with the RF POWER button is either barely 3 w or so above 50w. The ALC and the rest is good. Is this a misinterpretation of the ICOM 7300? if indeed it tells me the real output power that is not good for the power transistors of the transceiver. Otherwise I don't know how to fix it. Do you have an idea. See you soon. Kind regards 73. Joel/F8MGW