Tom: Thanks for your informative series. Your audio, enunciation & the fact that you speak distinctly, & at a constant level, & speak at a measured rate instead of like an auctioneer is a great help to many of us whose hearing is less than perfect. Little things, like demonstrating features that are NOT in the book is a plus. Your demonstrations that include the selection & actuation of various "screen" buttons & panel controls is done in a manner that allows viewers to actually FOLLOW what you are doing ! A novel concept for some video producers. I look forward to watching ALL of your productions Tom. Cheers! Brian Hind VE6XX
Thanks for posting this procedure. I copied your approach and ended up leaving my settings in the factory default (IC-7300). I guess the radio was in good shape out of the box. Thanks!
I know Im randomly asking but does any of you know of a method to get back into an instagram account..? I somehow forgot my password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me!
@Arjun Dexter I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process atm. Takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.
Need a nano-farad across pins 2 & 3 of that XLR going into the mixer & some 10 gauge THHN & copper lugs for a portable ground buss, Even very good quality RF proof sound equipment can develop the scritchy buzzies especially when out in the field using less than perfect antennas. Love your work, thank you for the many much needed well organized simple explanations. 7300 is pretty much my first (working) HF rig.
I am considering the purchase of an Icom 7300. I currently have an all Yaesu shack, but I have heard so much about this radio, and talk to many people on the air using the 7300. Your series is great and the more I watch the more I am convinced that my next purchase will be the Icom 7300. I have subscribed to your chanel. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Norman. Thank you for the kind words. I still have some Yaesu gear. They are fine radios too, but it is hard to beat the capability of the 7300 for an "entry" level radio. I suspect that more computing power gets crammed into smaller and cheaper devices this will be the norm going forward. Yaesu and Kenwood have both introduced touch screen radios.
Tom no need to apologise the video was great. Very interesting to a new Ham with a week old 7300. Love this series Tom thanks for your time in making it.
If you see your audio on a scope with that level of compression ( you selected 8), You will see how it is " Pinching your audio wave form....and not in a good way....2 or 3 is the highest i'd go on that radio . If your target is " DX Performance to cut through" ... over big clean robust audio Like a late-night fm DJ on a great stereo.... than I agree with you....myself Id choose quality over quantity.... and chances are that" Big Audio" will carry you through even when your signal is weak....
Good observation, and no disagreement. I rarely have my compression level above 3 or 4 in practice. That video was a while ago. I believe I was mainly trying to illustrate what the compressor does, and provide an example where you could clearly see its effect. I don't believe I was trying to show how to properly set it. I probably should have better explained how to set it, or at least stated that I wasn't providing a realistic example.
Thank you for a great video. The small amount of power out probably never be noticed. Because it takes about an a 4X power increase to get one db increase at the receiving end.
Very interesting indeed. However, the Icom 7300 is priced at £900. That automatically rather has a lot of us disregard the purchase of that transceiver. It is rather a pricy transceiver, however extremely nice. Many are operating on surplus World War II equipment, complete with shrapnel damage.
Thanks for the nice explanation of COMP functions. Very nice 73. Oh and do you have any video of how to change the colors of some of the displays on the screen? Like ie I see the color of the FIL 1 on your radio is BLUE but my default was on clear or black. Thank you.
About the RFI, I suspect you connected the line output directly to the mixer without a audio isolation transformer? If so this is why you are having issues. With a 1:1 audio transformer you will probably get rid of that problem right away, it is shown manual how to do it.
Hello & thank you for this great Video. I have a question: I have managed to get an orange COMP icon at the top right corner of my main display screen. I can not figure what I did to do that. Please advise what controls that. rgds, tnx & 73, N7KR
In a recent firmware update, Icom allows you to change the default function of the multi-knob when the menu isn’t showing. It used to always be tuning in kHz. You have set the default function to Compressor level. If you turn the multi-knob without pressing it first, the COMP will change to a small display showing your compression level. If you press and hold the multi-knob, it will change back to kHz.
Got a Shure SM7B Dynamic microphone with the Heil CC-XLR-I cable, but audio from mike is very low. Now, the factory mike that came with my IC-7300, got even better with this tutorial. 73
Icom uses electret (powered condenser) mics for their rigs. For an aftermarket one, you need to make sure it has higher output specifically for Icom rigs. Heil and other aftermarket mic manufacturers have them.
@@HamRadioA2Z On the radio, monitor function, I can hear my audio, but not sure if it will be the same over the air. Will set up a low SWR antenna to test, as this one the internal tuner can not handle, and I dont have en external one. I may go with the SM-30 or SM-50. If 30 is the same as the 50, but just few extra buttons on the 50, then the 30 will be or a Heil made for it. Thanks a lot for the great tutorials. 73.
Tom, great video but in the beginning of the lecture you stated the ALC reading should be around 50% of the scale however when you performed the final test with the compressor your ALC reading was full-scale. So, which is it, half scale or full scale on the ALC meter reading?
Excellent video. Thank you. About station ground. I run my station pretty much the way you have it setup in this video. I don’t run it that way out of ignorance. But for those of us living in high rise apartments, there is no possibility of a station grounded as you would do it. I live on the 12th floor of a 32 story building. The street below me is nothing but cement. So all I can do is depend on the electrical circuit ground for grounding. There is no bonding everything together. We have what we have. Please consider making a video to address station grounding in apartment buildings. 73 de N2LRB
Hi Jose. Grounding is definitely a misunderstood topic. I'm pretty sure there are almost as many opinions about how to ground as there are hams. I totally understand your situation and agree that it isn't practical for you to bond your station to the building ground in the way that is normally shown. However, it doesn't mean that there's no way to do it. In your situation, I would still recommend that you bond all of your station equipment together to a common ground point. That point can be a simple as a copper ground bar. Then you can tie that point to your building ground through the safety ground at an outlet where you plug things in. A simple way to do that is to use a ring terminal under the center screw that holds the cover plate on the outlet. That threaded hole on the outlet is grounded. Then you can connect the wire from that ring terminal to your grounding bar. You may need to get a slightly longer screw and you definitely want to get one that isn't painted. For more reading on grounding, the ARRL has a good FAQ page on it: www.arrl.org/grounding
I have a Icom 7300 and a Heil PR-781 mic. When I adjust the compressor independently and the ALC independently, the ALC reads full scale when I talk into it. In other words, it looks like to me the compressor affects the ALC. The higher the compressor setting the higher the ALC (full scale). I presently have the mic at 50% and the compressor at 5.
Hi. The compressor setting will definitely affect your ALC reading. Full scale is definitely way too much ALC. I recently got a Heil BM17 headset-mic. I find that the Heil mic is way more sensitive than the stock mic. So I had to turn my mic gain way down with the Heil headset. I have found that a mic gain of 50 works fine with the stock mic. With the Heil mic, you probably need to be somewhere around 10, depending on your voice.
Hi. If you look at episodes #8 & #9 I did show how to wire up the accessory connector to get audio out of the radio. I didn’t really go into specifics about using the mixer. I’ll keep that in mind for a future video. Thanks!
Ive seen some conflicting information about setting up the transmit ALC. I assumed after all the settings were done the ALC shouldnt go above 50% peak, my current settings are mic gain: 15% compression: 3 my ALC is running about 75% peak .... I use the stock mic and out of habit i keep it about and inch or so away from my mouth so it's close....I need to get a peak reading meter and see how the average output changes with different settings, ive also listened to my signal from a remote sdr but still havent found a definitive answer which settings are best for me....btw I also have the kenwood 590sg and it is critical to get that radio set up correctly or your average output will be really low, the " S " version had an issue worse than the sg model for low output and I believe had to be modified due to overly aggressive alc
Hi. There is no question that some radios are more finicky than others as far as setting mic gain based on ALC reading. Your ALC peaks do sound pretty high for your settings, but maybe you have the mic close than you think or you may have a voice that really projects. My wife sometimes tells me I’m talking really loud when I don’t think that I am. This text is exactly what it says in the IC7300 manual: “In the SSB mode, touch the TX meter to select the ALC meter and adjust until the meter reading swings between 30 to 50% of the ALC scale. • Hold the microphone 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) from your mouth, then speak at your normal voice level.” My experience is that the 7300 is pretty forgiving and I’ve been told that my audio sounds fine almost no matter what. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to set the levels correctly. All I can offer is to follow what the manual says and try to be consistent about holding the mic and your speaking volume. One thing that can help (and I plan to upgrade to soon) is a headset microphone. That at least keeps the distance from your mouth consistent. I hope things work out well for you. 73, Tom
Hi Samuel, I have quite a few birdies on 40M at our house in Kansas. With the same power supply here at my father-in-law's house, I don't seem to have any birdies on 40. So, I'm pretty sure the birdies in Kansas are from something electronic at the house or in the neighborhood and not from the MFJ power supply. Are you seeing a lot of noise from the supply?
@@HamRadioA2Z i have birdies, about every 5KHz,even with a battery. I guess its just different with the power supply. Mine is most likely the 220V AC current in the room, a one room apartment. Your explanation of the two environments is helpful. Knowing it's not the power supply rules that out. I'm going to apply the text book ground to copper plumbing tomorrow and see if i just makes another antenna out of it.
I was going to suggest a battery to help rule out the power supply. Glad you've at least got that piece of data. Be careful about using the plumbing as a ground. Many recent buildings don't have copper going all the way out to where the water enters the house. Quite a few have plastic piping called PEX. You should check in the basement if you can where the water comes in. If there's any plastic in the line, you'll just end up making an indoor antenna.
I am so aggravated with this radio. There is a known problem with it not putting out the output power it should be putting out on SSB. I struggle to make contacts, shut it off and turn on my Yaesu FT891 and make contacts everythme and the 891 puts out double tbe amount of SSB output. Should have bought a Yaesu FT991 for my base rig. Fix this ICOM. Its a known issue.
Yeah, sorry about that. Trying to get better and more consistent about audio post processing. I’ve been using a new editor that is much more full featured in audio, but I need to get more proficient with that part of it.
Tom: Thanks for your informative series. Your audio, enunciation & the fact that you speak distinctly, & at a constant level, & speak at a measured rate instead of like an auctioneer is a great help to many of us whose hearing is less than perfect. Little things, like demonstrating features that are NOT in the book is a plus. Your demonstrations that include the selection & actuation of various "screen" buttons & panel controls is done in a manner that allows viewers to actually FOLLOW what you are doing ! A novel concept for some video producers. I look forward to watching ALL of your productions Tom.
Cheers! Brian Hind VE6XX
I have really enjoyed your videos. At 77 I'm learning a lot. only been on the air for 4 years.
Thanks for posting this procedure. I copied your approach and ended up leaving my settings in the factory default (IC-7300). I guess the radio was in good shape out of the box. Thanks!
I am finding this video series incredibly useful and I look forward to each new insightful episode. Thank you.
I know Im randomly asking but does any of you know of a method to get back into an instagram account..?
I somehow forgot my password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me!
@Musa Thomas instablaster =)
@Arjun Dexter I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process atm.
Takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.
@Arjun Dexter it worked and I actually got access to my account again. I am so happy:D
Thanks so much, you saved my ass!
@Musa Thomas you are welcome :)
Need a nano-farad across pins 2 & 3 of that XLR going into the mixer & some 10 gauge THHN & copper lugs for a portable ground buss, Even very good quality RF proof sound equipment can develop the scritchy buzzies especially when out in the field using less than perfect antennas.
Love your work, thank you for the many much needed well organized simple explanations. 7300 is pretty much my first (working) HF rig.
I am considering the purchase of an Icom 7300. I currently have an all Yaesu shack, but I have heard so much about this radio, and talk to many people on the air using the 7300. Your series is great and the more I watch the more I am convinced that my next purchase will be the Icom 7300. I have subscribed to your chanel. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Norman. Thank you for the kind words. I still have some Yaesu gear. They are fine radios too, but it is hard to beat the capability of the 7300 for an "entry" level radio. I suspect that more computing power gets crammed into smaller and cheaper devices this will be the norm going forward. Yaesu and Kenwood have both introduced touch screen radios.
Very well thought out. The best demo and explanation yet on setting up your radio. Keep up the excellent videos.
Thanks Mike! I’m glad your finding them helpful.
Thanks Tom - have enjoyed all demos so far and look forward to more coming! Thanks for spending the time doing this.
Thanks Trevor. I’m glad you’re finding them useful.
This is an awesome video regarding compression and its use.
Thank you, Tom. I appreciate your well-done videos. You are my go-to guy for video's that help me resolve my radio issues.Joe M. K5LJB
Thanks for the information...very useful indeed.
Tom no need to apologise the video was great. Very interesting to a new Ham with a week old 7300. Love this series Tom thanks for your time in making it.
Thank you Paddy for the kind words.
If you see your audio on a scope with that level of compression ( you selected 8), You will see how it is " Pinching your audio wave form....and not in a good way....2 or 3 is the highest i'd go on that radio . If your target is " DX Performance to cut through" ... over big clean robust audio Like a late-night fm DJ on a great stereo.... than I agree with you....myself Id choose quality over quantity.... and chances are that" Big Audio" will carry you through even when your signal is weak....
Good observation, and no disagreement. I rarely have my compression level above 3 or 4 in practice. That video was a while ago. I believe I was mainly trying to illustrate what the compressor does, and provide an example where you could clearly see its effect. I don't believe I was trying to show how to properly set it. I probably should have better explained how to set it, or at least stated that I wasn't providing a realistic example.
Thank you for a great video. The small amount of power out probably never be noticed. Because it takes about an a 4X power increase to get one db increase at the receiving end.
thanks Tom really helpful
Nice vidio..helped me out to be perfect on audio..brilliant radio
Glad it helped. Thanks for the comment.
Very interesting indeed. However, the Icom 7300 is priced at £900. That automatically rather has a lot of us disregard the purchase of that transceiver. It is rather a pricy transceiver, however extremely nice. Many are operating on surplus World War II equipment, complete with shrapnel damage.
Thanks for the nice explanation of COMP functions. Very nice 73. Oh and do you have any video of how to change the colors of some of the displays on the screen? Like ie I see the color of the FIL 1 on your radio is BLUE but my default was on clear or black. Thank you.
About the RFI, I suspect you connected the line output directly to the mixer without a audio isolation transformer? If so this is why you are having issues. With a 1:1 audio transformer you will probably get rid of that problem right away, it is shown manual how to do it.
Hello & thank you for this great Video. I have a question: I have managed to get an orange COMP icon at the top right corner of my main display screen. I can not figure what I did to do that. Please advise what controls that. rgds, tnx & 73, N7KR
In a recent firmware update, Icom allows you to change the default function of the multi-knob when the menu isn’t showing. It used to always be tuning in kHz. You have set the default function to Compressor level. If you turn the multi-knob without pressing it first, the COMP will change to a small display showing your compression level. If you press and hold the multi-knob, it will change back to kHz.
Excellent vidio
Got a Shure SM7B Dynamic microphone with the Heil CC-XLR-I cable, but audio from mike is very low. Now, the factory mike that came with my IC-7300, got even better with this tutorial. 73
Icom uses electret (powered condenser) mics for their rigs. For an aftermarket one, you need to make sure it has higher output specifically for Icom rigs. Heil and other aftermarket mic manufacturers have them.
@@HamRadioA2Z On the radio, monitor function, I can hear my audio, but not sure if it will be the same over the air. Will set up a low SWR antenna to test, as this one the internal tuner can not handle, and I dont have en external one.
I may go with the SM-30 or SM-50. If 30 is the same as the 50, but just few extra buttons on the 50, then the 30 will be or a Heil made for it.
Thanks a lot for the great tutorials. 73.
Tom, great video but in the beginning of the lecture you stated the ALC reading should be around 50% of the scale however when you performed the final test with the compressor your ALC reading was full-scale. So, which is it, half scale or full scale on the ALC meter reading?
30 to 50% with comp off
Also looks like compression would use a lot more battery power if out and about,yes?
Thanks Tom great information
WWS0157/2IS157 STATEN ISLAND NY 73's
Excellent video. Thank you. About station ground. I run my station pretty much the way you have it setup in this video. I don’t run it that way out of ignorance. But for those of us living in high rise apartments, there is no possibility of a station grounded as you would do it. I live on the 12th floor of a 32 story building. The street below me is nothing but cement. So all I can do is depend on the electrical circuit ground for grounding. There is no bonding everything together. We have what we have. Please consider making a video to address station grounding in apartment buildings. 73 de N2LRB
Hi Jose. Grounding is definitely a misunderstood topic. I'm pretty sure there are almost as many opinions about how to ground as there are hams. I totally understand your situation and agree that it isn't practical for you to bond your station to the building ground in the way that is normally shown. However, it doesn't mean that there's no way to do it. In your situation, I would still recommend that you bond all of your station equipment together to a common ground point. That point can be a simple as a copper ground bar. Then you can tie that point to your building ground through the safety ground at an outlet where you plug things in. A simple way to do that is to use a ring terminal under the center screw that holds the cover plate on the outlet. That threaded hole on the outlet is grounded. Then you can connect the wire from that ring terminal to your grounding bar. You may need to get a slightly longer screw and you definitely want to get one that isn't painted. For more reading on grounding, the ARRL has a good FAQ page on it: www.arrl.org/grounding
I have a Icom 7300 and a Heil PR-781 mic. When I adjust the compressor independently and the ALC independently, the ALC reads full scale when I talk into it. In other words, it looks like to me the compressor affects the ALC. The higher the compressor setting the higher the ALC (full scale). I presently have the mic at 50% and the compressor at 5.
Hi. The compressor setting will definitely affect your ALC reading. Full scale is definitely way too much ALC. I recently got a Heil BM17 headset-mic. I find that the Heil mic is way more sensitive than the stock mic. So I had to turn my mic gain way down with the Heil headset. I have found that a mic gain of 50 works fine with the stock mic. With the Heil mic, you probably need to be somewhere around 10, depending on your voice.
Superb video. Thanks so much for posting. 73s. W3GTR
Thank you Scott.
Any chance on getting a video on how to setup a mixing board?
Hi. If you look at episodes #8 & #9 I did show how to wire up the accessory connector to get audio out of the radio. I didn’t really go into specifics about using the mixer. I’ll keep that in mind for a future video. Thanks!
The manual settings for compression are way too high. I've found 5 - 10 is much better. 20 is wildly distorted in general.
Ive seen some conflicting information about setting up the transmit ALC. I assumed after all the settings were done the ALC shouldnt go above 50% peak, my current settings are mic gain: 15% compression: 3 my ALC is running about 75% peak .... I use the stock mic and out of habit i keep it about and inch or so away from my mouth so it's close....I need to get a peak reading meter and see how the average output changes with different settings, ive also listened to my signal from a remote sdr but still havent found a definitive answer which settings are best for me....btw I also have the kenwood 590sg and it is critical to get that radio set up correctly or your average output will be really low, the " S " version had an issue worse than the sg model for low output and I believe had to be modified due to overly aggressive alc
Hi. There is no question that some radios are more finicky than others as far as setting mic gain based on ALC reading. Your ALC peaks do sound pretty high for your settings, but maybe you have the mic close than you think or you may have a voice that really projects. My wife sometimes tells me I’m talking really loud when I don’t think that I am. This text is exactly what it says in the IC7300 manual: “In the SSB mode, touch the TX meter to select the ALC meter and adjust until the meter reading swings between 30 to 50% of the ALC scale. • Hold the microphone 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) from your mouth, then speak at your normal voice level.” My experience is that the 7300 is pretty forgiving and I’ve been told that my audio sounds fine almost no matter what. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to set the levels correctly. All I can offer is to follow what the manual says and try to be consistent about holding the mic and your speaking volume. One thing that can help (and I plan to upgrade to soon) is a headset microphone. That at least keeps the distance from your mouth consistent. I hope things work out well for you. 73, Tom
if properly grounded does that power supply you have still pick up birdie noise on 40m?
Hi Samuel, I have quite a few birdies on 40M at our house in Kansas. With the same power supply here at my father-in-law's house, I don't seem to have any birdies on 40. So, I'm pretty sure the birdies in Kansas are from something electronic at the house or in the neighborhood and not from the MFJ power supply. Are you seeing a lot of noise from the supply?
@@HamRadioA2Z i have birdies, about every 5KHz,even with a battery. I guess its just different with the power supply. Mine is most likely the 220V AC current in the room, a one room apartment. Your explanation of the two environments is helpful. Knowing it's not the power supply rules that out.
I'm going to apply the text book ground to copper plumbing tomorrow and see if i just makes another antenna out of it.
I was going to suggest a battery to help rule out the power supply. Glad you've at least got that piece of data. Be careful about using the plumbing as a ground. Many recent buildings don't have copper going all the way out to where the water enters the house. Quite a few have plastic piping called PEX. You should check in the basement if you can where the water comes in. If there's any plastic in the line, you'll just end up making an indoor antenna.
@@HamRadioA2Z Awsome radio i am buying one very soon .... Thanks for the video , you did a great job ... From Joe - W1VRP .. 73 .
my comp will not turn on for some reason it is there but nothing happens when i try to turn it on?
What mode are you in? Mic Compression is only available on SSB. If you're in FM, AM or any data modes, compression isn't available.
I am so aggravated with this radio. There is a known problem with it not putting out the output power it should be putting out on SSB. I struggle to make contacts, shut it off and turn on my Yaesu FT891 and make contacts everythme and the 891 puts out double tbe amount of SSB output. Should have bought a Yaesu FT991 for my base rig. Fix this ICOM. Its a known issue.
WOW!!!!!
PLOSIVES WARNING!!!!!!!
Please listen to your audio before posting. Ouch.
BUT! Thank you for the information on this subject.
Cheers,
Yeah, sorry about that. Trying to get better and more consistent about audio post processing. I’ve been using a new editor that is much more full featured in audio, but I need to get more proficient with that part of it.
@@HamRadioA2Z Yup, I think all you need is a wind screen on your microphone, and no need to talk so close to it.
Too many plosives! Get away from the mic! When you don't know how to use a mic, your video about audio loses credibility.