Got my General and the 7300 over a year ago and have yet to transmit. This is just what I needed to work through some of the complexity and frustration of using it for SWL. Thanks!
This was very useful, thanks. Two months ago I bought a CCrane Skywave SSB, resurrecting my old interest in radio from years ago (as well as working in radio news journalism for years), and then set up a LoG antenna in the garden using 18-gauge speaker wire and (eventually) a 4:1 LDG balun from HRO. Two weeks ago I somehow persuaded myself to get an ICOM 7300 and a suitable power supply from the same store, and tomorrow I'm going to (attempt to) put a longwire 'random' antenna in our high locust tree, fed into a cheap 9:1 balun I got from China or somewhere. I also signed up for a ham radio study course with a view to taking my exam in a few months. So you could say things escalated. 😁 I used CB back in Britain some years ago and always meant to progress to ham but never got the chance in the end. Now I'm in the US and the Technician license beckons. Thanks again for an interesting and informative vid :)
I build an end fed half wave antenna for 40 meters using a 9:1 unun. 66 feet on antenna side and 17 feet on ground end. SWR is very low on 20-40-80 meters without a tuner.
ne helpful thing for Doing SWL, is the customizable fiters . I set one of my AM filters for widest possible band FOR VOICE , I also bring the low freq response up and high end down for nose reduction. Using the tunable filters really can improve the sound for SWL use.
CFRX is a 1KW international Shortwave relay station of CFRB 1010 AM Toronto. CFRX signed on the air in Feb 11 1937, 10 years after CFRB went on the air. Cheers!
Thanks for a most interesting and informative video. I have noted down the short wave webpage that you mentioned, which should be quite handy. I don't have an ICOM receiver, though I do have a Yaesu FRG-100 that receives the SW band among other things.
Appreciate your perspective to use the 7300 for Short wave listening to. In the past I have enjoyed Short Wave programs Especially enjoyed you techniques. Thanks for the tips to identifying which stations are active 😀 73 Steve AA4SH
Why the past? Turn on a radio and do it now. There are entire clubs of DXers dedicated to receiving far away stations and logging them. Why the hell wouldn't that interest you anymore? It's not only about listening to powerhouses beaming to Tennessee. It's about the weak stations bud that are still there every single day.
I do own a Yaesu FT-891 and use it frequently for SWLing. I miss that big scope & waterfall the IC-7300 offers, would be thrilled to find pirate stations more easily. My question: with the IC-7300 can you select SW station, customize its bandwith and store it in memory? 73's from Québec, Canada, VE2YOW
No. Look for an on-screen "button" on the lower-right of the display that says "CENT/FIX" and tap that. It toggles between showing a large section of whatever ham band you are in (or even the whole band if you have it set that way), or being centered on the frequency you are listening to, no matter where that is. You can adjust the bandwidth being displayed on either side of what you are listening to as well ("SPAN"). I like +/- 25k when I am listening to SW stations. I'm not trying to be a smart a$$ when I say this, but read the manual and spend a lot of time experimenting. I too discover new functionality every now and then and have to look it up in the manual, even when I thought I had this rig all figured out. The manual can also be downloaded as a PDF (Icom website) which makes searching for stuff much quicker.
People who need a video like this to learn how to use a 7300 on SWBC bands and how to look up stations should perhaps not buy a radio like this. They can get equally overwhelmed by even more functionality for a small fraction of that money by buying a decent SDR box like the SDRPlay RSP or AirSpy HF+ Discovery. That also removes the risk of damaging some expensive electronics while getting lost in the menus and accidentally keying up the TX with the voice memories.
Hello. Can the 7300 rf output be totally inhibited to prevent blowing up an active receive antenna? Too, can am bandwidth filter be variably adjusted or is that just fixed bandwidths. Thanks!
You can’t disable transmit using the controls. You can dial the transmit power down to 5 watts, the settings won’t let it go lower. Disconnecting the mic is a good idea but you can still transmit if you hit the tune button. The bandwidth filters are excellent on this radio and infinitely adjustable on AM from approximately 10khz down to some super low unusable number. To do this just press and hold the filter button until a sub screen pops up that will let you adjust the filters for each filter position. For AM listening I recommend using 9khz, 6khz, and 4 khz in the 3 positions. 3 khz is too narrow for decent broadcast fidelity. I also recommend increasing the span of the spectrum scope so you can see more signals.
You can listen to HF for free with a computer. And most people will not invest in a proper antenna, so buying a good receiver and not having a good antenna is like buying a $10,000 commercial walk in cooler for a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. The reason for the license is because it not only receives but it also transmits and it is human nature that anything that can transmit that someone is eventually going to be tempted to try it. And legally before the internet, the stores that sold the radio refused to sell to anyone unless they had a license and a valid call sign. Even in 2011, Ham Radio Outlet refused to sell the radio to me unless I gave them my call sign. Truthfully unless you listen to ham radio, there is nothing left on the shortwave radio. Everything has migrated to the internet.
You know, the reason why the 7300 is called "the best CB radio ever made" is certainly not because any dealers could still afford to ask for your license before they sell you one, or that they would (still) be required to do so. Also, there is still plenty of activity on the SW bands, if you end up with the impression there isn't, you may have a problem with local QRM.
Got my General and the 7300 over a year ago and have yet to transmit. This is just what I needed to work through some of the complexity and frustration of using it for SWL. Thanks!
This was very useful, thanks. Two months ago I bought a CCrane Skywave SSB, resurrecting my old interest in radio from years ago (as well as working in radio news journalism for years), and then set up a LoG antenna in the garden using 18-gauge speaker wire and (eventually) a 4:1 LDG balun from HRO. Two weeks ago I somehow persuaded myself to get an ICOM 7300 and a suitable power supply from the same store, and tomorrow I'm going to (attempt to) put a longwire 'random' antenna in our high locust tree, fed into a cheap 9:1 balun I got from China or somewhere. I also signed up for a ham radio study course with a view to taking my exam in a few months. So you could say things escalated. 😁 I used CB back in Britain some years ago and always meant to progress to ham but never got the chance in the end. Now I'm in the US and the Technician license beckons. Thanks again for an interesting and informative vid :)
I build an end fed half wave antenna for 40 meters using a 9:1 unun. 66 feet on antenna side and 17 feet on ground end. SWR is very low on 20-40-80 meters without a tuner.
Thanks for the presentation. I’m actually considering the Icom 7300 just to use as a SW receiver.
I have this radio and it is a lot of radio for the price point. I've been working some 60m lately and I couldn't believe how much activity is there.
I thought this video was very helpful and informative . And I didn't have to watch it 5 times. Thanks for sharing.
ne helpful thing for Doing SWL, is the customizable fiters . I set one of my AM filters for widest possible band FOR VOICE , I also bring the low freq response up and high end down for nose reduction. Using the tunable filters really can improve the sound for SWL use.
Great info. Just what I was looking for. Thank you!
Brilliant, great information and demo. Much appreciated.🍻🤠
I am a novice to HAM. I bought an ICOM 7300 so needless to say “I found this very interesting “. Thank you
CFRX is a 1KW international Shortwave relay station of CFRB 1010 AM Toronto. CFRX signed on the air in Feb 11 1937, 10 years after CFRB went on the air. Cheers!
Thanks for a most interesting and informative video. I have noted down the short wave webpage that you mentioned, which should be quite handy. I don't have an ICOM receiver, though I do have a Yaesu FRG-100 that receives the SW band among other things.
Appreciate your perspective to use the 7300 for Short wave listening to. In the past I have enjoyed Short Wave programs Especially enjoyed you techniques. Thanks for the tips to identifying which stations are active 😀
73 Steve AA4SH
Why the past? Turn on a radio and do it now. There are entire clubs of DXers dedicated to receiving far away stations and logging them. Why the hell wouldn't that interest you anymore? It's not only about listening to powerhouses beaming to Tennessee. It's about the weak stations bud that are still there every single day.
Having a waterfall display is great for identifying active frequencies.
Caveat: Mine goes crazy outside the ham bands between 10m and 6m; aliasing in the AtoD??
I do own a Yaesu FT-891 and use it frequently for SWLing. I miss that big scope & waterfall the IC-7300 offers, would be thrilled to find pirate stations more easily.
My question: with the IC-7300 can you select SW station, customize its bandwith and store it in memory?
73's from Québec, Canada, VE2YOW
Go below 40m, around 6.900 to 6.999 Mhz and you'll hear some pirate radio stations in LSB.
@@pale_2111 Glad to hear that, thanks alot!
I scan but the waterfall doesn’t follow when I get out of the ham bands like yours. Do I need to delete band edges or something?
No. Look for an on-screen "button" on the lower-right of the display that says "CENT/FIX" and tap that. It toggles between showing a large section of whatever ham band you are in (or even the whole band if you have it set that way), or being centered on the frequency you are listening to, no matter where that is. You can adjust the bandwidth being displayed on either side of what you are listening to as well ("SPAN"). I like +/- 25k when I am listening to SW stations. I'm not trying to be a smart a$$ when I say this, but read the manual and spend a lot of time experimenting. I too discover new functionality every now and then and have to look it up in the manual, even when I thought I had this rig all figured out. The manual can also be downloaded as a PDF (Icom website) which makes searching for stuff much quicker.
I'll scan outside the amateur bands every now and then. Heard some air traffic control and some pirate stations in LSB below 40m one night.
People who need a video like this to learn how to use a 7300 on SWBC bands and how to look up stations should perhaps not buy a radio like this. They can get equally overwhelmed by even more functionality for a small fraction of that money by buying a decent SDR box like the SDRPlay RSP or AirSpy HF+ Discovery. That also removes the risk of damaging some expensive electronics while getting lost in the menus and accidentally keying up the TX with the voice memories.
Hello. Can the 7300 rf output be totally inhibited to prevent blowing up an active receive antenna? Too, can am bandwidth filter be variably adjusted or is that just fixed bandwidths. Thanks!
I would think the best way to totally inhibit RF output is to unscrew the mic from the radio, or just don't key the mic or the CW key.
You can’t disable transmit using the controls. You can dial the transmit power down to 5 watts, the settings won’t let it go lower. Disconnecting the mic is a good idea but you can still transmit if you hit the tune button. The bandwidth filters are excellent on this radio and infinitely adjustable on AM from approximately 10khz down to some super low unusable number. To do this just press and hold the filter button until a sub screen pops up that will let you adjust the filters for each filter position. For AM listening I recommend using 9khz, 6khz, and 4 khz in the 3 positions. 3 khz is too narrow for decent broadcast fidelity. I also recommend increasing the span of the spectrum scope so you can see more signals.
New Firmware with Transmit (TX) inhibit
ruclips.net/video/6mWHWXMAJWI/видео.htmlsi=d9fatAIn7_LqBR34
thank you for not broadcasting with it on 11m, like so many do.
Thats fun stuff.
The communications receiver is the best shortwave receiver that has ever been made.
You can listen to HF for free with a computer. And most people will not invest in a proper antenna, so buying a good receiver and not having a good antenna is like buying a $10,000 commercial walk in cooler for a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs.
The reason for the license is because it not only receives but it also transmits and it is human nature that anything that can transmit that someone is eventually going to be tempted to try it.
And legally before the internet, the stores that sold the radio refused to sell to anyone unless they had a license and a valid call sign. Even in 2011, Ham Radio Outlet refused to sell the radio to me unless I gave them my call sign.
Truthfully unless you listen to ham radio, there is nothing left on the shortwave radio.
Everything has migrated to the internet.
You know, the reason why the 7300 is called "the best CB radio ever made" is certainly not because any dealers could still afford to ask for your license before they sell you one, or that they would (still) be required to do so. Also, there is still plenty of activity on the SW bands, if you end up with the impression there isn't, you may have a problem with local QRM.
The 40 meter ham band exists between 7000 and 7300, not 7100 and 7300.
In real it depends on the ITU-region. In region 1 and 3 it's between 7000-7200, but in region 2 it's 7000-7300. Cheers!
What’s the ideal antenna for this radio?
6070: CJRN Toronto.
A list of the Short wave bands is very useful!!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands