Wonderful video! Well done! I just got a 7300 yesterday, and now I am going to go watch your whole series on it. Thank you for putting out such a well thought out and organized video!
Hi Harry. I have an off center fed 80 meter dipole where I live now. I’m just using the internal tuner with it and it works fine on 80 through 10 meters. As long as your antenna system is 3:1 or better it should work fine.
Many Thanks for that comprehensive video Tom. Your Icom 7300 series is my go to guide. Picked mine up yesterday and I’m well impressed with it. 73 M7PBX.
Thanks for explaining this. Looking forward to the external tuner tutorial. I have an end fed half wave 8010 from my antennas. I bought the LDG AT100ProII tuner. I have the IC-7100 and I bought the LDG IT-100 for that. Full watch and like!
Tom, you are a mind reader... I was just going to ask if you were going to discuss the internal tuner and "ta-dah", here's the video. Thanks so much for these videos and the A to Z series... I am really getting a lot of good out of this as a new Ham. Thanks again!
Thanks for the kind words Dwight. I'm glad you're enjoying them. I had some great mentors when I was young. So, I'm just trying to give back some of what I've learned. 73, Tom
@@HamRadioA2Z Well, I'm certainly not young, just new to radio. I appreciate the help so much as I don't have an Elmer to get questions answered... This hobby takes forever to learn without help! Thanks for being my "virtual Elmer'.. Heck we were practicing social distancing before it was a thing 😆
Nice video. Question…. In tuner mode, whether auto or manual, is the radio reducing power automatically? Or shld I turn the power down ( I like 10 watts) manually? Is there a way to set a button to a shortcut to Emergency mode? As the top end of 80 meters , on my 80-10 exhibits high swr and will not tune in normal tuner mode. Thus its a pain to keep switching to EM each time I go to the top end. Thanku William
I don’t know of any way to make a shortcut for Emergency Mode. If your situation doesn’t allow you to put up a better antenna, the next best option would be an external tuner. If the internal tuner matches your antenna in emergency mode, the. Any external tuner should match it fine. You’d have the bonus feature of getting full power out of the radio.
@@HamRadioA2Z Again thanku With my 132 foot 80-10, I cannot tune on 160 with emergency mode, thus I was hoping the Mfj-939 would? Lastly, when internally tuning do I need to manually reduce power to 10 watts or does the radio do it automatically upon tuning? Thanks!!! William
I really appreciate these videos. I just ordered a IC7300. While watching (around the 10MIN mark), I noticed there is an AUTO TUNE button to the left of the VFO. Is that for an external tuner?
The AUTO TUNE button is for automatically centering a CW signal. If you push that when copying a CW signal it will adjust the VFO to put you right on the carrier of the signal.
Hi Marshall. Thanks for reaching out. I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos. I’m pretty fortunate in that my wife (also a ham) is pretty supportive of the hobby even if she isn’t all that active. I thought I would reach out to her to get some advice for you. She said (with a smile) that you need to be able to answer the question “what’s in it for her”. 😉. Good luck and I hope you have a great Christmas this year. 73, Tom
But can you have different tune settings for each band that it remembers? Or ... does the tuner figure out that it needs to tune for the band you're on? Sounds like maybe the latter (which is cool). So then the Auto setting just remembers whether or not you were using the tuner on that band last time you were on it?
Get a dummy load and then you don't have to move to bands where you think you won't interfere with someone... otherwise really appreciate the videos. Well Done!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos. Thanks for the kind words. A dummy load does avoid any interference issues. Unfortunately, it would make it difficult to demonstrate the antenna tuner since it would always be a perfect match (at least theoretically).
The AutoTune button is for CW. If the radio is in CW mode and you're listening to one signal, you can press AutoTune and it will adjust the receive frequency to put you exactly on the same carrier frequency as the station that you're hearing.
Tom I think you forgot to tell him the most important part You have to hold the turn button about 2 seconds to get it to tune on other bands I realize you're saying that it auto-tunes from band to band if it's saved But from looking at your video I don't think a lot of people realize you may have to hold the tune button for 2 seconds to actually get it to tune Just the fact that the tune light is on does not meet its tuning
Just discovered your excellent video! I have researched the 7300 a lot, but have yet to pull the trigger, and the tuner is one of the few reasons why. What was the SWR of your end fed antenna on 20 meters before you got it to tune in the emergency mode?
Hi Richard. It's been a while since I checked the SWR of my antenna across every band. I've also done a few adjustments to it since the last time I measured everything. I'll have to recheck it and let you know. Right now, we're practicing social distancing in our camper, parked by our son's house in Arizona. So, I won't be able to check my antenna for a couple weeks. I can tell you that the 7300 internal tuner doesn't seem to cut off at exactly 3:1. I don't know exactly what the limit is before it stops trying, but it seems like it will at least try to tune in normal mode up to at least 3.5:1 or maybe 4:1. Testing that might be another fun video someday, but I'd want to use some "real" test equipment for that. 73, Tom WA2IVD
Hi Tim. When I made that video we were living in a rental house in Olathe, KS. I had tons of local noise from the neighborhood and from the HVAC system and other things in the house. It could have been anything, but I'm sure it was local RFI and not the radio.
When i do an swr check I’m at 1.5 with 1% or watt. When i increase the power to 5% or 50-60-80% or watts. My swr goes over 3.0. Any ideas? Thanks guys.
Hi Theo. The problem is that 1% or 1 watt isn't quite enough power for the internal SWR meter to get a valid reading. 5%-10% is enough for it to read correctly. You don't need to go all the way to 50%
Hello Tom. First, congratulations for all your videos concerning the ICOM 7300 and as I have one here at the QRA, I subscribed because the explanations are really explicit. However, I have a problem. I explain it to you. I (a priori) adjusted my ICOM 7300 as it should be to be able to traffic in FT8 digimode among others. The antenna is also fine tuned but here is the problem. I therefore switch to FT8, set the power of the ICOM 7300 to 25% and when I transmit, the power indicator of the ICOM 7300 "PO" indicates 100% while my ROSMETER indicates 20 /25 w. Would you have an idea? Kind regards 73/Joel/F8MGW
Hi again. I forgot to ask. If just receiving shortwave broadcasts, by touching the tuner quickly and NOT fully starting the relays, will that help reception or must I do a full tune? William
Touching the tuner button briefly will engage or bypass the tuner, indicated by TUNE on the display. The tuner will re-engage at the previous settings for the frequency you are on if it had been tuned within a few percent of that frequency previously. I don’t know if it will engage based on the nearest amateur frequency if you’re outside the ham bands. Even if you long-press the TUNE button, it won’t tune outside of amateur frequencies because it can’t transmit there.
Hi Tom. You said you used an EF53 and I believe you shortened the 53' wire. Do you know how much you took off? Also, is the unun 9:1 for that antenna? Or something else? Thanks. K5INW
Hi Robert. The EF53 does use a 9:1 unun. It comes with the antenna. I did not shorten the antenna. After several months I did lengthen it some. I also played around with various counterpoise lengths connected to the ground terminal. I don’t recall the exact lengths. This antenna does require a tuner and it’s important to pick a length that isn’t resonant on any band you plan to use.
Tom, another very helpful video. When using the internal antenna tuner can I use my AL811 amp at about 500 watts. If not is 100 watts the max power to be used with the internal tuner? Sure would appreciate your help here.
Hi Tom, love your series. I own both an IC-7100 and 7300. What automati screwdriver antenna tuner works with the IC-7300? I have a Turbo Tuner 2 for my 7100, will it work for the 7300?
Just installed flrig, then fldigi. While configuring fldigi with flrig running, found that 7300 was in transmit with no indication on either screen. This video may offer a solution. Stay tuned.
Hi. I’m not sure what settings you mean. If you connect an Icom compatible tuner, like the IT-100, the radio will recognize it when it’s plugged in and will automatically use the external tuner and disable the internal tuner. You can also check out the next video in this series about using an external tuner here: Icom IC7300 A to Z #41 Using an External Antenna Tuner ruclips.net/video/rjjl6J6xX8o/видео.html
When should you use Manual vs Automatic vs PTT? I have my IC-7300 connected to an LDG IT-100 Autotuner because on some bands and some frequencies my SWR is slightly over 2:1. So I had my IC-7300 set to manual and I notice that neither tuner seem to remember any tuner setting. Should I have the IC-7300 set to Auto or PTT when connected to an external tuner?
Hi. Sorry I missed this question earlier. The Auto/PTT options work the same way with the internal or an external tuner. PTT will cause it to automatically retune if the SWR is too high whenever you press the PTT button.
Great video! Any chance you can do a follow up on tuner settings with your external tuner? I have an LDG and curios if you have any recommendations on settings.
No it does not. Whenever you start a tune cycle, either by holding the Tune button for a second or automatically with PTT, the radio automatically transmits a solid carrier at 10W regardless of the mode or power setting. This is true both for the internal tuner and when using an external tuner plugged into the radio's tuner connector.
Hi Dave. Thanks for the kind words. The answer to your question is: It depends. I wouldn’t get rid of your LDG just yet. The internal tuner in the 7300 will work with anything up to about 3:1 SWR. If your feed point SWR is higher than that, you will need an external tuner. I just put up an 80 meter OCF dipole and the internal tuner works fine on most bands, but it won’t quite tune the low and of 20 meters. So I need an external tuner if I want to do digital modes or CW on 20. Enjoy that new rig! 73, Tom
Yes & no. If your antenna SWR is 3:1 or less on the bands you want to use, then the internal tuner will work fine. If your antenna is worse than that, you will need an external tuner. Ideally, your home station antenna should be 3:1 or hopefully, even better on the bands you will work the most. However, not everyone has the space or HOA latitude to put up large resonant antennas. In those cases, a compromise antenna with an external tuner may be the only option.
Tom question...re using the 7300s internal tuner in conjunction with a manual atu Ok my doublet antenna lets me tune most band bar 160m.....if I adjust the manual MFJ tuning to best SWR....which is around 2.5 to 1....then tune with the 7300s internal tuner the indicated SWR on the radio is near 1 to 1.....which I know its still 2.5 to 1....but I am presuming the radio sees near 1 to 1. No my question....will it hear the 7300 using the set own internal tuner in conjunction at the external ATU. I am hoping it will be kinder for the 7300. I know 2.5 to 1 is not the end of the world....and looses around 18% out output power. What do you think....nick 2E0LPL.
Using an external manual tuner ahead of the 7300 internal tuner is an interesting approach. I’m assuming your question is will using the external + the internal tuner “hurt” the 7300? No, it won’t hurt the radio. I’m curious why you can’t the tuning to better than 2.5:1 with just the manual tuner. With a little more adjusting, you should be able to get it to 1:1 and not use the internal tuner at all. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you get the radio to see less than 3:1 into the manual tuner, then the internal tuner should get it the rest of the way down to 1:1. I expect that your total efficiency is worse going through 2 tuners. This is because the signal is going through more inductors and capacitors. Each of them will have some loss. However, it probably isn’t that much worse than a single tuner.
@@HamRadioA2Z My external ATU is an MFJ 941....some people say they are not great.....for everyday use mine is fine.....just this one band I cant get it less than 2.5 to 1. As an experiment I extended the antenna wires by 20ft each side with temp wire....1 to 1....but I cant leave it like that. Maybe my MFJ941 has a limited range. It a low freq on the 160mt band I am tuning. Antenna is a doublet. As with most things in radio.....depending who you ask you get opposite views.....I tend to agree with your view....using both ATU wont harm anything....but lots say dont do it. Thank you Tom.
Hi Brian. That is correct. When you press the Tune button to start a tuning cycle, the radio automatically sets the power to 10 watts and puts out a CW carrier. It doesn’t matter what mode it’s in.
Hello, Im new to the 7300, question...If it will not tune on a band it will not transmit?...Correct. If mine will not tune it has a red dotted line around the TX under the tune? and will not Transmit.
Hi. That is not correct. If it can’t match an antenna well enough, the TUNE indicator will turn off, but you can still transmit. It will just fold back power to a very low level to protect the finals. If you see a dashed line around the TX symbol, it means that you are tuned outside of an amateur band. It could also mean that you are tuned outside of a user programmed band edge and that you have the inhibit transmit on user band edges option enabled.
@@HamRadioA2Z Just for clarification, when I use the automatic tuner function by holding down the tuner button, the radio automatically send out a lower wattage to test the SWR, even though my power setting may be set at a higher wattage?
Dear sir Good day Iam watching your video tob all the times , but i have aquestion how i can prgram my call sign when i open Ic7300 step by steps thank you
Hi. Thanks for watching. I showed how to program your call sign in the first video I made for this channel. You can find that here: Icom IC-7300 From A to Z - #1 Introduction, setting Bands & Modes & programming your own call sign ruclips.net/video/m48WLp76ue0/видео.html
Hi Troy. No you don't have to adjust the power. When you press the Tune button, the radio automatically transmits a solid carrier at about 10 watts. It does this regardless of the mode or power settings. It works this way with either the internal or an external tuner.
I really love your educational videos on the IC-7300. I am legally blind and your videos have helped me with a few different things, including exactly how the antenna tuner works, through the last six or eight months. I do have one question. I have noticed sometimes that in the upper left corner where TUNE is displayed it will be colored red. Does this just indicate that the band I am trying to tune is not tunable with the internal tuner? I have problems with being able to tune in 30 and 60 meters But fortunately with my 135 ft off-center fed , give or take a few feet, antenna I am able to tune all other bands. I haven't tried 160 m yet but anyhow... Thanks for the great videos! KI5FLE
Hi. Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos. The TUNE indicator will appear red while it is trying to tune. Usually, this is just a few seconds. Once it has finished tuning, the TUNE indicator will be displayed in grey to indicate it successfully tuned or it will not be displayed at all to indicate it could not tune the antenna.
Hi William. When I did that video, I was in a rental house and was using Princeton EF-53 end fed antenna. For a compromise antenna, it wasn't bad. I made quite a few contacts with it.
I suppose it's possible, but my first suspicion would be RF getting back into the rig somehow and temporary scrambling it's brain and making it turn off. I would check the antenna setup, looking for good grounds, good connections, etc.
On mods.dk there's a modification installing a 100k resistor in the tuner which then, the author claims, will allow the internal tuner to tune antennas more than 3:1 SWR...such as a multiband endfed dipole which doesn't normally cover WARC bands. Has anyone tried this mod and does it work? Thanks, 73 ~ k6sdw
Hi Eddy. I'm not familiar with that mod. However, I suspect that the resistor modifies the SWR reading that the radio sees to make it appear lower than it actually is. When you start a tuning sequence (not in emergency mode), the first thing the 7300 does is to key the transmitter with the tuner bypassed and measure the SWR. If it is greater than 3:1, the radio drops out of tune mode immediately and doesn't bother trying to tune the antenna. The mod could certainly work and the tuner would tuner SWRs higher than 3:1 and operate at full power. Here's the problem-- The capacitors, inductors, relays and circuit board spacing for the tuner section of the radio have been designed to for some maximum RF voltage. When a tuning a high SWR antenna, very high voltages can develop across the tuning components. The higher the power, the higher the voltages will be. So you run the risk of arcing across the tuner components inside the radio. I'm sure there's some margin in Icom's design. The question is how much margin and how bad an antenna will the mod force the radio to tune. So, if you don't want to risk letting the smoke out of your rig, I'd stay away from the mod. 73, Tom
More...can you make one for use with an external manual tuner. If you are using an amplifier the ATU in the 7300 is not used. Some are using something like an MFJ989C and an amplifier. In that case one would want to disable the internal ATU for all operations when amp is used. Thanks again Tom. Ed/K8EA BTW visit my channel "K8EA."
Hi Theo. The manual recommends putting the rig in RTTY mode to check the SWR. AM mode will work too. In either one you will get a carrier just by keying the mic. If your in SSB, then there is no power output unless there is audio. As far as your different readings, 1% is a little too low for the SWR function to read accurately. You really need to have the power set to at least 10% to get a good reading. So, I’m afraid those good readings at 1% were just a false tease. Sounds like you might need to do some antenna work or maybe consider an external tuner.
I’m assuming that you’re joking. However, not as obvious as you might think. Normally you hold the Power button for 2 seconds to turn the rig on or off. It does have another function that you can enable in the settings menu. You can turn on the capability to capture screens on the radio. When this is enabled, a momentary press of the Power button will capture the current screen to a BMP or PNG file and save it to the SD card. Just search “Screen Capture” in the PDF version of the manual and you will find the setting option.
You should be using RTTY and not SSB. The reason why RTTY is used is not to interfere with Phone operations but to provide a constant carrier. SSB is a suppressed carrier mode so you only see output when the radio is excited (you speaking into the mic) which is not a good method for checking SWR since the radios output power will vary (based on the level of your voice) giving you skewed SWR readings. It would have been a far more productive video had you gone into Spot and Graph SWR measurement and their respective uses. Can I have eighteen minutes of my life back?
Typical old HAM...Takes a 3 minute long explanation and drags it out to nearly 20 minutes. I found a different no B.S. video elsewhere that isn't long winded and filled with mistakes and confusion.
Anyone who has an IC-7300 should view your videos extremely informative, thanks!
Thanks!
Great videos, I just got back into HF after a 20 year absence and purchased a 7300. VE3RRB
I've just bought a 7300 and this video and the series are just what I need, thank-you.
I’m glad they’re helpful. Enjoy that new rig!
@@HamRadioA2Z Thank-you!
Wonderful video! Well done! I just got a 7300 yesterday, and now I am going to go watch your whole series on it. Thank you for putting out such a well thought out and organized video!
Just took delivery (November 2023) of an IC7300. Will certainly be watching your videos to get the most out of my radio. WA7JYM
Just ordered my IC-7300. I was wondering how well the internal tuner worked. Thanks for the video! I look forward to viewing more of them.
Hi Harry. I have an off center fed 80 meter dipole where I live now. I’m just using the internal tuner with it and it works fine on 80 through 10 meters. As long as your antenna system is 3:1 or better it should work fine.
Thank you so much! You really do make the best instructional videos on you tube! All the details are so efficiently and thoroughly explained.
Wow, thank you!
Many Thanks for that comprehensive video Tom.
Your Icom 7300 series is my go to guide. Picked mine up yesterday and I’m well impressed with it.
73 M7PBX.
great video! I just got my 7300 for Christmas so I'll be watching all of these!
These a/z videos on ic7300 are amazing. Thanks buddy
It would be interesting to see what the SWR was before and after Emergency tuning the 20 Meter antenna.
Very good series! Of course you can and should read the manual also, but the Tom's explanations make it easier to understand.
Thanks for the kind words.
Tom, thanks for doing these videos. This tuner video gave me more info than the manual and answered so many questions. Awesome!
What a great demo. I will be getting the 7300 soon and this helped me a lot. Many thanks.
This is like waiting for my favorite cable shows to drop. Excellent!
Wow, thanks!
Thank You! This is a fantastic series on the IC-7300.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for explaining this. Looking forward to the external tuner tutorial. I have an end fed half wave 8010 from my antennas. I bought the LDG AT100ProII tuner. I have the IC-7100 and I bought the LDG IT-100 for that. Full watch and like!
Excellent coverage of this topic. I could not hear the relays but everything else was very well done
Thanks Tom Your videos are most helpful! 👍 K0CXF says that.
Tom, you are a mind reader... I was just going to ask if you were going to discuss the internal tuner and "ta-dah", here's the video. Thanks so much for these videos and the A to Z series... I am really getting a lot of good out of this as a new Ham. Thanks again!
Thanks for the kind words Dwight. I'm glad you're enjoying them. I had some great mentors when I was young. So, I'm just trying to give back some of what I've learned.
73, Tom
@@HamRadioA2Z Well, I'm certainly not young, just new to radio. I appreciate the help so much as I don't have an Elmer to get questions answered... This hobby takes forever to learn without help! Thanks for being my "virtual Elmer'.. Heck we were practicing social distancing before it was a thing 😆
Thank you very much friend, it is a great contribution from you, I will start practicing! 73s
XESWL-3017
Excellent. Should have my own 7300 in a couple of months. VK3XVC
Thank you for making these videos. much appreciated,
Glad you like them!
Nice video.
Question…. In tuner mode, whether auto or manual, is the radio reducing power automatically? Or shld I turn the power down ( I like 10 watts) manually?
Is there a way to set a button to a shortcut to Emergency mode? As the top end of 80 meters , on my 80-10 exhibits high swr and will not tune in normal tuner mode. Thus its a pain to keep switching to EM each time I go to the top end.
Thanku
William
I don’t know of any way to make a shortcut for Emergency Mode. If your situation doesn’t allow you to put up a better antenna, the next best option would be an external tuner. If the internal tuner matches your antenna in emergency mode, the. Any external tuner should match it fine. You’d have the bonus feature of getting full power out of the radio.
@@HamRadioA2Z Again thanku
With my 132 foot 80-10, I cannot tune on 160 with emergency mode, thus I was hoping the Mfj-939 would?
Lastly, when internally tuning do I need to manually reduce power to 10 watts or does the radio do it automatically upon tuning?
Thanks!!!
William
I really appreciate these videos. I just ordered a IC7300. While watching (around the 10MIN mark), I noticed there is an AUTO TUNE button to the left of the VFO. Is that for an external tuner?
The AUTO TUNE button is for automatically centering a CW signal. If you push that when copying a CW signal it will adjust the VFO to put you right on the carrier of the signal.
That was a great explanation.
Hey Tom, been a subscriber now for several months now and sure appreciate your videos. 73
Thanks Steve. Glad you're enjoying them.
Thanks Tom. I'm ready to buy a 7300 but still have to convince the XYL. Hopefully before Christmas while the rebates is still good.
Hi Marshall. Thanks for reaching out. I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos. I’m pretty fortunate in that my wife (also a ham) is pretty supportive of the hobby even if she isn’t all that active. I thought I would reach out to her to get some advice for you. She said (with a smile) that you need to be able to answer the question “what’s in it for her”. 😉. Good luck and I hope you have a great Christmas this year. 73, Tom
I ENJOY YOUR VIDEOS VERY HELPFUL 73
But can you have different tune settings for each band that it remembers? Or ... does the tuner figure out that it needs to tune for the band you're on? Sounds like maybe the latter (which is cool). So then the Auto setting just remembers whether or not you were using the tuner on that band last time you were on it?
ah: ~@7:20 answered the question pretty well.
The other thing the manual suggests if the tuner won't tune is to reset the tuner memory and try again.
You are correct. Good additional suggestion to point out.
Thank you for this very good information.
Get a dummy load and then you don't have to move to bands where you think you won't interfere with someone... otherwise really appreciate the videos. Well Done!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the videos. Thanks for the kind words. A dummy load does avoid any interference issues. Unfortunately, it would make it difficult to demonstrate the antenna tuner since it would always be a perfect match (at least theoretically).
Hi Tom, thank you for the well explained video. I was just wondering what that little auto tune button on the right hand side was all about.
The AutoTune button is for CW. If the radio is in CW mode and you're listening to one signal, you can press AutoTune and it will adjust the receive frequency to put you exactly on the same carrier frequency as the station that you're hearing.
Looking forward to the next one on the tuner
Tom I think you forgot to tell him the most important part
You have to hold the turn button about 2 seconds to get it to tune on other bands
I realize you're saying that it auto-tunes from band to band if it's saved
But from looking at your video I don't think a lot of people realize you may have to hold the tune button for 2 seconds to actually get it to tune
Just the fact that the tune light is on does not meet its tuning
Just discovered your excellent video! I have researched the 7300 a lot, but have yet to pull the trigger, and the tuner is one of the few reasons why. What was the SWR of your end fed antenna on 20 meters before you got it to tune in the emergency mode?
Hi Richard. It's been a while since I checked the SWR of my antenna across every band. I've also done a few adjustments to it since the last time I measured everything. I'll have to recheck it and let you know. Right now, we're practicing social distancing in our camper, parked by our son's house in Arizona. So, I won't be able to check my antenna for a couple weeks.
I can tell you that the 7300 internal tuner doesn't seem to cut off at exactly 3:1. I don't know exactly what the limit is before it stops trying, but it seems like it will at least try to tune in normal mode up to at least 3.5:1 or maybe 4:1. Testing that might be another fun video someday, but I'd want to use some "real" test equipment for that.
73,
Tom WA2IVD
Great video. I found it very educational. Just received the 7300 so I have a lot to learn. Thanks for taking the time to record them!
Jay ke4vrm
Just what I needed to learn about! Much thanks, Bob de KM6PAX
Very good. I’ll have to go through the whole process. 73 n7dls
Any idea why your noise floor is pulsating? My 7300 doesn't do this.
Hi Tim. When I made that video we were living in a rental house in Olathe, KS. I had tons of local noise from the neighborhood and from the HVAC system and other things in the house. It could have been anything, but I'm sure it was local RFI and not the radio.
When i do an swr check I’m at 1.5 with 1% or watt. When i increase the power to 5% or 50-60-80% or watts. My swr goes over 3.0. Any ideas? Thanks guys.
Hi Theo. The problem is that 1% or 1 watt isn't quite enough power for the internal SWR meter to get a valid reading. 5%-10% is enough for it to read correctly. You don't need to go all the way to 50%
Great tutorial - thank you Tom!
Hello Tom. First, congratulations for all your videos concerning the ICOM 7300 and as I have one here at the QRA, I subscribed because the explanations are really explicit. However, I have a problem. I explain it to you. I (a priori) adjusted my ICOM 7300 as it should be to be able to traffic in FT8 digimode among others. The antenna is also fine tuned but here is the problem. I therefore switch to FT8, set the power of the ICOM 7300 to 25% and when I transmit, the power indicator of the ICOM 7300 "PO" indicates 100% while my ROSMETER indicates 20 /25 w. Would you have an idea? Kind regards 73/Joel/F8MGW
Thanks for the video, very useful.
Tom - You are a good teacher !!
Hi again.
I forgot to ask.
If just receiving shortwave broadcasts, by touching the tuner quickly and NOT fully starting the relays, will that help reception or must I do a full tune?
William
Touching the tuner button briefly will engage or bypass the tuner, indicated by TUNE on the display. The tuner will re-engage at the previous settings for the frequency you are on if it had been tuned within a few percent of that frequency previously. I don’t know if it will engage based on the nearest amateur frequency if you’re outside the ham bands. Even if you long-press the TUNE button, it won’t tune outside of amateur frequencies because it can’t transmit there.
Thanku.
With the mfj 993 hooked up to the 7300, do I need to reduce power before tuning or will the 7300 do this automatically?
Thanks
William
Hi Tom. You said you used an EF53 and I believe you shortened the 53' wire. Do you know how much you took off? Also, is the unun 9:1 for that antenna? Or something else? Thanks. K5INW
Hi Robert. The EF53 does use a 9:1 unun. It comes with the antenna. I did not shorten the antenna. After several months I did lengthen it some. I also played around with various counterpoise lengths connected to the ground terminal. I don’t recall the exact lengths. This antenna does require a tuner and it’s important to pick a length that isn’t resonant on any band you plan to use.
Tom, another very helpful video. When using the internal antenna tuner can I use my AL811 amp at about 500 watts. If not is 100 watts the max power to be used with the internal tuner? Sure would appreciate your help here.
Hi Tom, love your series. I own both an IC-7100 and 7300. What automati screwdriver antenna tuner works with the IC-7300? I have a Turbo Tuner 2 for my 7100, will it work for the 7300?
Hi Ron. It should work fine with the 7300. The external tuner interface is the same. I switch my MFJ939 between my 7100 and 7300 all the time.
Just installed flrig, then fldigi. While configuring fldigi with flrig running, found that 7300 was in transmit with no indication on either screen. This video may offer a solution. Stay tuned.
Very Helpful but please... tuners don't tune antennas they match the impedance presented at the input.
What about that auto tune button at the bottom right next to the dial?
Hi. That button is for automatically tuning in to a received CW signal. It is not related to antenna tuners or transmitting.
Thanks again Tom.
Good video. What settings would you use if you were using an external tuner, such as LDG IT-100?
Hi. I’m not sure what settings you mean. If you connect an Icom compatible tuner, like the IT-100, the radio will recognize it when it’s plugged in and will automatically use the external tuner and disable the internal tuner. You can also check out the next video in this series about using an external tuner here: Icom IC7300 A to Z #41 Using an External Antenna Tuner
ruclips.net/video/rjjl6J6xX8o/видео.html
When should you use Manual vs Automatic vs PTT? I have my IC-7300 connected to an LDG IT-100 Autotuner because on some bands and some frequencies my SWR is slightly over 2:1. So I had my IC-7300 set to manual and I notice that neither tuner seem to remember any tuner setting. Should I have the IC-7300 set to Auto or PTT when connected to an external tuner?
Hi. Sorry I missed this question earlier. The Auto/PTT options work the same way with the internal or an external tuner. PTT will cause it to automatically retune if the SWR is too high whenever you press the PTT button.
Great video! Any chance you can do a follow up on tuner settings with your external tuner? I have an LDG and curios if you have any recommendations on settings.
Hi Robert. Check out Video #41 - ruclips.net/video/rjjl6J6xX8o/видео.html
It can take local AM FM radio ?
Does it come with echo botton
Does the TX power need to be turned down to 10W before using the tune function?
No it does not. Whenever you start a tune cycle, either by holding the Tune button for a second or automatically with PTT, the radio automatically transmits a solid carrier at 10W regardless of the mode or power setting. This is true both for the internal tuner and when using an external tuner plugged into the radio's tuner connector.
Icom IC7300 Just above the speech button there is a auto tune button what does that do ?
Thank you! I needed that.
Great job. Very useful information. Does this mean my LDG 1000 pro 2 is no longer needed when I purchased my IC 7300 next week
Hi Dave. Thanks for the kind words. The answer to your question is: It depends. I wouldn’t get rid of your LDG just yet. The internal tuner in the 7300 will work with anything up to about 3:1 SWR. If your feed point SWR is higher than that, you will need an external tuner. I just put up an 80 meter OCF dipole and the internal tuner works fine on most bands, but it won’t quite tune the low and of 20 meters. So I need an external tuner if I want to do digital modes or CW on 20. Enjoy that new rig! 73, Tom
HamCuredSmoke thanks Tom just set up the icon 7300 today and your 100% right. Thanks for the info 73s
Does this function eliminate the need for an external tuner?
Yes & no. If your antenna SWR is 3:1 or less on the bands you want to use, then the internal tuner will work fine. If your antenna is worse than that, you will need an external tuner. Ideally, your home station antenna should be 3:1 or hopefully, even better on the bands you will work the most. However, not everyone has the space or HOA latitude to put up large resonant antennas. In those cases, a compromise antenna with an external tuner may be the only option.
Excellent
again very interesting I have subscribed. vk2ab Malcolm
Tom question...re using the 7300s internal tuner in conjunction with a manual atu
Ok my doublet antenna lets me tune most band bar 160m.....if I adjust the manual MFJ tuning to best SWR....which is around 2.5 to 1....then tune with the 7300s internal tuner the indicated SWR on the radio is near 1 to 1.....which I know its still 2.5 to 1....but I am presuming the radio sees near 1 to 1.
No my question....will it hear the 7300 using the set own internal tuner in conjunction at the external ATU.
I am hoping it will be kinder for the 7300.
I know 2.5 to 1 is not the end of the world....and looses around 18% out output power.
What do you think....nick 2E0LPL.
Using an external manual tuner ahead of the 7300 internal tuner is an interesting approach. I’m assuming your question is will using the external + the internal tuner “hurt” the 7300? No, it won’t hurt the radio. I’m curious why you can’t the tuning to better than 2.5:1 with just the manual tuner. With a little more adjusting, you should be able to get it to 1:1 and not use the internal tuner at all. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you get the radio to see less than 3:1 into the manual tuner, then the internal tuner should get it the rest of the way down to 1:1. I expect that your total efficiency is worse going through 2 tuners. This is because the signal is going through more inductors and capacitors. Each of them will have some loss. However, it probably isn’t that much worse than a single tuner.
@@HamRadioA2Z My external ATU is an MFJ 941....some people say they are not great.....for everyday use mine is fine.....just this one band I cant get it less than 2.5 to 1.
As an experiment I extended the antenna wires by 20ft each side with temp wire....1 to 1....but I cant leave it like that.
Maybe my MFJ941 has a limited range.
It a low freq on the 160mt band I am tuning.
Antenna is a doublet.
As with most things in radio.....depending who you ask you get opposite views.....I tend to agree with your view....using both ATU wont harm anything....but lots say dont do it.
Thank you Tom.
Another thank you from me CT7BKO
So on the ic 7300 there is no need to switch to AM or FM to tune or does it do it automatically. I noticed you left it in ssb to tune. Thanks
Hi Brian. That is correct. When you press the Tune button to start a tuning cycle, the radio automatically sets the power to 10 watts and puts out a CW carrier. It doesn’t matter what mode it’s in.
So it has to be in manual for ptt and not auto so when you key up it automatically tunes?
No. It will tune on PTT with the auto setting.
Hello, Im new to the 7300, question...If it will not tune on a band it will not transmit?...Correct. If mine will not tune it has a red dotted line around the TX under the tune? and will not Transmit.
Hi. That is not correct. If it can’t match an antenna well enough, the TUNE indicator will turn off, but you can still transmit. It will just fold back power to a very low level to protect the finals. If you see a dashed line around the TX symbol, it means that you are tuned outside of an amateur band. It could also mean that you are tuned outside of a user programmed band edge and that you have the inhibit transmit on user band edges option enabled.
@@HamRadioA2Z Thank you,That is what the problem, I turned it off and all good.
@@HamRadioA2Z Just for clarification, when I use the automatic tuner function by holding down the tuner button, the radio automatically send out a lower wattage to test the SWR, even though my power setting may be set at a higher wattage?
Oops, never mind, I see that you already answered this question in comment below. Thanks for the video!
Tom thanks for the video my ic7300 should be with me soon.
Pete / G0LVG
Dear sir
Good day
Iam watching your video tob all the times , but i have aquestion how i can prgram my call sign when i open Ic7300 step by steps
thank you
Hi. Thanks for watching. I showed how to program your call sign in the first video I made for this channel. You can find that here: Icom IC-7300 From A to Z - #1 Introduction, setting Bands & Modes & programming your own call sign
ruclips.net/video/m48WLp76ue0/видео.html
Do u have to turn down power when tuning. Or does the radio do it. Also can u tune in ssb.
Hi Troy. No you don't have to adjust the power. When you press the Tune button, the radio automatically transmits a solid carrier at about 10 watts. It does this regardless of the mode or power settings. It works this way with either the internal or an external tuner.
I really love your educational videos on the IC-7300. I am legally blind and your videos have helped me with a few different things, including exactly how the antenna tuner works, through the last six or eight months. I do have one question. I have noticed sometimes that in the upper left corner where TUNE is displayed it will be colored red. Does this just indicate that the band I am trying to tune is not tunable with the internal tuner? I have problems with being able to tune in 30 and 60 meters But fortunately with my 135 ft off-center fed , give or take a few feet, antenna I am able to tune all other bands. I haven't tried 160 m yet but anyhow... Thanks for the great videos! KI5FLE
Hi. Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos. The TUNE indicator will appear red while it is trying to tune. Usually, this is just a few seconds. Once it has finished tuning, the TUNE indicator will be displayed in grey to indicate it successfully tuned or it will not be displayed at all to indicate it could not tune the antenna.
@@HamRadioA2Z Gotcha and thank you again. KI5FLE
Does the tuner work on 6m? Does Emergency mode work on 6m?
Hi Ken. The internal tuner does work on 6m. I haven’t tried Emergency Mode on 6m, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work up there too.
so helpful mni tnks m0rmw
What kind of antenna is it you're using?
Hi William. When I did that video, I was in a rental house and was using Princeton EF-53 end fed antenna. For a compromise antenna, it wasn't bad. I made quite a few contacts with it.
Great video...thanks...
When I key up on 10 meter FM it shuts off could that be a software issue
I suppose it's possible, but my first suspicion would be RF getting back into the rig somehow and temporary scrambling it's brain and making it turn off. I would check the antenna setup, looking for good grounds, good connections, etc.
@@HamRadioA2Z thanks for the info but I found the problem it was the power so I'm getting the one I got last year fixed 👍
Thank you so much 🙏
getting mine thursday
VERRY GOOD TNKS 73 SV2LZX
On mods.dk there's a modification installing a 100k resistor in the tuner which then, the author claims, will allow the internal tuner to tune antennas more than 3:1 SWR...such as a multiband endfed dipole which doesn't normally cover WARC bands. Has anyone tried this mod and does it work? Thanks, 73 ~ k6sdw
Hi Eddy. I'm not familiar with that mod. However, I suspect that the resistor modifies the SWR reading that the radio sees to make it appear lower than it actually is. When you start a tuning sequence (not in emergency mode), the first thing the 7300 does is to key the transmitter with the tuner bypassed and measure the SWR. If it is greater than 3:1, the radio drops out of tune mode immediately and doesn't bother trying to tune the antenna. The mod could certainly work and the tuner would tuner SWRs higher than 3:1 and operate at full power.
Here's the problem-- The capacitors, inductors, relays and circuit board spacing for the tuner section of the radio have been designed to for some maximum RF voltage. When a tuning a high SWR antenna, very high voltages can develop across the tuning components. The higher the power, the higher the voltages will be. So you run the risk of arcing across the tuner components inside the radio. I'm sure there's some margin in Icom's design. The question is how much margin and how bad an antenna will the mod force the radio to tune. So, if you don't want to risk letting the smoke out of your rig, I'd stay away from the mod. 73, Tom
Thanks for this video. KD0FDF
Thanks
More...can you make one for use with an external manual tuner. If you are using an amplifier the ATU in the 7300 is not used. Some are using something like an MFJ989C and an amplifier. In that case one would want to disable the internal ATU for all operations when amp is used. Thanks again Tom. Ed/K8EA BTW visit my channel "K8EA."
Subbed, nice easy explanation thx 73 de KE8NKV
Do you have to be in AM mode to check swr? Thanks
Hi Theo. The manual recommends putting the rig in RTTY mode to check the SWR. AM mode will work too. In either one you will get a carrier just by keying the mic. If your in SSB, then there is no power output unless there is audio. As far as your different readings, 1% is a little too low for the SWR function to read accurately. You really need to have the power set to at least 10% to get a good reading. So, I’m afraid those good readings at 1% were just a false tease. Sounds like you might need to do some antenna work or maybe consider an external tuner.
My good old Ft 1000 does this
👍👍👍
Master of the obvious. What does the power switch do?
I’m assuming that you’re joking. However, not as obvious as you might think. Normally you hold the Power button for 2 seconds to turn the rig on or off. It does have another function that you can enable in the settings menu. You can turn on the capability to capture screens on the radio. When this is enabled, a momentary press of the Power button will capture the current screen to a BMP or PNG file and save it to the SD card. Just search “Screen Capture” in the PDF version of the manual and you will find the setting option.
좋은 정보주셔서 감사를 드립니다. 예수님 믿으시고 영생의 복을 받으시길 축원드입니다. 샬롬
좋은 말씀 감사합니다. 여러분도 축복받으시기 바랍니다. 언젠가 라디오에서 만날 수 있기를 바랍니다.
Merci 73" F4JYO
You should be using RTTY and not SSB. The reason why RTTY is used is not to interfere with Phone operations but to provide a constant carrier. SSB is a suppressed carrier mode so you only see output when the radio is excited (you speaking into the mic) which is not a good method for checking SWR since the radios output power will vary (based on the level of your voice) giving you skewed SWR readings.
It would have been a far more productive video had you gone into Spot and Graph SWR measurement and their respective uses.
Can I have eighteen minutes of my life back?
язык на русский.
Нет русский
Typical old HAM...Takes a 3 minute long explanation and drags it out to nearly 20 minutes. I found a different no B.S. video elsewhere that isn't long winded and filled with mistakes and confusion.
Everyone learns differently. I’m glad you found a video that works for you.
Thanks, helpful video. Much appreciated.👍
thanks
👍👍👍