Icom Hand Mic Caution Icom Transceivers
Icom Hand Mic Caution
Hams have accidentally QSY'd while transmitting without realizing it. This results in interfering with others and could possibly damage the radio if not caught right away.
This will also happen with other microphones that have up/down buttons.
My Icom 7000 will also QSY while transmitting with the supplied hand mic.
If it's happens to you and you think it's necessary, there is a workaround.
Hand Mic Workaround
The workaround is to disable the buttons by making them active for CW. There is no other option I can see to disable the microphone up/down buttons while transmitting in phone modes.
If you wish to disable the buttons, follow the instructions in the manual. Set the Up/Down buttons to use as a CW key. Icom 7300, page 4-21 of the full manual. Icom 7610, page 16 of the full manual. See the video below.
Most Hams do not use the hand mics supplied with these radios, but I have found many do. With Field Day coming up, even more Hams and clubs may be using the supplied hand mic.
Although I have not personally been subject to this issue, I think it is important for Hams to know. Maybe Icom will address this in a firmware update.
Icom Hand Mic Caution Video
A special thanks goes out to Jerry, KU9S for pointing this out to me. After I posted the issue to a couple of online Ham radio groups, others came forward and confirmed the same. It is more common than I thought.
Flaw or Oversight?
I don't believe it is a flaw because it happens on all of my Icom transceivers. It is designed this way. Why? Only Icom knows.
Could it be just an oversight? IDK.
It's been relayed to me that this issue does not happen with another brand radio. In those transceivers the up/down buttons are automatically disabled when transmitting.
I hope you find this informative and useful.
Thank you again for coming by and I appreciate all of the comments. If you have a question please comment below. I will do my best to answer it and your experience will undoubtedly help others as well.
Best 73,
Rich, K0PIR
I first used my IC-7300 for School Club Roundup in February, and the students would push the buttons, changing the frequency, while transmitting. I cautioned them not to put their little fingers near those buttons, but it still happened a couple of times. Thanks for the warning.
N4CNY
Hi John,
Nice to hear from you and thanks for the comment.
I said on another forum, keep and eye on the Scouts and kids this Field Day, hi!
Thanks and best 73.
Rich, K0PIR
Hi Rich, since my radio is still new,(1 month old) I probably don’t have to worry about it, but when the radios get older and if your still using the hand mike, its a possibility that the wires at the plug or at the mike head may get frayed and possibly short out, and with the up down buttons, and change frequency anyway, which could force you to get a desk mike anyway….which may sound better on the air waves anyway…. just a thought…. cheers…. 73 de Mark W6MRK….
Hi Mark,
Nice to hear from you and thank you for the comment. Good thought and I used my 7300 at home a lot and with a boom mic. I didn’t start using the hand mic until it went to my camper.
The hand mic does get used by Hams at home though because it sounds so good!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Best 73,
Rich, K0PIR
Rich – Sometime recently my 7300 suddenly lost all the programming changes I had made from the defaults – I had modified the scope/waterfall appearance, etc. to look like yours – I had been using the hand mic one day quite a bit to set ALC levels , TXT bass & treble, etc. because i find that it’s not good to use my Inrad desk mic when doing that . Then I was away from the rig for a couple weeks due to other commitments. When I returned to it I found that my CQRLOG would no longer communicate with the 7300. I had changed nothing on the rig. I suspected i had done something not good on the computer or with CQRLOG – but after struggling for a week or more to get it going I began to suspect that the rig has stopped communicating thru its REMOTE port, which i use to attach thru a RS232 CI-V CT17 type cable. I had always successfully used a Prolific one, but suspected the cable and ordered a new FTDI one. Did not help at all. So right now I’m really suspecting its the rig.
You mention above that it might be possible to damage the rig inadvertently while using the hand mic, and I wonder if I have somehow damaged the REMOTE port while doing that.
BTW, have you had any other reports of the REMOTE port not working?
Regards, Wes AI4FH.
Wes
Hi Wes,
No I would not think so. I was referring to transmitting on a non resonant antenna. Say we inadvertantly switched from 80 meters to 20 meters and continued talking without noticing the band change because of the up/down button press. We could damage the finals or worse, if we are using an amplifier, we could do a lot worse.
Can you start CQRLOG from the terminal window just by typing in cqrlog? Doing so will show what errors are occurring.
Since you are using the remote (CI-V) and I think that is the easiest one to resolve, does the port show up in Linux? Do the baud rates match in the radio and CQRLOG?
I don’t have a linux box right now, but that’s how I found my problem on my RaspberrPi and CQRLOG.
Rich, K0PIR
Yes – starts up great from terminal and here’s what the terminal displays – don’t see anything in here that would indicate there’s a connection problem from the CQRLOG side. I had the Prolific connection made and the rig running when I captured this.
xplanet/markers
/home/wes/.xplanet/markers
/usr/share/xplanet/markers
Warning: Can’t load marker file /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/marker
Warning: Can’t find /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/bck.png in
xplanet/images
/home/wes/.xplanet/images
/usr/share/xplanet/images
Warning: Can’t find /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/marker in
xplanet/markers
/home/wes/.xplanet/markers
/usr/share/xplanet/markers
Warning: Can’t load marker file /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/marker
Warning: Can’t find /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/bck.png in
xplanet/images
/home/wes/.xplanet/images
/usr/share/xplanet/images
Warning: Can’t find /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/marker in
xplanet/markers
/home/wes/.xplanet/markers
/usr/share/xplanet/markers
Warning: Can’t load marker file /home/wes/.config/cqrlog/xplanet/marker
Closing ini file …
Thanks, Wes AI4FH
It doesn’t look like it is trying to start rig control. Is rig control setup in CQRLOG? I think rigctld should be trying to start.
I am not proficient with Linux and when I needed help in the past with CQRLOG I used their forum.
Are you sure you are using the correct serial port under CAT control in CQRLOG?
Rich, K0PIR
Hi Rich,
I received your newsletter about the Mic mishap (June 15, 2018) and saw below it an add for the Neewer NW-800 Professional Studio Broadcasting & Recording Microphone Set.
I was hoping you could tell me where to find the cable to connect the IC7300 to the Neewer Mic.
Eric
w7igc
Hi Eric,
Nice to hear from you and thanks for the question.
On those types of mics I used a “Y” cable and a foot switch. The mic comes with a cable, so all you need is the foot switch and “Y” cable. Lots of Hams are using the mics with radios and have good success with them
Have a look at this: Christmas Savings Plan
The seller of the “Y” cable is K6VHF on e-bay. A link is in the article.
Rich, K0PIR
I just got my 7300 back from Icom service in Mi. It seems as though the tiny microphone control board, in the rear of the mike connector, flashed over. I was using a Heil converted D-104 where both audio and PTT grounds are tied in the mike. Somehow, in the Heil-Wire, the ground wire of the PTT opened and when the mike was keyed, both PTT and audio went through the audio ground, smoking a micro inductor on the board. I rebuilt the mike, in fact the three other D-104 conversions to independent grounds, one for audio, the other for PTT. Have you or anyone else had this little problem? Bob Lobenstein (Loby-WA2AXZ)
Hi Bob,
I’ve been traveling and missed your comment.
No I have not had that problem but I was considering modifying my D-104. So thanks for the information. I’ll have to remember this.
Best 73!