Kg3v Ham Radio Blog

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IC-7300 Firmware Upgrade to V 1.40

Posted: 28 Feb 2021 05:47 PM PST
https://kg3v.com/2021/02/28/ic-7300-...ade-to-v-1-40/



I see that ICOM just released a new Firmware upgrade for the IC-7300. This
is Version 1.40 and it has some good looking upgrades to the Waterfall and
the scope display, among other things. I also like the added ability to
customize some of the Front panel control functions. I am going to go
through the process to get it installed, and will share my experience here.




This upgrade provides a number of significant changes, so I welcome it, and
thank ICOM for this great support of the IC-7300. It appears that this
radio has already set sales records and this makes it only better. All the
details can be found on the ICOM Site under IC-7300 Downloads.



Saving your Settings FIRST




Before I do any Firmware upgrade, I am saving all settings to a file on a
PC that is not connected to the IC-7300 which I will be upgrading. ICOM
recommends that you do this, or you may install the upgrade and then find
that things dont work like they used to. You have to realize that any time
you do an upgrade, there is always the chance that things will go wrong. So
while I will share my experience and the steps I follow, I cant assure you
that there will not be a problem with your upgrade in your Shack.




Saving your settings is very simple, using an SD Card. To save settings,
just do the following: MENUSETSD Card Save Setting. Then enter a
filename and CLICK on SAVE. Then I select SD CardUnmount to remove the SD
Card, for copying to a PC for safe keeping.




Due to the well-known 7300 Clock Battery issues, the SAVE date of your
settings file may not be correct. Mine shows 1-1-2000. This is because I do
not keep my 7300 connected to 12 Volt power unless I am using it, so the
Clock Calendar always resets to 1-1-2000 when I power-up the radio. If you
want to hear more about that, just go to the IC-7300 Group on Groups.io and
wait for 5 minutes. I added the current date to the Filename, BUT that
caused a problem. Apparently the 7300 does not like long filenames. When I
put the SD Card back into the 7300 to restore the Settings, it did not see
the file. I reduced the File name to 15 characters (plus .dat) and it
seemed to work fine. Set your filename on the 7300 and dont change it.



Performing the Firmware Upgrade




The User Manual has a section on Updating the Firmware. In the latest FULL
Manual (file name IC-7300_ENG_FM_9), that is Section 15. Following these
instructions, you can check the current Firmware Versions before the
upgrade. I recommend that, so you can confirm what is updated in the
Firmware Upgrade process.




The process is very easy. just carefully follow the instructions and make
sure your Power will not be disrupted during the process. When you are
done, the 7300 will RESET and you want to LOAD your stored Settings File.



Verifying the Upgrade




When I power-up the IC-7300 now, it says Version 1.40 in the lower-right of
the screen. Using the MENU, you can display all of the Versions. To do
this, just select MENUSETOTHERSINFORMATIONVERSION. What I see now is:




Main CPU: 1.40




Front CPU: 1.01




DSP Program 1.07




DSP Data: 1.00




FPGA: 1.13




This agrees with the ICOM Site, so I think I am ready to give it a spin.
After a few days, I will post my findings about the changes. As always, I
will be watching the IC-7300 Group on Groups.io to see how others do with
this upgrade.