Kg3v Ham Radio Blog

///////////////////////////////////////////
IC-7300 Spectrum Display with N1MM+

Posted: 26 May 2018 06:33 PM PDT
https://kg3v.com/2018/05/26/ic-7300-...lay-with-n1mm/


I recently bought an Icom IC-7300 SDR transceiver, and finally got a chance
to start looking at it. My hope is to use this as a Mobile rig, although it
is a bit large. Not sure how I will mount it in my F-150 yet, but I will
give it a try.

Since I have been active in contesting, I wanted to see how this radio
worked with N1MM+ which is my favorite contest logger. They still call it a
contest logger, but N1MM+ is so much more. The features now in that
software just boggle my mind.

N1MM+ recently introduced their Spectral Display window. From my reading,
all I had to do to get a spectral display from the IC-7300 to my PC
display, was to connect the USB interface and select the correct baud rate.

N1MM+ documents say you need to setup the IC-7300 to use an interface baud
rate of 115,200 to get the spectrum display. This was just a little tricky.
When you start reading the IC-7300 manual, it sounds like you can use AUTO
for the baud rate setting. But for rates that high, you actually have to
manually set the baud rate. Be sure to read the N1MM+ docs on using the
IC-7300 spectral display. They tell you exactly what to do.

Here is the display. The red squares show statioins taht are stronger than
the current noise floor setting. You can quickly move from
station-to-station using SHIFT-UP and SHIFT-DOWN.



Once I set the baud rate, and restarted N1MM+, the Spectral Window
appeared. The display updates rapidly and adds callsigns to the signals as
you spot them (or from external spotting networks). There are some contests
where I just can not effectively RUN, and am often forced into Search &
Pounce mode. This display makes S&P incredibly fast.

This alone, makes the IC-7300 investment worth the money for me. I am
putting in a few hours in the CQWW WPX CW contest this weekend using the
IC-7300.Â* There is only one small issue I found so far. When I was using CW
keying via the USB interface, there would be an occaisional delay or
hiccup. I had to go to using a WINKEYER to get clean, fast CW. Most
contesters seem to use WINKEYERS because it allows you to offload the CW
timing from the computer CPU.