FT8 with ICOM 7300 (WSJT-X on Ubuntu)

 

So it starts... from the point my ICOM 7300 arrived. The first thing to try? The famous FT8 that has been discussed a lot, really a lot, by the HAMs around me, and the journey started.

Equipment

  • Radio: ICOM IC-7300 (bought from dxengineering.com)


    ICOM IC-7300 & MFJ-4230

  • Antenna: Portable HF Antenna (CHA EMCOMM II) 


    Matching Transformer of CHA EMCOMM II
  • Power supply: MFJ-4230MV
  • 50 feet RG8X cable with PL-259
  • self made ~16feet mast from dissembled analog TV antenna from 10 years ago. The set up can be easily setup or put down because I put a 8 feet pole into the ground with ~3 feet buried in the dirt and ~5 feet above the dirt so that I can insert the mast into the pole when I need the antenna to be ready and I can relatively easily put down the mast when the weather is not so safe to operate.

    Self Made Mast (~16ft) for the CHA EMCOMM II 

Antenna Configuration

According to the manual (available on the product site linked above), the CHA ECOMM II can have 3 different configurations:
  • Horizontal NVIS which requires both ends to be at ~ 10 - 12 feet for best performance
  • Sloping Wire which requires the insulator end to be at 25 - 40 feet for best performance
  • Inverted "L" which requires the insulator end to be at 25 feet for best performance
Unfortunately I do not have enough space and good way to employ any of the configurations. So I made a customized configuration where the insulator is put on the end of the self made mast at ~16 feet height and the matching transformer is put at the end of the roof. 

IC-7300 Configuration

I followed the first half of "ICOM IC-7300 / WSJT-X FT8 Latest 2021 Setup Guide V1.4 or Higher" video to configure my IC-7300. The video is pretty straightforward to follow and understand. I will spend some time later when I have more free cycles to capture the details and document them here for easier access later.

Updates on the IC-7300 settings:
  • Mode: USB-D
  • Filter Bandwidth set to widest possible (3.6k), sharp falloff
  • Function menu: AGC, NR, NB, Notch, Preamps, Vox, etc all turned off
  • Display typically set to waterfall + MeterSet -> Connectors:
  • ACC/USB Output Select: AF
  • ACC/USB AF Output Level: 10-30% (adjust as needed for band, noise level)
  • ACC/USB AF SQL: Off (Open)
  • ACC/USB AF Beep: Off
  • ACC/USB IF Output Level: 50%
  • ACC Mod Level: 50%
  • USB Mod Level: 40%
  • Data Off Mod: MIC,ACC
  • Data Mod: USB
  • PTT Tune:ON 
  • CI-V:
    • CI-V Baud Rate: Auto
    • CI-V Address: 94h
    • CI-V Transceive: ON
    • CI-V USB->Remote Transceive Address: 00h
    • CV-V Output (for ANT): Off
    • CI-V Baud Port: Unlink from [REMOTE]
    • CI-V USB Baud Rate: 115200
    • CI-V USB Echo Back: On
    • USB Serial Function: CI-V
    • RTTY Decode Baud Rate: 19200
    • USB Send/Keying: All Off except Inhibit Timer

Ubuntu Preparation

I followed this article for the configurations I need on my Ubuntu even though my Ubuntu is 20.04 while the article talks about 10.04 as almost everything worked.
The key take aways are:
  • I need to use the audio interface "plughw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0" after IC-7300 is connected to Linux box to allow my whole setup work (basically to eliminate the error message that keeps popping up complaining no audio input or no audio output"
  • Install "pavucontrol" (sudo apt install pavucontrol) and follow the instruction in the article to adjust the audio input and output settings

WSJT-X Configuration

For WSJT-X configuration, I pretty much followed both the Setup Guide video and the WSJT-X Configuration on Ubuntu article. The main configurations are listed below:
  • General
    • Display: all checked except "Start new period decodes at top" which is mostly a personal preference and won't impact the performance/functionality
    • Behavior: 
      • Check "Double-click oncall sets Tx enabled" which makes the operation much easier because double click will initiate the TX to contact
      • Check: "Calling CQ forces Call 1st"
  • Radio
    • Serial Port: /dev/ttyUSB0
    • Baud Rate: 115200 (matches that in IC-7300)
    • PTT Method: CAT
    • Data Bits: Eight
    • Stop Bits: Two
    • Handshake: None
    • Mode: Data/Pkt
    • Split Operation: Rig
  • Audio
    • Sound card's Input/Output: plughw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 while other USB Audio Codec causes no audio input/output errors
After above, you should be able to test on the "Radio" Tab for "Test CAT" (which should be green after clicking it) and "Test PTT" (which will turn IC-7300 into TX mode)

Note: Grid Tracker is a great companion of WSJT-X that provides a lot of utilities such as good visualization of your QSOs, stations you decoded, uploading LOTW logs etc.

When Everything is Connected and Running

I did try 40 meter band but did not see much traffic when I tried so I spent most of my day on 20 meter band where there is a lot of traffic to try mu luck.
Traffic on 20meter Band
The most amazing thing (to myself) is that I can hear FT8 signal from thousands miles away, e.g. my 2nd FT8 QSO was with 3D2USU in Fiji which is 5000+ miles away from my location and in the afternoon, I successfully QSO-ed with 2 HAMs(JA8KSF & JA1SJV) in Japan, and more...












What's Next?

Keep learning. I am very lucky to have the rig worked together pretty smoothly for me, where it took me roughly less than 2 whole days to get everything in the place to work out for me. However, It seems that my rig's performance is not really stable and there are still so many things I do not really understand yet. So the next is to get deeper understanding why I have seen the problems and see if I can bump my successful QSO rates, who knows, maybe one day I can get ready for some DX contesting? 😋

Extra Notes

  • The USB A-to-B cable matters. The first one I used does  have the ferrite cores however I experienced a lot of Audio Input/Output error in WSJT-X when transmitting. I found another USB A-to-B cable without the ferrite cores and that kind of errors are gone, but the interference has been huge that my USB mouse and keyboard (even my monitor) would get into a weird mode when transmitting. Next step I need to find a quality USB A-to-B cable to try again.

References

  • WSJT-X user manual: https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.5.1.html#GENERAL
  • https://www.k0pir.us/icom-7300-wsjt-x-ft8-easy-way/
  • https://www.k0pir.us/transmitter-settings-digital-operation/
  • ICOM IC-7300 / WSJT-X FT8 Latest 2021 Setup Guide V1.4 or Higher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE668jOU5wU
  • NTP client configuration for time sync: https://geek-university.com/linux/configure-ntp-client/
  • https://wiki.debian.org/HowToIdentifyADevice/USB
  • HOW TO CONFIGURE WSJT-X ON UBUNTU: https://linuxer.eu/wsjt-x-ic-7300-ubuntu-configuration/
  • ICOM IC-7300 AND LINUX: https://linuxer.eu/icom-ic-7300-and-ubuntu-18-04/
  • Some related discussion on audio interface selection: https://wsjtx.groups.io/g/main/topic/wsjt_x_with_ic_7300_on_linux/71814875
  • FT8 Operating Guide: https://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/FT8_Operating_Tips.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

APRS with Baofeng -F8HP WITHOUT A TNC

  This is to record my settings to get APRS working on my Baofeng HT without a TNC, following the instructions on https://www.instructables.com/APRS-and-the-UV-5R/ with some minor tweaks to make it work with my own devices. Devices Involved Baofeng BF-F8HP Pixel XL (without sim card) Configurations Pixel Install following two applications on the device: Mobilinkd Config App for Android which you can scan the QR code comes with the package or search in the PlayStore to get it APRSdroid which you can get from PlayStore by searching the name. If you want a free version, the developer also offers a free download on their website. To support their development effort, I paid for it. System sound settings Media: around 3/4 and full Ringtone/alarm/etc: off BF-F8HP I am located in the United States where the APRS main frequency is 149.630MHz (simplex). The most important configurations are listed below: SQL(squelch): 1 , Mobilinkd suggested to turn this fully off, however, Baofeng HT w...
Read more