IC-7800 General coverage

The IC-7800 can be modified for general coverage transmit(1.6 thru 54.0 MHZ) (Frequency Range and Specifications cannot be guaranteed after modification) by following the CAP/MARS directions below: Remove top and bottom covers. Remove 4 small screws holding front panel onto main chassis(2 per side). Tilt up front panel (you may have to loosen and remove 2 connectors on lower left side of front panel) to expose the Logic Unit sitting vertically on the left side of the main chassis unit behind the front panel. You may find it easier to access the diodes by setting radio up on its right side. Near the center of the Logic Unit (below and to the right of a processor chip) you will see 2 vertical rows of diodes / diode spaces. The bottom 4 diodes in each column are offset slightly to the right as pictured below. NONE OF THE DIODES IN THE RIGHT COLUMN ARE CHANGED!! The diodes in the left column must be configured exactly as shown below. This means that you may have to add or remove diodes in the left column depending on where you purchased your IC7800. USA radios are easy to modify as the only change is to remove D57. If you have to add diodes, try to use the ones that you had to remove and make sure to install them in the correct direction-they ARE Surface Mount Devices): LEFT RIGHT D59 (no diode) 0 X (diode in) D58 (diode in) X X (diode in) D57 (no diode) 0 0 (no diode) D56 (no diode) 0 X (diode in) D55 (no diode) 0 - I forgot to note if there was a diode in this position. D54(diode in) X 0 (no diode) D53(diode in) X X (diode in) D52(no diode) 0 X (diode in) D51(diode in) X X (diode in) Position the front panel unit back down into position in its proper place and then check to make certain that the connectors which connect to the front panel unit and to the logic unit are securely plugged in properly. Reinstall the 4 small front panel mounting screws(2 per side) and reinstall the bottom and top covers. No radio reset is required. After this modification, there will be no band edge beeps if you had them turned on before, so be careful not to operate out of your band segment. Enjoy your new General Coverage Transmit IC7800. IC-7800 ADJUSTMENT PROCEDURES To view the adjustment click Here

by David A. Kopacz, KY1V

Introduction:

I am extremely excited about my new IC-7800. What a fantastic radio.

After using it for a few days I thought I would try out the Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) feature. Pretty neat. I can call CQ effortlessly, and I can record what I hear which can be handy when trying to copy a weak signal and get a DX stations call sign. I can play the recorded audio back over the speaker or in headphones as many times as necessary.

What has frustrated me is the fact that I cannot record a station and then play back that recording to them over the air. "Why would I want to do that?", you may ask. For many reasons, however, two that come to mind right away are the fact that I may want to let a station with an audio problem hear exactly what he sounds like, or I may want to play a snippet of audio back to a station that has excellent audio. I am sure you can come up with plenty of your own reasons to want to play back the audio of a station you have recorded.

Well, it cannot be done with Icom's current implementation of the DVR. What a shame!

I do, however, have a solution that produces a high quality playback of the audio recorded of on-air stations. It is actually quite simple to implement and uses a feature of the IC-7800 that is not available on any other radio made.

Your new IC-7800 has two external connections called S/P DIF (Sony / Philips Digital Interconnect Format). These interfaces provide high quality digital audio input and output interfaces to the radio via optical cable.

What do you need? I recommend a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum or Platinum Pro. Both of these sound cards come with an audio "drive" that provides the S/P DIF optical interfaces to the computer sound card via a Firewire (IEEE-1394) connection. This allows you to send audio from your radio to the sound card and from the sound card back to the radio, with the highest quality currently possible. Are you thinking like me? I just found another feature never before available that helps justify the cost of this radio!

How do you use this new feature? Well, this part is a bit quirky because there is no way to permit the transmitter to allow transmission of both the audio from the microphone and the S/P DIF at the same time, so you have to switch back and forth. Basically, once you hook up the interface, your radio will start sending audio to your computer's sound card (without even using the volume control on the rig - mine is all the way down), and you can use the free software (Creative Wave Studio & Creative Graphic Equalizer) that came with the Audigy sound card to record the incoming audio. To play it back, you simply push the PLAY button on the software and make one menu change to the radio.

The menu item that needs to be changed is as follows:

1. Press SET
2. Press ACC
3. Scroll to DATA OFF MOD
4. Rotate the main VFO dial to select
5. MIC, ACC-A, ACC-B to transmit using your microphone
6. S/PDIF to send the wave recording to the transmitter.

If you leave this menu item up, you can switch back and forth pretty quickly. However, I think it is kind of cheesy, so I am going to ask Laurent (F6DEX), the developer of TRX-Manager, to make a button on his radio interface for the 7800 that will quickly switch back and forth between MIC and S/PDIF modes when not in DATA MODE.

Some other advantages of this method are that you can record entire QSO's, or even record rogue operators whom are causing deliberate interference so you have proof to provide to your radio regulatory agency.

It is nice to be able to have such a quality interface to the radio for recording and playing audio. Great job Icom!

Connections:

• The S/P DIF OUT on the 7800 connects to the S/P DIF IN on the Audigy.
• The S/P DIF IN on the 7800 connects to the S/P DIF OUT on the Audigy.

The diagram for connecting the Audigy drive to the Audigy sound card is provided by Creative Labs and is simple to follow.

You could also use a microphone input to the Audigy sound card, and use the graphic equalizer to tailor your audio before it ever gets to the radio. This would permit you to leave the radio set to S/PDIF all the time, and never have to switch back and forth to use the record feature.

I also found that I can plug my Heil Headset directly into the Audigy MIC input and use the Creative Equalizer to tailor my audio when in S/PDIF mode. Switching to MIC mode (via the SET > ACC > MOD DATA OFF menu) I can switch back and forth between the Heil headset plugged into the Audigy sound card and the Heil boom mike plugged into the radio.

Please note that when using the microphone plugged into the sound card routed to the radio via the S/PDIF interface, you lose access to the speech compressor, but you gain the value of the computer's software to tailor the audio before it reaches the radio.

In addition, I have discovered today that I can use TRX-Manager's TRX-Command window to create two custom commands  and  to switch between MIC input and S/PDIF input with the click of a button. Here are the command codes:

• 1A05003100
• 1A05003107

This is very handy, especially when using a microphone connected to the rig and recording stations for on-air playback. You can also use the spare Macro buttons on the main monitoring window for more convenience. I named one MIC and the other SPDIF.

While it would have been much simpler for Icom to permit the playback of recorded audio over the air, I am beginning to think that this method is much more versatile, provides more flexibility and is of much higher quality.

     Click to view the information
 

 

▼ Transceiver   IC-7800 Firmware data   VER.2.10 ZIP (3.82MB)      2006/08/18 updated Major points of update from Ver.2.03 to Ver.2.10   Audio filter shape selection for APF (New feature) Instruction manual (1 file) IC-7800 Instruction Manual Addendum pdf (151KB)   * Please save the setting data of IC-7800 to CF card before starting firmware update. This firmware update will reset all of your custom settings to the factory default settings.   * Never cut off power supply while updating firmware.   * Before starting download, please read Firmware update information (V210E) pdf (23KB) carefully and make sure what is required for firmware update.   * Firmware update using LAN needs the Firmware update utility  VER.1.0 ZIP (256KB) Please download this software, too.     Firmware data   VER.2.03 ZIP (3.76MB)      2006/05/30 updated Features   Improved monitor sound quality in SSB mode during TX. Improved frequency characteristics of Digital IF Filter. The peak of the Digital IF Filter can be adjusted to center frequency without missing the action. When "Soft" filter shape is selected in SSB mode, center frequency of pass-bandwidth becomes peak. Under previous revision firmware, 1.5 kHz of pass-bandwidth is set as peak. And more...   3 kHz roofing filter is available in addition to the 15 kHz and 6 kHz filters, if your IC-7800 is upgraded. * Please save the setting data of IC-7800 to CF card before starting firmware update.   * Never cut off power supply while updating firmware.   * Before starting download, please read Firmware update information (V120E) pdf (2.75MB) carefully and make sure what is required for firmware update.   * Firmware update using LAN needs the Firmware update utility  VER.1.0 ZIP (256KB) Please download this software, too.     Firmware data   VER.1.22 ZIP (3.55MB)      2006/01/05 updated Instruction manual (2files) Firmware update information (V120E) pdf (1.38MB) IC-7800 Instruction Manual Addendum (V120E) pdf (10.9MB) * Please save the setting data of IC-7800 to CF card before starting firmware update.   * Never cut off power supply while updating firmware.   * Before starting download, please read Firmware update information (V110E) pdf (2.75MB) carefully and make sure what is required for firmware update.   * Firmware update using LAN needs the Firmware update utility  VER.1.0 ZIP (256KB) Please download this software, too.   This firmware (Ver.1.22) is compatible with all versions of the IC-7800. NOTE: Crossover cable or Patch cable is required for updating. Control Software OS;Windows®98/98SE/ME/2000/XP * Windows® 95 and NT are not supported. Major points of update from Ver.1.10 to Ver.1.22 Modification of adjusting software for factory use. AFC and NET functions for the PSK decoder (newly added function) FFT scope averaging function for both PSK and RTTY decoder (newly added function) Color setting for FFT scope waveform for both PSK and RTTY decoder (newly added function) Improved SSB transmission passband width setting Meter response selection for standard and edgewise meters (newly added function) Subdivided variable steps for both APF and CW pitch   Ver.1.20 and Ver1.22 is the same regarding the function and performance because this software was upgraded for changing software adjustment method in our factory. Therefore, we deleted Ver1.20 when we upload Ver1.22 as this is unnecessary.   Firmware data (Serial No. is required) VER.1.1 ZIP (3.75MB)   2004/07/20 updated Firmware update utility  VER.1.0 ZIP (256KB)   2004/07/20 updated Instruction manual (2files)   Firmware update information pdf (2.75MB)   IC-7800 Instruction Manual Addendum pdf (5.13MB)   This firmware (Ver.1.1) is compatible with all versions of the IC-7800. NOTE: Crossover cable or Patch cable is required for updating. Control Software OS;Windows® 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP * Windows® 95 and NT are not supported. Major points of update from Ver.1.0 to Ver.1.1   Firmware update function by CF memory card (newly added function) Screen saver (newly added function) Selectable keyboard type (language) Independent operation of 1/4 function at both MAIN VFO and SUB VFO '@' character is added onto CW memory keyer

ATTENTION
The KB2LJJ takes no responsibility for any damage during the modification or for any wrong information made on this modification.