# I C TALK v3.4 By Ian Spencer (DJ0HF/G3ULO)

This Windows program was written by me DJ0HF and designed to allow simple operation of Icom transceivers for the blind using a windows PC and using single key presses to select most options and doesn’t need any libraries etc. just one single exe file to run. It should run on any Windows PC XP/7/8/10/11 but has only been tested on Windows 10 and 11.

## Rasberry Pi

Gena M0EBP has produced an image for the Raspberry Pi which will allow you to run a slightly modified version of IC Talk using the Wine Windows emulator. The Pi version has the same commands as the PC version but cannot follow the frequency or band if you make these changes on the radio and the mic gain adjustment cannot use the ALC as the PC version does. Otherwise the operation is the same as the PC version.

## This Talk Program

This program has been tested on a number of different ICOM radio’s including the IC-7300, IC-705 and IC-7100 and the radio entry in the configuration file can be set to auto and then the correct ICOM address for your radio will be found automatically. However it is possible to have more than one ICOM radio connected on the same CI-V cable, in which case you can select the radio you want to talk to from the list below and the following radio’s are currently recognised by the program :-

IC Radio’s

703, 705, 706, 706MK2, 706MK2G, 718, 728, 735, 737, 738, 746 746PRO, 751A, 756PRO, 756PRO2, 756PRO3, 765, 775, 781, 821, 7000 7100, 7200, 7300, 7400, 7410, 7600, 7610, 7700, 7800, 7851, 9100, 9700

But other ICOM radio’s could be added if requested if auto is not used then when entering the radio type into the config file it is important to enter it exactly as shown in this list which means all character are Capitals/Upper case.

I C Talk is designed to work with ICOM radio’s but will also normally work with many Xiegu transceivers such as the X6100, X5105, G106 etc. which use a sub set of the ICOM commands and most of the main commands will work making the radio very usable. For Xiegu transceivers you may find the radio will work set to auto but if not you will need to set the radio to 7000 or 7100 in the config file, whichever works for your transceiver. However some Xiegu firmware seems to have bugs and it’s known that the X6100 has a bug which means the mode change command doesn’t work, however there is alternative firmware for this radio from Oleg R1CBU which can be found on the internet and which does not have this bug.

A common complaint from blind users of modern radio’s is that they sometimes accidentally change things on the touch screen and have problems getting the radio back into a normal condition other than with a reset, unfortunately only some ICOM radio’s support locking the display panel as well as the VFO knob and they are the 705, 7100, 7300, 7610, 7760 and the 9700. So for these radio’s my program normally locks the screen and the VFO dial when you start it. However you can set the lock parameter in the config file to 0 to stop this lock from occurring and you can always lock and unlock the display and vfo knob while the program is running (see Extended Commands). Unlock is automatically performed when you quit the program.

On a PC I C Talk version 3 allows you to use a second program such as ACLOG at the same time with your radio and to see how to do this read the document virtual radio’s which is in this package but first get IC Talk working with your radio.

My program is free to download along with this documentation and other files but of course although the program has been extensively tested you use it at your own risk. Also unlike F T, T S and K X Talk I have to use two programs one for the user interface and commands and another to translate the commands into a form that the ICOM radio can understand.

So at the beginning there are two extra steps to preparing your computer which are described below, but once I C Talk is running then it works in the same way as my other Talk programs, using exactly the same commands.

I have included in the package the document Getting Started written by Gena M0EBP which I recommend you read first as it will help ensure you have the correct drivers etc. in your computer for the radio you are using and may also help if you use the Windows Defender program which can cause problems by producing false positives with programs it doesn’t recognise like mine.

And although I have made this program/package free for all to use none of the files in this package may be modified in any way without my written permission.

If you have a question which is not answered by the documentation, or a problem then I can be contacted via the E-Mail address :- dj0hf@spencerweb.net

## Preparing your Radio

Now you can connect a standard USB cable between the USB or 9 pin port of your radio and a usb or serial port on the computer.

Normally most ICOM radio’s have there com port speed setting set to Auto which means you can choose the speed you want to use and which needs to be put in the config file as described below, however auto will only recognise speeds up to19200 Baud so I recommand this speed. If your ICOM radio has a speed other than auto set in the radio then you need to use this speed or change it to Auto. If you use 115200 Baud this is for most ICOM transceivers not a problem but we have seen that the 9700 sometimes misses commands at this speed, so better to use 19200 Baud.

## Preparing your Windows PC

There are a couple more steps for I C Talk when compared to F T Talk, T S Talk and K X Talk but they are not difficult to do.

If you have already installed com0com as part of the installation for a virtual radio used with one of my other talk programs then you can skip the next section and go the section Manually configuring Com0Com.

After unzipping the I C Talk folder onto your computer you need to start the exe file com0com which is part of this package and install it, please use this version and not any later version you may find on the internet. Com0com may ask you to install net framework 3.5, if it does then follow the instructions to install this windows package.

Then execute the setupcom0 bat file and you are finished. I C Talk actually uses two programs and this sets up two virtual comports 20 and 21 which the two programs use to communicate with each other. If you have a problem then read the section below on setting up the virtual com ports manually.

## Configuring the config file

Use a text editor to change the first line in ictalk.cfg to match your comport between 1 and 99 and the second line Serial speed you want to use with your radio, I recommend 19200 Baud.

The third line of the config file is the radio type which by default is set to auto meaning the program automatically recognises which ICOM radio is connected, however as mentioned above if you have more than one ICOM radio connected to the CI-V cable the you can enter the model name of the radio you want to talk to but it must be one of those in the list at the start of this help document and all characters are in capitals/upper case.

The fourth line power should be set to the percentage power level you want to use when you first connect the program to the radio between 0 and 100%, unlike most other manufacturers who set the power in watts. So for the IC703/705 100% is 10 watts for most other radio’s 100% is 100 Watts.

The fifth line is swr and if set to 0, in tune mode you have to press the S key to hear the SWR but if you set it to 1 then when in tune mode the SWR is repeated continually until you exit tune mode.

The sixth line is ATU if it is set to 0 then it will tune the antenna using the internal Automatic ATU. However tuning can be very fast and then the radio will switch back to receive and the radio will no longer send the SWR and will send zero which will be voiced as 1.0 to 1.

But if set to 1 the program will switch on the transmitter with a few watts of carrier and will expect an external ATU and if it is a manual ATU then it can be useful to set the SWR parameter to 1 so that the SWR is continually repeated allowing you time to adjust a manual atu for best SWR.

You can set this parameter to 2 which will use both methods, so it will first turn on the Auto ATU and tune automatically then after a few seconds it will say Okay and turn on transmit with a few watts of carrier and you will be able to hear the real SWR voiced.

The seventh line is bandmax which is set depending on the highest band available on your radio to 10, 6, 2 or 70 for bands between 10 metres and 70cm. If your radio is an ICOM IC-9700 and has 23cm then still set 70cm as the highest band as 23cm is handled in a special way.

The eighth line is Autoon which if set to 1 will automatically switch your radio on when you start the program and switch it off when you close the program with quit that is the Q key, so that for radio’s with touch screen you do not accidentally touch the screen while searching for the on/off button. Default is 0.

The ninth line in the config file is the Lock function if it is set to 1 then when the program starts it will lock the display panel and VFO knob when the program starts. If it is set to 0 then the display panel and the VFO knob will be left unlocked. Though you can lock and unlock these items with an Extended Command see the section in this guide on Extended Commands.

When you quit the program then the panel and VFO knob will be automatically unlocked.

Finally the tenth line in the config file is vport1 which is normally set to zero but if you want to use a second program with your radio at the same time as IC Talk then this is set to a virtual com port as explained in the document virtual radio’s. However I advice setting up the normal operation of IC Talk as explained below before reading the document virtual radio’s and setting up extra virtual com ports for this function. This function is only available on windows and not on the Raspberry Pi.

## Manually configuring com0com

If necessary go to the folder on your drive C called Program files(x86) and find the folder com0com.

Now start the program setup g.exe it’s important to start

setup g not setup c.

If Net framework is not installed on your computer then it will tell you and you need to follow the install procedure.

Once this is completed start the program setupg.exe again and this time a window should open and be on an edit field, if you have just installed com0com then it should say COM20 but if it says CNCA0 then change this to COM20. Then tab once to the next edit field and this should say COM21 if it says CNCB0 then change it to COM21 and then tab until your reach the Apply button and click it.

If however you have already been using com0com with a virtual radio then you already have a pair of virtual com ports 30 and 31 but you need to create a second pair of com ports for IC Talk. Once you have done this they will probably then be labelled CNCB0 and CNCB1 and these should be renamed to COM20 and COM21.

The virtual com ports are now set up.

## Using I C TALK

If you have just installed the driver for your radio then when you start I C Talk for the first time there may be no audio from the program. This is because when installed radio drivers tend to divert all audio to and from the radio and you will need to go to the windows mixer and set the correct output device again, probably your speakers.

Now start the program I C Talk.exe, you can exit the program at any time by hitting the Q key. It is important to quit the program with the Q key and not just to close the window as just closing the window will prevent the automatic power off for the radio from working or data from being saved. It’s also important to always use the program to control the radio if you are running the talk program and operate buttons or other controls on the radio the program will not know you have done that. The exception is that you can tune the radio with the VFO knob on the radio and the program will follow your frequency changes.

The program will announce the version and then voice the last frequency and mode used with the program and also say connected if it is successful in communicating with the radio.

If it says Virtual com port not found it means that the com0com program or ports are not correctly set up and it may mean that your computer does not have the correct version of windows Net Framework that is 3.5 installed and you may need to do a manual configuration of com0com as described below :-

If the program doesn’t say connected or virtual com port not found then probably the comm port or the speed or the radio type is wrong. If you hit Q then the program will close, however if it couldn’t find the radio at all it can happen that the second program can’t close because it is hung up in the driver and I have no control over the driver and you may need to use ALT + F4 to close the window. Your computer may sometimes be loading the wrong driver or if there is no voicing the audio output device does not have the loudspeaker on your computer selected as the default audio output device (see the getting started file from Gena M0EBP).

You can voice the help file at any time by hitting the H key.

You put the program into various modes by a single key press and when you first start the program it will initialize on 40 metres to 7.1Mhz unless you have used this program before in which case it will return to the last frequency and mode you were using.

### Frequency mode

in this mode which you can re-enter at any time by hitting the F key the up and down Cursor/Arrow keys change the frequency by 1Khz, left and right Cursor/Arrow keys change the frequency by plus or minus 100Hz except in FM mode where 100Hz is not really useful and so the left and right cursor keys control the squelch. The Page up and Page down keys increase or decrease the frequency in 10Khz steps, except in FM mode where they produce 12.5Khz steps. Plus and Minus keys change the frequency in 1Mhz steps. Pressing F at any time will voice the mode and frequency and if set CTCSS will be voiced and if in split (repeater mode) then the transmit frequency will be announced as VFO B and then the frequency.

In split (repeater mode) if you want to hear the receive frequency that is VFO A then go to Extended command mode and hit F.

If you tune the radio using the main tuning knob the program will follow the frequency changes and if you stop tuning on a station and want to know the frequency just hit the F Key. You can get the S meter reading at any time by hitting the S key. On modes like SSB the S meter is varying all the time while someone is speaking and a sighted person reads the peak value. The difficulty for a blind using hitting S is that he will get the S meter reading between words and get a lower value so my program creates a hysteresis to hold the peak value for a short while.

Although it is probably best to control the radio with I C TALK if you do change bands with buttons on the radio the program will still follow those changes.

### Frequency Entry Mode

hitting E will put you in frequency entry mode where you can enter a frequency, however if you enter a frequency not covered by your radio then it will be ignored. The Mhz and Khz values must be separated by a full stop/point but for example to go to exactly 15Mhz you only need to enter 15 and then hit the carriage return to move to that frequency. Entering an invalid frequency the word invalid will be voiced and the entry will be ignored. Pressing F will confirm that the frequency change has taken place if you want to check. You can enter any valid frequency within the range of your transceiver if it is well outside an amateur band then it will be announced as band unknown. If you select a frequency your radio cannot use then it will be ignored.

### Split Frequency mode

is used when you want to work a DX or Expedition station and they are telling you up 5 or up 10 meaning you should transmit 5 or 10Khz higher than the frequency they are using.

You enter Split Frequency Mode by hitting V and VFO B will then be displayed and you can increase or decrease the frequency using the usual cursor keys, Enter frequency command etc. And of course you can check the frequency of VFO B with the F key as usual. Now when you transmit you will be transmitting on VFO B and receiving on VFO A. To exit split mode just hit V again.

You can also use split mode to set up a repeater split, for example on 10 metres if you enter the receive frequency and then hit V and then enter your transmit frequency you can use the split mode to work through the repeater. Some repeaters use CTCSS or DCS access so see below for details. CTCSS/DCS must be enabled before split is selected.

If you want to save the split frequencies and/or CTCSS then you can hit C for channel save and then a number 0 to 9 to save the split/ctcss in that memory location and recall it at any time with G for go to channel and a number 0 to 9 (see also banks 0 to 9 in the Memories section). Remember after entering a repeater you are in split mode and so if after saving you want to enter a second repeater to turn off split first, otherwise the frequency you enter will be put in VFO B when you probably want it in VFO A (the output frequency of the repeater).

### Zero Frequency

Most stations tend to transmit on exact Khz frequencies and when you tune your receiver you may not be exactly on the Khz but if you tune the receiver so the audio frequencies sound a bit high then hitting Z will put you exactly on the Khz frequency in use by the station you are listening too. In CW mode Z will zero the station you are receiving to the tone frequency set in the radio typically between 400 and 800Hz and guarantee that you will be transmitting on exactly the same frequency as the station you are receiving.

### Modulation mode

can be changed at any time by hitting the M key and it will cycle through LSB/USB/CW/A M and back to LSB. Except on 10 Metres to 70cm where FM follows A M and then back to LSB.

In the following modes the up and down arrow keys work to increase or decrease the parameter chosen.

### Band change mode

mode by hitting the B Key. In Band change mode each tap on the up arrow will go up one band or cursor down to go down one band. Or in band change mode you can go directly to any HF band by hitting one of the number keys 1 is 160Metres, 2 is 80Metres and so on with 0 being 10 metres. To select 6 metres in Band Change mode hit the ‘x’ key, for 2 metres the ‘t’ key, for 70cm the ‘s’ key and for band unknown hit the “u” key, note that if you are on 23cm (Icom IC-7300) then this will be shown as band unknown. After selecting a band the radio automatically returns to the frequency and mode and Preamp status last used on that band. You can also move up and down the bands while in Band Change mode by using the up and down arrow keys. Or you could hit E and enter a frequency for the band you want to go to.

If you are not sure which band you are on just hit the B key again to voice the band and then F will put you back in frequency mode.

### Insert CTCSS/DCS

hitting I while in FM mode will ask you for a CTCSS tone or DCS number. For CTCSS this is the frequency of the CTCSS tone, so for example you might enter 151.4, then hit enter and the CTCSS tone will be inserted into the transmission and expected in the received signal from the repeater. For a DCS Code you need to hit N for Normal or R for reverse and then the DCS code so something like N followed by 306 and then hit Enter and this DCS code will be entered into the transmission and expected in the received signal from the repeater. Hitting I again will turn off the CTCSS/DCS. CTCSS must be enabled before enabling split mode.

### Bandwidth mode

by hitting the W key. In Bandwidth mode the up and down cursor keys can vary the bandwidth in SSB between 3Khz and 1Khz and in CW mode between 1.5Khz and 50Hz. In bandwidth mode the left and right cursor keys change the frequency in 100Hz steps for SSB and in CW mode by plus and minus 10hz to tune a CW signal when the bandwidth has been reduced and the signal is outside the pass band.

### Power mode

by hitting the P key. Unlike most other makes of radio ICOM sets the power as a percentage of maximum. In Power mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the power in 10% steps between 30 and 100% and 5% steps below 30%, the lowest power setting is 5%. On the IC703/IC705 the highest power is 10 Watts (100%) on most other radio’s it is 100 Watt which is 100%

### R F Gain mode

by hitting the R Key. In RF Gain mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the RF gain.

### A F GAIN mode

by hitting the A key. In A F Gain mode the up and down cursor keys increase or decrease the A F gain.

### Keying Speed

hitting K will turn on the keying speed adjustment and will put the radio into CW mode and announce the current keying speed.

Hitting up or down cursor keys will increase or decrease the speed by one word per minute. If you operate the key while changing the speed you will hear the speed changing. Normally there will be no transmission unless break in is turned on and then the radio will transmit but at a very low power, so you will be unlikely to cause any real interference. Hitting any key other then the up and down cursor keys will exit the keying speed adjustment and put the radio back into it’s last used mode.

### Tune Mode

Hitting the T key will turn on the radio’s transmitter in Tune mode so that the ATU can be used to adjust the antenna matching. Hitting T again will put the radio back into receive mode. Except when the auto atu is used then the radio and the program will turn of tune mode automatically.

If the ATU parameter in the config file is set to 0 then normally the tuning will use the auto ATU and be very fast often less than half a second, too fast to see the swr.

As mentioned most radio’s go back to receive immediately after auto tuning and so no swr can be read. In this case you can keep the transmitter on by setting the ATU parameter in the config file to 2 this uses the auto atu but after a few seconds says okay and then puts the radio into low power transmit so the radio stays in transmit until you hit T again, this gives you plenty of time to hear the SWR, this is also how you use a manual atu rather than the internal auto atu. However the swr values returned by some ICOM radio’s are not very accurate but good enough for tuning.

If you have an external ATU (auto or manual) then set the SWR parameter in the config file to 1 and also the ATU parameter to 1. Now you will hear the SWR repeated all the time while in tune mode so that you can adjust your manual ATU for best SWR. I have found the best method of adjusting the swr with a manual atu is to adjust it until the voicing just says under 1.2 to 1 for the first time then continue in the same direction until the voicing says something higher like 1.2 or 1.3 to 1 and then set the ATU to the middle of these settings. You won’t be far off a perfect match. If the radio is connected to a power amplifier then also set the ATU parameter to 1 so that the internal ATU of the radio is not used, as it is not useful when connected to a Power amplifer.

### Transmit/Receive

Hiting the Space Bar will put the radio into transmit and hitting it again will return the radio to the receive mode. When you first start transmitting on a mode like SSB then there is no RF and the swr value will be zero in other words less than 1.2 to1. However when you start speaking and generating RF then my program will read the SWR and if at any time you hit S then it will voice the highest SWR it has seen during this period of transmission. Note that with SSB my IC7300 needs at least 25 watts of peak RF to get accurate SWR readings.

### Memories

The program offers 100 memories in 10 banks and you can store either a single frequency or if you have split setup then the split will be stored as will any CTCSS tone set.

The first 10 memories that is bank zero are quick memories so to store a channel in a memory you hit C for Channel save and then a number key 0 to 9.

To recall the memory hit G for go to channel and then a number key 0 to 9.

Trying to recall a memory which hasn’t been used results in an invalid message. To use the other banks after hitting C or G if you hit B it will ask you for a bank number between 0 and 9 and then will ask you for the channel number again from 0 to 9 and you will store or recall that memory slot.

If you have set up a large number of memory channels it’s difficult to remember all of them, so when you quit the program it creates a file called memory.txt, which is a list of all the memory channels you are using in a human readable form.

### Memory hopping

if after using G to recall a memory channel you hit U it will recall the next memory channel and you can cycle through all 10 channels in a bank.

### Level Control

if after turning on the Noise blanker or Noise reduction you hit L for level control you can now use the up and down cursor keys to increase or decrease the level of the selected option. Listen to your radio to find the optimum level.

### Options voicing

If at any time while running the program you would like to know which options are enabled (set by the function keys listed below). Then hitting o will voice all the options which are active.

### Extended Command Mode

is turned on by hitting X and extends the command set for commands which are used less often. Hitting X again will turn it off as will hitting any command key not used in Extended Command Mode, such as P, A etc.

#### Voicing other VFO

using Extended Command mode.

Hitting F will voice the other VFO so if VFO A selected it will voice B or if VFO B is selected (typically split/repeater) then it will voice VFO A

#### FM and FM Narrow

using Extended Command mode.

Hitting M will toggle between FM (5Khz dev.) and FMN (2.5Khz dev.)

#### Transmit Bandwidth

using Extended Command mode.

Hitting W will cycle through the TX bandwidth options of Mid, Narrow and Wide. Hitting X again or any other command key not used for Extended command will turn off Extended Command mode

#### Swap Main/Sub or VFO A/B

using Extended Command mode

If you have a radio with two receivers then my program always works with the Main receiver, but hitting S will swap the Main and Sub receivers. For radio’s with only one receiver it will swap VFO A and B, so now you can do everything you can do with VFO A but with VFO B. If you have a repeater split selected then swapping VFO’s A and B will allow you to listen on the input frequency, but remember to swap back before you transmit or you will be transmitting on the output frequency.

Remember in hitting F always tells you the frequency you are transmitting on.

#### Tuning Step

using Extended Command mode

although my program prefers you to work only with the keyboard or the VFO tuning knob. Sometimes people accidentally change the tuning step on the radio. Hitting T will put the tuning step to100Hz. If you go to Extended Command mode a second time and hit T the tuning step will be set to 1Khz.

#### Display Panel/VFO Knob Lock

using Extended Command mode

hitting L will lock or unlock the Display panel and VFO Knob on radio’s which support this function (703, 7100, 7300, 7610, 9700).

#### Digital modes RTS/PTT

using Extended Command mode.

In version 2.8 and later some basic digi mode control is provided. If you are using wsjtx in a mode like FT8 then you can configure wsjtx to recognise your radio and automatically configure the important parameters so my program may not be necessary. However if you want to work RTTY, PSK31 etc. with a program like MultiPSK or TrueRTTY then you will need to feed the audio in both directions from your computer to your radio and then in principal if you put the radio into USB mode then you will be able to work in the chosen mode. But one of the problems is that not all radio’s will allow VOX to be used with digital audio from the computer.

You could simple press the transmit button manually on those radio’s that don’t recognise VOX. Or in those programs if you set the com port in the digital program to use RTS (request to send) as the PTT then in my program you can go to extended mode with X and then hit R which will turn the RTS PTT function on or off in the IC705, IC7300 IC7610, IC7851, or IC9700 Or in the case of the IC9100 and IC7100 it will turn on the CAT PTT control. Other radio’s may not have this function implemented.

Until v3.x of my program only one program can talk to the computer at a time so after setting up the approximate frequency for the RTTY and setting USB and RTS On, you should quit my program and start your RTTY program which should be configured to use RTS as the PTT. Then if necessary you can tune the radio a little around the RTTY frequencies with the tuning knob.

Be careful if you leave RTS PTT On then the next time you power up the computer you may hear your radio swap backwards and forwards between receive and transmit during the boot up because the computer is changing the RTS signal, this may happen several times on some computers. In which case it is best to turn the RTS PTT off after you finish using a digital mode.

### Function Keys

F1 switches the Preamp on or off

F2 switches the attenuator on or off

F3 switches the Noise Blanker on or off

F4 switches the Noise Reduction on or off

F5 switches the Notch Filter on or off

To adjust the level of the noise blanker/noise reduction, see the Level control information below.

F6 Not used at present

F7 switches the Speech Compressor on or off

F8 switches VOX or Break-In on or off

F9 switches the Transmit Monitor on or off

F10 Not used at present

F11 puts the radio into mic gain mode so that you can adjust the mic gain

using the ALC readings from the radio.

First it is important to do the tuning operation to make sure your antenna is matched to the radio and you are not going to be transmitting into a high SWR. When you hit F11 you will hear Mic Gain and a reading for example four two meaning the mic gain is set to 42 at the moment. Then the program will voice Peak ALC and it will probably say 0 as we haven’t begun the adjustment yet. Now press the PTT and speak normally into the microphone for about 10 seconds. Now release the PTT and the program will be telling you your peak ALC reading where values between 40 and 60 seem to be good for many Icom transceivers but the best test is to do the adjustment while another station is listening to your transmission . If the ALC is low then you can hit the cursor up key one or more times to increase the mic gain or it it is too high then that is too much ALC and you can use the cursor down key to reduce the mic gain. As the mic gain goes from 0 to 255 the program changes the mic gain in steps of 10. After hitting cursor up or cursor down you will now hear that the peak ALC voicing has gone back to zero. So press the PTT and repeat the operation until you get your ALC which you are happy with. Remember these are only empirical values and you may need to test while speaking to a station on the air and the levels may vary with different models of ICOM radio’s and of course if they say you need to increase or decrease the mic gain then just hit F11 and use the up and down cursor keys to change the mic gain and then hit F11 again to exit the mic gain mode.

F12 switches the Auto ATU on and off if fitted, if switched off the ATU parameter in the config file should be set to 1 for manual ATU. This is also useful if the radio is feeding an amplifier, rather than an external ATU.