My IC-7300 TX Audio Setup

The IC-7300 has very good transmit audio out of the box, with the stock microphone. With a little tailoring to your voice tone, it can give excellent results. It seems though, I’m never happy with my transmit audio settings. Even though I am told I have a face for radio, maybe I’ve just not got a voice for radio?

I use a Behringer XM8500 microphone, which is then passed through a UR6QW 8-band EQ, noise gate, and compressor, before finally being delivered to the front microphone connector on the IC-7300. The only modification I did was to place a 10µF/16V electrolytic capacitor in line with the 3.5mm audio jack inside the UR6QW processor to remove any electret bias voltage from the dynamic microphone.

In the case that anyone does actually like what they hear on the air from me – here follows my transmit audio setup and settings.

Click to enlarge.

These settings don’t cause any issues when using a linear amplifier, provided it’s driven an appropriate level. My ALC is connected to the amplifier though, just in case, via an ARB-704.

You can hear the above settings in action in this audio file recorded by Peter, AG5DB on his IC-7300. I was talking with EA8OB in the Canary Islands.

I think that these settings are a good compromise between a ragchew audio and a DX audio. There is always room for further adjustment in the tone controls on the processor and in the IC-7300, but for now, I think I’ll stick with this.

I use a couple of microphone pop shields. Probably overkill, but I really want to avoid plosive sounds.