Icom IC-7300 and Linux. Do they go well together? Let’s see.

The TRX is equipped USB port type B on rear panel which provides audio/baseband/12kHz DRM IF Input/Output and RIG control.

To connect it to a PC you need popular USB cable like the one used for printers for example – port A/B.

It turns out you don’t need any special drivers for Ubuntu 18.04 (or any other modern Linux distro release). See kernel logs:

$ dmesg -w
usb 1-4: new full-speed USB device number 8 using xhci_hcd
usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0451, idProduct=2046
usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
hub 1-4:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-4:1.0: 4 ports detected
usb 1-4.1: new full-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
usb 1-4.1: New USB device found, idVendor=10c4, idProduct=ea60
usb 1-4.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-4.1: Product: CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller
usb 1-4.1: Manufacturer: Silicon Labs
usb 1-4.1: SerialNumber: IC-7300 03010375
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
usbcore: registered new interface driver cp210x
usbserial: USB Serial support registered for cp210x
cp210x 1-4.1:1.0: cp210x converter detected
usb 1-4.1: cp210x converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usb 1-4.4: new full-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
usb 1-4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=08bb, idProduct=2901
usb 1-4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-4.4: Product: USB Audio CODEC
usb 1-4.4: Manufacturer: Burr-Brown from TI
input: Burr-Brown from TI               USB Audio CODEC  as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.4/1-4.4:1.3/0003:08BB:2901.0003/input/input22
hid-generic 0003:08BB:2901.0003: input,hidraw2: USB HID v1.00 Device [Burr-Brown from TI               USB Audio CODEC ] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.4/input3
usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

This basically means that IC7300 is visible both as /dev/ttyUSB0 serial port and USB audio interface. Note that you need to be in dialout group to use /dev/ttyUSB0 port:

$ ls -al /dev/ttyUSB0 
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Jun 17 19:57 /dev/ttyUSB0

To check what groups you are in:

$ id
uid=1001(linuxer) gid=1001(linuxer) groups=1001(linuxer),4(adm),20(dialout),21(fax),24(cdrom),25(floppy),26(tape),27(sudo),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),125(scanner)

By default newly added user in Ubuntu should be in both dialout and autio groups. If not then you can add yourself with:

$ sudo gpasswd -a linuxer dialout
Adding user linuxer to group dialout
$ sudo gpasswd -a linuxer audio
Adding user linuxer to group audio

Typical settings for /dev/ttyUSB0 serial port would be 19200/8-N-1 or in other words:

• baud rate 19200
• 8 data bits
• no parity
• 1 stop bit

Audio interface is visible as a USB sound card. You should see it here:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf1240000 irq 129
 1 [CODEC          ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC
                      Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC at usb-0000:00:14.0-4.4, full speed

Where index 0 is my laptop built in sound card, and index 1 in IC7300. Also you can list it with aplay:

$ aplay -l
...
hw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0
    USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0
    USB Audio CODEC, USB Audio
    Hardware device with all software conversions

You can even record and play recording – as with any other sound card with input and output:

$ arecord -D plughw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 -f S16_LE -r 44100 foo.wav
Recording WAVE 'foo.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Mono

And play the recorded file back to the radio:

$ aplay -D plughw:CARD=CODEC,DEV=0 foo.wav
Playing WAVE 'foo.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Mono

As for graphical Pulse Audio tools, pavucontrol shows it as PCM2901 Audio Codec. By default it is set as “Analog Stereo Duplex” and this is ok if you want to use programs like WSJT-X.

PCM2901 as analog input device – default level -42,25dB.

PCM2901 as analog output device – default level -20dB.

It seems everything works out of the box. Good news!

More: Interested in digi modes like FT8? See how to install and configure WSJT-X to run with Icom IC-7300 transceiver.