ROTA-Radio

Why ROTA?

The ROTA Remote Digital Master Checklist (Windows/Dell Edition)

Use this sequence to establish a rock-solid connection between the IC-7300MK2 in the shed and the Remote Dell Laptop in the recliner. This “Fiddle-Free” path is verified for Windows 11.

1. The Radio Foundation (IC-7300MK2)

Before leaving the shack, ensure the “Master Valves” are open:

  • Mode: Must be in USB-D (USB-Data).
  • MENU > SET > Connectors > MOD Input:
    • DATA MOD: Set to LAN.
    • LAN MOD Level: Set to 100% (Opens the audio pipe fully).

2. The Infrastructure (Icom Remote Utility)

  • Action: Open the Utility and click Connect.
  • Settings > Device Settings: * Virtual COM Port: Choose COM10.
    • Speaker/Mic: Set both to ICOM_VAUDIO-2.
  • The AF Slider: Use the AF Button at the bottom of the main window to control the volume of your laptop speakers.
    • > Pro-Tip: This changes what YOU hear; it does not affect your transmit power.

3. The Windows “Plumbing” (Sound Settings)

Ensure Windows isn’t “muting” the virtual cables:

  • System > Sound > More Sound Settings: * Playback Tab: Find ICOM_VAUDIO-2. Set to 30% and Unmute.
    • Recording Tab: Find ICOM_VAUDIO-2. Set to 30% and Unmute.

4. The “Traffic Cop” (FLRig)

FLRig manages the radio so your digital apps can share the connection.

  • Rig: IC-7300 | Baud Rate: 19200 | CI-V: 94h.
  • Init: Click to turn the frequency display Green.
  • Passband: Set the audio passband to 3000 Hz (Crucial for a clean JS8 waterfall).

5. The Digital Suite (JS8Call, VarAC, Winlink)

Configure your software to talk to the “Traffic Cop”:

  • Rig Control: Set Rig to FLRig.
  • Audio Input/Output: Both must be set to ICOM_VAUDIO-2.
  • The Final Tweak: Click Tune in your app and adjust the app’s power/drive slider until the ALC on the radio dashboard just “tickles” the first 1-2 bars.

🛠️ Troubleshooting the “Fiddly” Stuff

  • Don’t Panic at [I=0 O=0]: If you see signals on your waterfall and the radio shows power on transmit, you are “Golden.” The audio is simply bypassing the Utility’s visual meters.
  • The Volume Maze: Avoid using your laptop’s physical keyboard volume buttons during a session. They can “choke” the digital pipe to the radio. Use the AF Slider in the Remote Utility for your ears, and leave the Windows sliders at 30%.

Additional Tweaks and Clarification:

I wanted to lower the audio (volume) coming from the Dell’s speakers. This is the audio I can hear with my ears. I didn’t want to mess up the above Checklist in the process, so I asked my AI mentor (my “elmer” for this project) about the distinction between the LAN audio and the audio my ears hear. Here’s the result, below, with some additional adjustments I did against Google AI’s advice. Look for the comments in RED for those changes:

Google AI’s Suggestions

This is the classic Windows 11 “Audio Maze.” The reason your keyboard buttons aren’t changing the laptop speaker volume is that Windows currently thinks the ICOM_VAUDIO-2 driver is your primary speaker.

When you hit “Volume Down” on the keyboard, you aren’t turning down the physical speakers; you are actually “choking” the digital pipe going to the radio.

Here is the breakdown of how to separate your Listening Volume from your Radio Data Volume:

1. The “System” Section (The Pipe to the Radio)(the Windows Volume Mixer: System > Sound > Volume Mixer)

Because Output Device is set to ICOM_VAUDIO-2, Windows treats your radio like a pair of headphones.

  • Keyboard Buttons: These are currently controlling the “Signal Strength” being sent to the IC-7300.
  • Warning: If you use the keyboard to Mute or turn this down to 0%, your radio will stay in Transmit (PTT) but will send zero power/audio out the antenna.
  • Goal: Keep this at a fixed level (like 50% or 100%) and don’t touch the keyboard buttons for volume during a digital session. — Here, I chose 20% 30% and it’s working great. YMMV.

2. The “Apps” Section (The Listening Volume)

This is where you can actually control what you hear in the recliner without affecting the radio’s signal.

  • Icom Remote Utility: This app slider controls the audio coming from the shack to your laptop speakers.
  • How to Mute/Lower: If you want to “silence” the digital chirps in the room, slide the Icom Remote Utility app slider down to 0% or 20% here in the Mixer.
  • Why this works: This only affects the “monitor” audio hitting your ears; it does not affect the audio JS8Call is sending into the “Pipe” to be transmitted.
  • I skipped this section altogether and didn’t change anything. My apps were all set to 100%. I left them there. Keep reading.

3. How to get your Keyboard Buttons back

If you want your keyboard buttons to control your Laptop Speakers (for Spotify or just system alerts) instead of the radio pipe:

  1. Click the Speaker Icon in the Taskbar.
  2. Click the Select a sound output icon (it looks like a small right-pointing arrow next to the volume bar).
  3. Change the Output from ICOM_VAUDIO-2 back to Realtek Audio (or Speakers/Headphones).

Wait! Won’t that break the radio? No—because JS8Call has its own internal setting (which we checked earlier) telling it to use the Icom driver. As long as JS8Call is manually set to ICOM_VAUDIO-2, it will keep talking to the radio even if your “System” output is set back to your laptop speakers.

Again, for this section I just ignored Gemini’s advice. I’m not sure if I agree with it or not, but I did something else that’s much easier for simply turning down the laptop’s volume, the audio that my ears hear (or, if I plug in headphones, what I’d be hearing through them).

The “ROTA” Audio Strategy:

  1. Set Windows System Output to your laptop speakers (Realtek). Now your keyboard buttons control the room volume. — Don’t do this. I didn’t!
  2. In JS8Call Settings, ensure Input/Output are explicitly set to ICOM_VAUDIO-2.
  3. In the Volume Mixer, keep the Icom Remote Utility app slider at the level you want to “monitor” the radio.

Does that make sense? It basically decouples your “Listening” from your “Transmitting.”

Yes, Gemini, this makes sense, to a point. Instead, I just went to the Icom Remote Utility to change the volume of my computer’s speakers. Here’s what I wrote back to Gemini so we could be on the same page:

Confirming, the speaker audio is most easily changed (up/down/mute) using Remote Utility by pressing the AF button at the bottom of the main window. A Volume slider (oriented vertically) pops up and can be raised/lowered or, with a button below the slider, MUTEd. After testing with a JS8 I confirmed that lowering this volume control doesn’t affect the LAN audio signal to the Mk2. A new HB went out at 34w, good ALC, and I received HB SNR reports that seem to be normal for this time of day on 40m.

Gemini’s response was this:

That is a brilliant find! Using the AF button directly inside the Icom Remote Utility is the cleanest way to handle it.

By using that internal slider, you are essentially adjusting the “monitor volume” at the very end of the pipe. It’s like having a volume knob on a set of speakers that doesn’t affect the signal going into the recorder. It keeps your Windows System settings stable while giving you instant, tactile control over those “chirps” in the recliner.

The “ROTA” Audio Pro-Tip:

The AF Slider in Remote Utility = Your Ears. (Does not affect the radio’s power). 

The MOD Level/JS8 Settings = The Radio’s Ears. (Affects your Transmit power).

Final Thoughts

Audio on the Win11 machine for digi modes

Needless to say, working with a Windows can be a pain. My “native” OS is MacOS. I prefer it. I would use it for everything if my favorite developers of ham radio software wrote software for the Mac or, at least, made their software cross-platform. That would be the best way. Sadly, that’s not the way it is, so I made the decision to use my Dell (Windows 11) for all my digital work, whether I’m in the shed-shack or in the Recliner for a ROTA session. This just works better.

Audio for CW, SSB on the M1 MacBook Air

For my other modes, CW and SSB, I can (and do) use my M1 MacBook Air. At this point in my ROTA experiment I only listen to those modes from the Recliner. Phase Two of this project is to add a WinKeyer so I can listen locally to my CW fist while transmitting. I use Marcus’s SDR-Control for that, and supposedly his app will interface with hardware like WinKeyer. For SSB (my lowest priority) I’ll either use a USB Headset with SDR-Control, or I’ll use my iPad and Marcus’ version of SDR-Control for iOS. Those decisions are TBD. 

Audio in the Shed-Shack

In the shack, audio latency is a moot point. I connect my Mac to my 32″ LG 4K Monitor through a Caldigit hub via USB-C/Thunderbolt port, pull up the SDR-Control window with his excellent Waterfall display—lookin’ good on a 32″ screen!—and just turn down the Mac’s audio so I can listen through the ICOM-7300mk2 speakers. That way, the LAN’s audio delay isn’t an issue. When I start seriously working on remote operations from the Recliner those CW and SSB audio delays will be handled as described above. I’ll likely only listen to SSB (talking will bother my wife). When sending CW it will be done with a Winkeyer (which is hardware, plugged into the Dell via USB) so I can directly monitor my fist through the local Winkeyer’s sidetone. This avoids the latency that will be noticeable if I were listening to my own sending over the LAN. The received CW will also have a slight delay. It doesn’t matter, though, since my fist and my ears/brain don’t need to be in sync just to listen.

When I’m in the shack operating digital modes things work exactly like they do for CW and SSB in the shack. To avoid the LAN’s audio latency, I’ll turn the Dell’s audio down with the AF button on Icom’s Remote Utility app and listen to the digital audio chirps and warbles through the Mk2’s speaker. I could plug in a USB cable and avoid the LAN and its latency. However, with the laptops already set up for operation over the LAN, a USB connection is just another pain point when I want to set up to operate. The LAN is the way to go for me, even with it’s drawbacks.

I’m a Mac guy. I gave up on the Windows vs Mac wars of a few decades ago way back when you could watch the Mac Guy and the PC Guy fighting on TV commercials. Now, I’ve adopted a “live and let live” approach and I go with whatever approach (and operating system) provides the least friction as I aim for my target: remote operation from the Recliner when mood or family circumstances call me out of the shack for my ham radio playtime. 

Is All This Trouble Worth It for ROTA?

Why do I go to all of this trouble just to operate ROTA—in the recliner? Why not just stay in the shack for my ham radio playtime? Since this post is long enough already, I devoted a short article just to this topic.

📡 The ROTA Journey Continues…

Why go to all this trouble just to operate from the recliner?

NEXT ARTICLE: Why ROTA? — The Philosophy Behind the Recliner

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