Icom has released a new program for Windows and Android to allow you to update the clock of your USB enabled Icom radio from your computer. The manual states that this works for the Icom 705, 7100, 7300, 7600, 7610, 7850/51, and 9700. It is a simple little program and worth checking out. Here is a video I made about it:
I guess this solves the internal clock battery issue. 73 from, The K0UO "Rhombic Antenna Farm" 2 miles of wire, I'm In the Air or On the Air daily
I personally have no use for this but it makes a 'feller wonder why they went through the trouble to make the application and didn't give an option to auto run/update at computer startup or at a user defined interval.
Thank you for posting your fine video, Drew; it will come in handy for my IC-9700. Now if there was only a similar fix for my Elecraft K3...! (such fine rigs but with continually wonky clocks) 73, Jeff
I don't know why they did either. You can hook up a gps if you need real accuracy. You could also script CI-V commands to sync with the system clock. Is this even an issue? I set the clock on an IC-7100 2 months ago. Just checked it for the first time and it's still within 2 seconds. They didn't give the option to run at certain times because that functionality already exists in every modern OS, and if that's too much of a "deep dive" for someone, scheduler apps are a dime a dozen.
WSJT-X system requirement necessitates ". . . synchronizing the computer clock to UTC within ±1 second." Sortof analogous to throwing the football too soon for the wide receiver to catch the ball.
I for one appreciate it since the clock battery in my 7300 has died. GPS sync is fine for my 705, but since the 7300 doesn't have an internal GPS this helps. What would have been even better would have been an easily replaceable button cell in the radio in the first place.
I wonder what kind of battery is there ? Or is it a ionistor? Clock in my IC-7300 still working good , maybe because I use the radio almost every day?
I guess I don't understand what you're trying to say. Syncing the computer clock has absolutely nothing to do with the radio clock unless you are using a radios built-in ft8/rtty functionality instead of a computer.
The battery inside the 7300 and the 9700 is a "whopping" 1 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion cell which provides for appr 55 days of power to the RTC. These batteries fail after one or two years and then only hold charge for a few days. The clock chip simply drains this battery beyond the discharge limits of a Li-Ion battery so the entrie design of this circuit ensures that the battery will fail if the 7300/9700 is left unpowered for too long. In the 7300 the battery is easily accessible but in the 9700 it is hidden under a soldered-down shield and thus very hard to replace. It is really beyond me why Icom did it this way. One would expect they learned from their screw-up in the 7300. Instead, they made it worse.
