ICOM 7300 Rig Control Under Linux

I recently upgraded my Amateur radio license from Technical class to General class.  To celebrate, I bought myself an ICOM 7300.  The 7300 can connect to a computer via a USB cable.  Connecting the computer to the radio is called Rig Control.

I didn’t really have any issues with ICOM 7300 Rig Control on Windows or Mac however I found that my radio wasn’t having any part of being controlled by my Linux Laptop.

Confusion ensued.

Software

I’m essentially playing with two hunks of software here.  One is WSJT-X which is used primarily to decode FT8 digital signals.

The other software is FLDIGI which I use to decode digital BSK31 signals.

Additionally, you can connect CHIRP to program your radio.

I have both pieces of software configured for rig control IDENTICALLY as they were on Mac or Windows.  Still not achieving any joy.

Serial Port

When I first started using Linux in the early 2000’s my first serious success was overcoming a serial port conflict.   I’ve come full circle.

When you plug the ICOM 7300 into your computer via USB in Linux the serial port should be /dev/ttyUSB0

If your user cannot connect to  the serial port hardware, then no matter which version of Rig Control you use (rigctl, hamlib) they simply won’t communicate.

So what’s the problem?

Your Linux user needs to belong to a group called “dialout”.  Some Linux distributions do that and some do not do that by default.  Apparently Linux Mint, which I am using, does not.

To get your user in the dialout group open a terminal in Linux and type:

sudo adduser john dialout

Be aware that if your name isn’t john be sure to use YOUR account name.  Once you do that reboot and open a terminal and type “id” (no quote marks).  This is what you should see.

Try, Try Again

This time your rig control should work.  Check out this video which provides an overview of the process.

Now you should be able to use your ICOM 7300 Rig Control with your digital hunks of software with your radio.