Remote control of an IC-2350

There is scant information out there on controlling the Icom dual banders with DTMF tones, esp. when it comes to the cross-band repeat function. Manually, one enters the repeater mode by pushing both dials and SET at the same time until the LOCK indicators flash on both bands. Pressing SET for a while clears that mode. According to a message on www.mods.dk, pressing both band knobs plus SET plus DUP will enable crossband repeat without the squelch hang time "tail".

I found that my IC-2350 with the optional UT-101 (about $25 new, if you can find one) installed responds to the same basic DTMF commands as the IC-2800 with its UT-49. It's reasonable to assume that they might work with other "true" dual banders from Icom.

First, as described in the manual, set or disable the "password" (3-digit code) for the subband. On the 2350 this is done as follows:

select the subband by pressing its dial
push DTMF until P appears on the frequency display
push SET and select code channel 5
push SET or S.MW to set the first password digit, then
  repeat for the other two digits
pushing DTMF toggles the "receive accept" and "receive
  inhibit" (SKIP appears on the display); with receive
  inhibit, the password is disabled

For reliable cross-band repeat operation, you may want to program tone squelch on the main band (with the tone corresponding to the fixed repeater you are going to access), and also a "private" tone or even code squelch on the subband, so only your HT will activate the cross-band repeat. Of course the HT has to be programmed to send the correct tone/code with each transmission.

Now the dual bander can be left in "remote standby": set the frequencies on each band, select the main band (e.g. VHF, if the remote control is to be on UHF), and press DTMF on the radio so steady REMO shows up on the display.

To issue commands from the HT, send DTMF as follows assuming the password in code channel 5 is programmed to be 123:

B123#B*   to disable cross-band repeat
B123#DB*  to enable cross-band repeat

Other commands can be used to set up the radio "from scratch", assuming it's left with UHF on the subband (control) frequency:

B123#     preamble
5         select UHF as main band
9         select low power on UHF
4         select VHF as main band
2         memory mode
D02       memory 02 on VHF
6         high power on VHF
DB*       enable cross-band repeat

All this put together is the string B123#5942D026DB*, which happens to fit perfectly in one of my IC-T90A's DTMF memories.

If password is disabled, the preamble should just be B# without any digits.

FCC rules

As I understand it, this gives you a fairly reliable way of controlling the mobile rig, as required by the rules. I am not planning to use this for anything other than emergencies, or possibly at public service events - during one of them I got stuck at a very bad spot, RF-wise, and I had to be out of the car most of the time. The mobile heard the net control fine, but the HT didn't, and had trouble reaching it also. That's when the repeat function would be ideal - but I'd be only 10 feet away from the car, so there would be no problem with controlling that station if it started acting up.

This still leaves the problem of proper ID on all channels. Transmissions on the control link (from HT to mobile on UHF) will be ID'd by simply giving the callsign as usual. This also IDs the more powerful VHF transmissions from the mobile repeater to the destination (net control, or a fixed repeater). But the UHF transmissions (presumably fairly low power) from the mobile back to the HT are not ID'd with the control operator's call.

One clumsy solution would be to periodically switch the HT to the mobile's VHF input frequency, and transmit the callsign/R there. This would be picked up by the mobile and retransmitted on the UHF side, and would fulfill the requirements, I believe.

A better way would of course be to tap into the rig and make an automatic CW or voice ID'er transmit the call on the UHF side, but I have no idea how to do this with the 2350 in the cross-band repeat mode. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Back to my ham radio page