How to Program an IC-705 — Step by Step

HF through 70 centimeters, ten watts, on a battery, with the IC-7300's touchscreen shrunk into something you can carry up a hill. Fewer physical keys than its big brother, so more of the radio lives on the screen.

This page covers: Icom IC-705. They share the same firmware, so the steps below are identical on all of them whatever name is printed on the front.

It is an Icom, but it is not an IC-7300

Two differences bite people who come from the 7300. Its CI-V address is A4, not 94h — software set up for a 7300 will not find it. And the settings for which socket feeds the transmitter sit one level deeper: Connectors, then MOD Input, then DATA MOD. On the 7300 those items are directly under Connectors. Same manufacturer, same words, different depth.

Set it up once, then save it as a preset

This is the feature nothing else in this app has, and it is worth learning before anything else. The IC-705 holds five PRESET memories, and each one stores a whole bundle of settings at once — the mode, the filters, DATA MOD, USB MOD Level, USB SEND, the transmit bandwidth, the CI-V address, all of it. So you set the radio up properly for FT8 once, save it as a preset, and load it in a couple of touches whenever you want digital. Then load a different preset to go back to voice. On a radio you carry to a field site, that is the difference between operating and fiddling.

There is no tuner in the box

The IC-705 has no internal antenna tuner. Icom's optional AH-705 is what tunes a long wire, and it has real length requirements: longer than about 30 metres on 160 metres, and longer than about 7 metres on 80 metres and up. If you are used to the IC-7300 pressing TUNE and sorting itself out, this radio does not do that on its own.

What you can do on this radio

Rather do this on your phone, standing at the radio?

The app walks you through the same steps one at a time, on a screen sized for a phone.

Open Radio Rosetta

Set the radio up for FT8 and other digital modes on an IC-705

Good news first: unlike the IC-7300, this radio leaves the factory already pointed at the USB socket, so a single cable usually works with nothing changed. What is worth your time here is checking the levels and then saving the whole arrangement as a preset.

Have these to hand before you start

  • A USB cable to the computer. The IC-705 has its own sound card and CI-V interface, so one cable does audio and control.
  • Icom's USB driver installed. Two COM ports appear, USB (A) and USB (B).
  1. Push MODE, choose USB, then touch DATA.MODE›touch USB›touch DATAThe screen should show: USB-D in the mode area.FT8 runs upper sideband, and DATA is what turns plain USB into the data version of it.
  2. MENU, SET, Connectors, MOD Input, DATA MOD — and check it says USB.MENU›touch SET›touch Connectors›touch MOD Input›touch DATA MODThe screen should show: DATA MOD, then USB.Watch out. Note the extra level: MOD Input. On the IC-7300 these items sit directly under Connectors, so somebody moving between the two radios will look for this in the wrong place. The default here is already USB, which is the opposite of the 7300 — its DATA MOD ships on ACC and has to be changed.
  3. USB MOD Level, in the same MOD Input list, sets how hard that audio drives the transmitter. It starts at 50%.touch USB MOD Level›dial → 0 - 100%›MULTIThe screen should show: USB MOD Level, then a percentage.
  4. Back up a level, USB AF/IF Output, Output Select — AF is the default and what a decoder wants.EXIT›touch USB AF/IF Output›touch Output Select›dial → AFThe screen should show: Output Select, then AF.The alternative is a 12 kHz IF output, which is for panadapter software rather than for decoding. A dead waterfall is worth one glance here.
  5. Now save the lot. MENU, touch 2 at the bottom of the screen, PRESET — then save the current settings to a memory.MENU›touch 2›touch PRESET›touch Save to the Preset MemoryThe screen should show: The preset memory list, with yours stored.That preset captures the mode, the filters, DATA MOD, USB MOD Level, USB SEND, the transmit bandwidth and the CI-V settings together. Load it next time and the radio is configured for digital in two touches instead of six menu levels.

One documented trap worth knowing, from Icom's own troubleshooting table: if DATA OFF MOD ends up set to USB or WLAN, your voice memories will not transmit. The fix is to put DATA OFF MOD back to MIC,USB, which is its default. DATA MOD and DATA OFF MOD are two different settings and it is easy to change the wrong one.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Connect the radio to a computer on an IC-705

There is no baud rate to set on this radio — control runs over USB rather than a serial jack. What there is instead is an address, and it is not the one a 7300 owner will expect.

  1. MENU, SET, Connectors, CI-V, CI-V Address.MENU›touch SET›touch Connectors›touch CI-V›touch CI-V AddressThe screen should show: CI-V Address, showing A4.Watch out. A4 is the IC-705's address. The IC-7300 is 94h. If you have set software up for a 7300 before and copied the settings across, this is why it will not connect. Software that has no IC-705 entry can often be made to work by telling it a different Icom and matching the address here — Icom says as much in its own manual.
  2. CI-V Transceive ships ON, which makes the radio announce every front-panel change back down the cable.touch CI-V Transceive›dial → OFF›MULTIThe screen should show: CI-V Transceive, then OFF or ON.Watch out. Some logging and digital software reads that unsolicited traffic as a reply and loses its place. If the software keeps timing out or losing frequency sync, try OFF here before anything else.
  3. USB SEND, one level up under Connectors, is how the computer keys the transmitter. It ships OFF.EXIT›touch USB SEND/Keying›touch USB SENDThe screen should show: USB SEND, then the control port.Two COM ports appear when you plug in — USB (A) and USB (B). One carries CAT and the other carries keying, and which is which is shown in the port properties on the computer. Getting them the wrong way round is the usual reason a radio connects but will not transmit.

Order of suspicion: which COM port you gave to which job, then the address, then Transceive. There is no baud rate to get wrong here, which removes the single most common Yaesu problem entirely.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the drive level for digital modes on an IC-705

Ten watts, and on battery power often less. There is very little headroom here to absorb a badly set level, so this is worth getting right rather than close.

  1. MENU, SET, Connectors, MOD Input, USB MOD Level. Default is 50%.MENU›touch SET›touch Connectors›touch MOD Input›touch USB MOD Level›dial → 0 - 100%The screen should show: USB MOD Level, then a percentage.Set this once and do your fine adjustment on the computer's output slider. Moving both against each other is how a signal ends up wide.
  2. Push MULTI for the Multi-function menu and touch RF POWER to set the transmit power.MULTI›touch RF POWER›dial → downThe screen should show: The power setting.Digital modes run at full duty for the whole transmission. On a ten watt radio that is a real thermal load as well as a signal question, and backing off is normal practice rather than modesty.
  3. Put the meter on ALC so you can see what the transmitter is actually doing.MULTI›touch METER›dial → ALCThe screen should show: The ALC meter.Watch out. You want ALC barely moving. Real ALC action on a digital mode means the audio is overdriving the transmitter, and the resulting splatter is something everybody else hears and you do not.

Once you have it right, save it into a PRESET memory. That is the whole point of them — your digital drive settings come back exactly as you left them rather than being re-found by trial and error at the next field site.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Narrow the filter to shut out the station next door on an IC-705

Twin PBT, the same idea as the IC-7300 but driven differently — this radio has no concentric PBT rings, so the two halves are selected on screen and set with the one dial.

  1. The quick way first: the three stored filter widths per mode.FILTER›dial → FIL1, FIL2 or FIL3The screen should show: FIL1, FIL2 or FIL3 with the bandwidth.Three presets covers most of what you need without adjusting anything.
  2. For the fine work, push PBT to select PBT1, then rotate MULTI to shift that half of the passband. Push PBT again for PBT2.PBT›dial → the shiftThe screen should show: 1 or 2, with the passband width and shift value.PBT1 and PBT2 move the two edges independently. Shifting them towards each other narrows the passband; shifting both the same way slides it sideways.
  3. Touch the filter icon and hold for a second to see the numbers.touch the filter iconThe screen should show: The FILTER screen, with passband width and shift in hertz.Watch out. A dot appears on the IF filter indicator once you have moved PBT. That dot is your reminder — a passband left shifted from last night is the usual reason a signal sounds thin the next morning.
  4. TBW on the FUNCTION screen is the other direction entirely — it sets your TRANSMIT bandwidth, wide, mid or narrow.FUNCTION›touch TBWThe screen should show: WIDE, MID or NAR.Worth knowing it is there and knowing it is not a receive control. Narrow transmit audio is a courtesy in a pileup and a handicap in a ragchew.

Each mode remembers its own PBT setting, so a shift you set on CW does not follow you to SSB. Convenient once you know, confusing until you do.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on noise reduction on an IC-705

For steady hiss rather than sharp ticks. As on every Icom here, tapping and holding do different jobs.

  1. Push FUNCTION and touch NR to switch noise reduction on.FUNCTION›touch NRThe screen should show: The NR indicator appears.
  2. Touch NR again and hold for a full second to open its own screen, then set the level.touch NR›dial → the levelThe screen should show: The NR adjustment.Watch out. The tap only toggles it. If you have been running noise reduction at whatever it was last set to and concluding that it makes everything sound underwater, this hold is the control you never found.

Use the least that works. Every setting removes some of the wanted signal along with the noise, and voices go hollow long before the noise is gone.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Turn on the noise blanker on an IC-705

For repeating pulse noise. This one has three separate adjustments behind the hold, and the manual is unusually clear about what each of them does wrong when you get it wrong.

  1. Push FUNCTION and touch NB.FUNCTION›touch NBThe screen should show: The NB indicator appears.
  2. Hold NB for a second for the NB menu — LEVEL, DEPTH and WIDTH.touch NB›dial → LEVEL, DEPTH or WIDTHThe screen should show: The NB menu.LEVEL is where the blanker starts working, default 50%. DEPTH is how hard it attenuates, 1 to 10, default 8. WIDTH is how long each blanking pulse lasts, 1 to 100, default 50.
  3. If strong signals sound distorted with the blanker on, reduce DEPTH.dial → DEPTH downThe screen should show: A lower DEPTH value.Watch out. Icom says this outright: with very strong signals, or noise that is not really pulse-type, the blanker distorts what you are listening to. Their own fix is to turn it off or shallow the DEPTH. So a blanker left on out of habit genuinely costs you.
  4. And if noise still gets through, or too much of the signal is going with it, WIDTH is the one to move.dial → WIDTH downThe screen should show: A different WIDTH value.Too short and the pulse is not fully removed; too wide and a chunk of the wanted signal goes with each pulse. The manual illustrates both failures.

Turn it off when the pulse noise stops. On a quiet band a hard blanker setting is doing nothing except chewing up the signals you want.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Notch out a whistle or a carrier on an IC-705

Two notches, and which modes they work in differs — worth knowing before you go hunting for one that is not offered.

  1. Push FUNCTION and touch NOTCH to cycle the type.FUNCTION›touch NOTCHThe screen should show: Auto Notch or Manual Notch.Watch out. Auto Notch works in SSB, AM and FM. Manual Notch works in SSB, CW, RTTY and AM. So on CW there is no automatic notch at all, and on FM there is no manual one — if the option you want is missing, check what mode you are in before assuming the radio is faulty.
  2. With Manual Notch selected, hold NOTCH for a second and rotate MULTI to move the null onto the whistle.touch NOTCH›dial → the null onto the toneThe screen should show: The notch frequency, and the tone disappearing.The scope helps — a steady carrier usually shows as a spike, so you can aim rather than hunt by ear.

Auto first, since it is one touch. Manual when the automatic one cannot find the tone or keeps taking a bite out of the voice. And switch it off afterwards, or it quietly removes part of everything you listen to next.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Work a DX station that is running split on an IC-705

Quick Split does the whole setup in one touch, exactly as on the IC-7300 — but there is no SPLIT key on this radio, so it lives on the FUNCTION screen instead.

Have these to hand before you start

  • The frequency the DX station is transmitting on.
  • Where it is listening — "up 5", or a range.
  1. Set VFO A to the station you can hear, in the mode you will use.dial → the DX station's frequencyThe screen should show: The DX frequency.
  2. Push FUNCTION and touch SPLIT for one second.FUNCTION›touch SPLITThe screen should show: Split turns on, and the VFO B frequency appears.That one touch copies VFO A's frequency and mode into VFO B and switches split on together — which is the step people forget when doing it by hand.
  3. Hold XFC down and turn the dial to set how far up or down you will transmit.hold XFC›dial → the offsetThe screen should show: The transmit frequency, and you hear it while you hold XFC.XFC lets you listen on your transmit frequency while you set it, so you find out whether it is clear before you call rather than afterwards.
  4. A plain touch of SPLIT turns it off again.FUNCTION›touch SPLITThe screen should show: The split indicator goes out.

If you keep nudging the receive dial while hunting for the transmit frequency, Split Lock freezes the receive side so the dial only moves transmit. It is under Function in the Set menu, and it is worth turning on before a serious pileup.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Save a frequency to a memory channel on an IC-705

This one is all on the touchscreen, and it asks you to confirm — so it is harder to overwrite something by accident than on most radios here.

  1. In VFO mode, set the frequency, the mode and the filter you want kept.V/M›dial → the frequency you wantThe screen should show: Your frequency.Each memory holds one frequency, one mode, one filter, a name and the tone settings — so set the filter now if you have a favourite for that net.
  2. Touch the VFO/MEMORY icon, then touch MW.touch the VFO/MEMORY icon›touch MWThe screen should show: The memory write options.
  3. Choose Write to a New Channel, touch the channel you want, and confirm with YES.touch Write to a New Channel›touch a channel›touch YESThe screen should show: Your frequency in that channel.Touch GROUP while choosing if you want it in a particular memory group. There are 100 groups and up to 500 channels across them.

Icom warns plainly that new content overwrites whatever is already in the selected memory. The confirmation step is your protection — read the channel number before you touch YES.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Run the antenna tuner on an IC-705

There is no antenna tuner inside the IC-705. If you have come from an IC-7300 expecting to press TUNE and have the radio sort itself out, that is the single biggest practical difference between the two. What Icom sells for this job is the AH-705, and it has conditions.

  1. With an AH-705 connected, switch the radio on and pick your operating frequency.The screen should show: Your frequency.Watch out. The AH-705 is for a long wire, and the wire has to be long enough: more than about 30 metres — 98 feet — on 160 metres, and more than about 7 metres — 23 feet — on 80 metres and up. A short wire is not a tuning problem, it is outside what the tuner can do.
  2. Push FUNCTION, touch 2 at the bottom of the screen, then touch TUNER.FUNCTION›touch 2›touch TUNERThe screen should show: The radio transmits by itself and starts tuning. You will hear a sidetone and TUNE will blink.Unlike the 7300 there is no separate connect-then-tune. Touching TUNER starts the tune straight away. It should get below 2:1 in two or three seconds.
  3. Wait for it to settle.The screen should show: TUNE steady means it worked. The indicator going out means it did not.Watch out. If it cannot get under 2:1 within fifteen seconds the indicator goes out and the tuner bypasses itself — the wire is then connected straight through. That is the radio telling you the antenna is out of range, not that the tuner is broken.
  4. Touching TUNER again switches it off and bypasses it.touch TUNERThe screen should show: The TUNE indicator goes out.

Without an AH-705 or another external tuner, this radio has no way to match anything — a resonant antenna is not optional here the way it is on a 7300. That is part of the trade for the size and the battery, and it is better known before you get to the field than after.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Set the CW keyer speed and weight on an IC-705

On the Multi-function menu, which is the dial rather than any of the menus — press MULTI and it appears.

  1. Get into CW mode first. The keyer controls are not offered in any other mode.MODE›touch CWThe screen should show: CW in the mode area.
  2. Push MULTI to open the Multi-function menu, touch KEY SPEED, and rotate to set it.MULTI›touch KEY SPEED›dial → your speedThe screen should show: The keying speed.Send at the speed you can comfortably receive rather than the speed you would like to. Answering at 28 when you copy at 14 ends the QSO early.
  3. CW PITCH is on the same menu and sets both the received tone and your sidetone.MULTI›touch CW PITCH›dial → your pitchThe screen should show: The pitch setting.It does not move your operating frequency, so set it to whatever your ear finds easiest to pick out of noise.
  4. Push MULTI again to close the menu.MULTIThe screen should show: Back to the normal screen.

The keyer memories and the keyer type live under KEYER on the same screen. If you are using a straight key rather than a paddle, that is where to say so.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

Reset the menu to factory settings on an IC-705

Two resets, both on the touchscreen — and unusually, a documented way in for when the touchscreen itself is the problem.

  1. MENU, SET, Others, Reset.MENU›touch SET›touch Others›touch ResetThe screen should show: Partial Reset and All Reset.
  2. Partial Reset is the one to try first.touch Partial Reset›touch YESThe screen should show: The radio resets and comes back to the default VFO screen.It puts the operating settings back without clearing your memory channels — the same distinction as on the IC-7300, and the right first move when something is misconfigured and you cannot find what.
  3. All Reset clears everything. It makes you touch NEXT, read a warning, and only then confirm.touch All Reset›touch NEXT›touch YESThe screen should show: A warning message, then the radio resets to factory.Watch out. This deletes the memory channels and, on this radio, the D-STAR repeater list with them. Icom recommends backing up to a microSD card or saving with the CS-705 software first — the repeater list is preloaded at the factory and you will not get it back from the radio itself.
  4. If a touchscreen fault means you cannot even get into the Set mode, Icom documents a power-on key combination that forces an All Reset.power off›hold two keys›power onThe screen should show: The radio resets to factory.Worth knowing it exists. It is the last resort, and it is an All Reset — everything goes, so it is not a troubleshooting step to reach for casually.

Partial Reset first, every time. And if you have your configuration saved as PRESET memories, remember that a reset takes those with it too — so a microSD backup is worth the thirty seconds before you touch anything here.

Taken from the manufacturer's own manual for this model.

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