Part of our The Icom IC-7300 Mark II: The Complete Guide.
The Mark II’s single USB-C cable carries both CAT control and digital mode audio at once, which makes Ham Radio Deluxe setup simpler than it looks at first glance. Here’s what’s worked for me.
One cable, two virtual ports
Plug in the USB-C cable and the radio presents itself to your computer as both a sound device and a pair of virtual serial ports, one for CAT, one reserved for other uses like a second logging program. Check Device Manager to see which COM port landed as the CAT interface, you’ll need that number in HRD.
Configuring the rig in HRD
Add a new radio in Ham Radio Deluxe and select the IC-7300 Mark II from Icom’s model list, or the original IC-7300 profile if the Mark II isn’t listed yet on your version, the CAT command set is shared. Set the COM port to the CAT virtual port you identified, and match the baud rate to what’s configured in the radio’s CI-V menu.
Confirming it’s actually working
Once connected, HRD’s rig panel should track frequency and mode live, and changing bands on the radio should update instantly on screen. Test the reverse too, click a frequency in HRD and confirm the radio tunes there. If it connects but reads frozen, it’s almost always a baud rate mismatch, not a deeper issue.
Why the dual COM ports actually matter
Since CAT and digital mode audio ride the same physical USB-C cable but present as separate virtual devices, you can run HRD’s rig control for logging and WSJT-X for digital modes simultaneously without needing a second physical connection or a rig-sharing utility. That’s a genuine improvement over radios that force everything through one shared serial connection.
Quick troubleshooting checklist
- Confirm which virtual COM port is the CAT port versus any secondary port, in Device Manager.
- Match baud rate exactly on both ends.
- Close any other software that might be holding the CAT COM port open before starting HRD.
- If a USB port change shifts the COM port numbers, recheck Device Manager rather than assuming a hardware fault.
Once it’s set up, this has been one of the more reliable CAT connections I’ve run, and having digital modes and logging software coexist over one cable is a real convenience.