I am a user of SDR Control for Icom. It’s a great app and brings just about every feature I need to my Macs and IC-7300 and IC-7300 Mark 2.
I use it at home via my network on the Mark 2 and via USB in the field on the original 7300. I can also access the Mark 2 from outside the home. I also have the iPhone and iPads app. I am all in.
I am also a “Mac Geek” and always up for new ways to make my Macs work more effectively with anything I do. Sometimes that’s done with software and sometimes this involves hardware. This post involves the latter.
It started with an Elgato Streamdeck. This is basically a box with buttons you can do to control just about anything on your computer. There are many flavours of StreamDeck. I have the 15 button “OG” at home on the Mark 2 and the eight button Neo for field operations. They connect to the Mac via USB-C. I use both exclusively with SDR Control for Icom. There’s so much more you could do with them but I just want them for my amateur radio operations. StreamDeck works on Mac and Windows.
The next step was adding a Ulanzi Dial (see below). My Mac keyboard is pretty much now just used for volume control. But I use all three pieces, and my trackpad for operations.
StreamDeck and SDR Control for Icom
I use StreamDeck two ways for amateur radio – quickly accessing apps and websites through the push of a physical hardware button. The second use is accessing modes and functions within SDR Control for Icom.
What makes this possible is the use of keystroke shortcuts in SDR Control for Icom. There are many built in or pre-programmed. But what makes it even better is the functionality to ‘map’ keyboard shortcuts you devise to modes, functions and controls in the app.
As you can see in the pictures, I have set up quite a bit of mapping in addition to what’s available. Then in the very stylish Elgato software, I have mapped these key strokes to the buttons on the StreamDeck.
The next cool thing about StreamDeck is you can have pages and scroll through them. My first ‘page’ is app and functions, page two is web sites and logging and page three is app functions.
The StreamDeck “OG” 15 button is about USD 120 and the Neo is USD90. There are many variations of StreamDeck, including ones with knobs, which could be very cool for amateur radio operations.
My mapping in SDR Control for Icom
Software
My pages
Ulanzi and SDR Control for Icom
The Ulanzi D100 Dial has two key modes. First it has a dial that can be programmed to do two things. There’s the first position and turning the dial and then the second position is to push the dial down and again turning it. Then there are seven, yes seven, programmable buttons, just like StreamDeck.
There’s two other cool aspects to this dial – it is Bluetooth and it can be switched between three devices, computers, tablets and phones. For me, I can use it on my Mac Mini at home and on my MacBook Pro in the field. I am yet to try it on the iPad. And did I mention it can be picked up for USD35. It’s a solid piece of kit with a nice weight and feel. It works on Mac and Windows.
In the Ulanzi app for Mac and using keyboard shortcuts and mapping, I use the dial to go up and down bands in two steps. The seven buttons are programmed for PTT , USB, LSB, NR, NB, filters and tuning step. It works well.
The Ulanzi dial is a good and value for money alternative to the tuning control that comes from Icom (which connects by USB).
Software
My mapping
19 August 2026