The Radio Information Board

I see in the manual where the IC-F3 will do narrow and wideband but I don't see where in the software one can set it. Is that a hardware change in the radio or is it programmable?

Are you making reference to an F3s or F3g?? The F3g will do W/N band, but I did not see anything in the programming manual for the F3s relative to W/N band.

I didn't either but the owners manual shows both narrow and wide band emissions listed. But I sure can't figure out how to do it.

At one point ICOM sold a narrowband F3 radio in addition to the wideband version. It was specific to the radio. You could not switch between the two unfortanetly.

I was afraid of that. One would think the specs would reflect that it's 2 different radios and not one that can do both.

IC-F3S-2 = Wide Band (5 KHz modulation), 32 channels (can divide into banks)

IC-F3S-3 = Narrow Band (2.5 KHz modulation), 32 channels permanently divided in two 16 channel banks. This is the special model created for the US military for their soldier intercom. Initially the power was set low (0.1 - 0.5 watts out), but this proved inadequate for the military use in the field, and almost every radio I have seen has been previously re-set to 5W out, likely by the radio tech who initially programmed them. The programming software often includes the service software to do this.

The modulation width is set per radio (NOT per channel). It is possible to adjust the deviation via a pot on the radio board. This works fine for taking a narrow radio and using it on a wide system (for Rx and Tx). It will likely also work for taking a wide radio and using it on a narrow system. However, the conversion of the reciever includes swapping out several components, which is not really practical. So long as we are using narrow channels at wide channel spacing, we are good to go. Once the interstitial channels start being used, this will likely be unacceptable. The wide radio works OK recieving narrow, although the audio is a bit quieter.