Updated IC-9100

The Icom IC-9100 is a multi-band transceiver.
This is a 100 watt all mode transceiver covering all the bands (except 4 meters) with Dstar, Icoms digital communications protocol.
My personal model is fully kitted out with the optional 1296Mhz band and additional filters so you can fine tune on a very narrow signal on the particular band you chose. It uses DSP (Digital Sigal Processing) in the IF sections to single out weak signals.
You can work the Satellites having the dual frequency display and with the USB CAT interface track for Doppler shift as the crafts fly over.

AS you can see by the title, I have enhanced the function of the IC-9100 by adding a panadapter. Not only that, the pan adapter software can run the function of the radio by CAT control.
I would mention here that I already had CAT control over the PC before this by running a piece of software called Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) but the added caviat here is that I can run 3 packages together and they all talk to one another!
HRD has the advantage of Satellite tracking, rotator control, map functions, digital transmission and reception of many modes and running the station logbook.
The picture shows all softwares with pan adapter and the radio working together.

Incorporating SDR with the IC-9100

The previous section on the IC-9100 on the website loosely describes the integration, but what I have found is that it has opened up many possibilities by not updating to a new radio at extra cost, and i guess, loosing money selling my old radio to boot. Not many good analog radios around.
I have also integrated 'HDSDR' software to work with the radio too! The radio, HRD and HDSDR all talk and work together.

So what are the advantages I see?

One of the packages I run is SDRuno by SDR-Play. I've got to say, it was a bit of a handful to learn in a short period of time. I had 1 week off work to learn and integrate everything to work together. For me, the guys at SDR-Play have done a really fine job on this software and although integration between all 3 units could be better, by using DDE to communicate with HRD for example, it has many added functions to enhance and expand your experience. What I am describing here is the 3rd party plugins (community based) they have incorporated into the SDRuno software, and most are all FREE! Including the SDRuno itself.
SDR in a main stream radio is good, but I have thought about it like any totally software run device, it limits what you can do from the manufacturer for example and in a self repair situation.
In any case, as i have discovered, this way of update has opened many other possibilities you can do in radio, by such a relatively cheap upgrade.

Below shows the 3rd party DX Cluster integration into the SDRuno to give you spot frequencies on the waterfall. All you do is click the screen and the Radio will tune to that frequency and you know who you are talking to. Changes are also made simultaneously in HRD (Ham Radio Deluxe), just click on the logbook (in HRD) and make your call.

Here is yet another plus-in that decodes weather fax data on the HF bands. This one is a free plug-in but there are other plug-ins by software developers which you can pay for. One such company is Black Cat software. nearly every package from their range is $20.