Remote control example
Following is an example I wrote using the Visual Basic Version 5 MSComm Control which sets the IC-R8500 frequency to 1,234,567,890 Hz:

The ICOM range of communications receivers use variable length binary command sets, that is, ASCII text commands cannot be sent to the equipment using a text-based terminal such as Windows Terminal. It is therefore important to convert the control command set to a format the equipment recognises.

A typical binary command set is FEFE4AE0dataFD
In this example the data field contains the Set Frequency Command and the desired frequency in Hz i.e.
05 is the Set Frequency Command and 9078563412 is the desired frequency. For a complete Listing of Control Command Sets refer to your ICOM Instruction Manual.

Convert the HEX values to Decimal values for each Byte in the binary command set i.e.
FE=254, FE=254, 4A=74, E0=224, 05=5, 90=144, 78=120, 56=86, 34=52, 12=18, FD=253

Thereafter pass the ASCII character of each Byte above to the MSComm Control.

Note: The MSComm Control is named RS232 in this example

Dim entry As Variant
entry = Chr(254) + Chr(254) + Chr(74) + Chr(224) + Chr(5) + Chr(144) + Chr(120) + Chr(86) + Chr(52) + Chr(18) + Chr(253)
RS232.Handshaking = comNone
RS232.RTSEnable = False
RS232.DTREnable = False
RS232.EOFEnable = False
RS232.Settings = "9600,N,8,1"
RS232.CommPort = 2
RS232.PortOpen = True
RS232.Output = entry
RS232.PortOpen = False