| W9WQA |
Rating:      |
2019-06-22 | |
| 7300, cosmic shift!! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
i made this comment on a review of the 450d priced under $700. a great rig BUT.
its all true. i have a 45o d for ? 11 years and i really like it.heres the BUT !!
i got a 7300 2 yrs ago.to be able to see entire band activity is such a dramatic
experience that NOTHING can compare. not even free radios of the now out dated type.
i would imagine manufacturers will soon empty inventories of old rigs at ANY clearance price.AND stop making them. the used market is showing it now.
it would be nice to have an extra "??? ???" rig
brand new at a" shipping price."
an hour with an sdr rig like the 7300 will convert anyone.
ill bet that there were similar new rigs back 40 to 60 yrs ago having a similar impact huh?? but no band display. im no expert but i know how the 7300 has affected me..
when i think of the times i tuned around '40" ,not "seeing" all the activity around me i feel like i had my eyes closed. the band display is dramatic...
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Earlier 4-star review posted by W9WQA on 2016-07-25
i have one negative that bugs me; the tuning is too fast at any setting. a "micro"touch of the knob changes a number, much faster than any radio i have ever used. my 450d needs about 1/10 in movement of the bigger knob i put on it.
the 7300,even at one hertz needs a tiny touch, takes an extra effort to set on the nose! zero ! |
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| VA7UO |
Rating:      |
2019-06-18 | |
| Fantastic radio |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| I bought this to replace most of my other radios and would not look back. Great noise reduction and the IP works as it should. Never encountered any fan noise even continuous duty on RTTY. Very intuitive menu system once you play with it for a few days, even then there is more. What I like about it is you can run a stock mic using a blocking capacitor and you can use most any mic. |
|
| ON4VP |
Rating:      |
2019-06-18 | |
| Great value for money spent |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| It has been said all so no special things to add. Only regret is just a single virtual com port and no second one and the fan is just to loud. I replaced it as some other hams did with a Noctua fan. Can't hear the fan anymore ! A 20$ mod that makes working with the 7300 so much more fun. |
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| KG6TR |
Rating:      |
2019-06-13 | |
| resistance is futile |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I resisted this radio, as I tend to be someone who avoids the most popular thing going. After upgrading to Gen then AdvEx, I got an FT-991a as my "shack in a box" and KX2 for SOTA. Both of those are great radios and do what they do quite well. But recently I decided to dive more into VHF/UHF, in part due to it being easier to deploy antennas at home. A 2M yagi is a bit easier to hoist compared to a 40m ;-)
So getting a separate VHF/UHF radio for home (FT-400) worked well, and I figured I'd keep moving to separates. Lots of love (and some hate) for the 7300, and I was toying with the idea of a Flex 6400M. I focus on SSB voice - have done some digital modes but they don't really float my boat. I've become a realist, and just try to work what I can with 100W and an end fed thrown up a tree in the yard. I actually try to avoid having a computer in the loop as I spend enough time on them for the day job, the radio hobby is to try and get away from that. Plus I figured for the price of a 6400M I could get a 7300 and 9700. So I went that route, picking up the 7300 first.
I can say for the way I use HF, it is pretty much spot-on. I'm not contesting, don't need dual watch - I'm just spinning through the bands looking for interesting contacts and conversations. The 7300 is quite fun to use. Enough flexibility with the NB/NR/Notch and the twin PBT is easy to understand. The waterfall is big enough to be useful (to me) - I don't hook it up to an external computer or monitor, just run it as-is.
Have gotten good audio reports (stock mic), am running a passive external speaker which improves the rx audio. I have a lot of noise in the area and it deals with it fine - no worse than the FT-991a or KX2 did. I can understand that for some operators there might be some performance or features lacking. But for general SSB use and exploring the bands, hard to beat the features for the price. |
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| N7XXC |
Rating:      |
2019-06-12 | |
| Has one annoying flaw |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| The cooling fan is far too loud for my level of tolerance. I swapped out the stock fan with a Noctua. Radio is now completely silent on transmit. |
|
| VE3CQK |
Rating:      |
2019-05-30 | |
| First-rate, just outstanding. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| A new ham, certainly new to HF I took my time and boy did I procrastinate over this decision. I looked at many second hand offers, many ham friends informed me of great deals on high spec old boat anchors and suggested that I sincerely should consider but after some experience with SDR's and computer based listening I took a shine to seeing all the band activity at once and knowing where to aim for a contact. After seeing the IC-7300 and getting some time with it in the store I knew I had to sell everything and put time into HF. Goodbye for now VHF / UHF the 7300 is a phenomenal rig and while I may not have much in the way of a technical review quite as yet I'm thoroughly enjoying getting further into this great hobby with this very supportive and informative transceiver. |
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| K7TXO |
Rating:     |
2019-05-11 | |
| Bandscope for TS-590SG |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
From the perspective of dollars spent, this is a very good radio. On the other hand, some hams with years of experience may still find this radio meets all their needs. My point: Whether this radio meets all of your needs, depends largely on how you operate. In terms of receive audio quality, if you think the first generation ELECRAFT K3 sounded great, then the IC-7300 will probably sound ok to you too. I think some of this depends on your state of hearing. For me the receiver sound quality is tiring, regardless of settings or choice of external speaker or headphones. Lets say this is just me because given the quantity of IC-7300 radios sold, the audio must be good for the majority?
Functionality. No arguement that it has what it needs for most operators. Lets say you want to change bands. Touch the screen, touch a band and you are there. Not as fast as directly on a front panel 10 key pad but this is splitting hairs.
Band stack switching is done with a repeat process of touching the frequency and again touching the (same) band button on screen. A physical 10 key pad allows you to whiz through a band stacked group with rapid single button push of the band button. Still think its splitting hairs? Ok but it is faster to use a real 10 key pad. But that adds real estate to include on the front panel, some additional electronics and certainly adds to the cost. So maybe the reasonably fast soft screen method is ok. Soft screen selection is not my preference but hey, this radio is a great buy for a reason and this point is perhaps insignificant to some or no issue at all for others.
Adjustment of RF Power output is fast. I cannot do it any faster or slower with the dedicated Power button on my other radio.
What you cannot do on the IC-7300 in less than one second is to quick-check the SWR or Power level to the antenna. I have a button to do just that. As fast as I can press it, look at the result and press again to turn off, I know the state of an antenna at a particular frequency, typically at my preset power level of 5 watts. Regardless if the radio is set to any other value for tranmission, this quick button action is normally set at 5 watts, minimizing on the air interference. On the IC-7300, you have to check and dial the power level you want to use, switch to CW mode if not already there and then key down to achieve a similar result. Then reset these controls to your operational levels for what you intend to do on that particular frequency. Yes there is a way to do this with an external switch through the rear panel external Auto Matcher connection as long as 10 watts is the level you always want this to transmit. For the quick antenna check example, this is fine.
But what about adjusting a tube type linear amplifier? Lots of hams still use these type of amps because like the '7300, they are economical to get into. Using my dedicated output function that is normally set to 5 watts, I can dial-adjust this up to say, 30 watts to get an optimal state of tube amplifier match. Or for solid state, perhaps a slow-dial up of power from the exciter has some benefit too. Even for the use of an external manual match box, I can quick-punch this 5 watt level of output to adjust the capacitor(s) and inductor in a commmon matcher to optimum values, again with virtually no interference since we all attempt to do any on the air adjustments (if we must) on a clear frequency with the least amount of RF TX power. Everyone does that, right?
There are many other "call to action" functions that I can do more rapidly than a radio like the '7300 that is more menu based. ICOM did do a great job on providing a limited number of front panel button functions within the price point and size of this radio. Nothing wrong here, just a matter of choice and operational needs or preferences.
So why do I have an IC-7300 if I have only pointed out nit-picky things that might not matter to many of you? Because I love my '7300. Just not the way all of you (today) use it. In my station, I only use it's receiver. Although in most cases the receiver audio is dialed to zero. I literally, only spent a grand to buy the '7300 to use its band scope. Spendy just for that? I have a slight eye condition that is helped if I do not swing my view back and forth between a computer monitor and the radio. Even if most everyone do not have any issues, a case can be made that the constant rotation between the computer screen and radio to focus adapt to brightness-difference while gathering current data has some effect on everyone. We all do it and it won't go away since we have a number of programs we run in Amatuer Radio between a radio and computer. But what if I can lower that mental and visual workout? Besides that, what if I can keep a band scope operational without some other program or human action on the computer stepping on non-stop operation of an external SDR receiver from losing active display on the computer screen?
What I did was to link the '7300 to my preferred radio of TX and RX operation, my KENWOOD TS-590G (aka 590SG). I won't go into the details here but very simply I have the DRV/RX Antenna OUT port of the '590G feeding an INRAD RX7300 it that provides RX Antenna IN on an isolated Receive INPUT only path into the 7300. And then I use DXLAB's Commander program for it's MultiRadio CAT control to sync both of these radios together, only for Band, Frequency and Mode control. What does that do for me?
The excellent albeit small screen band scope of the '7300 is directly above my '590G radio. I can now visually see activity or clear frequencies as if this scope was built into the 590G itself. I can touch screen move to a frequency instantly on the 7300 and the 590G is right there too. I can use either radios VFO or the faster band and mode change buttons of the '590 if I wish, to make changes. I have both VFO controls at different rates of speed such that it makes it faster and easier to fine tune any signal. Or just troll across a band at a preferred rate of dial operation by picking the VFO that gives me the rate I want to travel at that time.
For this bi-directional, dual radio setup I give the '7300 an eHAM "5". Overall I give the radio a 4 which is not harsh because a 4 is the Good, next to Great rating. For me the radio, used as a standalone radio is Good; no complaint; just not as good as my TS-590SG in some areas. If this were based on NR only, the TS-590SG in my opinion would rate only a "2" which means Needs help. The 7300 NR is outstanding by the way, even if for my ear, the RX audio is still just not my cup of tea. How you use the radio will have a different perspective but I imagine for most, this radio is incredible. And hey, in todays choice of radios, it is simply hard to beat for many of you at its price point.
One last point in case your wondering why I did not buy an IC-76710 or TS-890S or pick another rig? Because my budget does not favor spending north of $3,500 for a rig. For less mula, spread over to rigs purchased between Nov 2014 (the '590G) and the $980 after rebate I spent last month/April 2019 on the 7300, I have what I was after for a reasonable outlay over time. I can sort of justify that I have a backup rig. I can in some rare cases, prefer to use the 7300 receiver audio and NR filter. And... I can setup Diversity reception by setting up the radios as independent receivers on also independent and different types of antennas. The range of "hardware configurability" is excellent. Drawbacks? Devising ways to make some ham raido computer programs play nice with the radios while the CAT program must have total control of the USB lines to the computer for bi-directional Command strings is a bit of a challenge. Because the TS-590 also has an RS232 port which is an independent COM port with the computer, that helps to deal with this. The '7300 is key to this, even if I am using my '590 as the primary radio. But now the '590 has a top notch band scope. Perhaps a small scope but very effective. Kind of like marrying an ELECRAFT P3 in cost and size except I could not do that properly with the clever up/down conversion design of the '590 receiver.
Gene / K7TXO |
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| W9RAD |
Rating:      |
2019-05-02 | |
| What more needs to be said? |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| What more can I say that hasn't already been said? Just over a year with this rig and totally satisfied. I challenge anyone to find a better, more entertaining rig for under $1000 new. |
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| KC2QJJ |
Rating:      |
2019-05-01 | |
| Best bang for the bucks! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| You can't beat this unit at todays price point of around $1000. It is more than just a beginners transceiver. Well made and very useful this is certainly no toy. The only wish I have is it could use a network port for remote functions. |
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| N2XNB |
Rating:      |
2019-04-30 | |
| best Icom for me yet |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I love my Icom 7300. Had it 2 years now. I use a w2ihy on it and for me it sounds great. Apparently most other people in dx like the sound too as I usually get glowing reports. I always leave the ip+ button on. Its receiver is really good too. Pretty much everyone I talk to now says they love theirs too. catch you on dx. N2xnb |
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