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Reviews For: ICOM IC-7300

Category: Transceivers: HF Amateur HF+6M+VHF+UHF models - non QRP <5W

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-7300
Reviews: 409MSRP: 1,499
Description:
This new HF plus 6 meter 100 watt transceiver hosts new capabilities and technologies for its class. Instead of the conventional superheterodyne system, a direct RF sampling approach is used. The brilliant TFT touch screen
provides complete operational status including a stunning
real-time spectrum display with waterfall plus a useful
audio scope display. There is a built-in tuner. Other
features include: Voice memory, 15 Band Pass Filters,
CW/RTTY memory keyer functions, RTTY decode, SD card
slot, USB for CI-V and audio I/O, digital noise reduction and 101 memories. Only 9.45 x 3.75 x 9.37 inches (240x95x238mm). Supplied with HM-219 hand mic, DC power cord and fuses.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icom.co.jp/world/products/amateur/hf/ic-7300usa/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
124.24094.6
KP4F Rating: 2019-04-26
No beat for the money Time Owned: more than 12 months.

We have owned this IC-7300 for around 24 months with no problems at all. And believe me the 7300 and 7610 is the best SDR ever for your money.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by NP4L on 2016-05-27

I've been using the 7300 for about 5 weeks now. It's a great rig to operate, all the controls are nicely laid out. The receive audio is very good. I get very good reports on mt transmit audio. The audio is so good, they say it sounds like I'm next to them talking. I'm using the Heil PR40 microphone straight into the rig.
AB1GO Rating: 2019-04-15
nice, but could be better.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It's excellent, but there are a few things I would improve:

There are birdies, nothing bad on the ham bands, but really unfortunate ones on the MW (broadcast AM) band.

I wish the waterfall would scroll its history when you tune, so for example a vertical line for a signal remains vertical and doesn't become diagonal during tuning (and it would be OK for the scrolled-in unknown areas to be blank). Maybe what it does now is the convention, but it's not good. Scrolling should be technically possible: any low end 2d graphics accelerator will be able to do this with bitblt.
KN6SU Rating: 2019-03-28
Great Little Rig Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I'd been using two mid-sized HF rigs for years, namely the TS 440SAT and the IC751A and was very satisfied with them. Having read all the generally laudatory hype about the 7300 I went ahead and bought one when they went on sale at HRO that brought the cost down to $980 with the $100 ICOM mail-in rebate. That is way less than what the IC751A cost 25 years ago...without an auto tuner or the optional SSB and CW filters...

There's much I like about this rig. While the 751A is a superb receiver, I found the 7300 hears even better, and the built-in software defined filtering means you don't need to spend mucho bucks on stuff that used to be optional. The spectrum and audio scope work extremely well. The fully adjustable notch is really superb, and when used with the audio scope you can use it to notch out nearby interference and noise. The touch screen and menus are really logically well designed and easy to access once you learn how to use them. There are very few buttons on this radio and ICOM's designers really got it right.

I get great audio reports on my transmissions using the supplied mic. The only gripe I've had is that the ALC does seem to be a bit more aggressive on SSB than my 751A and 440SAT, keeping the average power out below 25W and the PEP below 60W when the rig is set to 100% power output. This issue has been contentiously discussed on the internet. One can argue over how significant the ALC throttling of SSB power output really is in terms of actual radio performance, but the fact is it is true. For those to whom it matters, there is an ALC mod that adds a small capacitor to change the ALC time constant to make it less aggressive, but doing it will void the Icom Warrantee...

In conclusion, the IC 7300 is a superb HF-6M rig, and I don't think there is a better rig you can get for <$1K.

N0DP Rating: 2019-03-27
Good entry level SDR, with limitations Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The IC-7300 is a good entry level SDR. Good receiver, good transmitter. It generally sounds great on the air and it performs well on the digital modes. It is a good bang for the buck.

The area that needs a large improvement is the SDR human/computer interface. ICOM should have brought the I/Q lines out so one can use the IC-7300 with software such as HDSDR or they should have greatly improved the panadapter features available through the USB. The Flex radios and the Anan radios blow the IC-7300 away when it comes to the panadapter features and functionality, even when using the proprietary ICOM RS-BA1 software.

The IC-7300 is a good radio, a great entry level radio, but it could be so much more.
UR7FM Rating: 2019-03-20
2.5 year update Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Apparently bad reviews write not quite adequate radio amateurs,sri ... I have been using this radio for more than two years, thousands QSO in all modes and am very pleased. Made a modification of the tuner by SP9SOY mod and now the internal tuner tunes my ZS6BKW on all HF bands swr 1:1.3
73!

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Earlier 5-star review posted by UR7FM on 2016-05-12

Very nice audio, like old tubes receivers,clear sound, low noise. One week in use, tested all modes,allways ufb signal reports. Easy connected with PC in DIGI modes by only USB cable(A/B type)
No OVF problem.
ZL1PB Rating: 2019-03-11
Game Changer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Had my amateur license for over 30 years and during that time have owned many transceivers, the 7300 is the best radio I have ever owned, in terms of performance and value for money it is the best by a long way. N0COB sums it up in two words, " “disruptive technology”.
K0UA Rating: 2019-03-09
Great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I was very happy to trade off my Icom 756pro3 off for my SECOND 7300. I love them.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by K0UA on 2018-04-26

The 7300 is a great radio, and the best value/performance radio on the market today.

A couple of previous reviews need to be "reviewed".
1: yes there is a screen saver. If you don't touch the radio for a period of time, the screen goes dark and the power lamp flashes. This is normal operation by design. Move the volume control or the VFO or about any knob to restore the screen. THIS IS NORMAL OPERATION not a defect.

2: The transmit audio monitor is a function to allow you to listen to your transmitted audio. Yes it does not go off during transmit. How would that be of any value if it didn't work while you transmit. Yes you will experience audio feedback and squeal when you transmit if you don't listen to your transmitted audio with headphones on and the sound comes out of the speaker. What did you expect?, Why would you attempt to listen to it out of the speaker and let that sound feedback into your microphone? Of course if you are feeding audio from a digital program you can listen to the audio on the speaker without feedback as there is no way for the audio to get back into the computer generating the audio tones. THIS IS NORMAL OPERATION and is NOT a defect in any way. If you turn off the transmit monitor it will go off. If you turn it on it will go on. This is normal operation.

I would gently suggest that all users of this great radio read the manual from cover to cover, several times. The best place to put the manual is in the bathroom near the throne so that it will be handy for extended reading sessions. :)
W4DXL Rating: 2019-02-21
Better Than Entry Level Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I must admit I bristle a bit when I hear the IC-7300 called an entry level radio. The 718 is and the 7200 are but not the 7300. It really doesn't leave most Amateurs wanting for much. Almost everything you could ask for is there and it's easy to access too! The menus make sense. I am not an Icom user, I've had a few but mostly had Yaesu so there is no bias here. The ability to see a signal a couple of KC away and not even a squeal or anything is great. I haven't had any problems with mine mor have I heard about any problem from the huge base of installed 7300's. Icom obviously has this one down to a science. My only wish is that the mic imput would handle a standard dynamic mic instead of needing an electret or high output dynamic. I used a mixer with my Heil PR781 until I started getting some RF in the line. I'll find the problem and get back to it but for now I'm using the Heil iCM-BG mic which works fine.
GI0ZGB Rating: 2019-02-17
Icom 7300 HF/6/4 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Because of my experience with the Icom 7800 Mk2 I was reluctant to purchase Icom again.
So I waited, read reviews from reputable sources, before squeezing the trigger.
After using the IC-7300, I was impressed by its build quality and its clear informative display which allowed quick familiarization with its impressive array of features and real world capabilities.
This little radio is a true stand-alone direct-sampling, digital up-conversion SDR.
Icom has a class winner with the SDR performance, intuitive touch-screen and the no nononsense USB computer interface.
This radio delivers a lot of bang for the buck.
Like all SDR's it suffers from front end overload when massively strong stations draw near. In this instance it is necessary to back off the RF gain, switch out the pre-amps and perhaps introduce some attenuation. The Kenwood down conversion architecture is much more robust in this regard, but certainly not immune to the same conditions. The 7300 can hear the grass grow, in quiet conditions its weak signal reception is without peer in its class. I find the internal ATU worse than usless, even in Emergency mode, all my Kenwood internal ATU's are much better.
But when hooked up to an external auto ATU this ceases to be an issue.
The TX audio quality, even with the standard mic is crisp and clear, being adjustable via a menu item.
The lack of a HDMI jack to allow an external panadapter display was a disappointment, or even a Kenwood style DRV output to allow the use of SDRPlay or similar with suitable third party software would have been a desirable option.
The RX audio, even with the tiny internal speaker is good, but I run mine through an Asus STX 7.1 soundcard and into a Loigitech studio 5.1 sound system which can be tailored via an internal EQ capability that will shake your windows and rattle your walls when cranked up.
And then we have the RS-BA1 version 2 software. Even with firmware update 2.10 it's still buggy, agricultural, and does not compare well to competitors offerings. The software does not allow the scope to be used when working from a remote location, major bummer.
My workaround is to use TeamViewer to directly access the base computer and run RS-BA1 on it gaining the scope function in that way.
All in all, I'm probably tempting fate, but this little radio has restored my confidence in Icom products.
KC6JQT Rating: 2019-01-29
Excellent SDR Rig...highly recommend Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
From a picky guy who held off on picking up one of these rigs, I must admit I am very impressed. ICOM did a beautiful job with the IC-7300. My recent rigs included a 756-Pro3, Ft-3000, and a FT-2000D. The 7300 is beautifully designed and for those who don't like menus is super simple to navigate with the touch screen. From Independent audio profiles based on mode to beautiful split screen scope screen modes, a spectrum scope that is detailed and fast unlike Yaesu's, a SD memory card to easily update FW to 1.30 and or record stellar quality RX audio and or TX contest calls, and a beautifully matched hand mic unlike the dull Yaesu MH-31 they ship with every radio. TX reports are excellent at SSB MIC G=30 Comp=2 Bass=+1 treble=+3. I can tell Icom listened to their customers and really put a lot of thought into the 7300. The two I've run FM/RTTY and PEP SSB at ~89-91 watts into a LP100A/DLoad. A simple service autoset RTTY driver and final tune into DL snapped them up to 105w FM/RTTY rms / SSB pep exactly as factory spec'd. No ALC or full output issues. Enough said but wanted to chime in as I am impressed. So many sold...plenty of used like new 7300's to pick from "demo'ing" hams. 73's