My thoughts about the IC-7300

The IC-7300 looks great in my shack!

The Icom IC-7300 was lend to me by PC7B Bram. I've been contesting with the PD1RP's IC-7300 last year. But now I get the feeling of it in my shack. And I like it....I really like it. The IC-7300 might not be the best radio ever, but is great for those that can't spend that much money and still have a very good transceiver with a lot of possebilities. I will not write a complete review here as many did that before, we all know what radio this is. I will just write down my experiences with this rig and what I think about it is useful for me and others.

As you readers all know I've been transceiving with a old Icom IC-706MK2G for over 20 years now. It's not a bad radio but when contesting it is getting very hot especially in summer, not good for the electronics inside and after so many years defects slowly showing up. Since I don't use the 2m and 70cm part of the radio much I can do with a HF rig that features 6m as well as most of the HF transceivers do these days.

The IC-7300 is a small computer box with a HF amplifier. Since it is a computer the features are almost endless. Although it works well with the factory firmware I'm shure if someone would hack it you could program whatever feature you want for your needs if you know what you're doing. For simple radioamateurs like me the factory settings and features are enough though. Before this (and other similair) radio was brought out to the public I already predict this radio transceiver idea (touchscreen, digimodem, keyer etc.) in 2011. I wonder if certain people that develop these transceivers did read my blog and ideas somewere somehow 8 years ago?

Actually I find the IC-7300 easy to understand and easy to work with. Many features are known to me since they are already on the IC-706 I own, most features like the DSP functions are working much better though. Personally I think the radio is a lot more quiet to listen to, especially receiving very low signals is easier. The AGC is working much better compared to my IC-706 and the most important feature I really don't want to miss anymore.....is the ability to listen 3,6KHz wide. Especially important when working digimode and F/H mode since a DXpedtion can be listening over a wide frequency sometimes up to 4KHz wide. Working E31A in F/H mode on about 2800Hz was easy!

Setting it up with digimode and CAT control is easy when you don't use CW and RTTY keying. When you do want CW/RTTY keying you can choose several setups. With a separate CI-V cable to control the radio with the PC and with a opstocoupler and another COM port to use the key input. But this radio can do it all with just one (1 !!) USB cable. All you need to do is create a software COM port splitter so you have another virtual COM port to control the radio. It took me a while but with the help of this website it was "piece of cake". To mention that most of these features and the websites links are described in a new book about the IC-7300 which I can really recommend.

There are some features I did not test yet. Those are the interconnection with N1MM+ and RTTY keying. I tested the internal RTTY RX decode feature and that works well.

This saturday the IC-7300 will return to his owner PC7B Bram.

Now, saving money for this really great DX machine is going on. I already sold some of my equipment. But some more expensive items are still not sold. So I have to wait.....and be satisfied with the IC-706MK2G which is still doing a job...however after this experience I will now know what I miss. It wil not be easy....