10 Ways the ICOM 7300 Has Impacted Ham Radio — 5 Years Out

this is not meant to insult the thread op, I havent watched his videos, dont know him etc
the title of this video seems to be more technical than most folks posts here of nonsense videos that serve no real purpose
so I will probably watch out of curiosity
Ive said this on other video threads as well
these youtube videos only real purpose they serve in to increase monetization for the channel
one would reasonably deduce this is advertising in the simplest form which should violate community rules that doesnt exist but should
all other advertisers pay a fee here to promote their products, a more than likely monetized video is no different IMHO

 

May I add to my comment, which was the first of the thread...

#3 Instead of fitting the rig with Inrad IF Filters, or adding a Scaf audio filter, IC-7300 owners just wait for the next firmware release.

But, consider that, it's not only our hobby, which is painted with passiveness, it might be our whole life.
There was a thread "How did I avoid to buy the IC-7300"
It's not how, it's why!! particularly if you had no radio experience at all.

Oliver

 

Here you go... From about 24:30 in. What really surprised me was him saying that the 7610 wouldn't fare a lot better, because the roving preselector is too wide, depending on where you may be in the band vs the strong signal.

My situation is "big city," and my 7300 couldn't keep up with my cheap 891, on low bands. The noise associated with Chinese broadcast stations above 7.200 (I am in Korea) coupled with multi-story apartments all around, swamped it -- and the 7300's ATT/RF Gain adjustments did nothing to help. Basically acted as secondary volume controls. Neither did that useless IP+ setting, which often only increased the noise floor, on some bands.

In a less demanding situation, the 7300 would have been fine:

 

Thanks! Perfect.

Warning: Technical ahead:

It confirms what I thought you might be referring to: wide-open ADC based designs suffer this problem. Without a highly selective roofing filter (very hard to get a narrow yet tracking one - the reason why superhets were invented in the first place more than a century ago!), the only cure is to have much more bit depth on the ADCs than is currently used (think 18 or 20 bit or better). That is not going to happen at the present time in a $1K radio.

I recall Ulrich Rohde N1UL mentioning that the 7851, Icom's flagship, has a mixed architecture with a traditional superhet mix and roofing filter, then followed by SDR all the way. He argued that this architecture is essentially the best that can be done to get SDR benefits and to address the overload problems you suffer. I agree with that. Of course, Ulrich is apparently now trying to design a "SDR without limits" while he's in pandemic lockdown (referred to on QRZ only yesterday), so maybe a new architecture will emerge, but it will more than likely not be cheap.

PS: note that the K4's "high dynamic range" option does just what is described above, for the same reason.

 

Well, the 7851 is a $12K radio. I should hope it would be better than a 7300. When I was looking at the 7300 at HRO, one of the other customers said it wouldn’t be good for Field Day. Fair enough. But it has been fine for me out in semi-rural area with no big commercial stations nearby.

 

That's very good experience. Location counts hugely - I guess if you were closer to 40 m broadcast stations (as KE0EYJ is), the same problems would crop up.

KE0EYJ: what is the relative strength of the China broadcasts at 7.200 compared to background in Korea? Trying to gauge the dynamic range impacts in your situation, as we know it was bad enough for you to have trouble.

 

Thank you for the video.

I own two IC-7300's.

I run a lot of FT8. I use one for 30 meters and below and the other for 20 meters and above. I run them SO2R, daily, not usually in the contests. I can work a lot of FT8 stations with two radios at the same time.

Lots of excellent digital features, but also lots of Phone and CW features.

I was skeptical at first about the touch screen, but find I really like it. Not really any worries with failure of the touch screen, as the technology has been proven for quite a while.

I am considering an IC-9700, because of the IC-7300.

 

Really depends on weather, time of year, etc. Lately they seem to have toned down -- then again, I'm running a Superhet now, so that could be much of the difference. I'll try to pay attention and get on the radio the next few nights. I remember those stations being +30db or more, before. They're still at least 300 miles from me (mostly over water). We have strong Korean stations further up the band (we stop at 7.2, as mentioned earlier), but not so close to the ham area.

 

I am a relatively new HAM, but a bit older and cranky (apparently). Here I sit with a 7300 in front of me, and some good old Hallicrafters and Heathkit gear too. I like them all. My first transceiver was an IC-718, still in use at a secondary station. All this equipment if fun to use. Knob twirling/ listening and scope watching are obviously different, but they both make the hobby interesting and fun. I enjoy operating them all and move between rigs often. I've compared the sensitivity, selectivity, and over-all audio quality of received SSB phone transmissions between the new and older rigs. Sometimes my Hallictafters SX-117 RX wins IMO, however, the many features of the 7300 are impressive and useful. The scope is merely a tool. Bottom line is - to each his own. Use the 'tools' and different radios as you see fit. Try them all, or stick with what you're familiar with. It's all good! Reading some of the comments in this thread, I wonder why some more senior HAMs seem so threatened by technology? Without advances in Radio technology, we might still be using spark gap transmitters from the late 1800's! And like FT8 and newer digital modes, SDR's are another facet of this great hobby that might just help keep it alive, peaking the interest of our younger generation. My only regret is that I bought my 7300 before the prices dropped... Peace.

 

yet one more comment on the 7300 display, forget sdr and all other new features on new rigs.put that display on ANY OLD RIG and you revolutionized radio.its like a tv for the bands,fantastic to see stations we never saw before.
imagine it on a drake 2b, (a rig id still love to have)...!

 

I have the 7300 and have had it for several years now and it has been flawless. They had been out at least a year before I got mine. I herd nothing but great reviews on air and they all sounded great. I have also updated the firmware a couple of times without incident. I love the IC-7300 menu system it is easy to understand and navigate. You might have to reference the manual if you haven't used a particular setting for a long time. my other Yaesu VHF/UHF radios had confusing menu's and always got me lost. After having an older Kenwood TS-120s which I loved very much it was like opening a new playground full of options. Lots and lots of things to play with! I have done some digital and it has worked well for what I have done mostly JT8 some WSPER. Tho only thing that took me a while to understand was the relationship between the RS-232 port and the USB port. I use them both and it is nice as I can use the WSJT software and the IC-7300 RT systems programing and rig control software at the same time. It is a lot of fun. I hope this radio keeps working for a long time. A lot of the older ICOM radios such as the IC-756 with the monochrome screens had their screens fail on them. That made me nervous about the screen, so far so good. As stated I got wonderful audio reports right out of the box and I still use the stock mike....

 

ha, i bought a drake 2 b...today...

 

I've been thinking about getting the ICOM 7300, but it's a difficult decision because the FT-991A is also good.