Icom IC-7300

The VERON chapter a04 in Amsterdam I am a member of has bought the IC-7300 as the club radio a year ago. Many of our members have one in their shack. It was the radio we were using during the field day contests. During the field days I was able to take the radio for a spin across the bands. What a nice and convenient radio.

Later I was able to borrow one and install it in my shack for a while. The first QSO I made with the radio I got compliments for the nice audio. "What kind of microphone are you using?" asked the other amature. I replied "just the stock hand microphone that comes with this radio".

More "great audio" reports later I had made up my mind. This should be my next radio.

This autumn the Icom IC-7300 Mk-II was released. This brought a significant surge of second hand IC-7300s on the used market. But now I had to decide if I was going to go for the new Mk-II, with a few improvements, or should I go with a discounted or second hand first edition.

The main new features of the Mk-II were an HDMI-out port, USB-C connector and CW decoder. All nice features, but are they nice enough?

I decided to go with the first edition. The new features were not nice enough to warrant the upgraded price. Especially not when I could maybe get one at a discount during the Dag van de Radioamateur in Rosmalen.

While queueing for the entrance in Rosmalen, I decided I would look for the first edition radio at the market. One of the vendors at the market had a demo-model on their site I had been eying before. Once inside I looked for their stand.

They had a few Mk-II radios with them to demonstrate at the market. But they also brought that demo-model for a reduced price. Without hesitation I bought it.

For me, one of the deciding factors is the ease of operation for this radio:

• Waterfall display (with touch screen) makes it easy to pick out the signals you want to work.
• The dial speeds up if you turn it faster, which makes it a lot easier to jump larger portions of the band.
• The built in tuner is good enough for my antenna, so I don't need my external tuner anymore.
• The menu is comprehensible; way better than my old Yaesu

Other features that made me choose this one are:

• The beautiful audio it produces.
• Linking it to the computer for FT8 is easy.

Yeah, I really like this radio!