so ive had my IC-7300 for about three years now and honestly it's been a rock solid radio, no complaints really. but lately ive been eyeing the IC-7610 mostly because of the dual receiver setup and the idea of being able to work two bands simultaneously during contests. my shack is pretty basic right now — 7300 into a LDG tuner, into a fan dipole up about 35 feet, ground mounted vertical for 40/80.

thing is im not sure if the jump is actually worth the money for how i operate. im not a serious contester, i do a handful of contests a year mostly for fun, work a lot of ragchews on 40m evenings, occasional DX when something interesting pops up on the cluster. so dual receive is kinda a luxury for me. but the 7610 second receiver thing is genuinely useful for SO2R even at a casual level right? or am i just convincing myself because i want a new radio

has anyone made this upgrade specifically from the 7300? curious if the roofing filters made a noticeable difference on crowded band conditions, that's the other thing people always mention

made almost exactly this jump about 18 months ago, went from the 7300 to the 7610 and honestly the roofing filter difference is real, especially on 40m during a busy evening or a contest weekend when the band is packed. the 7300 is no slouch but when you're trying to pull out a signal 2-3khz away from a strong station the 7610 just handles it better, less splatter getting through.

the dual receiver thing though — if youre not doing serious SO2R i'd say it's nice to have but you wont use it as much as you think. i use it mainly to keep an ear on a second freq while im in a qso on the main vfo, but that's something you can kind of fake with a second radio anyway. the real upgrade for me was the reciprocal mixing performance and just the overall feel of having two independent receivers doing their thing. if budget is a concern id honestly say the 7300 is still a fantastic radio and you could spend that difference on a better antenna and probably come out ahead for your operating style

your fan dipole at 35 feet is probably limiting you more than the radio tbh. not saying the 7610 isnt a better rig because it clearly is, but ive seen guys wring amazing performance out of 7300s with good antennas and proper grounding. whats your noise floor like? if youre in a suburban area with a lot of QRM the roofing filter improvement matters a lot less than just getting the antenna higher or trying a different polarization