so ive been running an old FT-450D for like 6 years and honestly it served me well but the receiver always felt a little mushy on crowded bands, especially 40m during contests when everything gets wall to wall. a buddy of mine kept telling me to just get the icom and i kept putting it off because 1100 bucks is not nothing.

anyway picked one up last month from a local ham who was upgrading to a 7610, got it for around 800 which felt fair. first thing i noticed was the waterfall — i know everyone talks about it but until you actually sit there and watch signals pop up in real time you dont really get it. found a few dx stations i would have just tuned past on the 450.

the built in ATU is a bit weak, cant really tame my 80m doublet below like a 3:1 mismatch without complaining, i still end up using my LDG out front for that band. and the fan noise is more noticeable than i expected, my shack is pretty quiet at night so it stands out. minor gripes though.

overall very happy. if anyones on the fence about this radio i'd say just do it, the receiver really is noticeably better in a busy pile up situation. curious if anyone else has done the 450 to 7300 jump and whether they noticed the same thing on receive

yeah the 450D receiver is decent for casual use but once you put it next to anything with a roofing filter setup it starts to show its limitations. i ran one for about 2 years before moving to an 7300 and the difference on 40 was pretty stark, especially late evening when the eu stations start rolling in and the band just gets absolutely packed.

the ATU thing is a known issue, icom just never made it that aggressive, its more of a convenience tuner for antennas that are close to resonant. i run mine into a manual tuner for anything sketchy impedance wise. also the fan — yeah its audible, some people do a fan mod or just live with it. doesnt bother me after a while honestly, brain just tunes it out.

good pickup at 800, those things hold value pretty well

i just got into hf a few months ago and picked up a 7300 new because everyone kept recommending it for a first serious hf rig and i have zero regrets. the waterfall thing really does change how you operate, i feel like i actually understand whats happening on the band now instead of just randomly spinning the VFO. still figuring out all the menus though, there are a lot of settings buried in there that i havent touched yet