so ive been meaning to do this for like a year and finally sat down last weekend and did the TCXO upgrade on the IC-7300. if you haven't done this and you do any digital modes or weak signal stuff it's honestly kind of a no-brainer, the stock oscillator drifts more than i realized until i started comparing it against my GPSDO reference on wsjtx and seeing the freq offset creeping around especially after warmup.

the mod itself isnt that bad if youre comfortable with SMD work, the hardest part was honestly just getting the case fully apart without scratching anything. used the Inrad replacement, theres a couple options out there but that's the one i went with based on what people on the reflector were saying. afterwards the offset was basically rock solid within a couple hz even stone cold, big difference.

also while i had it open i reflashed the firmware to the latest and cleaned out a surprising amount of dust from around the fan area. didn't do the bandpass filter mods that some people do for improved rx, not sure i need that yet. anyone here done those? curious if theres an actual audible difference on crowded band conditions or if its more of a measurement thing

yeah the TCXO makes a real difference, did mine about 18 months ago. i was skeptical at first because the radio seemed fine but once you run it against a reference you really see what its doing. on FT8 especially anything that keeps you from drifting out of the passband mid-contact is worth it.

as for the bandpass filter mods, i did look into those and from what i read it depends a lot on your local noise situation. someone in a rural area with a clean band probably wont notice much, but if you're anywhere near broadcast or you work a lot of 40m during the evenings when its wall to wall signals, supposedly it helps with IMD performance. i ended up not doing it either, partly because i wasnt confident enough in my SMD skills for that particular job and partly because honestly the radio performs pretty well stock for what i do. would be curious to hear from someone whos actually done the comparison on a spectrum analyzer before and after though.

nice, i keep meaning to do that mod. been putting it off because my soldering iron is kind of garbage and i dont trust myself not to lift a pad. might just send it out to someone at this point