so ive had my 857 for about 4 years now and its been rock solid but ive been reading about a few mods people do and im not sure which ones are actually worth the hassle vs which ones are just internet rabbit holes that dont really change anything in practice

the ones im looking at are the collins filter swap for SSB, the TX mod to open up the extended coverage (already done that one actually, pretty straightforward), and i saw something on eham about a noise blanker mod but the thread was like 10 years old so who knows if its still relevant

mostly concerned about the receive side since thats where the 857 kinda falls short compared to my old IC-706. the front end just feels a little deaf on 40m especially when theres QRM from the broadcast band. anybody been down this road with this radio?

the collins filter is absolutely worth it if you do a lot of SSB work, that much i can say confidently. its a bit fiddly to install if you havent done SMD work before but its not impossible. the difference on crowded contest weekends is noticeable, not like night and day but definitely cleaner audio and you stop having to crank the IF shift as hard

the noise blanker thing i honestly cant speak to, ive seen that thread you're probably talking about and im skeptical. the 857 NB isnt great to begin with and i dont think any mod is gonna make it competitive with a dedicated HF rig. if 40m broadcast splash is killing you, a good bandpass filter on the input does more than any internal mod ive tried. i use a W3NQN design i built myself and it cleaned things up way more than i expected for like $15 in parts

yeah the 857 receive is its weak point, everyone knows that. i wouldnt bother with the NB mod honestly. what radio are you running it into, just a vertical or do you have a decent antenna? because sometimes what feels like a radio problem is just the antenna and feedline situation