so ive been running an old TS-480SAT for years and always told myself i didnt need to upgrade, the 480 is a solid rig and i still think that, but i kept reading about the 7300's waterfall and how much it changes the way you operate and i finally caved during a sale at HRO last month

first thing i noticed is how much real estate the spectrum scope takes up in terms of your attention — like i catch myself just watching signals move across the display instead of actually working them, which is kind of a problem but also genuinely useful when you're hunting a DX station and trying to find where the pile is splitting

audio out of the box was a little harsh to my ears on SSB, spent some time in the menu fiddling with the treble rolloff and it got much better, probably took an hour total to get it sounding the way i like. RTTY setup was actually easier than i expected through the USB audio, got WSJT-X running in maybe 20 minutes which honestly surprised me coming from the external interface i was using before

one thing that bugs me a little is the fan noise, not terrible but my old 480 was dead silent in receive and im noticing it now in a quiet shack at night. not a dealbreaker just something i wasnt expecting from reading reviews

anybody else make a similar jump from an older Kenwood or Yaesu to the 7300? curious if the honeymoon feeling wore off after a few months or if people are still happy with it

yeah the waterfall thing is real, took me a good month before i stopped just staring at it. still catch myself doing it on 40m when things get busy around sunset

the fan on mine kicks up noticeably when you're running anything close to 100w for a while, at QRP levels it barely moves. if it really bothers you there's a mod floating around where guys have replaced the fan with a quieter Noctua but honestly i never bothered. you kind of tune it out after a while

came from an FT-857D so it was a pretty big jump for me in terms of sheer receiver performance, the roofing filter situation on the 7300 is so much better for crowded band conditions, night and day on 40 when the EU stations are coming in and everyone and their brother is on SSB

I made almost the exact same move except I was coming from a TS-590SG which is honestly a tough act to follow on receiver performance. The 7300 is great dont get me wrong but there were a few moments on a busy 20m contest weekend where I felt like the 590 might have handled adjacent signal rejection a bit better. Could be placebo, I honestly cant say for sure without doing a real A/B

The USB audio integration thing though — that alone made it worth it for digital modes, no more fussing with levels on a Signalink. FT8 just works and thats kind of the whole game now whether we like it or not