so ive been running a borrowed 590SG for about 8 months now while i saved up for my own rig and i genuinely love the thing. really solid receiver, the noise floor on 40m here is manageable even with all the garbage my neighbors smart meters throw out. but now that im actually shopping i keep second-guessing myself because everyone talks up the IC-7300 like its the second coming and the prices are actually pretty close right now used.

main thing i do is mostly SSB ragchewing on 40 and 80, some occasional 20m DX when i get lucky, and ive been wanting to try JS8Call or maybe some FT8 but havent jumped in yet. not really a contester. my antenna situation is a dipole at about 30 feet and a end fed that i still havent tuned properly.

is the 7300 touchscreen actually useful day to day or is it one of those things that sounds cool and then you never use it. and does the panadapter really change how you operate or is that also kind of overhyped for a casual operator like me

honestly the panadapter on the 7300 ruined me for any radio without one. i know that sounds dramatic but once you can see whats happening across the band you just... operate differently. you spot openings faster, you can see if a frequency is actually clear before you park on it, and for finding DX stations its genuinely useful not just a gimmick. that said if youre coming from the 590SG the receiver difference isnt gonna blow your mind. the kenwood is no slouch. the icom is a little easier to live with day to day i think just because the interface is more intuitive once you get used to the touch controls.

for FT8 and JS8 the 7300 is kind of the go-to at this point just because the USB audio is built in and the setup with WSJT-X is pretty painless compared to messing around with signalink or whatever. that alone might be worth it depending on how patient you are with that stuff

i ran a 590sg for years and just picked up a 7300 last spring and tbh i use the waterfall constantly. like way more than i expected to. the touchscreen takes maybe a week to feel natural and then its fine. only thing that bugs me is the knob feel isnt quite as solid as the kenwood but thats pretty subjective