so ive had the 7300 for about three weeks now and figured id share some impressions since i spent way too long reading threads like this before buying it. coming from an old FT-450D which honestly served me well for years but the display was always kind of an afterthought on that thing.

first thing — the waterfall is genuinely useful and not just a gimmick like i half expected. i actually find myself catching signals i would have tuned past before just because something catches my eye on the scope. took maybe a day or two to figure out the ref level and range settings to get it looking right for my noise floor but after that its been great.

audio is noticeably better both on receive and apparently on transmit too, had a few people comment without me asking which is usually a good sign. the built in tuner handles my 40m dipole no problem though i do have a manual tuner in line for 80 and it obviously wont match everything.

one thing thats mildly annoying — the touch screen is fine but i keep accidentally changing things when im writing in the log and my hand brushes the panel. probably a me problem but worth mentioning. also the fan kicks on more than i expected even at 50w but its not loud, just noticeable in a quiet shack.

anyway for what theyre going for used these days i think its still a solid buy, mine came from a silent key estate and was basically mint. curious if anyone else has opinions on the twin PBT versus the older style analog IF shift — i kind of miss just having a single knob to grab honestly

yeah the accidental touchscreen thing got me too when i first set mine up, i eventually just got in the habit of kind of hovering my hand when im doing anything near the rig. you can also lock the panel with a long press on the power button area i think, or at least lock certain functions — honestly i dont remember exactly, worth digging into the menu.

on the twin PBT, i actually came around to it after a while. being able to shift both passband edges independently is more useful on a crowded 40m evening than i thought it would be. but yeah muscle memory from older rigs takes time to unlearn. my old 706 had a single IF shift and i reached for that phantom knob for like the first month.

the fan thing is just how it is with that rig, runs warmer than you'd expect for solid state. mine does the same and ive never had a heat issue but it did suprrise me at first coming from a Ten-Tec that ran cool forever. good radio though, congrats on the find from an estate sale, those are usually well kept.