so ive had my 7300 for about two years now and honestly its a great radio out of the box but ive been reading a lot about the TX mod to extend the transmit coverage below 1.8 and up past 30mhz and i finally cracked it open last night. found the diode matrix on the main board, clipped D2901 which is supposed to unlock the expanded TX, and put it back together. fired it up and it seems to work but now im paranoid i did something wrong because the ALC is acting a little weird on 10m, peaking higher than it used to before i keyed up fully. could just be in my head honestly. anyone else done this and noticed weird ALC behavior afterward or am i just looking too hard for a problem that isnt there

also while i had it open i noticed there's a lot of room near the PA section and ive been curious if anyone has swapped out the stock fan for something quieter. the fan noise on mine isnt terrible but on long digital modes sessions it starts to get on my nerves

the ALC thing is probably nothing, i did the same mod on mine maybe 8 months ago and spent a week second guessing every little meter twitch. the 7300 ALC can look a little aggressive on 10m anyway depending on the band conditions and how your antenna is matched up. what's your SWR looking like on that band, because if its even slightly elevated the ALC will compensate harder than you expect and it just looks weird on screen

as for the fan, yeah i swapped mine for a Noctua NF-A4x20 and it made a real difference. you have to do a little trimming on the mounting bracket and the connector is different so you'll need to splice it but its not hard if youve already got soldering skills which obviously you do if you were messing with diodes. runs way cooler temps too because the airflow curve is better than the stock fan even though its quieter

cant say ive done that specific mod but just be careful with the expanded TX thing, some people have gotten themselves in trouble operating outside the ham bands without the right licensing and the radio doesnt care what band plan says if you unlock it. not assuming thats your plan just worth saying

the fan swap is a pretty common thing though, lots of threads on eham and the icom groups about it