so i've been on the fence about the 7300 for like two years now, always talked myself out of it because i already had a functioning station with my old TS-480SAT and figured why fix what aint broke. but my brother in law found one used in pretty good shape and i got it for a price i couldn't really walk away from so here we are.

first impressions - the waterfall display is genuinely useful, like i thought it was gonna be a gimmick but i've already caught a few weak stations i probably would have tuned past otherwise. the receiver feels noticeably different from the Kenwood, more... immediate? not sure thats the right word. i had the 480 for six years so there's probably some adjustment going on too.

one thing that's been bugging me though is the ALC behavior on digital modes. running FT8 through it and even with the power cranked way down i keep seeing the ALC needle kick in more than i expected. i've got the audio levels set pretty conservative from the PC side, like maybe 40% in the windows mixer, but something still feels off. anyone else deal with this or is this just how it behaves and i'm overthinking it.

yeah the ALC thing on digital is a known gotcha with the 7300. the trick most people land on is using the USB Audio level in the radio's menu itself rather than the windows mixer - there's a dedicated input level setting in the connectors menu and that's really the right place to control it. you want the ALC to basically not move at all on FT8, just sitting at the bottom. if it's swinging it usually means the drive is too hot somewhere upstream. took me a while to figure that out when i first set mine up, kept chasing it in the wrong place.

other than that honestly it's a great rig for the money, especially used. the DSP noise reduction is good enough to actually use without making everything sound like a robot.

ive had mine for like 3 years and still dont regret it. the waterfall alone paid for itself in terms of actually finding activity on the bands when things are slow. re the TS-480 comparison i ran both for about a month before selling the Kenwood and the 7300 just felt more lively on receive to me, though some people will argue that till they're blue in the face so take that for what its worth.