so this has been bugging me for a few weeks now. picked up a used 7300 from a silent key estate sale, got a decent deal on it but knew it might need some work. thing powers up fine, receives great actually, but when i try to transmit im only getting maybe 28-32 watts out no matter what i set the power to. doesnt matter if its 10m or 40m, same story across the board.

ive already checked the obvious stuff - ALC is behaving normally on the display, no weird SWR readings into my dummy load, and the finals arent getting hot which makes me think theyre probably not the problem. my gut says driver stage but ive never actually dug into a 7300 before. anyone pulled one of these apart for something like this? wondering if theres a known weak point or if im barking up the wrong tree entirely.

also worth mentioning the previous owner apparently dropped it at some point, theres a small crack on the rear panel near the fan. not sure if thats relevant but figured id mention it.

yeah the drop detail is pretty relevant actually. ive seen a few of these come through the shop where a good knock can cold-solder some of the PA board connections or even crack a trace you wont see without magnification. before you go chasing the driver stage id pull the board and do a real careful inspection under good light, maybe even a loupe if you have one. the 7300 PA section isnt too bad to get to once you get the lid off.

the symptom you're describing - flat low output across all bands - does point away from the finals themselves since a failed final usually takes out one band group or gets thermally weird. could still be the driver transistors but id also check the bias pot on the PA board, theres a trimmer on there and if its been knocked around it might have shifted. icom service manual has the bias adjustment procedure, its not too scary if youve done any rig work before. just do it into a dummy load and take your time.

dont overlook the RF power control circuit either. there's a D/A converter involved in how the 7300 sets output level and if something in that chain is off you'd get exactly what you're describing - like the radio thinks its being told to run at low power regardless of the menu setting. i chased something similar on mine for a day and a half before i figured out it was a firmware glitch after a bad update, though yours sounds more hardware given the drop history.

anyway good luck, these are solid rigs when they're working right.