so ive been sitting on this for a while, debating whether to crack open my IC-7300 and do the transmit mod to open up the tx range a bit. finally just did it last weekend. the procedure itself took maybe 10 minutes once i found the right diode to clip, not a big deal physically but i was nervous about voiding the warranty obviously.

the main reason i wanted it was for some MARS/CAP work our group does occasionally and also just wanted the flexibility when doing testing on adjacent freqs. not planning to transmit outside the ham bands obviously, just nice to have the option without the rig throwing a fit.

anyway the mod works fine, rig is still performing exactly the same on the ham bands as far as i can tell — same ALC behavior, no weirdness on the spectrum display. i dont have a great way to do a proper before/after power output comparison outside the ham bands but on 10m and 40m it still hits the same numbers it always did.

anyone else done this on the 7300 specifically? im curious if anyone noticed any difference in rx performance or anything unexpected after doing it. also if theres other mods people think are actually useful for this radio id be curious what people have tried.

yeah i did the same mod about two years ago on mine, pretty much identical experience. clipped the diode, buttoned it back up, everything normal. one thing i did notice — and this might be totally unrelated — is that the fan seems to kick on slightly more aggressively when i run it near the top of 10m for extended periods, but honestly that could just be summer temps in my shack i never really isolated the cause.

the only other mod i've done that i'd actually recommend is the external speaker mod where you bypass the internal speaker amp and run it straight to a proper external amp. the internal speaker on the 7300 is pretty mediocre and even a cheap desktop speaker with a small amp makes a noticeable difference on weak SSB signals, like pulling voices out of the noise is just easier when the audio is cleaner. not technically a modification to the rig's innards but it changed how usable the radio feels day to day more than anything else ive done to it.

I looked into this a while back and ultimately decided against it just because I dont do MARS work and figured the risk wasnt worth it for me personally. but I've heard good things from people who have done it. one guy in my club said Icom's design makes it pretty reversible if you use a jumper instead of just clipping, might be worth keeping in mind if you ever want to sell the rig down the road.