so ive been running an old FT-450D for like 4 years and always told myself i didnt need to upgrade, it worked fine, blah blah blah. well my buddy let me sit at his IC-7300 at a field day and that was basically it for me. ordered one about three weeks ago.

first thing i noticed is how different the panadapter changes the whole operating experience. like on the 450 i was just spinning the dial blind basically, now i can see whats going on across the band and it actually changed how i hunt for contacts. probably sounds obvious to anyone who already has one but it kinda blew my mind a little.

the receiver does feel cleaner to me too, although honestly i dont know how much of that is real vs just placebo because the radio looks nicer and i want it to be better. the built in ATU is pretty decent, handles my end-fed without much drama most of the time. 40m has been a little finicky but i think thats my feedline not the radio.

anyway not really a question just figured id share since i saw a few threads from last year with people going back and forth on the 7300 vs the FT-991A and i was one of those people sitting on the fence. for what its worth, happy with the choice so far.

the panadapter thing is exactly what got me too when i moved to a radio with a real scope. you dont realize how much you were missing until you can actually see the band. i spent the first week just watching propagation roll in on 20m and doing basically no actual operating lol.

one thing to play with if you havent already - dig into the scope settings and adjust the reference level and span. the defaults are fine but once you tune it to how you actually operate it gets a lot more useful. also the twin PBT on that radio is pretty great for digging stuff out of a crowded band, took me a while to really learn how to use it but worth spending some time with.

40m weirdness is probably your feedline or maybe some common mode noise, id throw a choke on it if you havent. mine cleans up a ton of RFI on that band just from a few ferrite toroids near the shack entry point.

been eyeing the 7300 myself, right now im on an FT-991A and mostly happy with it but the HF receiver always felt just a bit soft to me in crowded conditions. hard to put my finger on exactly, just sometimes things sound a little mushy on a busy contest weekend. maybe im imagining it. your post isnt helping me resist the upgrade urge haha