so ive had my IC-7300 for about 4 years now and honestly its been a rock solid radio, zero complaints really, but ive been looking at the IC-7610 and the Flex 6600 and just kind of wondering if anyone has actually made that jump and whether it felt worth the money in real use, not just on paper

the dual receiver thing on the 7610 is what keeps pulling me back to it, especially during contests where i try to do SO2R on a budget and its kind of a mess right now with my current setup, two radios, two amps, the band switching is a nightmare to deal with honestly

the Flex stuff is interesting but im not sure i want to go full SDR for my main rig, i like having a physical knob i can grab during a pile-up, the SmartSDR interface looks great on video but ive never actually sat in front of one for more than a few minutes at a hamfest

anyone running the 7610 or the 6600 as their daily driver that can give me an actual real world take on it, not just the spec sheet stuff

ran the 7610 for about two years before i moved to the Flex, and honestly the 7610 is a fantastic radio if you want something that just works without a lot of fussing around, the dual receiver is genuinely useful and not just a gimmick, i used it constantly for second radio monitoring on 40 while running 20 during contests

the jump to the 6600 was big for me but i had some specific reasons, mainly remote operating and the way Flex handles that is just so much better than any of the workarounds you do with conventional radios, if you dont need that then i honestly think the 7610 might be the smarter move and you keep a few grand in your pocket

the physical knob thing is real btw, i missed it way more than i expected when i first switched, you get used to it but the learning curve on SmartSDR is steeper than the youtube videos make it look

probably GAS lol but the 7610 dual watch is legitimately useful, not gonna lie. i dont contest much but even for casual DXing having the sub receiver to monitor a split frequency properly is just way nicer than flipping back and forth

what are you running for an amp right now if you dont mind me asking, curious how your SO2R setup is wired up