so ive had the 7300 for about 6 weeks now, coming from an old FT-450D which i used for a few years and honestly thought was fine until i started reading too many forums and convinced myself i needed an upgrade. anyway figured id share some actual real world impressions since most of what you find is either a youtube unboxing or some review that reads like a press release.

first thing i noticed is the waterfall actually makes operating different, not just prettier. like i was on 40m last weekend doing some casual S&P in a small contest and i could see a run station open up before i even heard the gap in the pileup. ended up making a few contacts i wouldve definitely missed before. the DSP filtering is also noticeably better than the 450D, i was pulling out a weak station with a big signal about 2kHz up and the IF filter just handled it, barely had to fiddle with anything.

only real complaint so far is the menu system takes some getting used to and i keep accidentally bumping the RF gain when i reach for the volume. probably a me problem. also havent figured out if theres a way to set the band scope so it doesnt reset the span every time i change bands, if anyone knows how to lock that ill owe you a beer.

overall though yeah its a solid radio. probably overpaying for what it is compared to used iron but the new stuff has its advantages i guess

the band scope span thing — go into the SET menu, Display, and there should be a Scope Range Hold option or something close to that, i forget the exact label. mine was off by default and it drove me nuts for like the first month. once you set it per band it sticks. or at least mostly sticks, i swear mine occasionally forgets when i power cycle but that might be operator error.

anyway yeah the 7300 is a genuinely good radio for the price, been running mine for almost 3 years now and still happy with it. the front end isnt quite up there with the higher end SDR-based rigs when you have a really noisy band or you're trying to work weak signal next to a 59+20 station, but for general HF use its hard to argue with. what antenna are you running it into?

had the same issue going from a budget rig to something with a real waterfall, honestly changes how you operate more than you'd expect. i still catch myself just watching the scope instead of actually listening half the time which is probably backwards but whatever it works. enjoy the new radio