Icom IC-7300
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| Frequency | TX 1.8-54 MHz (160-6 m ham bands), RX 0.030-74.800 MHz (general coverage) |
| TX power | 2 / 100 W (2-100 W on SSB/CW/FM/RTTY; 1-25 W AM. 13.8 V DC, ~21 A on transmit. (EU version also covers 4 m / 70 MHz at up to 50 W.)) |
| Modes | USB, LSB, CW, AM, FM, RTTY |
| Weight | 4.2 kg (9.3 lb) |
| Connector | SO-239 |
| Year | 2016 |
| antenna | SO-239 (female), 50 ohm - single jack for all bands |
| mic | 8-pin round (front panel), 600 ohm (HM-219 hand mic supplied) |
| phones | 3.5 mm (1/8 in) stereo (front panel) |
| key | 1/4 in (6.35 mm) stereo (CW straight key or paddle; built-in keyer) |
| usb | USB Type-B: USB audio codec + CI-V (CAT) over one cable |
| remote | 3.5 mm mono (CI-V) |
| ext speaker | 3.5 mm mono (4-8 ohm) |
| acc | 13-pin DIN (SEND, ALC, MOD in, AF/IF out, FSK, band voltage, 13.8 V/8 V) |
| alc | RCA phono (ALC in from an external amplifier) |
| send | RCA phono (TX control out) |
| tuner | Icom control socket for an external AH-4 / AH-740 (separate from the internal ATU) |
| microsd | front-panel microSD slot (recording, RTTY/voice memory, screen capture, firmware) |
| dc in | spade / Powerpole-style terminal, 13.8 V DC +/-15%, 21 A |
| ground | rear screw terminal |
| power req | 13.8 V DC +/-15%, ~21 A on transmit at 100 W (RX ~0.9-1.25 A) |
It brought RF direct-sampling SDR and a real-time waterfall to a mid-priced radio. The waterfall makes band activity visible at a glance, and the USB-B port is a built-in sound card, so FT8, RTTY, and PSK31 run over a single cable with no outboard interface. It has a built-in antenna tuner, a 15-filter bandpass bank, a 4.3-inch touchscreen, and an SWR-sweep display that works like a basic antenna analyzer - all at a mid-tier price. Its receiver dynamic range measured well in independent testing.
It is HF plus 6 meters only - no VHF/UHF above 50 MHz. Output is a fixed 100 watts (25 on AM). The antenna jack is SO-239 rather than a type-N. The internal tuner matches only up to about 3:1 in normal mode. The touchscreen is resistive, not capacitive, and the cooling fan is audible on transmit. The newer IC-7300MK2 adds a built-in CW decoder, a separate receive-antenna jack, and other refinements the original lacks.
The IC-7300 put real-time spectrum display and direct-sampling SDR into a sub-$1,500 radio, and the market followed: Icom passed 100,000 units in 2024, and ARRL's reviewers called it a turning point at launch. For a first HF radio it remains a common default, now sold alongside its successor, the IC-7300MK2. The fixed 100-watt output, HF-plus-6-meters coverage, and SO-239 jack are its boundaries; within them, it is still an easy recommendation.
When the IC-7300 arrived in 2016 it did something new at its price: it sampled the radio spectrum directly. Signals come off the antenna, pass through one of fifteen band-pass filters, and are digitized immediately by a high-speed converter, with an FPGA doing all the receiving in software. There is no conventional IF chain, and the same scheme runs on every band including 6 meters. The visible payoff is the 4.3-inch touchscreen with its real-time spectrum scope and waterfall, which turn band activity into something you watch rather than tune around blindly.
It is a 100-watt radio for 160 through 6 meters, with a general-coverage receiver from 30 kHz to 74.8 MHz. The USB-B port is the feature that quietly changed how people run digital modes: the radio presents itself as a sound card and a control interface over one cable, so FT8, RTTY, and PSK31 need no external box. A built-in antenna tuner handles mismatches up to about 3:1, a noise blanker and twin passband tuning clean up the receiver, and the screen will even sweep and plot SWR like a basic analyzer.
The receiver measured well when it was new - independent lab testing put its reciprocal-mixing dynamic range near 100 dB at a 2 kHz offset, and the optional IP+ dither mode trades a little noise floor for better resistance to strong nearby signals. Those trade-offs were laid out plainly in the lab write-ups, but the overall result was strong enough that ARRL's reviewers called the radio a turning point.
The market agreed: Icom passed 100,000 units sold in 2024, a rare milestone for an HF radio, and the IC-7300's interface became the template for later Icom sets, from the portable IC-705 to the dual-receiver IC-7610. The boundaries are real - HF plus 6 meters only, a fixed 100 watts, an SO-239 jack, and a resistive touchscreen - and in 2025 Icom announced the IC-7300MK2 with a CW decoder, a separate receive-antenna input, and other refinements. For tuner-fed wire antennas the external AH-4 plugs into the rear, and among its current mid-priced rivals the Yaesu FT-710 is its closest rival. As a first HF station, the original IC-7300 still holds up.