[TenTec] Scads of used Icom IC-7300

[rick@dj0ip.de]

We had similar with the Eagle, especially right after the fire sale.
The Eagle is not for everybody.
There are lots of things to not like about an Eagle but receiver performance is not one of them.

IMO this boils down to people being too darn lazy to do their own due diligence.
Rather than dig through the specs and try to understand what they are buying, they just follow the marketing hype.

There was a time in my life when I also did that, because I had more money than I had time.  I would buy things while on business trips, take them home, eventually test them and if I didn't like them, dump them for a spot price.  I'm sure there are lots of hams who can relate to that.  When you're traveling 4 days per week, mostly out of country, you don't have a lot of time for the hobby.   

Unfortunately but also fortunately those times are long gone for me.  Life is simpler now, less hectic.  I still have little time but more time than money, so I take the time to study the stuff.

IMO IT IS UNFAIR to call the 7300 garbage.
It is what it is and does what it is advertised to do and all that for a fair price, considering the bells and whistles and relatively good performance.

You can make just as many arguments that the Eagle is garbage... even though it remains my favorite radio for my style of operating.

GARBAGE:  radio's like the FT-450D that have an IMD of as much as 29dB worse than a 60 year old Collins 32S3 on some of its higher order IMD products.  Radios that broadcast broadband noise (i.e. FT-1200, FT-3000, FT-5000, TS-590 (but not the SG), IC-7600 and many others) may be fine for hams living out in the boondocks but for hams in the city, they are probably unknowingly disturbing all hams within 2 or 3 miles AND THAT IS GARBAGE THAT MUST STOP!  The IC-7300 does not do this so IMO I see no reason to call it garbage.  It is a great radio for the price - if you are looking for a all-mode, do everything radio. 

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt, Germany)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Gary J FollettDukes HiFi
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2016 7:04 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Scads of used Icom IC-7300

Companies don’t take back equipment that does not perform to buyers’ expectations. They are only required to honor warranties for defects in parts or workmanship, NOT defects in design. They meet their published specifications and get great bench top lab test results that do not describe actual performance.

Thus the only recourse for buyer’s remorse is fire sale pricing to recoup SOME of their investments.

No one in their right mind would pay more than 75% of new price for a used item, regardless of what it might be. Thus you see the bargain prices for what is indeed an entry level radio with lots of great features and marginal RF performance.


16 bit Analog to Digital direct conversion with no (or poor) band limiting input filters is a sure-fire formula for performance disaster. Icom admits this fact in their “solution” to the overload problem - use a preselector.

As I said previously, IP3 means nothing in a radio that has no mixers. Synthesizer phase noise rating means nothing in a radio that has no synthesizer. The fact that the 7300 “shines” in these characteristics in lab tests says nothing about real performance and new standards need to be developed to assess performance of direct digital conversion designs.

The “first adopters” of this particular model found this out for themselves on the air and found the results very disappointing. That’s why they sell them after a few weeks of use.

Gary

W0DVN


> On Sep 9, 2016, at 10:55 PM, Bwana Bob <wb2vuf at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> That's amazing that people would buy and then dump them so quickly.  There must be several things that are disliked, like maybe they can't get used to using a touch screen.  I, myself, would prefer traditional knobs and buttons to a touch screen. They always get smudgy and scratched.
> 
> Bob WB2VUF
> 
> 
> On 9/9/2016 11:19 PM, Gary J FollettDukes HiFi wrote:
>> Someone questioned my statement that there were “scads of IC-7300 radios” on the used market already.
>> 
>> Today, there are three on QTH alone, and one can be had for ~$1050!
>> 
>> Garbage depreciates in value pretty quickly, faster than an open can of Coors Lite!
>> 
>> Gary
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