If I saw a UFO, I don't remember it.

I have seen lots of meteors/shooting stars, though.  

I never flew the long haul stuff, so I wasn't too concerned about the radiation.  I did fly international out of Miami for 5 years, but that was exciting for some different reasons.

Camo pattern water dip FTW!

Well, so far I have spent several days trying to make the remote software to work from another computer, in real remote application. No joy.
I'd honestly hate to spend another $100 for a new router and not be able to make it work.
Why can't they make it user friendly? Damn nerds.

Have you got it to work OK in the house first, e.g. server on the radio, client laptop in the kitchen, everything inside the router? If so, then what are you doing for outside the router, i.e. did you open up ports on the router (port forwarding) or did you go for the whole enchilada and set up a VPN?

I was hoping to make it work in the house first, without having to go outside of the router. The software works on the server computer but not on my other laptop. This was the reason I bought it because my shack is in the back of the property and sometimes I want to be able to operate from the house.
Port forwarding will be another story. I'm using a router in the cable company's provided modem (at least that's what I think it is). It's my understanding that I don't need to do the port forwarding if I stay on the "local" computer but I may be wrong. The server computer in the shack (connected to the radio) is going through a wi-fi range extender to cover the 100 yards between the house and the shack.

I found a $13 Linksys router on Amazon that's similar to what I used in the past. Unfortunately all wi-fi routers I tried using, quit working within several months due to unknown reason. It started with loosing connection once in a while and requiring a reset but after several months they could not be reset anymore. Linksys WRT54 (or something similar) provided the best range. This is what IT people at work recommended. I have no idea why they kept going bad. It's not power related because I have both surge protection and filters installed.

Honestly, I don't want to complicate things with a VPN router unless there is no other choice. I thought that Icom finally pulled their head out of their arse and made something user friendly. This does not appear to be the case.

I think those are ionosondes. I've heard them on HF forever, as just a little bleep when listening on SSB, but with a spectrum scope they're really obvious visually.

Yep, that's exactly what they look like to me as well.

Well, obviously it makes sense to solve this problem first, before adding the complexity of working over the internet.

I thought it was some kind of a radar but it was not there on the ft3000 receiver. Same antenna and everything. This kind of puzzled me. It could have been wrong timing.

Besides the software issues, I think the 7300 is a great little radio. I've been getting very favorable audio reports with the factory included handheld microphone! It's hard to believe after using the crappy microphone on my IC-7000 mobile rig.  I'll need to order a cable to connect the radio to my EQPlus audio processor.

I have read many reviews of the 7300 and the hand mic is always praised.  I have received good reports from my QSOs as well.

I just started turning on the compressor to level 2 or 3.  Have yet to hear any comments on it.  I certainly don't want to go to full trucker but I was listening to a QSO with a guy who does a lot of contesting and he says he can often get through a pile up by going trucker with the compressor.  That's a bit extreme but many of the 7300 reviews that include "these settings worked best for me" have the compression at 2 or 3.

I get unsolicited "great audio quality' reports and I have the compression set at 3 on my 7300

I can't stand hand mics at my desk anymore.  I put up with them operating remote.

I bought a Heil ICMBG and tuned it by running low power into my dummy and listening on the 590SG.

I *DO* wish there was a bidirectional EQ like the 590SG had in the 7300.  That really was fun to play with.

Same here. I like using a Heil boom with either a pedal or a "hand trigger" PTT. The picture below is a bit outdated but you can see the mic. boom. The IQPlus has been very handy as well. My primary base rig has an 8 channel parametric equalizer but I usually leave it off and use the compressor, noise gate and the effects processor in EQPlus to improve TX audio. So far everyone likes the signal.
As far punching through a DX pileup, i found that the effects processor really makes it happen. It's important to use some compression to increase average TX power and signal readability but the effects processor really make the signal to "stand out" from the rest. It adds some ambience to the audio signal thus making it a lot easier to read.

Another thing I learned is not to use the "monitor" feature to listen to my own signal while configuring audio settings. For some reason, when I make my signal sound great in my earphones, other stations tell me it's not that good. When I have someone help me to set it up by listening on their end, it always sounds crappy to me while listening to myself. This is why I prefer to have someone with "good ears" to help me or I try to record my signal with a separate receiver and a recorder (IC-7300 has a great recorder feature too ). Yaesu made me buy an optional board to be able to record audio messages, greedy little suckers.
BTW, Yeasu 3000 has a very capable parametric equalizer but I wish they did not complicate it with all that "OCTAVE" crap. Perhaps it makes some sense to a musician but I had a heck of a time trying to figure it out. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I've been finding myself using my CW key more and more lately. There is something relaxing about calling CQ on CW and making contacts without having to talk into a microphone. I've also tried to run digital modes quite a few times too but just can't get excited about it.
Hope all this makes sense. Sorry, sometimes I get carried away. Here is a picture of the shack. You can see the Heil boom and the EQPlus gismo to the left of the monitor. The picture is several years old but it's close enough.

Thanks I've been wondering what caused that or what it was ever since I've gotten on the air.

That's the cool thing about the IC-7300.  Since it is entirely SDR running on an Altera FPGA, ICOM could add that feature easily as long as there is still room for it.  We aren't fixed feature anymore - kind of like when the iPhone first came out.


Than that's where I'm leaving mine.  I haven't been running compression more than my last few QSOs and most of those were 6M during the recent opening to the Caribbean and those 6M guys are catch-and-release fast and furious to get as many contacts as possible before the sporadic-E collapses.

I replaced a KX3 with the 7300 as my backup, ECOMM, Digital, grab 'n go radio. It is a nice radio for what it is and the price. Not in the same class as my FTDX5000MP but pretty damn good.

Easy interface for digital with CAT and sound on 1 USB connection. I have a LiPOFE4 battery pack that I run it off when off-grid and that does well.

For the price I don't think you will find anything that comes close that will give you this level of performance.

I think, FTDX5000 is the best radio on the market right now. The ergonomics and receiver performance and RX audio are just amazing. I almost bought one couple of years ago but decided to settle with the 3000 and spend the money on a better antenna.

How does the 7300 compare on 6 meters?

Well, I don't have anything to compare it to and this is the first time I have ever been able to work 6M.

I had to put the AV-680 down for a few days due to the bad storms but just raised it a few hours ago.

Today I have made a few 6M contacts from Tulsa to the southera Arizona area and SoCal.

I will say that when the sporadic-E was open on the 17th the reception and transmission was very good.  If I heard them, I worked them.