The least expensive IC-7300 ever?

So there I was browsing discord looking through the swap meet, the IC-7300 was always a that would be nice to have more so than a need. The FT857-D did everything I needed and let's face it still does.

There it was like a beacon in the dark right before my eyes, IC-7300 surge damaged for parts or repair $500. The listing sat for a few days and a few people asked some questions. Looking at the used market prices of $700-800 I chimed in and said it's a pretty big gamble I'd say $250 shipped might be more in line with current pricing. I told him that I wasn't looking to flip the radio and that it would be a valued part of my shack never to be sold.

The rest as they say is history, I got a DM from the seller asking if I was interested. Ham's are generally a trustworthy bunch but you can never be too careful, especially with a radio that's 10+ hours away. He explained that the antenna was disconnected but the house took a hit that cooked the power supply, computer, IC-7300 and the FTM-400D he has. I went back and forth with the seller and he offered to video call me, we went through some basic diagnostics and circuit tracing (thanks chatgpt/grok!) and I was comfortable enough with the fact that the radio likely wasn't 100% cooked. All the pictures looked good internally and it was blowing the 5amp fuse immediately indicating a short to ground.

I ordered the parts for the PA board from mouser I thought I could do the repair with the assistance of a few Elmers until i realized just how small the surface mount components were. Well that and the fact that I don't have a hot air station. So like any good millennial who grew up with web forums and IRC where did I turn to for advice? Reddit of course!

I was looking for an independent shop because the thought of sending it back to Icom at least in my mind meant a lot of money. The Amateur radio subreddit suggested SAR Technical Services they are an Icom factory service center. They said the owner Matt was honest and more than fair with his pricing. I reached out to Matt and he said it'd likely be about a week turnaround time for the repair. The radio came in on Friday and out it went to Matt the same day. He received it and I got a call the next morning, he said something like I've looked over the IC7300 and would like to go over the repairs with you. In my head I was thinking and ok with this is likely going to be $300-400 I'll still be doing ok with the radio price wise at that point. I said to Matt sounds good what's up with it? He said there's some damaged components on the PA board (one of the protection diodes did it's job hence the short to ground), you're a few firmware revisions off and you need a new clock battery. That'll be about $136 (I forget the exact total) needless to say it was a no brainer. He shipped it out the next morning and exactly one week after I got the radio it was safely back home as fresh as the day it left Icom.

So there you have it, I believe the total was roughly $316 for a working IC-7300 in pristine condition. and that was before the MK2 released. The additional filtering and features have been great. I'm still leaning about the radio every day and the built in recording to SD card helped out when I made my first SSB qso to Japan the other day.

About that QSO... that's a topic for another post.