Yeah, pulled the trigger last week.  My "open box special" 7300 is arriving from Gigaparts Monday.

Boy, adding the 10 year warranty for $10 seems like a no brainer.

Anybody hesitating at saving $100 with the "Open Box Special" -- don't.  The tape was slit but it was obvious nothing had been
removed from the box.  Tape was intact on the foam envelope around the radio.  The box with mic, power cord, other acc appeared
unopened.  The plastic they were in was still sealed.  They had looked inside, that was all.  There was a ding denting the cardboard
on one side.  It looks like they took a peek to see if it had hit anything inside, which it hadn't.  That area had some cardboard
padding around the radio.

I ordered on a Friday afternoon, radio arrived before noon on Monday.

One problem, they say you can pay it over 6 months.  I could not find that option, but did find the four payments thing.  That is not
over four months, but a payment every two weeks.

To get the extra $100 off you have to follow the rebate thing and send a copy of the receipt and photo of the UPC bar code.  Be
aware, there are three bar codes.  One is the serial number of the radio.  Then there are two bar codes on another sticker.  I had
to assume the top one was the UPC, so that's the number I entered.  Still, they wanted a photo, and the three are close together.

And fill in the blanks, name, address, etc.  It all took just a few minutes.  What you get is a card with $100 credit on it.  You won't
be able to get cash from it.  So I'll use it to buy more radio stuff.

Anyway, that's my story.

EDIT:  I was wrong.  On the sticker with bar codes... two small ones at the top.  I don't know what the one on top is, you don't
want it.  The one just below it, 731797024763 is the UPC for the IC-7300.  Then the bar code on the bottom of that sticker is the
serial number of the radio.

Check out this post on my doublet thread:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/Doublet-not-quite-a-dipole/22-707881/&page=2

Applies to most all Icoms.  About the W2ENY "Ten-a-Tuner".  An inexpensive but effective tuning aid for manual tuners.

Probably just a way to sell some radios at below-market prices without having them all bought up by flippers.

For the new 7300 owner's that don't know, you will need to buy or repurpose and SD card for your new radio. Any software upgrades are done thru the SD card slot, and you will want to save your configurations to the SD card, also saving all of your channel memories, voice memories CW and RTTY memories if you have them and recordings and pictures. ALSO, it allows you to upload other peoples configurations to try them out and use what ever you like about them with the ability to instantly revert back to what you have saved before. You can send the basic setup configurations of the rigs over email, download them to the SD card in the proper folder and upload them to your rig. Some people like to save different setups of their own to be able to have them on hand to instantly run them on the rig without manually reset items in the menu. Lots of things to do with that SD card, and I recommend you get one asap get if formatted in your rig and start saving to it.  

This is a public service announcement for all 7300 owners, brought to you at no cost.  

VERY GOOD suggestion! (SD Card)  Will do!

Thanks!

Your very welcome. If you need any assistance with anything let me know.
It is usually best to keep your rig updated software wise.
The current "firmware" is  1.42 and the current USB driver is 1.30.  Been that for several years.
Go to Icom Japan

Icom Japan firmware section

Obviously you will need a computer that will write to an SD card. Be sure to format it in the rig though.
The SD card does not have to be a huge one as these files are fairly small
Obviously if you save a LOT of sound recordings (wav files) or a RTTY contest to it, you might consider a larger one.

Upgrades of firmware are pretty easy and run by themselves. There is one screen that stops and want you to affirm to go on. Remember to scroll down to press the button.

After about 5 years your battery is going to puke. Not a big deal as the rig will still work but the time clock won't keep time. You can run a simple file to update the time when you computer boots up and send this file to the rig, OR you can replace the rechargeable soldered in little battery with the same thing for about a dollar if you can solder. OR you can do what I did and replace the little rechargeable battery with a CR2032 (red dot battery) in a plastic case with a diode in line to keep the rig from trying to recharge a non rechargeable battery. Now I can replace the battery every 3 or 4 years in just a few seconds.

The amount of time before the clock battery pukes (bad design, ICOM) is directly related to how long the rig is plugged in to power. Does not have to be turned on, just plugged in.

Is there a place to look, the boot up splash or something that tells you the firmware version?