My XYL said, "why don't you buy a new radio?"
My favourite is the IC7300, although I am in no great hurry. I was hoping the price would drop, but at the moment there are no signs of this happening.
Quite a few dealers are offering "deals" with cashback, free covers or low cost PSUs. It feels like they want to compete on price, but they fear for their profits. Maybe ICOM is stopping the price dropping? Maybe the dealers have had a quiet word and have agreed to keep the price high? I have no evidence for this, just a gut feeling. Perhaps ICOM wished they had priced the IC7300 higher? Even with guarantees and VAT it is far less expensive in France.
The next stage is to get a cash price and guarantee details from the suppliers. At this rate, my target is to buy in the new year sometime, before the Es season. I am not really interested in dust covers: I would like a lower price for cash - no trade ins, with free delivery.
Hello Roger, as you probabely know I want a IC-7300 for a long time as well. I'm saving money to hopefully buy one in 2019. The price dropped a little in the Netherlands but is not going below the 1000 euro as I expected. I had the opportunity to try the IC-7300 in the CQWW SSB contest and compared it to a Elecraft K3s at the same QTH. My experience is that the IC-7300 has a noticable lower noise level and is very pleasant to listen to. I did never play with the radio before but even in a stressful contest situation I found the menu and the touchscreen very easy to understand. Still hope the price will drop a bit next year when Yaesu will sell new SDR radios. 73, Bas
ReplyDeleteThanks Bas. Useful data.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short!
ReplyDeleteGo get one Mr L..
73 Steve