After doing quite a bit of research I purchased a used Icom 7410 radio. I was looking for a radio with USB connection for digital modes and the ability to do an IF tap for a panadapter since I already had a couple RTL-SDR dongles. I found a Icom 7410 on eHam classifieds that had the filters and the IF tap already installed and at a good price. At the time the 7300’s were still going for close to retail used so I figured I could use the $500+ savings for other gear. I received the radio about a week before my callsign appeared on the FCC database(it was a long week). During the week I bought a MFJ 1:1 balun from Amazon and built a 20m dipole out of old speaker wire that I installed on a PVC pipe I had laying around. It was about 12ft up and I was able to get FT8 decoding. It was pretty exciting to see callsigns from as far away as Russia and Chile on this piece of speaker wire.
