so ive been following the chatter about the IC-7760 since Icom announced it and honestly i wasnt that excited at first, seemed like a lot of money for what looked like incremental improvements over the 7300 or even the 7610. but then last tuesday we had that crazy 10m opening into europe and i was running my 7300 and just watching the cluster light up like crazy. managed a few QSOs into spain and portugal which i havent done from my QTH in probably 3 years. made me think about how different that might have felt with a radio that has better roofing filters and the dual receiver setup.

anyway thats not really the point i guess. the point is conditions are coming back and if you havent been on 10m lately you should really check it out. propagation forecasts have been looking decent for the next few weeks according to a few sources im following. solar flux has been hovering up in the 150s which is about as good as ive seen it in a long time. anyone else working a lot of EU on the higher bands lately or is it just my area

yeah that tuesday opening was real, i caught the tail end of it around 1800 UTC and still managed to log a couple italians and what i think was a greek station though the QSB was pretty brutal. i run an older TS-590 and honestly it held up fine, didnt feel like i needed anything fancier. the IC-7760 looks nice on paper but i keep reminding myself that the antenna matters way more than the radio at the end of the day. im running a pretty modest dipole and i was still getting through.

solar cycle 25 is really delivering now, feels weird after years of being bummed out about 10m being basically a parking lot. my old elmers used to tell me stories about working 100 countries on 10m with a wire antenna and i always kind of rolled my eyes but i get it now

wait the 7760 is actually out or just announced? i saw something on one of the facebook groups but couldnt tell if it was shipping yet or still vaporware. also totally agree about 10m, i just got my general a few months ago and literally the first week i could use HF i stumbled into an opening and worked like 8 countries in an afternoon, my mind was blown. nobody told me it could be like that lol. def gonna be spending more time up there