so ive been seeing a lot of chatter on a few other forums and the ARRL site about the new Icom rig that supposedly dropped at the Tokyo Ham Fair — anyone here actually gotten hands on one or at least seen it in person? from what i can tell its somewhere in the IC-705 family but theres conflicting info about whether its a straight replacement or just a companion unit with different band coverage. i honestly cant tell anymore because every post i see contradicts the last one.

also separately — 10 meters has been absolutely wild this past week if you havent been on. i worked like 14 countries in an afternoon just calling CQ with 100 watts and a wire antenna, which almost never happens for me. solar flux has been up there and propagation has been doing things i havent seen in maybe 8 or 9 years. if you been sitting on the sidelines waiting to try DX now is genuinely a good time to just get on and try stuff.

and one more thing — for anyone in the midwest, i think the Dayton Hamvention dates got confirmed for next year already, which feels weirdly early but whatever, at least they announced it. worth keeping on the radar if you never been, its kind of a bucket list thing for a lot of folks in this hobby.

yeah the Tokyo Ham Fair stuff had me going down a rabbit hole for like two hours last week. from what i pieced together it sounds like Icom was showing a prototype or pre-production unit rather than a full release, so i wouldnt get too excited just yet. could be months before it actually hits the US market and even then the first batch always goes fast. i remember when the 705 came out and dealers were backordered forever.

the 10 meter thing is real though. i was just messing around Saturday morning with my old Yaesu and worked a station in Argentina on my first call, no pile up, nothing. just answered me right back like we were chatting next door. conditions like this dont last forever so yeah get on while the getting is good.

wait Hamvention dates are out already?? do you have the actual link for that because i want to book a hotel before everything fills up, last year i ended up like 40 minutes away which wasnt terrible but still. and yeah i keep hearing about 10m but i dont have a good antenna for it yet, still working on getting something up that isnt embarasing lol