so i was just sitting down with coffee around 9am local and decided to spin the dial on 10 meters just out of habit, not expecting much, and holy cow there was a pile of stations coming in from europe like it was 1979 or something. worked a few italians and a german station before it kind of faded out around noon. solar flux has been looking pretty good lately and i guess its finally showing up on the higher bands which is great news for those of us who got our tickets during the low years and never really experienced a good cycle peak.

anyway totally unrelated but has anyone actually gotten hands on time with the new Yaesu FT-710? ive been reading the reviews and they seem decent but reviews always seem decent. my 7300 is fine but theres something about that new receiver architecture yaesu is talking about that has me curious. not in a rush to upgrade just wondering if anyone here has actually used one on the air for a while and has real opinions about it.

yeah the 10m opening was something else, i havent heard it that alive in probably 15 years honestly. I caught the tail end of it and managed a quick contact with a station in Spain, signal was 59 both ways which just doesnt happen on that band around here. The cycle 25 predictions are looking really promising so hopefully this is just the start and we get a solid year or two of good conditions before it rolls back down.

On the 710 question, i picked one up back in the spring and have been using it as my primary HF rig since then. the roofing filters are genuinely better than what i was used to on my older rig and in crowded contest conditions it holds up well. the SDR display took some getting used to, its not quite as slick as the icom interface but its functional. battery of that said if you're happy with the 7300 i probably wouldnt rush, its a good radio and the 710 is more of a sidegrade in some ways than a clear upgrade depending on what you care about.

10m opening? ugh i was at work all morning, always seems to happen when im not home. this is like the third time this month ive missed a good one. my neighbor texted me about it and i just had to sit there sad at my desk lol.

dont know anything about the FT-710 but im still pretty new and just running a used 7300 myself so probably not the right person to ask about upgrades, seems like a lot of money for a small improvement from what i can tell reading around