So i was just messing around on 10 meters yesterday afternoon, not really expecting much, and all of a sudden the band just lit up. Was hearing stations from South America coming in strong, worked a few JA's too which honestly surprised me. Felt like old solar cycle 24 vibes for a minute there.

Ive been watching the solar flux numbers creep up over the last couple weeks and was wondering if anyone else has been taking advantage of this. My setup is nothing fancy, just a dipole at about 25 feet, and i was still pulling in stuff from pretty far out. Makes me wish i had a beam up already.

Also saw some chatter about the new Icom IC-905 finally shipping to more dealers — anyone actually gotten their hands on one yet? Been curious whether its worth the price tag for the microwave bands or if its still kinda niche. Anyway mainly just wanted to say get on 10m if you havent lately, conditions have been surprisingly decent.

yeah i caught a bit of that too, worked a ZL and a couple VK's which i wasnt expecting at all on a Wednesday afternoon. 10m is really something when it opens up, its like a completely different band. I keep telling newer folks in our club to keep a radio pointed at 28.400 or so just as a habit during this part of the cycle.

On the 905, my buddy picked one up a few months back and hes been pretty happy with it for 2.4 ghz stuff but yeah its definitely aimed at a specific crowd. Not exactly an everyday radio if youre not into the weak signal microwave scene. Cool piece of gear though if thats your thing.

omg I just got my technician ticket last month and everyone kept telling me HF was dead or whatever so I almost didn't bother studying for general. Now reading stuff like this makes me want to upgrade asap. Do I need like a special antenna for 10m or will a basic wire work to start hearing stuff during openings?