so i was just sitting down last weekend to do some casual operating, wasnt really expecting much, had the rig tuned to 28.450 just kind of half listening while i was doing other stuff around the shack and all of a sudden i start hearing stations from everywhere. worked a couple guys in South America, then caught a station in Spain without even really trying that hard. this is on a pretty mediocre dipole too, nothing fancy.

i know solar cycle 25 has been ramping up and people have been talking about it for a while but i dont think i fully appreciated how good 10m can get until this weekend. for context ive only been licensed about 18 months so ive never really seen a solar maximum before. is this what it was like back in the last cycle? because if so i completely understand why the old timers get so excited about it. i almost missed my kids soccer game because i couldnt stop spinning the dial.

also heard someone mention there was a big DX expedition somewhere in the Pacific coming up soon, does anyone know more about that? i saw something on the DX bulletin but didnt catch all the details.

yeah 10m has been really something this cycle, glad you're catching it. honestly solar cycle 25 has exceeded a lot of the predictions the forecasters put out a few years ago, nobody really expected it to get this active this fast. the last peak around cycle 24 was kind of a disappointment compared to historical maximums so people were a bit skeptical going in.

the DX expedition you're thinking of might be the one to Wallis and Futuna, I saw it mentioned on the ARRL news page a few weeks back. think they were planning operations on multiple bands including some of the digital modes. worth keeping an eye on the DX cluster if you haven't set that up yet, it makes finding active expeditions a lot easier especially when you're still learning where to look. your first real solar max is genuinely a treat, you picked a good time to get into HF.

omg same, i was completely not ready for how good it got last saturday. im also pretty new and had only ever really had luck on 40m at night so 10m just sitting there wide open in the afternoon felt almost wrong lol. worked my first ever European station and just kind of stared at the log for a minute like did that actually just happen. my antenna situation is pretty terrible honestly, just a random wire thing i threw up in the backyard, so if i can make contacts imagine what people with real antennas are doing.