so of course the one day i dont have my radio set up properly is the day everyone's saying 10 meters was absolutely cooking. saw a few spots on the cluster around midday and by the time i got home and got everything sorted out it was basically dead again. typical.

anyway been trying to keep up with the solar flux numbers and it really does seem like we're getting some decent openings lately, cycle 25 is apparently doing better than a lot of folks predicted. i remember when 10m was basically a wasteland for like three or four years and now im hearing stories about guys working europe on a handheld with a wire antenna or whatever. little exaggerated probably but still.

also saw that icom announced something new, the IC-7760 i think? havent had a chance to dig into the specs yet but someone at the club meeting was going on about it. anyone know much about it or is it just kind of a refresh of existing stuff? always skeptical of these things until i actually see one in the flesh at a hamfest or something.

yeah 10m has been really something this fall, i worked about 14 countries last weekend during a contest just casually operating, nothing serious. the flux was up around 190 which is not insane but apparently enough to get some nice F2 propagation going in the afternoon hours. your best bet is just to have pskreporter or DX maps open on your phone during the day so you can see when things are perking up without having to be glued to the radio.

on the icom thing, from what i read it's more of a flagship replacement than just a refresh, supposed to have a dual receiver setup and some upgraded roofing filters. pricing is gonna be steep i'm sure. honestly i'm still happy with my 7300 for now, hard to justify the upgrade unless you're doing serious contesting or DX chasing. but new gear announcements are always fun to read about even if i'm not buying anything lol

missing band openings is basically a ham radio tradition at this point, dont feel bad. ive had my beam pointed the wrong direction for entire openings before and only figured it out when someone told me later. at least you had the cluster up.

im still pretty new to HF so honestly 10m being open at all is exciting for me, i grew up reading about 10m being the magic band and thought id never see it. got my general last spring and have been trying to learn the propagation stuff as i go. its a lot to take in but sites like prop.kc2g.com have been helpful for just getting a quick snapshot of whats going on.