so i was just messing around on 10 meters yesterday afternoon, wasnt really expecting much because its been pretty quiet lately, and all of a sudden the band just opened up like crazy. i was hearing stations from south america, europe, even picked up what sounded like a japanese station for a few minutes before i lost him. running just 100 watts into a dipole in the attic and i was getting 59 reports from guys in Brazil. honestly havent seen 10m like that in a while, felt like the cycle 25 stuff people have been talking about is really starting to show up.

also saw a post somewhere that Icom is supposed to be releasing some kind of updated version of the 7300 or a new rig in that same price range? cant find the original article now. anyone heard anything about that or know where i saw it? been thinking about upgrading from my current setup and that price range is kind of where im looking.

yeah 10m has been something else lately. i worked a guy in Italy last week on a mobile whip while sitting in my driveway, just completely by accident, i was testing the antenna and didnt even have the amp on. the solar flux has been climbing pretty steadily and if you check the DX cluster theres been openings almost every afternoon into Europe from the east coast. good time to have a beam if you got one but honestly even modest antennas are doing well right now.

on the Icom thing, i think you might be thinking of some speculation threads over on eham or maybe the amateur radio subreddit. there's been rumors floating around about something new but nothing confirmed that ive seen. Icom tends to keep stuff pretty tight until they officially announce at a hamfest or whatever. keep an eye on the ham radio outlet newsletter or DX engineering emails, they usually get the heads up pretty quick when something real is coming.

omg yes i heard it too and im only like 3 months into my technician license so i wasnt sure if what i was hearing was normal or not lol. i have a little handheld that doesnt really do HF but my neighbor who got me into the hobby let me sit with him and we were working all kinds of DX on his setup. he said to just wait because 10m was going to get good and he wasnt kidding. im really motivated now to get my general so i can actually get on HF myself. studying for the exam this month hopefully.