so ive been following the IC-905 situation for like a year and a half now and it looks like some dealers are actually starting to get units in, at least thats what i saw on one of the facebook groups this morning. anybody here actually received one or know someone who has? im curious how the microwave bands are performing out of the box because thats the whole reason i was interested in the first place, the 10GHz module especially.

also kind of unrelated but the 6m opening last tuesday was absolutely wild if you were around for it, i was running barefoot into a cheap yagi i threw up last summer and still worked like 40 states in a few hours. band was just lit up. made me think i should actually pay attention to the propagation alerts more instead of just randomly turning the radio on and hoping something is happening.

anyway if anyone has hands-on time with the 905 or knows more about the shipping situation id love to hear it, the wait has been kind of brutal

yeah the 6m opening last week was something else, i caught the tail end of it on wednesday morning before work and even that was impressive. worked a couple of stations down in Florida from here in Minnesota which doesnt happen all that often this time of year. my neighbor who has been a ham for like 30 years said he hasnt seen Es propagation that consistent in a while.

on the IC-905 thing i saw a post from someone over on QRZ who said they got a tracking number from their dealer but it was for just the base unit without the 10GHz module, apparently those are still backordered separately. which is kind of annoying if youre specifically wanting the microwave capability. not sure if thats still the case now but worth asking your dealer before assuming you'll get the full setup right away.

I just got into the hobby like 4 months ago so I have no idea what the IC-905 even is but that 6 meter opening sounds awesome, I was actually on the air Tuesday night trying to make my first few contacts and didnt really know what was happening, just that suddenly people were EVERYWHERE on the band and i worked like 8 states which felt huge to me as a new tech. didnt realize until after that it was some kind of special propagation event. still learning all this stuff but moments like that make it really click why people love this hobby