So ive been kind of out of the loop the past few weeks — work stuff — but came back to check the bands and wow 10 meters has been doing some crazy things. Worked a handful of South American stations last Tuesday without even really trying, just had the radio on in the background while i was doing other stuff and suddenly i heard a pile-up forming on 28.450 or so.

Anyway thats not the main thing i wanted to mention. Apparently Icom is supposed to be dropping something new in the transceiver space, ive seen some chatter on a couple other forums but nothing super concrete yet. Anyone seen any actual specs or is it still just rumor territory? I remember when the IC-7300 came out and the hype was real but sometimes these things turn out to be a minor refresh and people get all wound up for nothing.

Also — and this is more of a side question — did anyone catch the ARRL announcement about the upcoming HF phone sweepstakes dates? I think i saw something but i was half asleep reading it on my phone so i might have the timing wrong.

Yeah 10m has been absolutely delivering this cycle, honestly better than i expected going into the fall. I worked Japan twice last week just running 100 watts to a dipole, nothing fancy. The solar flux has been sitting up high enough that even mediocre antennas are performing well right now so if anyone's been on the fence about trying HF this is genuinely a good time to jump in.

On the Icom thing, i saw some photos floating around that looked like a mid-range mobile rig, maybe a replacement or update to the 2730 line? But honestly i've been burned before by leaks that turned out to be mockups or just old units with the badging taped over for a trade show. I'd wait for something official from Icom's site or at least a reputable dealer announcement before getting too excited. Ham Radio Outlet sometimes posts stuff early so worth checking there.

Sweepstakes phone portion i believe is the third weekend in November but double check the ARRL calendar, i might be off by a week.

omg yes 10m has been so fun lately im still pretty new to HF like only had my general for about 4 months and i finally feel like i know what im doing enough to actually chase some DX. made my first ever contact to Europe last weekend which was just a random Thursday afternoon, wasnt even a contest or anything. guy in Spain came back to my call on the second try which felt pretty amazing honestly.

dont know much about the new Icom stuff but ill keep an eye out, im still using a borrowed radio so im starting to think about what i might actually buy eventually and all these rumors make it hard to know if i should wait or just pull the trigger on something thats already out there