so i dont even know where to start, been a busy few days in the hobby. First thing — Icom quietly dropped some info about additional accessories for the IC-905 which if you havent been following that radio is their microwave/UHF all-in-one thing. looks like theyre finally addressing the external unit mounting options which was a complaint i saw all over eham. Nothing revolutionary but good to see them actually listening i guess.

But honestly the bigger thing right now is 6 meters. I was just spinning the dial last night not expecting much and suddenly ran into a massive opening into the caribbean and parts of south america. Worked a few stations in Venezuela and one in colombia i think, signals were genuinely S9 on some of them which is wild for this time of year. If youre sitting on a 6m capable rig RIGHT NOW go turn it on. seriously. Been hearing the DX cluster is lit up all morning too.

Also saw somewhere that the ARRL is planning some changes to the field day rules for next year but i cant find the original source again, might have been a rumor. Anyone else hear anything about that?

yeah the 6m opening was real, i caught the tail end of it around 9pm local and managed to snag a YV5 which was a new one for me on that band. been licensed for about three years now and never really paid attention to 6m but this summer has kinda converted me. what antenna you running? im just using a simple dipole in the attic which probably isnt ideal but it got the job done last night surprisingly.

on the IC-905 stuff, i looked it up and it seems like the accessory theyre talking about is basically just a better weatherproofing kit for the remote head unit. still interesting if youre doing any kind of hilltop portable operating i guess. that radio is way out of my budget anyway so im mostly just window shopping on that one.

The field day rule changes — i think what you might be thinking of is there was a discussion thread on the ARRL members forum about possibly adjusting how remote operation gets scored. its been a point of contention for a while now and i remember seeing something from a section manager mentioning it could come up for review. Dont hold me to that though, could easily be one of those things that gets talked about every year and nothing actually changes.

6m has been exceptional this solar cycle, we're riding pretty high on solar flux right now and it shows. worked EU twice last month which doesnt happen for me often living out here on the west coast. good times to be on HF and low VHF for sure.