so i was just messing around on 10 meters yesterday afternoon, wasnt expecting much honestly, and all of a sudden i start hearing stations from south america coming in like they were next door. worked a couple guys in brazil and one in argentina before it faded out maybe 45 minutes later. its been so long since ive had a real 10m opening like that i almost forgot what it felt like, had to dig out my old log to remember the last time i actually worked anything down there on that band.

also saw that Icom apparently announced something new, think its a updated version of one of their portables but i only skimmed the article so dont quote me on that. and there was something on the ARRL site about the upcoming field day rule tweaks but i havent read through it fully yet. figured id mention it in case others hadnt seen it. anyone got more details on either of those things or was anyone else on 10m yesterday catching that opening?

yeah i caught the tail end of that opening, was only on for maybe 20 minutes but managed to snag a PY station running what sounded like a kilowatt into a beam, signals were genuinely S9 here in the midwest which you just dont see on 10 anymore. solar flux has been creeping up lately so im hoping this is a sign of things picking up as we head further into the cycle. i remember cycle 23 and honestly if we get anywhere close to those conditions again im going to be a happy man.

on the icom thing, i think youre thinking of the IC-705 mkII or something along those lines, there were some rumors floating around but i havent seen an official press release yet. might be worth checking the usual spots, dx-world and eham usually pick that stuff up pretty quick.

omg i totally missed it, was at work and saw some spots on the cluster when i checked my phone but couldnt do anything about it. this is exactly why i need to get my remote setup actually working lol. been putting it off for months and every time something like this happens i kick myself. what part of the country are you in? im in the northeast and we dont always get the same openings as you midwest and southeast folks do with south america.