So ive been seeing some chatter on a couple other forums and on twitter about Yaesu possibly announcing a new HF transceiver sometime before Dayton this year. Nobody seems to have solid info yet but theres been some leaked photos floating around that look like a mid-range rig, maybe somewhere between the FT-891 and the FTDX10 price bracket if i had to guess. Take it with a grain of salt obviously.

On a completely different note, 10 meters has been absolutely insane the last few days. I made contacts into eastern europe and japan yesterday afternoon just running 100 watts and a wire dipole. Cycle 25 is really delivering lately and if youre not spending some time on 10 and 12m right now you are genuinely missing out. Even 6m has been doing some weird stuff in the evenings, caught a couple sporadic E openings last week that came out of nowhere.

Anyone heading to Hamvention this year? First time going and i dont really know what to expect in terms of the flea market — is it worth getting there super early or does stuff stick around for a while?

yeah the 10m thing is real, ive been having a blast up there. worked a guy in south africa last thursday on a mobile whip which i still cant quite believe. the solar flux has been sitting up pretty high and the K index has been cooperating so conditions have just been lining up nicely.

re: Hamvention flea market — get there early. like, embarassingly early. the good stuff moves fast and i mean FAST. i've gone a few times and the years i slept in i ended up just walking past empty tables by noon. bring cash, bring a cart if you can, and dont expect prices to be as low as you hope. some vendors know exactly what they have and price accordingly lol. still worth it though, theres nothing quite like it.

This is my first solar cycle as a licensed ham so I honestly have no frame of reference but 10 meters has been wild to me — I didn't even know what to expect when I first got on HF and now I'm making DX contacts with a pretty modest setup. Picked up an FT-891 about four months ago and it's been doing work. If that Yaesu rumor is true and it's priced aggressively I might regret buying when I did but honestly I'm happy with what I have so probably fine.

Haven't been to Dayton yet but it's on the list for sure.