so ive been a ham for about 6 years now and i dont think ive seen 10 meters this alive since maybe 2014 or so. was just spinning the dial last tuesday afternoon and worked a station in Argentina no problem, then a few minutes later had a quick QSO with someone in South Africa. running like 100 watts and a dipole in the attic, nothing fancy at all.

also saw somewhere that Icom is supposed to be releasing some kind of updated version of the 7300 or at least a new radio in that price range, anyone heard anything more concrete about that? I saw a blurb on one of the Facebook groups but those things are always half rumor. would be interesting timing with the solar cycle where it is right now honestly.

anyway just wanted to share since it feels like the hobby is in a good spot right now. lot of new people getting licensed too from what i can tell at club meetings. good time to be on the air.

yeah the band has been something else lately. i worked JA on 10m with my little vertical last weekend and just about fell out of my chair. hadnt heard Japan on that band in years. solar flux has been consistently high and the predictions are looking good through at least the next few months from what spaceweather.com is showing.

on the icom thing, ive heard the same rumors floating around. somebody on eham was saying there was something spotted at a Japanese trade show but i cant find a source for that so who knows. icom tends to keep things pretty close to the vest until they're ready to announce. id love to see something with better built in decoding or a wider dynamic range but honestly the 7300 is already a tough act to follow at that price point.

this is actually really encouraging to hear, im only a few months into being licensed and 10m is the band i can actually run some power on with my current antenna setup. gonna have to spend some more time up there this weekend and see what i can find. what time of day has been working best for you for the DX stuff?