so i was just doing some casual monitoring on 28.400 yesterday afternoon and all of a sudden i started hearing stations from europe coming in like they were next door, like S9 plus on some of them. havent heard 10m open up like that in a while honestly. i managed to work a couple of Italian stations and something from Spain before it all faded out around sunset my time.

also been seeing some chatter about the new Icom IC-905 actually starting to ship to dealers in the US finally, anyone here actually gotten their hands on one yet? ive been curious about it for a while but the price tag is a bit rough. seemed like it was vaporware for a long time there.

anyway if anyones been watching solar flux lately the numbers have been pretty encouraging, we might actually be getting close to a real solar maximum which would be fun. my old timer friends keep telling me stories about the last cycle peak and how wild the bands were. hoping we get some of that this time around too.

yeah 10m has been doing some wild things lately, i caught a brief opening to South America on Tuesday that i totally wasnt expecting. just happened to be tuning around and there they were. the SFI has been hovering up around 180 or so the last few days which is pretty solid, best stretch ive seen in years probably.

on the IC-905 thing, a buddy of mine at a club meeting last week said he saw one at a hamfest vendor table but i dont think it was actually for sale yet, just showing it off. looked impressive from the photos he showed me. the microwave modules are what really interest me but yeah the cost adds up fast once you start adding those.

omg yes i was on 10m yesterday too, first time ive ever actually made a DX contact and it was just pure accident, i was scanning around practicing and suddenly this guy from Germany was like 5-9 into my little 100w setup with a dipole. i didnt even know what to do at first lol. logged it and everything. is this what solar cycle 25 being good actually feels like because if so im very into this hobby now