so i was just doing my usual morning routine, coffee in hand, figured id spin the dial on 10 meters mostly out of habit because honestly that band has been pretty hit or miss for me lately, and holy smokes it was just packed. like wall to wall signals from all over, worked a station in Brazil, then a couple in Europe, then some guy in Japan all within maybe 45 minutes. i havent heard 10m like that in years honestly.

also saw some chatter online that the new Icom IC-905 is finally shipping to more dealers if anyone has been waiting on that. the microwave bands stuff looks really interesting but i havent had a chance to dig into the specs much yet. anyone actually have one in hand? curious what the actual receive performance is like on 5.7 gig compared to the older setups people were cobbling together.

anyway if you havent checked 10m today maybe give it a shot, even with a mediocre antenna you might be surprised whats out there right now.

yeah 10m has been something else this week, solar flux index was sitting pretty high yesterday and the K index stayed low which is basically the dream combo. i worked 47 countries last weekend during the contest and probably a third of them were on 10 meters, band just kept going well into the evening too which surprised me.

on the 905, my buddy at the club got one a few weeks ago and says the receiver is really impressive on the higher bands, way better front end than he expected. he's been doing some 10 gig stuff with it though so i dont know how the 5.7 compares specifically. he mentioned the menus take some getting used to but what Icom product doesnt at this point haha.

oh man i totally missed this this morning, was stuck in a meeting until noon and by the time i got to the shack things had quieted down a bit. still heard some South American stations but nothing like what you're describing. im relatively new to HF so i always get excited when 10m opens up because my dipole actually works pretty decent up there compared to 40 where i feel like im fighting the whole neighborhood.

i didnt know the 905 was shipping more widely, might have to look into that at some point even though its probably way out of my budget right now lol. for now im just happy my old 7300 is keeping me busy.