so i was just doing some casual listening around lunch time yesterday and stumbled into what sounded like a full on 10 meter opening - stations from south america coming in like they were next door, i mean genuinely loud. worked a couple guys in brazil and colombia with like 50 watts and my dipole which honestly never happens. i know the solar cycle is climbing but i wasnt expecting it to be that good on a random tuesday.

also saw something on one of the news feeds about icom teasing something new? maybe a new handheld or a mid range HF rig, i cant remember where i read it. anyone know what thats about? or was it just one of those rumor things that never pans out. either way the band conditions thing was real and if youre not checking 10m lately youre missing out, at least in my area.

yeah 10 meters has been really something lately, i've been saying this for a while but a lot of newer hams have never experienced a good solar maximum so this is kind of a big deal. we're heading into what looks like a pretty solid cycle 25 peak and honestly some of the openings have reminded me of back in the late 90s. if you haven't tried 10m SSB in a while just leave it on in the background while you're doing other stuff, you'll be surprised what pops up.

as for the icom thing i think you might be thinking of the IC-905 stuff that's been floating around, they've been doing some stuff in the microwave bands which is niche but interesting. or there was some chatter about firmware updates for the 7300. hard to keep track of all the rumor mill stuff honestly.

omg yes i caught that opening too, im pretty new to HF like only got my general a few months ago and my first ever dx contact was a guy in argentina on 10m last week. i was shaking a little lol. didnt expect it to work at all but he came back to me first call. my setup is nothing fancy just a used ft-891 and a wire antenna in the attic so i was pretty stoked.