So I've been glued to the radio the past couple weeks and the Es season this year feels pretty solid so far. Worked a bunch of stations down into the Caribbean last Tuesday on 50.313 via FT8 and then the band just shut off like someone flipped a switch, classic sporadic E honestly. Caught a brief opening into the upper midwest yesterday too from here in the southeast, nothing crazy but enough to grab a few new grids.

Also wanted to mention for anyone who hasnt seen it yet, Icom apparently dropped some info on a new HF rig thats been floating around the forums - havent confirmed the specs myself but people are saying its aimed somewhere between the IC-7300 and IC-7610 price range which would be interesting if true. Take that with a grain of salt til we see something official.

Anyway just curious if others are finding the season good this year compared to last. Feels like 6m has been rewarding me for actually sitting in front of the radio instead of just leaving it on FT8 unattended, had a few SSB contacts mixed in which always feels better to me personally.

yeah 6 meters has been really good here in the mid-Atlantic too, caught an opening Sunday morning that I almost missed because I was half asleep and just happened to check the DX cluster. Worked a couple stations in Texas on phone which is always satisfying, there's something about voice contacts on 6 that feels more real I guess.

On the Icom thing, I saw that thread on QRZ and honestly I've learned not to get too excited until there's an actual press release or someone has one in hand. Remember how long the IC-705 rumors swirled before it actually showed up. That said if it really does slot in below the 7610 pricewise I'd be very curious to see what features they had to trim.

this is actually my first Es season since getting my general last fall so im still kind of learning what to expect. I tried to get on 6m last week after seeing some spots on pskreporter but by the time I had everything set up the opening was over lol. how do you guys know when one is starting before its too late? is there like a good alert system or do you just have to be watching constantly