so i know weve talked about solar cycle 25 being promising but i have to say the last few weeks on 10 meters have been pretty wild. worked a handful of south american stations last tuesday afternoon with maybe 50 watts and a dipole that honestly isnt even cut right for that band. just kind of threw it up there last fall and never got around to trimming it.

also saw that icom is supposedly dropping something new in the mid-range HF lineup before the end of the year, cant remember where i read that, might have been on one of the dx bulletin boards or maybe the arrl site. anyone know more about that? im not in the market right now but its always fun to see what theyre doing.

also for anyone who hasnt registered yet, the arrl november sweepstakes is coming up fast. first weekend of november for phone i think, CW is the weekend before. worth getting on even if you just hand out a few contacts, the activity level is great for hearing how the bands are behaving.

yeah 10m has been really something this fall. I had a similar experience a few weeks ago, was just spinning the dial kind of halfheartedly and stumbled into a big european opening around 28.400 that lasted most of the afternoon. logged like 15 countries in a couple hours which honestly is more than i managed all of last year on that band. the dipole thing is real too, i think people overthink antenna perfection when conditions are this good. the ionosphere is doing a lot of the heavy lifting right now.

on the icom thing i think youre thinking of some speculation posts on eham or maybe qrz, i havent seen any official announcement yet. could just be rumor at this point but the timing would make sense with tokyo hamfair stuff getting recycled into western markets. worth watching i guess.

oh man sweepstakes is my favorite contest of the year, way more relaxed vibe than some of the big DX contests and you actually get to have little conversations with people sometimes which i like. im still a pretty new tech so i just got my general last spring and this will be my first november sweeps on HF. little nervous about the exchange format but ive been practicing. does anyone do any kind of prep or is it fine to just jump in and figure it out as you go