so i've been keeping an eye on the icom ic-7760 situation and it looks like some dealers in japan have actually started getting stock, saw a couple posts on eham and a japanese ham radio blog that someone translated. not sure when it hits US distributors but feels like its getting closer. the remote head design still has me curious, would be nice to have the radio body tucked away and just the head on the desk.

also completely unrelated but 10 meters has been absolutely wild this past week, worked south america on 28.4 SSB with maybe 50 watts and a dipole that is not even close to resonant up there. conditions have been nuts lately and if you havent been checking the DX clusters you're missing out. solar flux has been sitting up pretty high and the k-index has been cooperating for once.

anyone else been on 10 or 12 lately? feels like we're at a good spot in the cycle right now and i feel like a lot of newer hams have never actually experienced a real solar maximum before so this is kind of a cool time to be getting into HF.

yeah the 7760 has been one of those things where icom keeps teasing it and then nothing happens for months lol. i pre-ordered through my local dealer back when it was first announced and he keeps telling me "soon" which means nothing at this point. the remote head thing is genuinely cool though, i have a really cramped shack and being able to separate the guts from the controls would help a lot. hoping the US price isnt too painful when it finally lands here.

and yes 10 meters, oh man. i worked a ZL last tuesday on 10 with my little end fed and like 30 watts. my kid was in the room and i think i accidentally got him interested in ham radio trying to explain why new zealand was coming in like they were across town. so theres that i guess.

I just got my general about three months ago and honestly had no idea 10 meters could do that. I've mostly been hanging around 40 and 20 because thats what everyone told me to start on but maybe i need to start poking around up there. does the band just kind of open and close randomly or is there a good way to know when its worth trying? i've been using pskreporter a little bit but im not totally sure im reading it right yet.