so ive been following the IC-905 stuff for a while now and apparently some dealers are actually starting to get stock in, at least thats what a guy at my local club was saying last weekend. for anyone who doesnt know its the microwave all mode rig that does up through 10GHz with the right modules, which is pretty wild if it actually works as advertised.

been on UHF/SHF a little bit with my old setup but nothing above 1.2GHz really so this would be a big jump. curious if anyone here has actually had hands on one or even just seen one in person. the price point is pretty steep so im not rushing into anything but man the idea of doing 10GHz from a portable setup is tempting. also heard 6m and 2m were doing some nice things last week with the aurora, did anyone work anything good off that?

Yeah my buddy W6something (cant remember his exact call right now) picked one up at a hamfest out in California back in the spring and let me play with it for like 20 minutes. Build quality felt really solid, very Icom, you know how they are. The transverter module setup is interesting but you do need to be careful about which modules you order because not all of them ship together in the base package. He was pretty happy with it on 2.4 and 5.6 GHz but hadnt gotten the 10GHz module sorted out yet when I saw him. Pricey for sure but if you're serious about weak signal VHF/UHF work it seems like the real deal from what I could tell.

Oh and yeah the aurora last week was something else, worked a couple of guys in Scandinavia on 2m which I almost never manage from here, signal was just raspy and distorted the way aurora paths always sound but it was in the log so ill take it.

just got my general last month so most of this is over my head lol but the aurora thing sounds super cool, i didnt even know you could bounce signals off the northern lights. is that something you need special equipment for or can you do it with like a regular 2m radio and a yagi? been thinking about getting more into weak signal stuff but still figuring out what i actually need