so ive been lurking on a few different sites this week and theres been a lot going on. figured id post something here since not everyone follows all the same feeds i do.

first thing -- Icom apparently announced something at a trade show overseas, looks like a new HF portable rig in the IC-705 family but i havent seen full specs yet. might be rumors still, take it with a grain of salt. but the photos floating around look pretty legit and a few people on other forums who were there in person seem to confirm something is coming. probably wont be cheap but the 705 has been so popular i can see why theyd want to expand that line.

also 10 meters has been absolutely wild the last few days if you havent been on. we're climbing toward solar max and propagation has been doing crazy things. heard stations from south america coming in at like S9 yesterday on 28.400 area just casually, wasnt even trying to work DX. if you have a decent antenna its worth just spinning around up there and seeing whats popping.

and for anyone into POTA or SOTA -- theres apparently a special event coming up next month tied to national parks week, parks on the air usually does something for that. worth checking their website if you do that kind of operating.

anyway just thought id share, post anything else youve seen or heard lately. feels like a good time to be in the hobby right now

yeah i saw that thing about the new Icom too, someone posted a blurry photo on one of the facebook groups and people were going nuts over it. hard to tell much from the pic honestly but it did look like a slightly bigger chassis than the 705. my guess is they bumped the power output, maybe 10 watts instead of 5? that would make a lot of people happy for portable ops. the 705 is great but you do feel that 5 watt ceiling sometimes especially on 40 when conditions arent cooperating.

and yes 10m has been fantastic. worked 22 countries on 10 last weekend just messing around, wasnt even doing a contest. solar cycle 25 has really delivered so far and were probably not at the peak yet so theres more to come. if anyone hasnt dusted off their 10m antenna now is the time, seriously.

oh wow i didnt know about the POTA national parks thing, im pretty new to all that -- only activated two parks so far but i really love it. do you have a link or do i just check the parks on the air dot com website? also what frequencies do people usually hang around for that kind of event, is it just whatever or are there suggested spots. sorry for all the questions just trying to figure it all out still