Antenna or Bottom of Sun spot cycle

[millam]

Is my antenna bad or is the sun spots so low nothing long range gets thru?
I haven't had any skip lately and I thought my coax / antenna had problems.
Can't find anything major, short of climbing 40' and ohming everything out.
Bad knees won't let that happen. Ham band software show nothing above
10 meg or so as active so I'm hoping that its not my antenna and sky conditions
will open up soon. I still get all the local (20-30 mile) stations just not any skip.
Can't even get a CB'r and thats bad.

Mil

 

[littona]

A lot depends on the time of day as well as sunspot activity. Here's a good reference: https://solar.w5mmw.net/
These predictions aren't always 100%, but they give you a general idea. Typically 15MHz and up sometimes opens up during the day, but tends to fade out by the evening. The 40m and 80m bands are generally pretty reliable at night, but I usually get a lot of noise there at night too.

 

[millam]

Forgot to mention that I am mainly concerned with vhf-uhf but I will venture into hf once in a while
to listen. Have not had my active loop connected for a while might be the time to try it out and see if it
works on WWV.

Mil

 

[popnokick]

Nothing wrong with the HF bands... this past weekend was the ARRL RTTY Roundup and the bands (except 10M and 6M) were filled with activity. I had 93 QSOs and another of our club members had more than 400 contacts.... the majority of which were on 20M (14 mHz) and 15M (21 mHz). We worked stations all over the Americas and globally.

 

[millam]

Nothing wrong with the HF bands... this past weekend was the ARRL RTTY Roundup and the bands (except 10M and 6M) were filled with activity. I had 93 QSOs and another of our club members had more than 400 contacts.... the majority of which were on 20M (14 mHz) and 15M (21 mHz). We worked stations all over the Americas and globally.

Finally got my loop antenna connected and figured out how to use it. 10 meters was dead, 11 (cb) only had 1 station that I heard. 20, 40 & 80
was busy. Heard WWV on 20 mhz. So my scanner antenna is hearing nothing (above 25 mhz) just like my hf loop. Just gotta wait for the Sun to start boiling again I guess.

Mil

 

[R0am3r]

The sun has been cooperating quite well and cycle 25 is starting to shine. I have worked stations in Europe and Africa on both 10 and 12 meters in the last month. The solar flux index was 140 back in December and has dropped back down to the low 100s. If the band sounds dead, call CQ to see who comes back to you.

 

[millam]

Yea above 20 megs was dead today. I am a listener never had a license. Enjoy the hunt for a station
I have never heard before. I guess we are in year 2 or so of cycle 25. Just listened to 80 and 40 meters,
going strong still at 6 pm cst. Gotta google MSK144 and see what that is.

Mil

 

[wwhitby]

FWIW, I've had a lot of luck working 10M on Sunday afternoons. I've made quite a few contacts on FT-8 with stations in Central and South America. I got one contact with a ham in the Falklands on 17M. So you can work some DX, but it comes and goes.

There have been a lot of times where any band over 30M has been dead.