Are The Few New Sunspots Making a Difference?

[spongella]

Since the few new sunspots appeared recently it seems the ham bands have been more active. Every day last week I heard DX coming in from Europe in the mornings, Seems much improved over the last week. Anyone else notice the improvement? Very happy with the new situation. Modest station here, Tempo One and ground mounted vertical. Tnx.

 

[KE0GXN]

If that’s the case, I may give a go this weekend and see how the bands shake out. I have been waiting on the next “contest” prop to come in.

 

[charlieprimero]

We are currently at Solar Minimum.

You might enjoy Ben Davidson's daily reports on sun activity and the latest science news published each morning here...

Suspicious0bservers

www.youtube.com

Big things are coming from our star soon.

 

[JerryX]

Solar flux is still hovering in the high 60s, so the tiny sunspots that have appeared recently aren't helping much, if at all.

It's encouraging, however, that some of the recent sunspots have been from Cycle-25 (the next cycle), and this may be an indication of an early rise of the new cycle.

 

[Golay]

There's a group of guys and a gal talk and monitor 10 meters local ragchew in my area. Every day or so, the barn door swings open, and they work all over the world. Some great DX opportunities from what they say.

 

[JerryX]

There's a group of guys and a gal talk and monitor 10 meters local ragchew in my area. Every day or so, the barn door swings open, and they work all over the world. Some great DX opportunities from what they say.

I find that hard to believe. The solar flux levels recently have been nowhere near high enough to support F2 propagation on 10 meters. Sporadic-E propagation on 10 meters happens on a fairly regular basis each winter and spring, but it rarely results in "world wide" propagation. Multi-hop Es propagation is possible, resulting in longer distances, but it's fairly rare and doesn't occur "every day or so".

 

[prcguy]

For the last several days 40m has been hopping at lunch time, something I've not seen in quite awhile. Its been fairly consistent over the last few days and most people on our local So Cal nets can hear each other and don't have to use a remote SDR.

 

[K6GBW]

I'm in SoCal and it's been a hit or miss (mostly miss) affair. Once in awhile I'll get a nice signal from out of state, but most days its a struggle. Please sun Gods, show us some mercy!

 

[alcahuete]

Here in SoCal as well. I've never had any issues with the propagation. I've worked around 100 countries in the past year. Sure, things aren't like they were during the peaks where you could talk around the world any day using 10w, but in that case, you just need to put up a better antenna, possibly an amp, and get working the DX.

Any difference? Eh, yeah, things have been noticeably better on 20m, 30m, and 40m, but only marginally so.

 

[K6GBW]

I'm sure your set up beats mine. For various reasons I have a rather low mounted EFHW antenna and I just don't have the option for something better. When propagation is good it works well enough. Right now it's been tough. I'm on the Earlybird Net in the mornings and even hearing Sparks NV from L.A. is hard until around 0815. Let hope that by July we are well on our way to an upswing!

 

[alcahuete]

If you're not getting out of state though, or barely getting Nevada, there almost has to be something wrong. You should at least be getting continental US on something like that, I would think. I was using an Alpha FMJ much of the year, because my tower was out of commission for maintenance, and a ton of the contacts I made were on that thing...basically a 13' compromise antenna 6' above the ground on a tripod. Worked the world on that thing with 100w. An EFHW should have no problem with the US, and very easily working Asia and such from out here.