Contrary to the near bottom of the solar cycle...HF is not actually muerto...

[wowologist]

Albeit this was a contest weekend..This (screenshot attached) is thru a Hustler 6BTV @ about 35' on an SDRplay RSP1A - My farthest contact was Florida keys on 20w with a G90.

 

[KB4MSZ]

40 has been a traffic jam here since yesterday. Here is the phone portion.

 

[wowologist]

Yeop pretty packed; I like your signal, very clean...I'm on the side of a metro area ..with a vertical LOL ~

For those interested here is the info from ARRL ( Sweepstakes ) with the breakdown of the station coding exchanges that you will be hearing.

 

[N4GIX]

With some help from N9CA (Tim) I got my G5RV-Junior dipole back up to 42' just in time for the SS yesterday and today!

One of my halyards broke (rotted out) and dropped the far end down to the ground. I had temporarily spliced the broken ends together and managed to get it up about 5' and off the ground and was planning to use it as a 'sloper' but fortunately the weather cooperated yesterday morning and Tim volunteered to help me out. We replaced both halyards and guy lines while were at it so hopefully it will be trouble-free for the next few years.

So far I've racked up 368 completed contacts... fun!

 

[wowologist]

With some help from N9CA (Tim) I got my G5RV-Junior dipole back up to 42' just in time for the SS yesterday and today!

One of my halyards broke (rotted out) and dropped the far end down to the ground. I had temporarily spliced the broken ends together and managed to get it up about 5' and off the ground and was planning to use it as a 'sloper' but fortunately the weather cooperated yesterday morning and Tim volunteered to help me out. We replaced both halyards and guy lines while were at it so hopefully it will be trouble-free for the next few years.

So far I've racked up 368 completed contacts... fun!

NOOICE!! Ya long time ago I made the mistake of getting an MFJ G5RV - didn't even last 3 years - literally shredded and the contacts on the board were tin plated instead of stainless so every nick rusted out and the twin lead just turned to dust at every twist point it seemed. Was a good aerial while it lasted though!

 

[N4GIX]

NOOICE!! Ya long time ago I made the mistake of getting an MFJ G5RV - didn't even last 3 years - literally shredded and the contacts on the board were tin plated instead of stainless so every nick rusted out and the twin lead just turned to dust at every twist point it seemed. Was a good aerial while it lasted though!

I learned long ago not to buy much of anything from MFJ. The G5RV-Junior I bought is a 52' version that will tune 40m through 6m and fits my available space nicely. There are no bare wires anywhere as the antenna itself is enclosed in UV resistant PVC (?) and all connections are sealed with glue-lined heatshrink and silicon. I have a full-sized G5RV that I use on field days and POTA activations.

My problem was using cheap paracord for my halyards instead of Mil-Spec paracord. The cheap paracord simply rotted out and just ripped apart. The halyards run though a pulley at the top of the fiberglass masts and are secured using dock cleats down near the ground. This makes lowering the antenna down for inspection and maintenance a snap!

 

[ka3jjz]

No one had ever said that HF propagation was muerto (dead) - very poor, yes, but not dead - at least not yet.

There is very wide disagreement - showing how poorly we really understand our parent star - about how strong Cycle 25 (the one we are currently in) may actually be. Some say it will only be a bit better than Cycle 24, but this article seems to suggest one even stronger than Cycle 23...

Sunspot Cycle 25 could be among the strongest ever | Amateur Radio News

The ARRL reports a research paper has concluded that Solar Cycle 25 will stronger than the just-ended Solar Cycle 24 and likely stronger than Solar Cycle 23

www.southgatearc.org

Mike

 

[wowologist]

No one had ever said that HF propagation was muerto (dead) - very poor, yes, but not dead - at least not yet.

There is very wide disagreement - showing how poorly we really understand our parent star - about how strong Cycle 25 (the one we are currently in) may actually be. Some say it will only be a bit better than Cycle 24, but this article seems to suggest one even stronger than Cycle 23...

Sunspot Cycle 25 could be among the strongest ever | Amateur Radio News

The ARRL reports a research paper has concluded that Solar Cycle 25 will stronger than the just-ended Solar Cycle 24 and likely stronger than Solar Cycle 23

www.southgatearc.org

Mike

Ya cycle 25 top is 11~ years from now~ish since we are at the literal bottom of the 24>25 cycle.

 

[mbott]

It's been interesting following the solar flux numbers the last couple of days. As I type, it 104. That's nosebleed territory as compared the the last several years.

--
Mike

 

[jwt873]

Ya cycle 25 top is 11~ years from now~ish since we are at the literal bottom of the 24>25 cycle.

Actually it's 5.5 years.. A whole cycle is 11 years (on average). It starts at a minimum, reaches a peak, and then ends at a minimum. So we should reach the peak of this cycle around 2025-2026 and then get back down to the bottom around 2030-2031. That low will herald the beginning of cycle 26.

 

[air-scan]

Actually solar cycles vary between 9 and 13 years. Right now in my daily observations using JHelioviewer (windows or linux based software) I just noticed there is a somewhat of a glowing ring* around the south polar coronal hole. That's direct evidence of a strengthening south polarity field which is why we see the sun's entire static south hemisphere having bright regions with sunspots all the way around the sun. It's equatorial magnetic field is curving deeper. Magnetic fields do not mind at all being stretched but they don't like being bent. This is also contributing to the presence of active regions with sunspots.

*Noticeable glowing ring of filament and plage surrounding the south Polar Coronal Hole (PCH)

I wouldn't be dismissive of a stronger SC25 than thought. The sun has mysteries still not revealed. Plenty of missing pieces to the puzzle. I see the sun's active region's loops being well organized looking at SDO's AIA171 and AIA211 filters with a stronger than predicted 10.7cm radio flux output. It was predicted to be 80-ish SFU but we seen it spike to 110 sfu. A week or so ago the sun was outputting 77 then peaked 96 went back down to 80 then peaked at 110 then down to 106 yesterday now this morning rebounding to 107 sfu.

We have to be very open minded when it comes to solar cycles. Very open minded. No biases because of the missing pieces of the puzzle science still has to understand and those mysteries lies in the region or layers that anything man made cannot get to because of the intense heat. That doesn't mean "I think" or "this scientist said" or "this article I trust says" about the sun is gospel. It is disgusting how media totally misrepresents science in general. Also consensus isn't true science. Big mistake a group of scientist that can't explain something they don't have complete answers to casting a vote then saying it's so is so very wrong. Yes I am referring to the solar cycle prediction panel.

Just my two cents.

 

[wowologist]

As the OP, I enjoyed the vast responses, some very, very detailed and thank you all for them. Not to downplay any of them, my main post was meant primarily for amateurs that say "meh HF is dead" because they either don't CQ, don't follow band openings or they immediately think that because they CQ'd ONCE OR TWICE and no one came back to them...that HF is dead.

This was a moderate contest weekend and the bands were literally packed 24/7! So when you CQ...have some patience...if I can carry 20w ~2600 miles without turning the amp on...so can YOU!

 

[KB4MSZ]

amateurs that say "meh HF is dead" because they either don't CQ, don't follow band openings or they immediately think that because they CQ'd ONCE OR TWICE and no one came back to them...that HF is dead.

You got that shot right. Take a look at "dead" 15 meters.

 

[wowologist]

You got that shot right. Take a look at "dead" 15 meters.
View attachment 94670

Amazing what you can fit into 450Khz eh...some people are going...Hmm what shift/offset do you use? What tone do you use for the repeater

GG man you have outstanding signal reception..which RSP are you using?

 

[KB4MSZ]

It's the RSPdx unit. Currently the only antenna I have is a 40 meter dipole installed broadside east and west, about 10' up. I think the low height might actually be helping me noise wise.

 

[wowologist]

Oh thats a noice one - that rec (paired with a decent CPU/computer) is up ther with Yaesu front ends...its very nice. My neighbor has one on a steel curtain antenna he's had up since he came back from WW2 and brought it with him, although being a radio engineer and 99 he never got his ticket, says he "enjoy's listening from a distance".

 

[danesgs]

Back in late late spring, perhaps May or so we had a massive 10 day opening on the upper bands with loads of signals on 10 and below. Looking at the logs over the past 3 years this was like a Dam breaking. If any indication of cycle 25, it may be the best cycle since the 70's. Nature works in mysterious ways.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Haven't heard this in awhile, WWV at 25 MHz. I guess upper HF is indeed alive as the Op stated.

 

[KB4MSZ]

And on the low end of the spectrum, here is WWVB at 7:20 pm.

 

[wowologist]

And on the low end of the spectrum, here is WWVB at 7:20 pm.
View attachment 94848

OMG yur killin me with those awesome waterfalls...are you using totally software(SDR) filtering, or do you have hardware + LNA ?
As you can see mine above ~ not only metropolitan interference, but I'm center triangle of 3 major radar sites...one you can see on the left you can literally see the pulse lines on!