There's unbelievable bad news circulating the web about the upcoming (or not upcoming) next solar cycle. I first saw it on W2LJ's blog, and since, several others now.
You can read it here: What's down with the Sun? Major drop in solar activity predicted
To say the least, it's depressing!
I got into the hobby at the end of the last solar cycle. I've never experienced really GOOD DX, but I'm very close to my 100th QRP DX contact. I've noticed that last week, the bands just seemed to stop. In short, they've been terrible the last few days. I'm still hearing the occasional "big stations" on 20 meters, but they're too weak for me to work.
You can be sure I'll pull out all the plugs to get my next 10 DX contacts.
My normal operating procedures don't include a computer, but now (with this current "bad news" about the solar cycle) I plan to have a DX Cluster available at a moments notice. I'll have it right beside me with the hopes of increasing my chances for successfully completing my quest.
This new "bad news" is really depressing.
1 comment:
That's depressing news, after an absence of over 20 years from the scene, i was only just putting up a tower and 2 element quad to work 27mhz again and get my HAM license too.
Who knows, maybe they will one day allocate a satellite to help with this, but i suppose that would take the fun out of it.
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