I agree - SFI 73 again today. Not worth the time. I have a 5-element 10 meter Yagi in the garage waiting for the peak - 2025?
We'll see. I say, welcome to the Meander Minimum, where it just varies within a small range on the low end for the entire cycle.
Solar Cycle 25 heating up faster than expected So, What Solar system are you in???? It is not here on Earth 73 K0UO Rhombic Antenna Farm is located at the Kansas QTH with over Two miles of Wire in the Air & On the Air, “The RF Gotta-Go-Somewhere"!
This article is a JINX. Everything looked to be on the upward swing until "heating up faster than expected" made its public appearance.
Just worked S51DX from my “back porch radio” setup. A nice 30 year old ICOM IC-751A that I just fixed into a 135 foot inverted vee, 40 feet apex at 2250z on 20M CW from Fort Collins, CO. Just an example of what can be had with a modest station in the meantime while we all ponder what Cycle 25 is gonna do. Be proud of accomplishments, use BRAIN decode modes! 73, Dan W7RF
S51DX has a lot of metal in the sky. I've heard them a few times on 20m SSB with a piece of wire from the PNW. However stations that hand out signal reports one after the other don't interest me so much. I prefer a 20 to 30 minute or longer QSOs
Did you know that sunspots occur in pairs (north & south magnetic poles)? 73, Jim EARTH: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
I'm gonna call 25 right now: It's going to be bigger and better than predicted, but by how much nobody knows. The article in Solar Physics that predicted SSN higher than 180....yeah, I could buy that. But it's not going to be a mega-cycle. I definitely don't think it's going to be, as the initial predictions stated, about like cycle 24. For one thing, just look at all the past cycles: It almost never happens that the (peak smoothed) SSN declines 3 cycles in a row. Two, yes, but then there's usually an uptick. I think we're going to see an uptick. We're barely out of solar minimum and you can see this: https://www.solarham.net/pictures/2021/aug28_2021_int.jpg Disclaimer: I am not a solar physicist, and am talking out my rear-end. But, that said, if anyone knows a bookie in Vegas who will take bets on the maximum SSN for Cycle 25, I'd put down 50 bucks it will outstrip 24 significantly. Maybe even 100.
I agree 100%. I don't worry about the solar flux. I just get on. During a minimum I can work the world. You just have to adapt to the conditions. Life is too short to wait for the flux.
