If you look at the trends, we are definitely on the slide down from the last solar peak. Solar flux has regularly been in the 80s of late. Sunspot numbers are much lower than last year. It will be interesting to see how propagation is on 10m this autumn compared with last autumn.
It is quite likely we will see years and years of poor solar conditions as the forecast for the next peak is not good. This will mean the lower bands will become more important. It is a pity that man-made noise is so much worse these days on the lower HF bands in particular. This is a problem in urban areas especially. Luckily Es does not seem to be affected by solar conditions.
See http://www.solen.info/solar/ .
The noise levels on the LF bands are unacceptable, and the only way around this is to use ferrite rods and loop Antenas.
ReplyDeleteThere are some very good articles on this subject by G3BDQ.
Tony