skip poor conditions

hi to all is it me or has the skip been very poor like eu stuff normally on mids is banging plus my lack of 108,29,68 division is not what i thought it would be like for july i know its hard to predict conditions but this seems more like the bottom of the cycle than the top end 
!

Unfortunately Mark the Sun does both giveth and taketh away.

With multiple coronal mass ejections and high sunspot activity we often find the bands wiped out completely with noise or devoid of any activity whatsoever.....but there are moments during lulls where it comes back to what we expect.

Even the so called 'easy' modes such as FT8 on the Ham bands suffer abysmally and recently I faced a 'dead' band on 12m but then suddenly China came booming through and I bagged a contact before they disappeared once again. 

Sometimes it's just all about waiting for the fish to bite or Mother Nature lifting that skirt and flash us a bit of ankle now and then.



All the best,
Victor

Thanks Victor for the reply ,i think by memory im looking back on some previous 70's and 80's cycles like we do reminisce of better days   cheers Mark 

I know what you mean Mark, solar cycle 21 in the late 70's early 80's was a brilliant spell for CB activity as well as radio activity overall and from what I hear from my older Ham brethren cycle 19 in the 50's to 60's was good too.

Wouldn't mind but I was hoping for more from this cycle and not too sure whether I'll make the next one!


Here's hoping the Radio Gods smile upon us and at least gives us a few good DX spells.  



73

As Victor has suggested it has been a rather unfortunate cycle thus far. Seemingly super active spots throwing out some of the wrong types of emissions.

I will throw this out there as well, in the UK at least a lot of people who may well have been on 11m may have moved to hams bands since getting their ham licence. Either digital or SSB with the increased power allowance. There may be a few less UK voices on 11m this cycle, though many will pop to 11m to see what happens. I have not been on 11m for quite a long while, at least not with serious DX intent.

Once you have done the slightly rarer ones on 11m the ham bands are where people go to get even more unusual countries.

Though that would not quite explain the lack of European contacts. Many of the close by Europeans will be coming in on Sporadic E and at best that is much more difficult to predict at any time than F2 layer charges. Although F2 layer has not been exactly easy to predict work these days either especially on 10m.

Just a bit of bad luck with what happens on the sun. We are all in the same boat.

Check as often as you can and see what pops up. Shame though as people are eager to fill their boots with contacts.

Just hold in your minds eye those amazing days where you key up and more stations that you can work at one time come back. Put in the time and I am sure it will happen this cycle.

Same could be said for cycle 21 as apart from the 'Covid Ham' expansion in more recent years the 1980's was the last explosion of newly licenced Amateur operators. Was still good for 11m activity though with a lot of UK operators.

There doesn't however seem to be the staying power anymore with the radio interest as can be seen on this very forum. Loads of operators start up, obtain call signs, full of enthusiasm and then when they don't get the DX contacts they believed were possible let it all fizzle out and sell up. (Some leave disappointed that they didn't gain local contacts either.)

Unfortunately as you mention there 'FreqFreak' (my apologies but you haven't given your name in your profile or on the forum) they will never experience that miraculous day when you generate a pile-up of your very own and are left ecstatic with the whole experience.


We're in the doldrums with this cycle so far but there has been good snippets of activity inbetween so well worth anyone turning on that radio as often as they can. No point just listening either, if everyone else does the same the bands would be dead....give a shout out with a CQ and see what you get.

Very dead here on North Finland for Eu Dxing, but 27.385, usb, Germany repeater coming over to me, but local Usb been a few good long range contacts

Hiya Glenn mate, I hope you are keeping well.  


Yeah, been a bit rubbish again here today and yet once more I check the West of the UK webSDR's and they have more signals than here in the East.

If it wasn't for FT8 and the Ham bands I'd be bored stiff!

Hi to all.
This evening, I came across a very interesting call sign... 26CT000
We had a short conversation.
On Clusterdix, I found the following info:
Charlie Tango Club station 2024 on air
From the heart of Yorkshire
We Welcome calls from all operators

Locator: IO94TB.
Does anyone know what this is about? 
I don't remember anything similar being announced on the forum...