I can only speak for myself and the areas in which I have travelled and worked HF (2 & 7-lands, VO2), but HF activity for me has been high for the past year, the diminished propagation due to the bottoming out of Cycle 23 notwithstanding. In the past couple weeks or so, where I'm at right now in upstate NY (teaching Radio MB at a Scout Camp), I haven't been able to hear much of anything on any bands due to propagation (or the lack thereof); haven't been able to hear any HF broadcast stations either. However, at the moment (2205Z), I can hear a few stations on 20m and can hear WWV on 15 mhz for the first time in a couple weeks. Makes it tough to teach Radio MB and, hopefully, induce a couple kids into ham radio.
At 15:11 -0500 23/07/2005, Bill Jackson wrote: >Is it just me, or has their been a significant drop in the amount of "on the >air" activity on HF over the past year or so? I realize conditions have not >been the best lately, but having been a ham through several sunspot cycles, >I must say that I have never heard all of the bands lacking signals, both >foreign and domestic, as they appear to be lacking now. > >This morning, VR2IG was on 20m calling CQ with an S9 signal. I spotted him >on the cluster, but no one else called him, even after he was spotted. Now, >I realize that VR2 is not all that rare for a seasoned dx'er, but I remember >in years past when a JA could generate a pileup! He finally gave up and >went QRT without another stateside station giving him a call. > -- 73 de Fred K2FRD, VO2FS http://homepage.mac.com/k2frd/K2FRD.html Free Subscription To OCARG EAGLE, a newsletter for ham radio Scouters http://homepage.mac.com/k2frd/ocarg.htm for info. Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [email protected] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
