Band Conditions in this Solar Cycle

[KD9TGU]

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but as a new ham (licensed in August of 2021) I have not been thru a full solar cycle.

Is it normal at this point in the cycle to have this many CMEs? 

20 meters on Sunday afternoon was pretty noisy and a lot of fading.

Anyone else notice this?

Or is time to take on the HOA and install a tower?

 

73

Bob KD9TGU

[K3MRI]

In a quiet cycle, CME tend to be weaker and rarer. Cycle 25 was supposed to be a weak one. Now, some have it being the biggest cycle since my birth year (highly classified year 😇 There are many articles on the new predictions for C25, here's one: https://ktar.com/story/4991047/hot-stuff-solar-cycle-no-25-increasing-with-flares-and-coronal-mass-ejections/ - there are others. At hamvention, there was an astrophysicist making the rounds saying that all the previous cycle 25 predictions were way off and that we should expect lots of instability.

So to answer your question, the early part of C24 was, from memory, far quieter than this point in C25. But hey, when the bands 'are' open these days, they're wide open. I spoke to Qatar and Malta, from my Jeep, with my Yaesu 891, while driving back from North Carolina last month!!!

[NI0F]

I have been through 2 cycles prior to this one.  I started in 1989 and that cycle was stupendous.  Most upper bands were open 24/7.  I worked a Russian station one night with my Heathkit SB-104 using 1 watt SSB.  My Mosley Classic tri-bander was only about 25 feet off the ground.  I didn't have much experience with the next cycle around 2000, I was less active during that one.  But it seems to me that this cycle just isn't generating propagation that the numbers infer.  Yes, when there are openings they have been pretty spectacular.  It seems also that there generally isn't as much activity.  Lately during some contests, 15 and 10 have been saturated with signals which shows they are open.  Prior or after the contest the band seems dead.  Classic conundrum.  I think the sun is just angrier this time so we will have wildly varying conditions which will make it more fun!

[K3MRI]

Angry sun! That phrase will stick with me; I like it 🤤