[CQ-Contest] need thoughts on how to cope with era of no sunspots

[Charles Harpole]

The current sign of stretches of no sunspots are a significant challenge to
ham radio and to multi-band contesting particularly.  Maybe we hams will
have to just put up with the prospect of absent propagation on 20m and up,
but it is said possible that the 'good old days' of great propagation are
over for most current hams' lifetimes.

It seems time to formulate real plans for possible bad condx.  Personally,
I do not know how to cope, but believe we need a hobby-wide discussion
about what to do.  Maybe there is some technology to help or very wide
spread use of remote stations (even crediting contest credit for contacts
originating from several, wide-spread operating locations?).   Receiving
'below the noise' may be a solution?  HAARP to heat up 10m?   Semaphore?

Lets get real and have a planned discussion with concrete "thoughts out of
the box" to face really bad times !
73
Charly, HS0ZCW