Topband: General Conditions

[Steve London]

EP Swynar wrote:
> Good Day All,
> 
> I thought that the seemingly continuous stretch of poor conditions on the
> band this year were a product of my imagination & impatience...until I took a
> look at my log book for this same time period from a short year ago.
> 
> The difference is like black & white. I had occasions last December &
> November when I would easily work a half dozen, & more, European & South
> American stations nightly, on a regular basis --- this year, I'm lucky if I
> can even HEAR half that number on any given evening!
> 
> I thought things would have dramatically improved on 160 as we approached the
> bottom of the solar cycle...
> 
> Is it just me, or are others of the same opinion re. the shape of things on
> Topband...?
> 

Topband conditions during this sunspot minimum are nothing like they were during 
the 1995-1996 minimum.  However, it's easy to look at the daily solar flux 
numbers and see why... Either we have a way to go before we reach the minimum, 
or this minimum is going to be the most active minimum in many sunspot cycles. 
Let's look at one interesting statistic - the period of time when the solar flux 
was 100 or less.  Looking back to the previous sunspot cycle, the flux was <100 
from March 3, 1994 until November 23, 1996 - 2 1/2 years of low solar flux. So 
far, in this minimum, we were below 100 only from May 1, 2006 until December 5, 
2006.  More evidence - We have had, so far, very few spotless days compared to 
the previous sunspot minimum.

73,
Steve, N2IC