Topband: Sunspots increase gud/bad for 160m?

[Greg - ZL3IX]

Hi Sam,

IMO, the honest answer is that we don't really know.  I don't have as 
much experience on TB as some of the OT's, but in my 12 years of 
activity I have tried to find a correlation between space weather and 
propagation, with remarkably little success.

For example, on Sunday evening ZL time condx were excellent.  LP Signals 
from G were good, and I worked my first LA's via LP.  On Monday morning 
things were still humming, and I put 15 Eu stations in the log around 
SR.  Those contacts were all in excess of 18 000km.

Last night the solar flux and K index were exactly the same as the 
previous day, but prop was completely different.  Tom G3OLB and I 
managed a scratchy QSO, but that was it.  Same at SR just now.  I could 
JUST hear IV3PRK and PA3FQA, but not with enough signal for a QSO.  Go 
figure!

There is one situation that seems to bring good condx fairly 
consistently, and that is when the A index is on a steep rise.

That's what I have observed operating from both ZS and ZL.  There really 
is no reliable pattern.

73 Greg, ZL3IX

Sam Morgan wrote:
> Is the increase in sunspot activity god or bad for 160m. It seems conditions on 
> 160m are best in winter and when we are at a sunspot cycle low? So are these 
> recent increases indicators that 160m propagation will be in decline?
>
> When answering, please include what it means, not only for those capable of 
> working all this wonderful Pacific and over the pole DX I keep reading about,
>
> but also, what it means to those of us, that dx simply means making in across 
> the country or just as far as Alaska or Hawaii, with low power and minimal antennas.
>
> TIA
>