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Comment by jedimastert | Hacker News Reader

I just this last year took my technician (american) ham radio test, but I'm having a hard time remembering my propagation rules (there wasn't a heavy emphasis because it doesn't really affect the 2m and 70cm bands that I'm actually allowed to use). I recall that the solar cycle coming around means better propagation, but I can't remember which bands and how much. Can someone help me out?

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Top Google hit, apparently from 1996 http://www.arrl.org/here-comes-the-sun

Some other sites http://www.solarham.net/index.htm https://hamradioschool.com/sunspots-and-propagation/

TLDR: Since we're at the minimum now, if you want to chase DX, stick to the 30, 40, 80, and 160 meter bands at night. You might get something on 15, 17, or 20 meters. It will be a few years before the higher bands open up again.

There's a nice chart of when you can get DX in each band in this article:

https://www.eham.net/newham/bands

Thanks for link, very informative

It should help the higher HF bands the most, as I understand it. 20m, 17m, 15m, 10m. I've been doing SSTV on 20m because you can just fire up the decoder program and occasionally check to see what's come in. I frequently get signals from California, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, and the Northeast, plus the occasional message out of Canada.

I don't hear a lot of voice on 20m, but digital and CW are reasonably active. I can pick up CW most times of the day, and FT8 is always hopping at 14074 khz.

"Bad propagation" is a real thing, but it's also a feedback loop. Everyone knows the bands suck during solar minimum, so fewer people call CQ. Fewer people calling CQ = fewer people hearing the calls and answering = less activity on the bands = people continue to assume propagation is just impossible.

I think a lot of the decline in calling CQ is that SSB is murdering itself. This is happening due to the poor propagation and general disinterest in trying to blast through people with huge PA's and beams as a novice/foundation user. The investment required to go hunting DX is quite high. CW, FT8, JS8call are on the scene and have a lot better performance, require less bandwidth and considerably less power. Much more practical.

I mostly run CW with a bit of FT8 occasionally. That keeps me smiling and that's all that matters :)

I really need to work up the courage and try a CW QSO soon. I might have to do it at 5 wpm but I've got all the letters and numbers down.

I encourage everyone to give SSTV a shot. My antenna is just a "hamstick dipole" and it's maybe 13 feet in the air, but like I said I've had successful 20m contacts as far away as Quebec.

If you call CQ at that speed you’ll get someone answer at that speed. Just go for it. First one I did I actually had a couple of drinks first :)

I’ve been meaning to try one of the ISS SSTV events on 2m but haven’t got around to it yet. Looks like fun

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