Phil:

Well, if we hang in there, increased solar activity will come.

We just happen to be at the bottom of the cycle still, and, as far as I can 
remember, the bottom of this cycle has been especially long.

Maybe that will mean the peak will be long too.

Here's hoping!

73 from Tom NBehler:  KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: Band Conditions


It sure sounds like something like a flare but I don't follow the reports
like I used to.  I just tune the bands, check the beacon frequencies, and
can easily tell what's going on with most of the bands that way.  I got my
novice and general about 6 months apart back in 1966.  Early in 1967, I
started getting on 20, 15, and 10 meters.  Man, I worked thousands,
literally, thousands of DX stations that last half of the sixties just
running about 150 watts output with my Drake TR4, wire antennas, and a
little 3 element tri bander at 28 feet on the roof.  In the early eighties,
I had a 4 element 20 meter beam only at 40 feet but in one year, mixing
sideband and CW together on 20 meters, and running 700 watts output with an
old Heathkit Warrior, 4 811A amp, I worked 295 countries just in that one
year on that one band.  Worked 20 meter long path every morning and got
Russians and Europeans giving me literally 50 over S9 reports at times.
That was back in the days you had to work around the wood pecker, too.  Then
in the early nineties, with my 2 element 40 meter beam at 70 feet, and
running 1,000 watts output, I worked stuff on 40 I never knew was possible.
First Russian sideband signal I work during a CQ Worldwide phone contest was
literally 40 over 9.  I actually checked my band switch because I thought I
was on 20 instead by mistake, haw.  These kind of conditions makes the HF
ham dream of more sunspot activity; lots more.

Phil.
[log in to unmask]


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tom behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: Band Conditions


>    Hey, Phil:
>
> That's interesting.  At first, I thought the snow did in my dipole, but my
> swr's are still good.  Wonder if there was a solar flare or something.
>
> The bands really shouldn't be this crappy, given what people have been
> telling me over the last few days.
>
> 73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 4:42 PM
> Subject: Band Conditions
>
>
> Tuned 17 meters mid morning and copied some side band activity, nothing
> strong, and heard a few CW signals including a couple of weak Europeans
> and
> a few stateside signals.  By afternoon, every band I tuned was terribly
> weak.  I normally, no matter how bad the conditions are, hear at least one
> or two S9 signals at the least.  Not today; all day.
>
> Phil.
> [log in to unmask]
>