The disadvantage of being in the higher part of the sunspot cycle is that we
can have solar flares and coronal mass ejections which punch holes in the
earth's magnetic field.  So conditions tend to be really good or really
poor.  In the lower part of the cycle, at least the last one, skip tended to
be longer, but conditions were very predictable.  

We ran the cross-country blind hams net for about 15 minutes today,
beginning at 2000Z.  I think these were the worst conditions I had
experienced while running this net.  Very few stations were audible on the
band.  K7UC was running his amp into a new Force 12 beam pointed my
direction.  He gave me an S4 reading, and he wasn't very far above my noise
level, either.  Thanks to everyone for attempting to relay for me.
Check-ins were:
W3IUU
W6PR/0
KG4ITD
K7UC
WB9SLM

We'll do this again next Sunday, and conditions have to be a lot better than
they were today!
73,
Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Wheaton, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls