Saturday, December 17, 2016

propagation sucks


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I've been a amateur radio operator going on nearly fifty years and have never seen/heard such poor propagation. So much fading (QSB) as now. Several times today I have had Europe call me, but then fade out to nothing. The rule of thumb is to use the highest band that is open but this is not working. 28, 21, 24, 10 megahertz are almost useless with the QSB. 14 megahertz provided some Europe and South American contacts but 7 and 5 had very weak signals, but may pick up with darkness falling. We are at the bottom of the sun's solar cycle I hope I live 5 or 6 years to see the upward turn. ..... Jack WB9OTX