The sun is currently blank. No sun spots. No flares. Zip. Nada. Nary a rustle of a leaf to be heard.
It’s quiet…too quiet…
I am officially adding the Earth to my dead pool list. The 6 billion points I’m soon to get will make me this year’s defacto winner. 
Amatuer radio operators worldwide are very excited about this because it means that we have finally reached the solar minimum. No where to go from here but up!
The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. The number of points you get is 100 minus the age. So you get about -4.5 billion points.
Well, maybe. They really won’t know we’ve reached the bottom of the cycle for a few months. A recent report I received via email says that the minimum may be July or August. And the prediction could change next week.
I’m really waiting for it to start back up though.
Yeah, I just into ham radio two years ago and everyone keeps telling me how much better it will be as the sun ramps back up. I can’t wait to see what all the fuss is about.
I started in '98, so I had a lot of fun during the downturn. There were times on 10M where the whole band was in use and you’d have to search to find a place to call CQ. There are still openings today, just not too often. And never on the weekends when I can get on the air. :smack:
If I’m in the same room with my rigs, I’ll often turn it on and let it sit on the 20M band and just see how much activity there is. Had some nice QSOs with some folks in the NE US over the weekend. And there was a CE4 (Chile) on 17M with a strong signal.
If you are into chasing DX, N8S (Swain’s Island) will be on until the 15th. They’ve been working CW, SSB and RTTY on all bands, including 10m. I got them on 15m and 17m CW so far.
Time to break out the SPF 500,000 lotion
I get the DX info via email from the ARRL. I’ll look for them this weekend. 
I think they are supposed to move over to Western Samoa (5W5AA) by this weekend, so yeah, be sure to check first.