Noticed lately that 15 and 17 are open more to West
coast and to Europe. Wish more activators would try
those bands. Noticed Amy/AG7GP used it this week for
the CQP and made a lot of contacts on 15 meters across
a wider spectrum. GL to all in the chases.
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It was good a few days ago and I had 15m CW QSOs into Russia and Turkey from the UK (not SOTA) with 10W but 15m was completely dead today to me and 17m not much better.
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John, here (East Coast) it has been wide open lately.
Hopefully when the cycle moves along it will open up
in the higher latitudes too.
73/JohnPaul // AB4PP
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I’ve been trying 17m CW on most of my activations here in Colorado now. I’ve worked Europe several times with relatively decent signals. I’ve also tried 15m but haven’t had any luck with that band.
73, Brad
WA6MM
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Hi John Paul
i can only agree with your proposal. I also wish US activator and chaser would use 17 or 15 m more often. It has worked for me lately.
73 s de Bruno HB9CBR/P
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Hi JohnPaul
Thanks for our recent qso on 17m from EI/IS-044. I’ve been trying to break out of the straitjacket of my 40-30-20 trapped EF and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
73, John EI3KA
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I always try 17m…generally with good luck. Almost always get F4WBN there and/or on 20m. He booms in here like a local. I also usually try 15m when time permits but usually only a couple stateside contacts. I always try 10m too. I find it open here in the states occasionally. In the last activation I was spotted on RBN by CX6VM in Uruguay on 10m but it still produced no QSO. I will keep trying always. You never know if you don’t try.
Tim - K5DEZ
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Sad to say, no cw or ssb signals on 15, only digital
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I have recently chased George KX0R on 20m and 15m and his signals were better on 15m than on 20m.
Some other USA activators were also chased on 15m with good signals. I was even chased by N1ZF on 15m during one of my recent activations.
I have also a couple of USA activators on 17m with my very limited broadband folded dipole, which is extremely deaf compared to my 10-15-20m yagi.
Regarding 10m, I’ve been looking for some of the recently spotted USA activators but never managed to hear them.
Unfortunately I can’t tune my SOTA wire antenna on 17m, so I can’t activate on that band right now, but 15m definitely worths a try.
73,
Guru
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You crazy people who live nearer the equator than us in the far Northern wastes! 
I’ve listened on 17m every activation, some activity but it still sounds quiet, we need the Sun to get a bit more active yet.
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We have lots of troubles to hear Central Europe on the lower bands and this gets compensated with better conditions for dx on the higher bands. We can never have it all…
73,
Guru
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I agree that 15 and 17 are getting better but not quite good enough
for west coast for SOTAs. Quite a few European QSOs with non-
SOTA stations, but I think only ONE SoTA on 15 from here. Several
on 17, including a couple in Europe, JA, VK.
73,John, K6YK
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However, although it makes a clear difference on propagation conditions between GM and EA, a shorter distance to the equator doesn’t seem to be the only factor. Jorge EA2LU and I often hear NA activators that our friends Alf EA4R and Ric EA4M can’t hear, in central Spain, about 400Km South of us, so closer to the equator than us in EA2.
Rather than the distance to the equator, I think it may well be the fact the we, in Pamplona, are not too far from the Atlantic Ocean coast (I estimate about 70Km in a straight line) to the NorthWest, which is the beamming to NorthAmerica.
73,
Guru
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The farthest I got over the summer on 17m was Switzerland (as far as I recall) and that was Summit-2-Summit. As for 15m, I had a line of sight contact about 40 miles away and that was it.
Anyway, I’m happy to give it a go again. 
GM/WS-002 tomorrow, around around 1130z
73, Fraser
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It has to be down at least partially to sunspots. Five days ago the sun spot number was up to about 80. This was the RBN screenshot for 30 September and the day I had QSOs with Russia and Turkey on 15m. There was a lot of CW activity on this band.
But this was today with the sun spot number <30. The screenshot was taken now but it shows the position from around 1200 UTC. There was virtually no activity on 15m.
I remember it well.
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I’ve used 15m for a few contests over the last 12 months including CQP over the weekend during which I made over 200 voice contacts. When it works, it always seems way less noisy than 20m.
Paul
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I also find 17 absolutely exciting. The conditions are borderline.
Sometimes 20 goes and is heavily occupied… but on 15 nothing !.. and 17 is quiet and the stations are clear but not strong.
I had short skip and an hour later dx.
Fascinating
I bought a qcx mini for 17. 
73 Armin
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… last year, during the Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party, 17m was wide open. I worked about a dozen or so NA stations coast to coast. Some of them were S2S.
So it’s definitely worth trying the higher bands, considering the increasing solar activity since last year.
73, Roman
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I have worked JP1QEC regularly on 17m CW over the past 5 years or so, not sure how long really but that is the best band between vk ja and zl in our morning times. Had maybe 5 S2S with JP1QEC on 17m or 15m, 20m is not much good to JA in our mornings he tends to work into U.S. on 20m with more success. Hope thing improve on the higher bands its better the last couple weeks than it has been judging by the beacons I could hear Yesterday.
Regards
Ian vk5cz …
Ian vk5cz
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Well I did plan on 17m/15m today but the pile ups on 40m and 20m on GM/WS-002 Aonach Beag took too long to untangle and Mo was getting rather cold by the end of it. I was told, “time to go, no more CQ!” 
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