I was on the Sonnwendstein a few weeks ago and a ZL came back to me on 20m. I always do a double-take when DX answers: did I hear that correctly? What is of interest here, is that it was at 12:51 local time. Now that has not happened to me in quite while. However, I’m not overly positive about cycle 25. I’m tending more towards predictions that it will be lower than cycle 24, rather than the biggest in many decades. God only knows, I hope I’m wrong.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
I find that when GMs etc. call me on 30m/20m etc. my CW skills evaporate completely. I hear Ken GM0AXY call me on 20m groundwave and I nearly always have to ask for a repeat. It’s not like Ken’s sending is poor, it’s excellent. Nope, I hear a prefix that I don’t expect and zoink I don’t understand his call or anything else for a few moments. Weird.
2 Likes
I just wait and see, all predictions are experiments in understanding. More to the point there is a nicely complex sunspot group just appeared in the southern hemisphere and another one trying to form in the northern hemisphere, while spot 2776 rotates out of view, so cycle 25 is developing nicely and better days are ahead for DX!
Yes, I think cycle 25 will be an improvement on zero sunspots, and any improvement on where we are now is of course very welcome. But the biggest sunspot maximum in decades? As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true…
73 Matt
Yes, it sounds improbable to me - but not impossible. It would be nice to see world-wide openings on 6m again!
1 Like
Believe me, if you want to have an idea what happens in the interaction between sun and ionosphere, do not look at sfi, sfi is based on radiation that has not enough power to ionise upper atmosphere. What you need to know is X ray radiation of the sun. Measurements in the B and C area are good.
Following a nice link about propagation with X ray flux. I advise to explore the complete website it is very good:
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/goes-x-ray-flux
As for literature I strongly recommend: (both free to download on internet):
The Little Pistols Guide to HF Propagation by Robert R Brown NM7M
The Sun, The Earth, and Near Earth Space, A guide to the Sun-Earth system by John A Eddy
In general keep in mind that it is difficult if not impossible to penetrate Day/Night barrier between stations due to different ionisation levels, be aware of grey line dx.
Is there an easy to reach source for this? SFI is easy to get on a daily basis.
Click on the link I provided,gives direct access to X ray flux
Yes of course you can - my point was that even if you don’t have a smartphone, you can still submit Spots.
That would have been 4Z4DX Chris. Name of Dov. Nice chap who I once met. Dov’s QTH is in Israel by the way.
73 Phil
A certain 4Z4DX trampled all over my QSO recently, ruining my contact with Jan OK2PDT. I was working as normal, 4Z4DX had a phantom QSO with me and then started working others on my frequency. I can only assume that 4Z4DX fired up on my frequency without checking if the frequency was clear and then thought I was calling him. I wasn’t a happy bunny.
Colin
That happens because you have a mere mortal’s call sign. Get it changed to so it says DX, CW etc. somewhere in the call and even the ham super heroes will not dare to kick sand onto your QRP signal.
Well, times are a changing OM.
I’m sure you’re right, Phil.
I had the same situation in the past. That happens if non NATO alphabet is used.
Zansibar always causes a brain crash for me …
73 Joe
1 Like
Is this a new way to name the international phonetic code ICAO?
ICAO=International Civil Aviation Organisation
EDIT: I’d better create a new thread for this subject…
I am not sure what is old, new or newer. Let’s ask Wikipedia…
So I guess it is equal:
The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet , commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet or the ICAO phonetic alphabet , is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet.
Of course we use the civil way of pronouncing it 
1 Like
I’d like to point out that most native English speakers in the UK pronounce at least one of the chosen words incorrectly. They say KWEE-BECK or KWEH-BECK for Quebec which is how they would pronounce the name of the province in Canada. It is pronounced KEH-BECK in the ICAO alphabet.
The numbers are pronounced not the same as in English English as well.
I really hope that this diversion does not re-ignite the tired old discussions about “correct phonetics”! So to turn the topic back to the sun, a close look at the white light image on spaceweather.com today shows one complex group, no. 2778, and two pairs of very small pores that might develop into full sunspots or they might fade again.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, " is whether you can say the words so everybody understands what you are saying."
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “I could use the correct pronunciation if I wanted to — that’s all.”
With apologies to Lewis Caroll 
1 Like