[Elecraft] Lousy Conditions

[Douglas Westover]

Having worked in the field of radio propagation / research
for  more than 40 years and having endured the appropriate
number of sunspot cycles I can assure you all that there is
nothing unusual with conditions at this point in the cycle.
In fact, things are only going to get worse for the next 5 or 6
years. Though not thoroughly understood, ionospheric
conditions correlate very highly with sunspot number and the
11 year sunspot cycle. One interesting note is that in the
period between 1645 - 1715 there were ZERO, or perhaps
one or two sunspots...the sun went to sleep! This is refereed
to as the Maunder after the scientist who researched the 
sunspot records and discovered this anomaly.