[Elecraft] tried to go live for the first time

[Julian (G4ILO)]

The sun has an 11 year cycle, and we're heading for a minimum, so the 
higher bands like 10m will tend to be dead for long periods of time. But 
round about now you should get periods of short skip propagation when 
fairly local stations are workable at good strength. Unfortunately, because 
so many hams are obsessed with working DX, you're more likely to hear 
illegal CB operators than you are hams.

I've tried for a long time to try to get my head around the various things 
that affect propagation. I wrote a program, HFProp, which you can download 
from my site, that attempts to show what can be worked if you type in the 
current sunspot numbers from WWV. For the experts around here, I should 
point out that it's a Windows update on the MiniMUF programs in BASIC that 
used to be popular years ago, so it isn't that accurate. But it has the 
user interface I wanted. The other programs I've seen take a lot of work to 
calculate the propagation over just one path, which doesn't give you an 
overall picture.

73,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, G-QRP, K2 #392)
G4ILO's Shack: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo

"John Cooper" <wt5y@gt.rr.com> wrote:

but was unable to all antennas at the local club station are cut for ssb 
lengths so i was seeing hi swr when tuning and hi reflected when atempting 
to 
transmit.  also got confirmation from a local ham who had a hand in 
erecting 
the antennas.  the only band i found i had good swrs all the way across was 

10M.  Now i realize were in a down period cause of the ionosphere and ive 
only 
been licensed for exactly 364 days(hey hey tommorow i will be a ham for a 
year!) but i have never repeat never not once heard anyone licensed 
unlicensed 
use cw ssb or digital mode at all on 10 M the whole time ive been playing 
with 
radios. i was told i should wait bout 5years.  is this normal bands out for 

5years at a time?    

john wt5y