[Elecraft] Band Conditions

[Fred Jensen]

Stephen W. Kercel wrote:

> How's that again? In the NA QSO party yesterday, both 15 and 20 meters 
> were in fine fettle. On 15, I worked stations as far away as the west 
> coast. On 20 I worked Brazil and Russia. On a very quiet 40 meter band I 
> worked Samoa. On 80, I worked N6ZZ in New Mexico. Overall I had about 
> 200 QSOs in 8 hours of operating. All this was with 5 Watts and dipole 
> antennas from Maine.

> At 11:59 AM 8/6/2006, Karl Larsen wrote:

>>    In about 6 years QRP will be a lot of fun.

Nor does one have to wait 6 years either ... SS cycles typically rise a 
lot faster than they decline, and the band improvements are much more 
noticable since we compare conditions to those at the minimum.  I 
suspect we will begin seeing improvements by this time next year, and 
major improvements by winter 2008.

Some prognosticators are predicting Cycle 24 will rival Cycle 19 (I was 
a new teen ham in 53 and thought it just stayed that way all the time!). 
  Others are not so sure.  I'm with the first group since my current 
life expectancy is slowly closing in on the length of a cycle at about 
minus one year per year (I hope!), and this may be the last full cycle I 
get to see (again, I hope!).

73,

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw

CU in the Cal QSO Party 7-8 Oct 2006