SW HAM Veterans: how much does the sunspot cycle effect the experience?  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / rf-microwave

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2018, 12:07:12 am
content: I have only been into this hobby on and off a few years over the last 20. I remember at times taking an old SW radio and just using the telescoping antenna and picking up tons of DX stations. So a few years later I went out bought one of those Grundig radios and used to spend hours listening to it with a really bad long wire antenna I made from Ethernet cable thrown around the yard. Right now I'm not having any luck. I'm in the US and the "local" stations here are not worth listening to. They are just a loop of religious programing usually by the same person. But other countries have really interesting radio. So good propagation is the difference in spending money and time on it.As far as the sunspot cycle goes when is the best time to listen or TX for that matter? Are there years when it's best to put the radio away and switch bands/hobbies? The hours the sunsets has a lot of stations right now. Does that change with sunspot cycles or get better?

author: PhilipPeake
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2018, 01:36:07 am
content: Sunspots really affect the higher frequency bands, and permit propagation over really long distances.Being able to hear/talk to people the other side of the world using pretty low power is not unusual.None of that at the moment, and probably not at the next sunspot maximum either if it turns out to be as wimpy (or worse) than the last.But few of the sorts of HF broadcasts that you are talking about ever relied upon those high frequencies. They used the lower frequency bands 7, 9 and 11 MHz mostly.Most of them were sponsored by the governments of their countries. Most countries gave up on HF broadcasting in recent years.Pretty much all of that interesting stuff you refer to has gone. They think they can do a better job with websites, or just no longer bother.I started SW listening in the UK (a long time ago). At that time, pretty much every country in the world has SW broadcasts in multiple languages. Actually, the American broadcasts were useless even then. It was religious nut mostly, and the only really American government sponsored station was Voice of America (VOA). It was about the same level of stupid propaganda as you heard coming out of China and the USSR. There were some AFN (American Forces Network) stations, but these tended to be fairly low power and uninteresting content (even to American Forces would be my guess).SW broadcast stations are few and far between, and getting fewer every day. Some still exist but using digital transmissions which most sub $1k radios won't pick up.I still scan around from time to time, but the good stuff, Sweden, Switzerland, BBC, Germany, Austria, Australia are all gone now.

author: vk4ffab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2018, 03:28:11 am
content: It all depends on what you are interested in. Sure the dx on the higher bands has dried up, but there are still stations to work on the lower bands and there is always homebrewing, studying for license upgrades, learning morse code and all sorts of other things to be doing. Chasing DX is only one aspect of the hobby, not the be all and end all, well for me atleast

author: borjam
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 23, 2018, 09:48:24 am
content: It's complicated, a mix of several factors.When I begun doing SWL in the 80's it was amazing but due to:- Good solar cycles (the latest have been just meh)- Less local interference in the neighborhood. Switching power supplies were extremely rare.- Lots of short wave broadcasters and utility stations you could listen to. Also, news agencies sent RTTY feeds in the clear.- There was more ham activity on HF. Nowadays the bands literally burst with big contests.So, even with a good solar cycle the local interference from poor switching power supplies and el-cheapo LED lighting would still hurt a lot.Never underestimate the effects of noise. When I begun using WiFi I could achieve a reliable link across the street with two PC-Card cards in peer to peer mode and the crappy antennas. Mine was the only wireless network in a circle with a radius of 1 or 2 Km most likely. The noise in the 2.4 GHz band has skyrocketted now.

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 12:30:25 pm
content: Best times for listening are within 2 hours of sunrise and sunset. We're pretty close to rock bottom but stations should still be audible on bands up to about 15 or 18 MHz.Around midday is pretty quiet and many frequencies shut off at night at this phase of the cycle.This is a HF band scan I did last yearEven during sunspot lows summer can give rise to sporadic-E conditions with strong signals at 27/28 MHz. Mainly CB/amateur rather than broadcasters though.

author: Beamin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 01:17:28 pm
content: Quote from: vk3yedotcom on August 26, 2018, 12:30:25 pmI was watching your videos before I knew about this forum and realized it was you. I also bought a bitX radio recently from seeing your video. I just built it, was super easy to put together. I haven't got to play with it really, need SWR meter and antenna. I see those cheap CB SWR meters, will those work on the bitx or any <30Mhz radios? Those won't do VHF or low UHF? Could they be modified or would that require changing all the parts less the needles and not worth it.There are people around here(east coast of US) that the bitX could pick up but those guys all seem to be running 100watts so maybe not.What commercial SW sites do digital broadcast? I have an SDR that goes that low. Can FLdigi decode or is it like HDradio where the decoders are proprietary chips that won't be available to the SDR users? They killed digital radio by design.

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 26, 2018, 08:25:46 pm
content: CB SWR meters should work but their main risk is that their sensitivity drops at lower frequencies eg 3.5 MHz. But you might still be OK with one.Otherwise circuits described as "QRP SWR meters" would be ideal.