so ive been on 40m almost every evening for the past few weeks and it just feels... dead? like i can still hear some stuff but nowhere near what it used to be even a couple months ago. not sure if its just my antenna situation or propagation has been weird or what. running a dipole at about 30 feet nothing fancy. maybe im just on at the wrong times idk

yeah 40 has been hit or miss for me too honestly. some nights its wall to wall signals and then other nights i can barely raise anybody. i think the solar flux has been bouncing around a lot lately which doesnt help. try later in the evening like after 9 or 10 local, thats usually when it opens up better for me at least on the east coast

30 feet is probly part of it too for 40m, ideally you want closer to a half wavelength up but i know thats not always possible. i had mine at like 25 feet for years and just kind of accepted that certain paths were gonna be rough. still worked a bunch of dx though so dont give up on it