so i've been on HF for about 8 months now and honestly the band conditions have been kind of hit or miss for me but yesterday afternoon i just happened to tune across 10 meters and it was absolutely alive, i mean i was working stations in south america and even heard a couple europeans coming through and i only run like 100 watts into a dipole so i was pretty shocked

i've been watching the solar flux index on spaceweather.com and it was sitting up around 180 or so which i guess is pretty decent? i'm still figuring out what the numbers actually mean in terms of what to expect on different bands. like i know higher flux is generally better for the higher HF bands but is there a rough rule of thumb for when 10m and 12m actually get usable vs just dead? and does the A and K index stuff matter as much as the flux number or is that more about geomagnetic stuff throwing things off

anyway it was just a really fun afternoon, worked about 14 countries in a couple hours which is more than i'd done in the previous month combined probably

yeah 10m has been pretty fantastic when the conditions line up, the current solar cycle is really delivering and we're apparently getting close to or maybe past the cycle 25 peak depending on who you ask. flux in the 170-200 range is when 10 starts getting really fun, below like 120 or so it's kind of a crapshoot unless there's some sporadic-E mixed in which is a whole other thing

the A and K index stuff is more about geomagnetic disturbances, so a high K index (like 4 or above) can really mess up propagation even if the flux looks great. i usually check dxmaps.com and pskreporter to see where signals are actually going before i bother calling CQ because sometimes the flux looks good on paper but a coronal mass ejection or something has churned up the ionosphere and nothing's getting through. 14 countries in a couple hours on a dipole with 100w is a solid afternoon, that's the magic of 10m when it's open

omg yes i had the same experience yesterday, i'm pretty new too and i just randomly left my radio scanning on 10m while i was doing stuff around the house and came back to like 5 people calling me from places i'd never worked. i didnt even know what to do at first lol. what website do you use to track the solar flux? i've just been kind of guessing