so ive been messing around on 10m the past few weekends and getting some surprisingly decent contacts, like i worked a station in Brazil last Saturday with what felt like minimal effort on my end which honestly shocked me because i remember 10m being basically dead for years. my solar flux index has been hovering around 180-190 lately and the K index was pretty low that morning maybe a 1 or 2, so conditions were decent on paper i guess but i didnt really expect that kind of result with my setup which is just a modest dipole at about 25 feet.

anyway im curious what other people are seeing on the higher HF bands right now. is this the solar cycle 25 peak everybody was talking about or are we still climbing toward it? i saw some predictions that said we might hit the peak sometime in 2025 or even push into 2026 but i honestly cant keep track of all the different forecasts. feels like every time i check the DXMaps website theres some interesting paths opening up that werent there a year ago.

also been poking at 12m and 15m too with good results. just wondering if others are noticing the same thing or if i got lucky a couple times

yeah you're definitely not imagining it, 10m has been genuinely wild this cycle. i worked JA on 10m SSB last month running like 50 watts into a vertical and it wasnt even that hard to get through the pileup. for context i've been licensed since 2004 and i went through the last couple solar minimums where 10m was basically a 2 meter band without the repeaters, so this feels really good right now.

the flux hitting the 180s and above is pretty significant, anything over 150 and 10m usually has something going on especially in the mornings when the F2 propagation is cooking. keep an eye on PSK Reporter too if you do any digital modes, you can actually watch the band open up in real time which is kind of addictive honestly. the path geometry to South America from North America on 10m is almost like a freeway when conditions are right, low takeoff angle and the band just carries signal forever.

as for the peak prediction, yeah its all over the place depending on who you ask. NOAA has revised their numbers upward a couple times already which is a good sign. might as well enjoy it while it lasts because the downslope is usually slower but you never know exactly when it starts feeling sluggish again.

this is actually really timely for me because im pretty new and just got my general last spring and ive been trying to figure out when to even bother trying HF. like i knew solar flux mattered but seeing real numbers like 180-190 with actual contacts to show for it helps me understand it way better than the textbooks did. gonna try to get on 10m this weekend if conditions hold, i have a buddipole set up in the backyard so hopefully thats enough to hear something at least