so ive been sitting on 40m most evenings this week trying to work some of the usual crowd and its been weirdly dead. like i can hear a few beacons and the occasional digital signal but actual voice traffic has just dropped off. not sure if its band conditions or just everyone moved somewhere else. my noise floor is also a bit higher than usual which doesnt help but even accounting for that something feels off. maybe everyone migrated to ft8 and i missed the memo lol

yeah 40 has been rough here too, though i had a decent run last thursday around 0200 utc worked a couple stations in europe which i wasnt expecting. i think a lot of the casual operators just drift in and out depending on whats going on in their lives honestly. summer always seems slower to me, people outside doing stuff instead of sitting in the shack

ft8 took everybody lol. my dad runs 40m ssb almost every night and he says the same thing, way fewer regulars than even two years ago. the digital modes just pulled people away i think, cant really blame them when you can work dx at 3am with 10 watts and not have to say a word