so ive been on 40m most evenings this week and something just feels off, like the noise floor is higher than usual or maybe propagation is just doing its thing idk. tried working some stations down south and kept getting buried. wasnt sure if it was my setup or just conditions. checked the solar flux and it wasnt anything crazy so who knows

anyway been thinking about finally getting a second radio just to have something dedicated for digital modes, been running fldigi on my main rig and swapping cables every time gets old real fast. anyone running a dedicated setup for that or do you just deal with it

yeah 40 has been rough for me too, im in the midwest and its been noisy as heck most nights. honestly i just moved to 20 after like 9pm and its been way better lately. might just be seasonal stuff creeping in

as for the digital rig question, i grabbed an old ic-7200 off ebay like two years ago just for ft8 and js8call and it was totally worth it. nothing fancy but having it always connected and ready makes a huge difference, i actually use digital way more now just because of that

the bands are always weird lol welcome to ham radio. but seriously solar activity has been kinda all over the place so that could be part of it