so i was just messing around on 10 meters last weekend, not really expecting much, and suddenly i was working stations all over europe like it was nothing. im used to 10m being basically dead for the past few years but something has definitely changed. logged a handful of italian stations, a couple from spain, even got a contact with someone down in south africa which honestly shocked me because the band just opened up out of nowhere and i wasnt even set up properly, just had my old vertical out there.

anyway been reading a bit about the solar cycle and apparently were getting close to the peak of cycle 25 which is why HF has been so good lately. anyone else been taking advantage of this? feels like a good time to dust off old equipment or try for some new entities if youre into DXCC. also curious if anyone has been seeing good openings on 6m too because i heard there were some decent Es events a few weeks back that i completely missed.

yeah 10m has been absolutely on fire, i worked something like 40 countries last month just on that band alone. cycle 25 is shaping up to be better than the predictions honestly, some folks thought it would be a modest peak but the solar flux has been staying up pretty consistently. if you havent already grab some propagation software or just check dxmaps.com regularly, helps a lot for catching openings before they fade. and yes there have been some really solid 6m sporadic E openings too, missed a few myself but caught one in late afternoon that got me a few new grid squares for my rover log.

oh wow i had no idea thats why conditions have been better lately, ive only been licensed since last spring and 10m always seemed kind of hit or miss when i tried it. maybe i should actually give it a real shot. what time of day tends to be best for those europe openings? i mostly operate in the evenings after work but im wondering if im missing the good stuff.