so i've been pretty frustrated with conditions lately, been mostly sitting on 40m and 20m just doing the usual local stuff because every time i try 10m it's just dead air. yesterday afternoon i figured i'd throw a signal out there anyway just to see what happens and holy cow it was absolutely packed. worked a bunch of south america, a couple stations in europe, even had a brief contact with someone in japan which i honestly wasn't expecting at all.

checked the solar flux index after and it was up around 180 which i guess explains it, was sitting in the 130s most of last week. i know we're supposed to be heading toward solar max but i didn't realize we were already seeing numbers like that. curious if anyone else caught this opening or if i just got lucky with timing. also wondering if anyone has a good way to predict when these openings are likely to happen, i've been using dxmaps but by the time i see a cluster pop up the opening is sometimes already fading

yeah 10m was absolutely on fire here too, i'm in the midwest and i worked like 40 countries in a couple hours which almost never happens for me outside of a contest. the sfi has been climbing for a few weeks now and some of the predictions are showing we might be close to the actual peak of cycle 25 sooner than originally thought. i've been keeping an eye on the noaa space weather site and also pskreporter which is honestly underrated for seeing where your signal is landing in real time before you even start calling cq. the trick i've found is just to have 10m in the background on a second radio if you have one, or just check in every hour or so because these openings can fire up fast and disappear just as quick. the long path to japan in the morning hours has been especially good lately if you can get up early enough

this is actually really helpful to read because im pretty new and i didnt even know 10m could do that. i thought it was mostly just a daytime band for like regional stuff. does the solar flux number tell you which bands will be open or is it more of a general indication? i have a technician license so i can get on parts of 10m and ive been wanting to try some dx but wasnt sure when to even listen. sorry if thats a dumb question