so ive been doing my usual evening listening sessions on 40m and something just feels off the past few weeks. like the band sounds fine propagation wise but theres way less ragchewing going on than i remember from like a year ago. maybe im just tuning in at the wrong times or something. anybody else noticing this or is it just my area

yeah honestly i think a lot of guys moved over to FT8 and never really came back to phone. which is fine i guess but it does make the old ragchew spots feel pretty empty sometimes. i still catch a few regulars around 7.250 on weekends but nothing like it used to be

could also just be the time of year tbh. i noticed 40 gets weird in summer around here, all the thunderstorm QRN makes it not worth it for a lot of people. they probably come back in the fall when things settle down