so i've been keeping an eye on the solar flux index pretty closely for the past few months and wow, we are really in a sweet spot right now. been seeing SFI numbers in the 180s and 190s fairly regularly which honestly i wasnt expecting this early in the cycle. 17m and 15m have just been absolutely on fire. worked a bunch of stations in Japan and Australia last week on 17m with maybe 50 watts and a simple dipole, which for me is kind of a big deal because my antenna situation is not great living in a suburban lot.

anyway i guess im just curious if other people have been taking advantage of this or if anyone's noticed specific times of day that have been working best. i've had the most luck in the late afternoon into early evening but i feel like i might be missing the morning openings because of work. also has anyone been watching the K index along with the flux? i know geomagnetic stuff can kill a good opening even when the flux is high and i feel like i dont pay enough attention to that side of things.

yeah the 15m and 17m openings have been really something lately, totally agree. i actually caught a short but solid opening to ZL land last tuesday morning around 0900 local time, signals were peaking like 59+10 on some of those stations which just doesnt happen with my setup normally. the K index thing you mentioned is really worth tracking alongside the flux, i use the DXmaps site along with the space weather apps and when the Kp spikes above like 3 or 4 you can just watch the higher bands die off in real time, its kind of fascinating in a depressing way when you're mid-qso and the pile just evaporates. for morning openings honestly even just checking pskreporter before you sit down at the radio can save you time, you can see if anyone's being heard from the regions you want before you even key up. the cycle is climbing faster than the models predicted from what i've read so hopefully we got another year or two of this ahead of us

this is actually really helpful to read, im pretty new and just got my general a few months ago so ive been trying to figure out all the propagation stuff. i downloaded one of the solar weather apps and i see the SFI number but honestly wasnt sure what counts as good vs bad. so like 180+ is really solid? i've only been on 20m so far because everyone said thats the reliable one but maybe i should try 15m. does the band just sound dead when conditions are bad or is there a way to tell before you start spinning the dial