so its like 9pm local and i've been parked on 7.200 for the past hour just kinda listening and there's almost nothing going on. couple guys ragchewing down around 7.180 but even that kinda faded out. i remember when this time of night on 40 was just wall to wall signals, now it feels like i'm tuning a dead band half the time. maybe its just my location, i'm in a pretty RF-noisy neighborhood and my antenna situation isnt great but still. anyone else noticing this or is it just me being impatient

yeah 40 has been weird lately. i had a good run last thursday around the same time, worked a couple stations in the southeast no problem, then it just went quiet. solar flux was up a bit that day i think. honestly i've had better luck dropping down to 7.150 area, seems like thats where everyone migrated for some reason. could also be the noise floor thing you mentioned, that kills 40m more than people realize

im pretty new to hf so i dont really have anything to compare it to but 40 is usually where i try first and sometimes its great and sometimes yeah totally dead feeling. my elmer told me just to keep a log of when you get good conditions and youll start to see the pattern. havent been at it long enough to see one yet tho