so i've been mostly a 40m and 80m guy for the past couple years because honestly the higher bands just seemed dead whenever i checked. but yesterday afternoon i spun the dial up to 10m kind of on a whim and it was absolutely packed. worked a couple stations in south america and even heard some europeans coming through which i haven't done in forever on that band.

checked the solar flux index after and it was sitting around 180 something which i guess is pretty high? i'm still kind of learning how all that stuff connects — like i know higher SFI generally means better HF propagation but i dont really have a feel for what numbers mean what. is 180 considered exceptional or is that just like normal solar max territory? and how do i know when to actually go look at 10m vs just assuming its dead

also curious if anyone knows if 12m and 15m have been opening up too, i never really work those bands but maybe i should start paying more attention

yeah 180 is solid, we've had some days pushing into the 190s and even cracking 200 a couple times this cycle which is pretty exciting. solar cycle 25 has been outperforming what a lot of people predicted honestly. when the SFI gets up there like that 10m can open in ways that just dont happen at solar minimum — like genuinely working the other side of the planet with 100 watts and a wire antenna, its kind of magic when it happens.

for knowing when to check, i basically just have pskreporter open in a browser tab and glance at it every so often. you can see 10m spots lighting up in real time and it gives you a pretty good sense of where propagation is going. DXmaps is another good one. 15m has been really consistent lately too, most afternoons theres something happening there. 12m kind of sits between them and can be great but its a little less predictable in my experience. honestly just start leaving a radio parked on 15m while you do other stuff and see what you hear, you might be surprised

same thing happened to me last week, i was just doing some antenna work and had the radio on in the background and suddenly 10m was full of signals. managed to work like 6 new countries in an hour which is more DX than id gotten in the previous month combined lol. i think im going to start actually monitoring the solar flux numbers more regulary because clearly im missing openings by not paying attention