so ive been on 20m a lot this past week trying to work some dx and the band just feels... off. like some evenings it opens up great and i can hear europe no problem then the next night at the same time its totally dead. my neighbor who's been licensed way longer than me says its normal for this part of the solar cycle but i dunno, feels different than last fall. maybe im just imagining it. anybody else noticing this or is it just my antenna situation messing with me

yeah 20m has been a rollercoaster for sure. i had a solid pipeline to japan two nights ago and then last night couldnt even hear the beacon. solar flux index was decent both days too so who knows. honestly i've just been hanging out on 40m more when 20 gets weird, usually something happening there in the evenings

Could also just be local noise. I spent like three weeks thinking propagation was the problem and it turned out my neighbors got a new plasma tv or something, wiped out half the HF bands for me every evening after like 7pm. Worth ruling that out if you havent already.