so ive been trying to work some dx on 20m for the past few weeks and its been absolutely terrible. used to be able to hear europe pretty good in the mornings but now nothing. checked my swr and antenna and everything looks fine. is this just normal for this time of year or what? heard something about solar flux being low but dont really understand all that stuff.

running a dipole at about 30ft if that matters

Yeah 20m has been pretty rough lately. Solar flux has been hovering around 70-80 which is pretty low. We're still in the solar minimum basically even though cycle 25 is supposed to be starting. I've been having better luck on 40m during the day lately, might want to try that. The good news is conditions should start improving over the next year or two as we ramp up toward solar max.

omg yes thought it was just my crappy antenna! been trying to work JA for my WAS but cant hear anything past the mississippi most days. even 15m which used to be decent is just noise now. guess we just gotta wait it out