so i've been watching the SFI creep up over the past couple weeks and man it really shows on the bands. been running 20m every evening after work and the DX has been absolutely wild compared to even a month ago. worked a station in the Maldives last tuesday which honestly i wasnt even expecting, just threw out a call and they came back to me first try.

for anyone who hasnt been paying attention to the solar numbers, we're sitting around SFI 180-ish right now with the K index behaving itself mostly, which seems to be a sweet spot where 20 really opens up to the pacific in the late afternoon from my QTH in the midwest. 15m has also been surprisingly decent, havent had 15 be this good since i got licensed honestly. just wanted to share in case people have been sleeping on HF lately thinking conditions are still rough - they really arent right now, get on and see whats out there

yeah totally agree, ive noticed the same thing from here in the southeast. 17m has been my go-to lately and the europeans have been booming in during the morning hours, like genuinely loud signals not the usual watery stuff you get when conditions are marginal. i did try 10m a couple times hoping it would open up the same way but it's been hit or miss, got a few south american stations but nothing crazy. what time of day are you finding the best window for pacific on 20? i feel like i keep missing it

this is really helpful to hear, im pretty new to HF (just got my general like 4 months ago) and honestly the first few weeks i thought maybe my antenna was the problem because i wasnt hearing much. didnt realize how much the solar stuff actually affects it. i've been using pskreporter to try and figure out if my signal is even getting out at all lol. should i be checking somewhere specific for the solar flux numbers before i sit down to operate? i know about spaceweather dot com but not sure if theres a better resource people use