Question for 11 meter guys (Solar minimum)

[Eldorado828]

This question really goes out to the cb 11 meter crowd who only hang around 11 meters.
As the sun spots start to dwindle down for this cycle as we get closer to solar minimum, what are you gents planning for the years it'll fall flat?

Are you ridding of your gear? Letting it set idle until it comes around again?

I ask because as this cycle started I invested pretty heavy in equipment. Locally there are only a few of us so it'll be pretty quiet as it has been in years past. It'll be quite the drag during minimum as it always is.

It got me to wondering what you folks might be doing.

 

[VMC]

I'm just getting back into it after being off for 35 years. In my experience past and present, "minimum" has never meant "nada". As long as there's that big star out there that now and again goes off its meds, there will be skip

 

[brandon7861]

I look forward to the minima. Some of the more exotic skip like sporatic E and transequatorial go unnoticed during moderate and good solar activity.

I'll never forget the time three of us locals were talking at around 2am and suddenly a small group on a big lake in Canada came in. It was just our little area connected to theirs, nobody else. It was like we had a lossless coax between our town and theirs and it lasted for what seemed like forever.

 

[Eldorado828]

I look forward to the minima. Some of the more exotic skip like sporatic E and transequatorial go unnoticed during moderate and good solar activity.

I'll never forget the time three of us locals were talking at around 2am and suddenly a small group on a big lake in Canada came in. It was just our little area connected to theirs, nobody else. It was like we had a lossless coax between our town and theirs and it lasted for what seemed like forever.

Yeah the sporadic e-skip although it happens it's rare to catch here. The last solid static round from about 2016/17 until around the end of 2020 was long and rough. The radio would run 24/7 with just static but on a couple three occasions I did catch a few openings where it would be me and a couple of other operators with the band to ourselves. Fun but rare here!