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Weak solar cycles = another big decline of the 11 meter local & DX population

Extrapolating from the charts LeapFrog provided in post #148, Cycle 25 will half of 24. Cycle 25 will show up but its not looking promising.
As I stated earlier, if one looks at the entire history of solar cycles, the only thing that you can extrapolate is that they are anything but consistent or predictable. This next cycle could be huge for all we can bet on. Sorry NASA, just don't buy it.
 
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the really sad thing is that while we LOVE the sunspot peaks, they are detrimental to the systems that now run our daily lives, and therefore, a big liability to businesses that make their money by providing services that don't get interrupted.

while my conspiracy theorist radar is not yet pointing at ionospheric manipulation; you can bet that there are engineers in board rooms warning very rich men about all the turmoil and disruption that a large sunspot peak will create.

basically the rest of the world is against us on this one.
LC
 
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Just wait for when we have a super solar flare and all those phones and internet users have no way to communicate! I have built a Faraday cage that will fit over my CB and ham radio transceivers. Most of us here will have comms and people are going to want to buy our gear no matter how much it might cost! We better start buying up all those old CBs on Ebay! :D
 
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@loosecannon
What size tin foil hat do you recommend? :D ;)

well, this is one case where size does not matter. :rolleyes:
however, you don't want anyone to know that you wear it do you?

us real kooks just line the inside of our baseball caps and fedoras so that the government doesn't know where to aim that big laser.
LC
 
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Actually I'm glad, that there is no propagation on CB band. So quiet on legal 40 here... We can talk locally without all that junk coming from abroad.
10m could be better, but there is plenty other bands I can talk all over the world :)
Mike
 
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I think the problem with CB's decline has little to do with the decline of the solar cycle. The problem is that high-speed internet, wide spread spectrum wireless, have taken the place occupied by CB once before. In this modern system, you have hundreds of thousands of people you can contact 24/7. There is no randomness any interference by peoples schedules or the time of day.

What made CB great was all of the families involved usually kids right on up to adults. Once you took civility, morality and standards away it was all downhill. Today it is mostly a bunch of drunk ignorant trash. The few times my 3 sons have heard a CB has been rare even though I have one in all my vehicles and in the home. I never turn it on when friends or family are around because you never know when some piece of trash is going to start some string of f-bombs and other offensive language.

Why do I want to turn on a device that is going to fill my space with vulgar language and obscenities at random with no control? So I only get on the radio when I am alone so not to be ashamed of what is coming out of the speaker.

I can remember having a local "Net Controller" on the local channel and rules and manners where inforced. If you wanted to partake in poor behavior you had to go someplace else or else!!! We would get together on weekends to go "T-Hunting/Fox Hunting" we would have to get BBQ's and such together etc.....

Nobody else will say it but that is the real reason too much trash on the radio.The decline of the family, morality, line drawn in the sand standards has destroyed just about everything that was once good in America.

No amount of solar activity can fix that! In fact maybe we will get less South American skip and Russian skip now that the solar cycle has ended so you do not have SOuth American skip hitting you at 30+!
 
There is a reasonably healthy group of CB ops in my area who are not prone to vulgarity. They are helpful to each other, personable, and still get together from time to time. Some do not like dx conditions, others, like me, do.
When there is no long distance propagation it can be very quiet except for the locals who are mostly hard working employed family folks. There are the retirees, too. Three or 4 of the locals are disabled who are always looking for ways to produce a little bit more cash. Despite the stereo-typing of CB users into a bad lot of worthless no-gooders, this group by and large stand out as exceptions. The Country Preacher, as they call me locally, would not hang with them if they were less.
When conditions drop in some of them turn off their radios, others of us turn them on and make contacts until we can't. A breif 3 or 4 hr opening last night from the midwest into the southeast brought out a cacophony of voices as if the "dead" CBers I keep hearing about had all been resurrected.
Yep, modern technology has put a wireless radio in every purse and pocket. Radio has gone nowhere. It has changed and grown into multinational business making billionaires of those whose vision tapped into the potential of radio to connect the world.
CB is anachronistic, I agree, but not dead. I have helped put together too many stations to sing the last dirge.
 
There is a reasonably healthy group of CB ops in my area who are not prone to vulgarity. They are helpful to each other, personable, and still get together from time to time. Some do not like dx conditions, others, like me, do.
When there is no long distance propagation it can be very quiet except for the locals who are mostly hard working employed family folks. There are the retirees, too. Three or 4 of the locals are disabled who are always looking for ways to produce a little bit more cash. Despite the stereo-typing of CB users into a bad lot of worthless no-gooders, this group by and large stand out as exceptions. The Country Preacher, as they call me locally, would not hang with them if they were less.
When conditions drop in some of them turn off their radios, others of us turn them on and make contacts until we can't. A brief 3 or 4 hr opening last night from the midwest into the southeast brought out a cacophony of voices as if the "dead" CBers I keep hearing about had all been resurrected.
Yep, modern technology has put a wireless radio in every purse and pocket. Radio has gone nowhere. It has changed and grown into multinational business making billionaires of those whose vision tapped into the potential of radio to connect the world.
CB is anachronistic, I agree, but not dead. I have helped put together too many stations to sing the last dirge.
I am not some wealthy pampered amateur I am a working-class man that has been in CB seriously since 1991. I am not stereotyping anyone. There is a reason I gave up the hobby for a long time. Here in Michigan, you run into mostly trash on AM and by trash, I mean people with no class, no moral fiber and no idea what it means to be a good citizen. I do not judge people based on their social economic class rather I judge them by their actions.

I will say this when I first moved from Georgia to Michigan to attend University I noticed a huge difference in vulgarity on air the further north I went. Same thing with the truckers the further north I went the worse the vulgarity became. I went off to college in 1993. Compared to Coastal Georgia it was like moving to another planet. Most of the good people on air have either died due to old age or they moved away from Michigan.

Since I am not an amateur radio operator I have ZERO reasons to exaggerate how bad things have gotten. I am sure it varies from place to place but the ratio of decent good-natured people to talk to versus absolute trash has crossed into a region I never in a million years would have been able to predict or willing to believe! It is revolting to the point that only pedophiles and terrorists are able to disappoint one more deeply with regard to how low a human being can sink!

In fact, if you stay abreast of what is happening in the amateur world they are having issues with the decline of the quality of their membership as well.It is as if someone is feeding these men crystal meth when you read the FCC reports. It is even worse when an amateur devolves into chaos because they can not claim ignorance or lack of basic IQ.

It is the same with kids today too. Have you taken a hard look at our society and what is going on? Can you say, troglodyte? It is no wonder that we see this decline on the radio since radio reflects the greater society as a whole so it is one of those "As above so bellow." situations. Take a good hard look at you old large cities in America especially along both coasts! Take a good look at the war on drugs! Take a look at the quality of life and income studies. Take a hard look at our world ranking in math and science! Take a look at the rate of divorce and the number of children born out of wedlock! Take a look at the percentage of the nation on food stamps or some other welfare program. All of these things are related nothing happens in a vaccum.
 
I am not some wealthy pampered amateur I am a working-class man that has been in CB seriously since 1991. I am not stereotyping anyone. There is a reason I gave up the hobby for a long time. Here in Michigan, you run into mostly trash on AM and by trash, I mean people with no class, no moral fiber and no idea what it means to be a good citizen. I do not judge people based on their social economic class rather I judge them by their actions.

I will say this when I first moved from Georgia to Michigan to attend University I noticed a huge difference in vulgarity on air the further north I went. Same thing with the truckers the further north I went the worse the vulgarity became. I went off to college in 1993. Compared to Coastal Georgia it was like moving to another planet. Most of the good people on air have either died due to old age or they moved away from Michigan.

Since I am not an amateur radio operator I have ZERO reasons to exaggerate how bad things have gotten. I am sure it varies from place to place but the ratio of decent good-natured people to talk to versus absolute trash has crossed into a region I never in a million years would have been able to predict or willing to believe! It is revolting to the point that only pedophiles and terrorists are able to disappoint one more deeply with regard to how low a human being can sink!

In fact, if you stay abreast of what is happening in the amateur world they are having issues with the decline of the quality of their membership as well.It is as if someone is feeding these men crystal meth when you read the FCC reports. It is even worse when an amateur devolves into chaos because they can not claim ignorance or lack of basic IQ.

It is the same with kids today too. Have you taken a hard look at our society and what is going on? Can you say, troglodyte? It is no wonder that we see this decline on the radio since radio reflects the greater society as a whole so it is one of those "As above so bellow." situations. Take a good hard look at you old large cities in America especially along both coasts! Take a good look at the war on drugs! Take a look at the quality of life and income studies. Take a hard look at our world ranking in math and science! Take a look at the rate of divorce and the number of children born out of wedlock! Take a look at the percentage of the nation on food stamps or some other welfare program. All of these things are related nothing happens in a vaccum.


Society and it's morals have been on a steady decline for at least a generation or maybe two. This is why I get PO'ed when someone says they don't want to become an amateur because of the attitudes of some of them. Newsflash: they are just a cross section of society just like any other hobby with many members. I can only guess where we are headed and I don't want to be on that bus.
 
@Onelasttime
I was not leveling any negative remarks toward you. I only meant to report the measure of difference in my area to the generally maligned trend you were reporting in yours. It is with a lingering hope of a continuing good in both the licensed and unlicensed radio communities that I cling to. But I have a habit of optimism. . .
There is a really great Amateur group in my area, too; tailgates, hamfests, and just helping out when needed. Yes, there are trends everywhere, yet, there are people who, like yourself, still value decency. Let these be the salt in an otherwise bland stew that preserves the appetite for good. At the risk of sounding status quo try something that helped me. Several hams befriended me long before I got my ticket. They treated me with respect and enjoyed my love of radio despite my radio being a CB. One of them loaned me one of his own older HF radios (without a mic), and encouraged me to just listen to the bands. I plugged in my old scanner and set it to 2m and 70cm and started listening. When the solar cycle took a dip I knew their strategy had paid off. I do not regret the steps I took studying for both my tech and general licenses. Maybe you'll find a good group of ops among the amateurs in your area. I am blessed to have them in both radio venues, as well as online.
I hope it gets better for you.
Homer
 
lol this is what happened last night on our local channel. :) I think I fractured a rib from laughing so much. A special forces 18E "Guest star" joins in. and it just goes downhill from here. It might be dying but at least I got a good couple of decades of fun use from it. The whole texting thing for me or facebook is not my thing, I prefer to interact with people in person or on radio. Another not millenials seem less socially adept at human interaction from their minimal upbringing they will never get into radio period because it means interacting with people VS a quick text or thumbs up on facebook, sending pictures etc. forget conversation/joking around etc.. and they have a very thin skin and would wither under some ribbing/ball busting/roasting that goes on CB etc.. forget jokes, it could trigger Political correctness alarm etc..

 
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