Solar Cycles and Shortwave Radio
Our atmosphere is a remarkable thing. Active solar cycles keep things juiced up well for good long distance radio propagation. Solar Cycles are cycles of sunspots, they are usually quite numerous, in fact the last solar cycle (23) was fairly active. Solar Cycle 24 is somewhat of a mystery at this point. There are two predictions… one that it will be a greater than average cycle and one that it will be lower than average (thanks… next you’ll tell me that tomorrow it will either rain or not.) I’m suspecting at this point that cycle 24 is going to be dramatically below normal in part due to the unusual start we’re seeing to the cycle. There have been many days without sunspots which is somewhat unusual in itself and the ones that have shown have been VERY shortlived and small disturbances.
So, does this mean that shortwave propagation will never be the same. Of course not, the sun goes through a natural cycle and I’m sure at some point we’ll see GREAT shortwave conditions again. In the meantime we’ll have okay, but not outstanding conditions.
Here is a good writeup on the interaction between the sun and radio propagation. Also, you might like to know that there are sites that keep up to date on the current solar conditions and propagation conditions. This last one also has a forecast for what’s expected in the next few days.