Solar Cycle 24, weak and unimpressive by most counts, is at least hanging in there, with a SFI of 157 and a MUF of 30 MHz on this, the last day of January 2015. In fact, I was shocked last night to work my first Singapore station, S61PW on 15 Meters, only to work a second one today on 10 Meters.
This is a dual-peak cycle, which is unusual enough, but this one has been even more surprising as the second peak continues to have higher sunspot numbers than the first. So maybe the band openings will linger even longer through 2017 or beyond.
I’m also surprised you are in RI. In our morning time round 01Z, it is the best time to communicate with US east coast and south east Asia but there is very limited chance we can QSO. I thank good solar activities now.
Hope we can meet again.
de S61PW es W1PJ Shiro
Shiro, nobody could have been more shocked than me. I hardly ever hear that part of the world. Funny how propagation works. But like you said, around 0100 I sometimes get openings into Asia. Nice to meet you on the air. Your QSL is stunningly beautiful. Many thanks for the incredibly fast LotW confirmation!