A friend of mine, Bob W1YRC, has often said that some of his best DX happens during sunspot minimums. He certainly is right. While it is true that we lack effective sunspots, so our Solar Flux readings are very low, we do experience a large number of coronal holes, as this image shows:
The holes in the corona allow for many high speed particles to escape the sun’s magnetic field. When these particles hit the earth’s magnetic field, it becomes energized, potentially causing geomagnetic storms, but also improving F-layer propagation.
Here’s a snap of my waterfall around noon today on 15 meters. Things are hopping!
The same is true for 10 meters, which is often open during the day, but is ignored by many operators based on the mistaken belief that 10 meters is only open around solar maximum.
