The more this looks like a baseball with stitches the better your
shortwave radio works. Sunspots are the result of magnetic fields inside
the sun twisting like big rubber bands. When they get contorted enough
they break through the surface of the sun. Here's today:

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/..._1024_0171.jpg

Here's a photo of the sun from 1998 (disregard the different artificial
color) showing how the active regions suggest stitches on a baseball:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ng...zoomin.1.1.jpg

This is a very healthy looking sunspot rotating our way:

http://www.solarcycle24.com/pictures/spots2.jpg

Pray to Ron Jacobs for surf and sunspots. Good DX, mofos.