This winter season here now is the worst I can remember in all my many
years
of DXing. Each day I faithfully go through the various bands: LW, MW,
Hams,
Aero/utilities, Tropical and the SW HF BC bands. Disappointingly
nothing at
all comes in many days except the most powerful transmitters of the
big
broadcasters; sometimes even my regular DX bench marks are not heard
at all
for days. Most disappointing.

I think I have DXed through three propagation sun cycles and the low
we are
currently experiencing is yielding the worst DX results and most
disappointing reception I have experienced in all my years. Some days
I
wonder why I keep all these high end expensive radios with nothing to
show
for them?

All the old timers remember the 80's when reception of every type of
signal
was superb. I used to catch the utilities in those years - one night
on the
aero bands I got no less than thirty five new stations from as many
countries = superb! Tropical bands were a cinch and Indonesia used to
come
in nearly every night plus some rare 1 Kw Peruvians. Now = nothing,
nara,
not a thing. I am hardpressed now to get two aero stations in a night!

But before you chuck away your radio's, the good news is that as this
solar
cycle turns, reception will improve slowly over the next six years to
a new
peak, so hang in there. The good times are coming back again.

John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
Icom IC-7700, Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
ERGO software
Drake SW8. Sangean 803A
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop.
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx