"starman" wrote in message
...

Although regular F1/F2 propagation is becoming more difficult for the
10-M band because of the declining solar cycle, there's still the
possibility of sporadic-E propagation at any time of the day or night.

You are of course correct, starman... after I read your post, my memory was
tweaked about a recent catch of the beacon XE1SRF out of Cuernavaca, Mexico
(28.189 MHz). I checked my DX logger program and, sure enough, I grabbed
that beacon on an evening in mid-July, after 10 meters had been dead for
most of the day (I had no trouble picking up that same beacon in March and
April-- in fact, I could hear it most nights from my location). That same
evening, I logged a couple of beacons in Texas. A couple of hours later,
they weren't there anymore. I'm still new to sporadic-E and other rarer
forms of propagation, and it's always kinda fun when you can hit on the odd
catch, only to have it gone soon afterwards. I like dialing up and down the
10 meter beacon frequencies of the dial whenever I can.

Jackie