If you haven't turned on your HF rig on 10, 12, or 15 meters lately, you are missing out! I've been making long-distance contacts all weekend on those bands for the last few weekends -- Japan, China, Europe, Africa, etc. It's better than it has been in many years.
The sunspots are back and that means the higher HF bands will be open for worldwide communications, even with a modest radio and antenna setup. I'm running 100 watts and an 80 meter doublet antenna up about 30 feet. The nice thing about the higher bands is that the signal/noise ratio tends to be higher, so you will hear more and be heard better than down on lower bands when working distance.
I've been having a lot of luck into Europe in the morning once the sun starts to come up. In the afternoon/early evening, the path is open to Japan and the rest of East Asia.
FYI: I have a space-weather page that shows current solar conditions. Generally, you want the "A" and "K" numbers to be low, and the SFI/SN to be high.
http://www.wrightwoodweather.com/wxspace.php73 and good DX to you,
AK7V
