Taking A Break, But All's OK

It's already been a new year for over a month and a half, and it's been almost two months since I last posted an article here, and although I've had several articles in the works, I haven't felt the impetus to publish them lately. 

The reasons are varied.... I had a property issue I had to take care of, some financial issues to deal with -- and then we had a two week cold snap (where the temperatures got down as low as 18F / -10C, and it was cold in the house. I simply didn't feel like writing much. I have an ailing cat, and a car that needs to be fixed... Life simply got in the way of posting articles here.

The articles I still have to finish are varied -- a couple have a few DX sound files, which take years to load on Blogger, so I've put off posting them.

One is an article on the current, crap Solar Cycle -- an article I've been working on for a year. I kept thinking 'I'm sure the DX conditions will get as good as they were in 2012 so I will be proved wrong', but that's never happened. DX conditions on MW as well as SW have been poor compared to 11-12 years ago. The Solar Cycle article, admittedly, is a bit lengthy.

I've thought of cutting that one down but it's a chore, because it basically says that the latest Solar Cycle is a dud, and that idea is fairly controversial. Consequently, one needs to prove what they say, because there are still a lot of DX'ers and SWL's who think that Solar Cycle 25 is the best thing to happen since peanut butter and jelly appeared in the same jar.

And proving what you say means you include a LOT of info, including charts and graphs from NASA and the like.

All this said, I've taken a respite from posting, and I'll be back here in a week or two.

I have a couple articles on two different XHDATA radios I purchased since Halloween. I've become a fan of XHDATA, because they really have good radios for the price. I'm really enjoying using them in the DX hobby. It's just too bad the crap ionospheric conditions don't really show everything these little marvels can do. :-)

Anyway, I'll be back. Here's hoping you all are doing OK, and if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, you are staying warm.

Peace.

C.C. February 20th, 2025.