High sun spot activity????

**rb336** · July-09-13, 09:16 AM

For the past week, I have had very poor reception for channels that are usually strong - the same goes for radio. I haven't found any reports on increased solar activity to account for that. Any ideas?

**Jimaz** · July-09-13, 01:18 PM

Yeah, you probably guessed correctly. We're at a peak in the 11-year solar cycle.

Solar Activity Cycle Peaks In 2013: More Solar Flares Expected Later This Year

Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the biggest fireworks spectacular in the solar system.

**JBMcB** · July-09-13, 02:38 PM

IIRC last time we had a solar max it knocked out a few communications satellites, and killed pager service for a big chunk of the country for a couple days.

A weird quirk is that longwave radio waves travel much farther, as the ionosphere is more highly charged and longwave signals bounce off of it without leaking out into space as much as normal. I was listening to a Cleveland AM station while driving home from vacation up north a month ago - while in my car between Zilwaukee and Flint. It was coming in so clear at first I thought it was a local Flint station rebroadcasting the Cleveland-based show, but I checked the ID and the station is in Cleveland. Weird.