It’s the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle… after a particularly weak “maximum” five years ago…. this is why we now have global cooling instead of the over-hyped global warming of years past. Notify the climate police!! The sun’s output is the source of our climate changes… not your car exhaust. And I’m living on a volcano whose pollution output far exceeds anything manmade.
This is only day 100 without a sunspot. In 2009 the sun went 260 days without a spot at the last cycle minimum.
Without the sunspots lighting up the ionosphere for radio reflections, the shortwave radio bands really suck right now. No fears… it will be much better in six years.