The sun is changing it's spots. Which means it belongs in the zoo.
Please explain in layman’s terms
He is referring to the fact that solar activity increases the propagation of radiio waves on the amateur radio frequencies.
This may help: https://hamradioschool.com/sunspots-and-propagation/
Ham radio. Shortwave. Increased antenna range and power for transmission of signals is directly related to sunspot activity. A lot of radio operators use 10 and 6 bandwidths.
“Please explain in layman’s terms”
Radio skip is when a radio transmission balances off the ionosphere, where the signal is refracted back to earth at a great distance.
The more intense the Sun is, the more sun spots are produce. Those sun spots causes the ionosphere to become more reflected to refract more signals back to earth. Note: with sunspots below 10 watts you signal just takes off into space. Most communications are conducted line of sight or via Ground Wave.
With high numbers over 200 sun spots the less power and less antenna you need to talk around the world. To operate with those high numbers you use higher frequency (21 Mhz to 54 Mhz, 15 to 6 meters) so you do not need a big antenna.
The last major solar cycle in the 90s, I operated a 10 Meter ham radio at 5 watts of power into a mag mount antenna on top of a truck. I was able to talk voice to Diego Garcia from Maine.
Some operators were able to hear their voice come back to them where the signal travel completely around the world.
It is very exciting to Ham Radio people when this happens.
The sun is changing it's spots. Which means it belongs in the zoo.