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[KN6KDT]

I am a new Ham having passed my General test in August. I have an Icom7300 and a Yaesu 991a. I have an 83' folded dipole up. I have been receiving stations all over the country from Sacramento as well as New Zealand , Hawaii, and countries in Asia. During these fires I have noticed diminished reception to the point I have not heard ANYTHING on 20 meters and precious little anywhere but local 2 meter. Is it a reasonable assumption that the smoke and all of the crud floating around due to the fires is having a major effect on propagation??

[K0UA]

I am a new Ham having passed my General test in August. I have an Icom7300 and a Yaesu 991a. I have an 83' folded dipole up. I have been receiving stations all over the country from Sacramento as well as New Zealand , Hawaii, and countries in Asia. During these fires I have noticed diminished reception to the point I have not heard ANYTHING on 20 meters and precious little anywhere but local 2 meter. Is it a reasonable assumption that the smoke and all of the crud floating around due to the fires is having a major effect on propagation??

I doubt it. My assumption is that the last few days of low solar flux has had a lot more effect.

[W9IQ]

Congratulations, Darius on getting your ticket! And a warm welcome to eHam.

I think James' answer nailed your question.

- Glenn W9IQ

[KN6KDT]

Thank you gentlemen!

[KC6RWI]

As said I've never heard anything about smoke affecting propagation. You are lucky, I have the ic7300 and I really like it, I need a second radio for different location, I have toyed with the idea of a getting a 991.
Which radio do you like better?

[NO9E]

A few days ago my dipole heard just a few CW stations on 20m, all weak. Switching to Spiderbeam at 42 ft, many more stations were heard, most of them weak. With a 3 el beam at 100 ft, these stations became louder and easy copy.

With current propagation, it takes a high beam and a KW to have comfortable QSOs.  In a few years when the sunspots come back, QRP and a piece of wire will do the same.   

[KN6KDT]

As said I've never heard anything about smoke affecting propagation. You are lucky, I have the ic7300 and I really like it, I need a second radio for different location, I have toyed with the idea of a getting a 991.
Which radio do you like better?

I like the 7300 better. I have actually spent much more time with the 991 and it is pretty easy to figure out, however, I am still so new I don't completely understand MANY things . I like the 7300 better because at both my home shack(Sacramento Valley floor)and my remote shack (2500' in Sierra Nevada foothills) it gets better reception with an internal tuner than the 991 does with an LDF MADE for it! It also sounds better both with and without headphones. I like the touch screen on the 7300 also. I got the 991 to use while on the road(RV) as it has 2 meter capability as well.

[KC6RWI]

Interesting, I have two locations I use. I am always transporting my 7300 in a pelican case. Many times I am too busy to get it out and hook it up. If I had another radio I'd probably get more radio time on.
I think one option would be is to buy another 7300 but $$$$ and less money than a 991

[KN6KDT]

As I see it, the advantage of the 991 is simply the 2 meter capability the 7300 does NOT offer. For the money , a smaller 2 meter rig makes more sense. With my limited experience, I am sure there are other radios that have this capability along with all the other band access but for me, this is how I would replay this. I suppose if I really want to I wouldn't have any problem selling my 991 and buying a different rig for 2 meter mobile ops and take them both. In reality, I don't see myself using the 2 meter as much on the road as I do not intend to try to operate while driving anyway. When I set up somewhere I will be on 20,40,80 anyway, at least for now anyway.

[OZ8AGB]

Congratulations. Well done.

I usually use https://www.solarham.net/ to checkout the current conditions and forecast.

[N8YX]

I was able to look directly at the solar disk last night (sunset) and this morning (sunrise) due to attenuation effects of the high-altitude smoke.

Not. One. Spot. Anywhere. It's like someone opened up a Jupiter-sized tub of Clearasil and rubbed the stuff all over Old Sol.

Upper HF Es may be an option if we get some late summer thunderstorms, and anything of significance near the equator may lead to a nice TE opening.

It stinks, but it is what it is.

[K6AER]

The Sun rotates about once a month. The spots will appear in a week or two.

[K0UA]

As said I've never heard anything about smoke affecting propagation. You are lucky, I have the ic7300 and I really like it, I need a second radio for different location, I have toyed with the idea of a getting a 991.
Which radio do you like better?

I like the 7300 better. I have actually spent much more time with the 991 and it is pretty easy to figure out, however, I am still so new I don't completely understand MANY things . I like the 7300 better because at both my home shack(Sacramento Valley floor)and my remote shack (2500' in Sierra Nevada foothills) it gets better reception with an internal tuner than the 991 does with an LDF MADE for it! It also sounds better both with and without headphones. I like the touch screen on the 7300 also. I got the 991 to use while on the road(RV) as it has 2 meter capability as well.

I didn't see your post earlier, but if you have any question about the 7300 and its features, I own 2 of them and would be willing to answer any questions you have about it. Or ham radio topics in general.  Just contact me and leave your phone number and I will give you mine. We can get together at a mutually agreed time. I am retired and tend to stay up late so don't worry about the two hour time difference.  I don't get up early, unless I am trying for some Asian DX 

73 James K0UA

[KA2DDX]

spaceweather.com             spells it out -

[WB8VLC]

11 days of smoke, ash and reddish/orange skies here in oregon from our destructive fires and I saw no prop differences on any bands but?

However, after ~ 11 days of falling ash I had damage to the Stauff insulators on my 9 element dual band 10/6 meter owa yagi and the ash got inside my ttelescoping tapered element sections.

The damage was that the ash actually worked itself inside between the telescoping element sections resulting in vswr shifts on both bands and 2 distorted stauff element insulators.

I was so close to the fires that I expected some issues so I wasn't surprised.

One afternoon of 6 hours was spent pulling the yagi down and disassembling and  cleaning the elements and then resetting the vswr on both bands.

This was the first time I had an issue in years but the ash and smoke were the worst that I've ever seen and I've been in several other major fires in Arizona between 1990 and 2010 but I have never seen anything like the ash/smoke and duration that our Oregon fires produced.