On Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 5:42:52 PM UTC-6, Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
This has been a really, really crappy cycle. Perhaps the poor
propagation is one more reason so many shortwave broadcasters have shut
down or scaled back.

Here in the PNW I can receive RHC and many stations from China and
Asiatic Russia in the early morning, and this past fall I was getting
VOK pretty strong in the evenings.

Lately it has been pretty crappy listening though. Hang in there!

In general low solar activity just makes for better low band
operation.
So it's all a tradeoff. The higher bands may be dead, but the
low bands will generally be better. Particularly in the winter
when it's quiet. Good time for AM-BC, 160m, etc.