The first sunspot number above 200 occurred on October the 21st 2011.
but in May 29, 2009 An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots.
"If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. (Source Nasa Science News) .................
No - even allowing for smoothed numbers it seems higher. No Maunder Minimum.
Am I missing something here ?. Probably not - the latest Graphs indicate that old Cycle 23 and the new Cycle 24 are on a similar course.
A VK called me recently on ten metres when I was in the car at the lighthouse. We both were using 100 watts. I have a omni directional vertical. We both had multipath echo and distortion.
Source aa5tb Click for Full Website Page and recordings
"On HF there exist at least two possible "great circle" paths around the world between any two points on its surface. One path takes the shortest distance and the other path is the long way around, or "long path". I say at least two because at certain times there can exist skewed or backscatter paths that would create an endless number of possible paths although the great circle short and long paths are the most common.
At times of exceptional propagation both the short and long paths can exists between two points and often times the long path will be the stronger of the two. This is a common phenomenon on the upper half of the HF spectrum (14 to 30 MHz) during periods of increased solar activity.
Since both short and long paths exist at the same time there is a very pronounced "echo" effect. It is not a true echo since it is not caused by a distant reflection but the result is the same. In fact, sometimes the first signal from the short path is actually weaker then the long path delayed signal. Sometimes the interference from the two paths can make even slow speed CW stations unreadable!
Just for reference, it takes roughly 137 milliseconds for a HF radio signal to travel around the world once. This is of course a significant delay even though it is going the speed of light. These long path signals kind of put things in perspective!"
Steve
23/11/2011
The Scientists website is here:-
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/SC24/index.html
Geomagnetic field: 
D-Region Absorption
