[AlexW]

"HAMS won't be happy to learn of this."

Quite the contrary.
During the cycle around 1958, I had fantastic contacts around the world. I lived for those 11 year peaks, as I was an avid DXer, (one who likes to contact foreign stations).
There would be times when I could contact stations on every continent at the same time, and with signals that were as strong as a local station.

[geopyg]

Maybe if this cycle gets strong enough you can talk with someone from 1958 (like the movie we just rented on DVD!) Forgot the name, but it has Caveizel (played Christ in the Passion) as a cop that ends up talking to his Dad from 20 years ago on the Ham radio during a solar max and trying to catch a serial killer. Fun movie!