Twenty and thirty meters have been a little flat at this QTH lately. So, often I’m checking the info on a certain set of websites before I bother to check for activity on those bands. I go to spaceweather.com and look at the sunspot chart. If there’s no spot today, and hasn’t been for a couple weeks, I’m likely to use a lower frequency band, especially if the MUF chart looks as glum as the sunspot counter (see the second link for MUF chart). Well – OK, I don’t always adhere to this procedure, because sometimes the bands can have spark when all the indicators say they shouldn’t.
Another really nice reference for checking band conditions is this page (the MUF charts about halfway down the page):
We are into cycle 25. I think it was a little after Christmas when the first “reversed spots” were observed in the sun, marking a new cycle. So, we probably have another year or two of pretty tough sledding, before things start to roll again.
WB8LZR 