Verizon

I used to have problems in Greenland with HF propagation. Normally I could sit at the top of the ramp on the edge of the ice cap and work CW with the base camp a mile away with just the exciter on the old BC610. Other times I couldn't talk to the base camp with 500 watts.

A mile and 500w, that's pretty extreme! The proton storm must've been off the charts.

proton storm??? Off to google I go

Protons are one of the things that the sun throws at us. During a solar flare aimed toward us the proton flux can get pretty high. As the proton levels get really high it wipes out hf radio propagation.