Its not very surprising to see this fleshed out. Summer months in general are poor TX/RX conditions DX-wise. The DSP revolution has come and gone, and after a full 6 years, the few but important design flaws / variable QC still hasn't changed much on the UL side of the equation. Note that NON-UL sets have enjoyed some interesting improvements. I also note that there are some fairly good less-than-$20 FM only DSP sets... a reletively unexplored area of our group. At first thought the Tecsun PL-100 and PL-118 come to mind.

Personally, its been a bit dry DX-wise here. The QRM is just getting stronger, and theres been a few catches, but nothing worth writing about, just area 1kW-5kW nighttimes. SW is drying up as the internet is the 800 Lb gorilla in the room.

JMH2c

Paul S. in CT