I was told that if you tune the AM radio to a somewhat distant/weak station you can get an idea of what the locating conditions are by the reception you get--good reception means good locating conditions, poor reception means poor locating conditions.
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/solar/solar.html
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/s...-k-and-indices
The solar x-rays affect the lower frequencies first.
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/g...x-dynamic-plot