"Maunder Minimum"

I'd never heard of this term until just recently, while perusing the latest QST. If you get QST, then you're already familiar with the article called "Where Are the Spots?"

The author mentioned the possibility that our lack of sunspots was due to the "Maunder Minimum", a 70 year period where Sunspots were almost non-existent. Of course, this puts the fear of GOD into a HAM when he realizes, if true, he'll be dead before the Sunspots are blooming again - so, I googled it. Here's one sites explanation. I hope that this QST article was written a month or so ago, before we saw an increase in spots, and activity. As I write this post, 10m is fairly active, but I tend to think it's more weather related than sunspots, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that it is Sunspots. WOODY