Are there ANY factors known to make sporadic E more likely?  I've had people tell me that sporadic E happens at all times of the day and solar cycle.  I've heard that thunderstorms can also generate sporadic E openings.  But I have no idea how one can make any prediction on 6m and 10m conditions.

I'm surprised the 6m operators don't shout all their secrets from the rooftops so they have more people to talk to.

To install a ground rod:
1.  Dig a small hole.  
2.  Fill the hole with water.  
3.  Push the ground rod in as far as it will go, and then pull the ground rod back out.  
4.  Repeat steps 2-3.

To uninstall a ground rod:
Dig a hole around it.  Pound the ground rod all the way in.  Then refill in the hole with dirt, and replant the grass.

My DK3 Screwdriver antenna already has 16 buried radials running across the yard.  I know it's properly installed, because I get the SWR dip at 1/4 wavelength resonance.  Thus, the angle of radiation and not the ground plane is the problem, so even adding 112 radials wouldn't help.  (I can't imagine how someone securely elevates something as heavy as a Screwdriver antenna.)

How would my low 75m dipole (7-8 feet above the ground) work on 30m?  Would it provide a reasonable amount of intermediate-angle radiation, or would it radiate almost exclusively straight up (causing my signal to be lost to outer space)?

Would a low full-size loop antenna provide a reasonable amount of intermediate-angle radiation?

There is a Feld Hell Club net at 8PM Central Time on Monday evenings at 10.137 MHz.  I tried to no avail to check in three times in a row.  I couldn't see any sign of the net control or any of the check-ins.

I am in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  The net control is in Minnesota.  Most of the other net participants are in the continental US.

What antenna should I be using?  It's clear that a vertical antenna doesn't cut it, as I've been using a ground-mounted DK3 Screwdriver antenna as a vertical.  I checked the MUF, and it was around 15 MHz at the time of the net.  The F2 critical frequency was around 5 MHz.

One possibility is to use an NVIS antenna.  However, a critical frequency of 5 MHz would effectively prohibit 30m propagation at the highest angles.

Should I try the low 75m dipole?  30m should be close to the third harmonic, and there should be lobes at multiple angles.  

Is this a case where I need good radiation at intermediate angles (higher than low angle DX but below NVIS) to communicate?  

There isn't any one noise source.  I just want to knock down the general noise level, but the noise antenna gain isn't quite large enough.  Does the noise antenna have to be as good or better than the main antenna for the ANC-4 to work right?

How big does a noise antenna for this noise canceller need to be?  Does it need to be matched?

I have a vertical DK3 Screwdriver (about 12 feet in height) with 16 radials as my main antenna.  I just installed a 10m Hamstick (also in the backyard) with two radials as the noise antenna.  However, the received noise from the noise antenna falls just short of the received noise from the main antenna even with the noise gain maxed out.  The shortfall would probably be much more substantial with longer vertical wires attached to the DK3 Screwdriver antenna.

Does the noise antenna need to be just as efficient or perhaps even more efficient than the main antenna?  Does the noise antenna need to be matched for the frequency?

Or perhaps is it time to build a receive attenuator to reduce the reception from the main antenna?  Yes, I know there are preamplifiers I could buy or build, but an attenuator seems like a much simpler solution.  (I'd use a relay circuit that would put the attenuator in the receive path when power is turned on and no transmit power is detected and bypass the attenuator when power is turned off or when transmit power is detected.)

Use a full-sized dipole, and extend it to the front yard.  You can even bend it (just not into a loop).

Do NOT rely on a Hamstick dipole for 80m.  I tried one to get into the 75m Iowa Net, and net control 30 miles away couldn't hear me.  Yes, I had adjusted both Hamsticks properly and was resonant on the frequency.  Not only that, a tuner is absolutely useless for a 75m Hamstick.  So once you have the Hamstick dipole set for a certain frequency, YOU ARE STUCK THERE.  You can't go much more than about 10 kHz away from the resonant frequency.  Keep this in mind if you think my problem was having the antenna too low and that you'll raise the antenna to 100 feet.

MORAL OF THE STORY: A bent full-sized antenna 75m not in the clear is better than a straight Hamstick dipole in the clear.

< Only a few beacons in the world? >
Correction: I was referring to the beacons on 28.1 MHz.
 

< A pretty good (not totally complete) list is here:

http://www.ten-ten.org/beacons.html  >

But who has time to stop on EVERY frequency? All I do is use the dial to quickly skim through, and I rarely hear anything.  Of course, I have NO idea when to expect an opening.

What is the calling frequency for 10m SSB?  Is it 28.400 MHz?  What frequency do you use to call CQ if you're not sure if the band is open?  Yes, I know that there are beacons, but given that there are only a few beacons in the world, I suspect that you can't hear a beacon during the majority of openings (unless you live near one of the beacons).

It would be so great if Disney would promote amateur radio by somehow featuring it in an attraction or on one of the TV shows or movies.  Can you imagine the stampede if Hannah Montana, Lizzie McGuire, Raven, Zack, and Cody became hams?

I'm referring to 2m HT antennas that are less than 2 inches long.  An example of an ultra-short antenna is the Miracle Baby Antenna.  (One review says that it would be a miracle if anyone heard you.)

These antennas are EXTREMELY inefficient.  What is the point of the Miracle Baby and its various knock-offs?  Even a short 6-inch rubber duck antenna is convenient but delivers MUCH better performance.  What's more, the Miracle Baby and its knock-offs don't seem to be any cheaper than real HT antennas.

So can anyone tell me what the point is?  

I first earned my license in 1997, so I have no memory of the days before the Internet or the impact of the Internet on amateur radio.

Today, so many of you rely on real-time propagation maps, the MUF map at spacew.com, and DX spots.  So how did you manage before you had these online tools available?

< If you want to understand and exploit the nuances of propagation in a practical sense, there is no substitute for hours of "headphone time." There is modeling software that can help you understand the basics for a given path. Watching a packet cluster can help, too. But, in the end, being at the rig is the solution. >

But I don't have the discipline to stick around and listen to nothing for more than a minute or two.  My attention span is too short.

OK, I'm aware of the sunspot cycle and the daily cycle.

Yet I've also heard that even 10m always opens up during contests, even at the bottom of the solar cycle.  I've heard that the upper HF bands (even 10m) have occasional openings at night, even during the bottom of the sunspot cycle.

So how are you supposed to know when it's time to try out the high HF bands as opposed to operating other bands or doing something else?  I don't have the discipline or attention span to monitor an empty band.

PLEASE keep your answers simple, because I'm functionally illiterate at propagation.

I'm a lousy operator, so please bear with me.  Keep your answers simple, because I'm really incompetent.  If incompetence were against FCC rules, I'd have had my license revoked hundreds of times.

If the propagation is reasonable, I usually can contact someone within a few CQ calls on PSK-31.

But there's something about voice that I like better.  But even when the band seems to be wide open (20m during the day, 40m/75m in the evening), I usually don't get a response when I call CQ many, many times.  Then there are also the times the band is so crowded that I can't find a clear frequency.

Please don't tell me to tail-end a QSO in progress.  My attention span is too short to sit through the entire QSO.

Imagine that it's 1:00PM, and you want to call CQ on 20m.  Or imagine that it's after dark, and you want to call CQ on 75m.  You don't have the patience to wait for a net to start.  HOW DO YOU PROCEED?