This is one form of propagation.The propagation of my dick to her face, but thats not the propagation we be using here.
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Nay this is HF propagation even MORE complicated then penile propagation.
As a general rule during the day (and more so during the sumer) the ionosphere is hit with solar wind from the sun, this ionizes the upper layers of the atmosphere, making them reflective to higher frqs. like say yesterday, even though the online DX info said everything above 14mhz would be dead, i was hearing barefoot CB’s (27mhz @4w) coming in crystal clear at s-4 from the east coast (like 2500 miles from here).
During the “grayline” is when it is easiest to make long distance skips, because the D-region(one of the lowest layers) absorption dies off quickly on sunset, and builds slownly on sunrise. but the upper layers (the ones the higher FRQs skip from) will ionize VERY quickly (like minuets) and then you have this big opening (like 12-18mhz for example)that gives nice clear lowpower comms.
Here is the simplified rundown the way i see and use it.
first read this, its ok if you don’t understand it, move on. you will. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_region
Then:
Skywave propagation, also referred to as skip, is any radio comminucation that rely on reflection of radio waves in the ionosphere, which is made up of 4 ionized (electrical charge/plasma) layers in the upper atmosphere. F2-layer is the most important ionospheric layer for HF propagation, though F1, E, and D-layers also play some role. These layers are directly affected by the sun on a daily cycle, the seasons and the 11-year sunspot cycle determines the utility of these modes. During solar maxima, the whole HF range up to 30 MHz can be used and F2 propagation up to 50 MHz are observed frequently depending upon daily solar flux values. During solar minima, propagation of higher frequencies is generally worse.
Here is the absorption level of ALL electromagnetic radiation on earth. (yes visible light is the same as a radio wave just much higher frequency/frq)
http://www.stroobandt.com/propagation/
Frqs above 30mhz will rarely skip off the ionosphere and usually just continue off into space, BUT there is a thing called “sporadic-E” propagation.To be honest noone knows what causes sporadic-E but it is basically a “cloud” of heavily ionized gas that comes along and reflects frq’s as high as 400mhz as far as 2000miles 
(usually only with a few watts of power) Usually lasting from 5 minuets to 2 hours. Its very strange and has the scientists stumped.
Computer simulated wave path. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skip_Zone_Example.gif
Computer simulated wave path at a lower frq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:No_Skip_Example.gif
^^CLICK THE FUCKING LINKS!
Your GEO location is very important too, for example, the other day when i was hearing CBs the online prediction was saying i shouldn’t hear nuthin, but i was. That could be because this being winter and my being so far south, the MUF directly over my head is much higher then in the USA where they take 90% of the measurements. What im trying to say is the ionosphere is FUCKING COMPLICATED, and we haven’t even discussed YOUR particular radio setup yet. FFFFUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!
so here is some more oversimplification for you :
2 MHz 200-400 miles
4 MHz 400-600 miles
6 MHz 600-1200 miles
8 MHz 800-1600 miles
12 MHz 1200-2400 miles
16 MHz 1600-3200 miles
22 MHz 2200-4000 miles plus
26 MHz unpredictable during
our solar cycle minimum
^^that is a VERY rough guide that doesn’t take into account ANY of the 30 factors that could change it (mostly time of day)
My typical openings to the USA tis last At night:
0-4mhz nuthin.
4-6mhz almost nuthin tons of noise and the megawat Shortwave stations were only s-1 to s-5
6-7 i would get some utility stations and i have heard the west coast SW pirates maybe 4 times but way down in the static(but they can hear me pretty well 
)
7-9mhz now its opening up i get decent signal strength.
9-12mhz this about where you should be at night, during winter,with only a few sunspots. I can hear VERY nicely in this area at night.
12-16mhz Now this is DX teritorry, if you work here at night, you wont hear much but what you do hear will be 4000+miles away and have a clean signal!
16-20 same as above but much more so
DAY:
0-10mhz dead.
12-14 very weak sigs, the D region absorption is killing it, frq to low.
14-18 good band for medium distance single hop
18-24 now we are talking lower end of daytime DX range
24-30 shit gets crazy here, you may hear someone 2000miles away or 20,000 miles away with almost the same signal strength.ONLY if band is open and that is rare until we start getting more sunspots and we will in the next 2 years
Here is my quick stop for sapce weather and a MUF map http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/
read this too : http://www.frn.net/special/prsg/propgtn.html
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73’s
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