At least I'm not the only one noticing a lack of skip. I remember turning the radio on and you could get skip almost whenever back in the late 90s. Some nights the radio was almost useless for local.
I did catch a little this morning on 38LSB. Tried a few times, but only one ear is working right now so I couldn't pick up what he said to confirm if it was me or not - this ear infection thing is ridiculous!
We have a small group local here that uses 21AM. I get on there a lot and just listen - I am on the outer edge for most of them, I cannot reach them without help, about 15-20 miles away. Most of them can hear me though, and I them, but there are a couple that usually it is 1/2-2/3 of a conversation that I can hear.
19AM is hit and miss. I live 5 miles from the interstate, and travel it a lot, so it is usually drivers shooting the breeze as the pass thru on their way from Cleveland to the landfills down this way.
One thing I have wondered, talking about "then and now", i usually turn the squelch to 'just quiet', but lately it seems that there are a lot of bursts thru the squelch that I am constantly turning it higher and higher. I am not running the radios in my mobiles I used to run (90's DX88HL), I'm using a newer 2yo Cobra 25 and a 1.5 year old Uniden 520XL pro. Are the radios that much more sensitive to crap, or is there just that much more crap out there?? The 25 is on a 102 Whip, the 520 is on a Lil Wil... Both have the squelch up to at least the 1:00 position, used to be rare to go over the 11:00.