I got my Novice ticket way back in the winter of '61. In those days it was only good for a year, so I upgraded to Conditional in 1962. Conditional, for those of you who don't recall the times, was the same as a "General Class" license, with the exception that the exam was given by a volunteer examiner, rather than by an FCC employee. The option was open only to those who lived so far from a designated examination station that travel constituted a hardship. Ham radio provided quite a bit of fun in those high school days, and I rather fondly recall tracking CW stations with the fine tuning knob of a SX-99 - the old girl drifted a bit - in my left hand, while the right held a pencil to jot down the conversation. This was at night, when the skip came in. During the day, I would go to AM for short range ragchews.
Later, college and then graduate school consumed so much time that I couldn't meet the activity criteria for renewal, and had to let the license lapse.
45 years later, the radio bug bit again - I took the Technician exam, got a fresh new ticket (these days, it's good for 10 years, and there are NO activity requirements at renewal), and used the "vanity" system to retrieve my old call sign.
Mature trees surrounding my home represented substantial attenuation to UHF and even VHF frequencies, so the longest wavelength open to Technicians at the time - 6 meters - was selected as a place to start. Aesthetic considerations and a taste for simplicity limited my antenna to a little two element phased array, equipped with a simple "TV" rotator, hoisted to about 18 feet.
Such a modest height got it over most of the clutter - but it would have to be three times as high to be completely free from obstructions. Construction ease, wind loading concerns, and freedom from lighting worries trumped takeoff angle and gain.
I went "on the air" again in 2007, with a little Kenwood TS-60 transceiver. I could only hear a digital signal chirping here and there for the first week - with no voice (SSB, AM, or FM) to be found. Then the band simply exploded one evening, and my first contact in over 4 decades - and first ever 6 meter QSO - was over a 1,000 mile path! Four states were worked that day, with the best DX spanning 1,850 miles. A day later, I could only raise a ham 9 miles away, and it was back to listening to static.
Sporadic E is just what the name implies, sporadic! With only 6 contacts to show for two months of 6 meter operation, I went back to the books, headed for another license upgrade, and the familiar comfort of lower frequencies.
My hat is off to those dedicated "Magic Band" operators, who persist and wring what they can out of the never easy, often frustrating, yet occasionally exciting HF/VHF borderland.