On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:51:54 -0500, J Shrum wrote:

Greetings. I've only been a ham for a couple years. Not really done anything
w/ it however. Just homebrewed a thing or two, but never made any QSO's. I
just acquired a 5w 20m rig (all my budget could allow).
Can someone give me any tips on how to know when 20m is open? What time of
year or time of day is typically good for 20?

Jim: 20M usually has signals readable almost ANY day from 6AM to 7PM from
all over North America and sometimes beyond. Only in the worst propagation
conditions can you not hear any signals.

I suspect one of 3 things if you are asking this question:

1) you don't get on the air enough and listen for signals
2) your antenna is very bad, untuned, or in mineshaft
3) your receiver is almost dead.

Check the band more often, check your antenna and check your receiver.

Larry VE7EA