I often read data from prop.hfradio.org or sunspotwatch.com (two different
aliases for the same website) by NW7US, who does the propagation column in
Popular Communications, which NLS does in Braille.  His page is rather large
and complex, but you will probably learn something if you look around.  His
pages include links to some of the raw reports from swpc.noaa.gov concerning
solar flares, coronal mass ejections, geomagnetic disturbances, etc.

But I also check the bands because much of this propagation prediction is a
statistical problem.  Sometimes unexpected band openings occur, and if
you're not there, you won't get in on them.  I listen for ten-meter beacons
between 28150 and 28300.  Since 15 meters only has the NCDXF beacon system
on 21150, and sometimes nobody is on 15 even when it is open, I check the
broadcast band above it, from 21450 to 21850.  For trans-polar propagation,
from the East Coast, I check for the Firedrake Music Jammer from China, or
for Radio Beijing on 15785 at 0300Z (summer schedule).  You can identify
many international shortwave broadcast stations by examining schedules
available on the HF Coordinating Committee website www.hfcc.org .  And if
WWV is impossible to copy on any of its frequencies, I know that the bands
are rotten in that direction, and either a solar flare is going on or we
will have super propagation into the Southern Hemisphere on bands up through
10 or possibly 6 meters.  You may not know that a particular path is
possible except during the times when contests happen, when some
well-equipped stations warm up the ionosphere (figuratively) from places you
don't normally hear.

There's a lot more I could talk about; listening and examining propagation
are my thing, and this goes back 56 years now.
73,
Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Wheaton, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Jim Gammon
> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 1:47 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: assessing HF propagation?
> 
> A question for HF'r's on the list.  Just wondering how you get
> information about propagation conditions on the various HF bands?
> Do you use a website or sites like space weather, that give text
> based information on band conditions or just check the status of
> the various WWV frequencies? Jim WA6EKS