HF at least in this context if you ' re an amateur doing it legally is also ham stuff . Technically , your CB radio is HF . But , jumping straight to HF Ham radio without having done anything on VHFUHF is , in my opinion , learning the hard way . Working VHFUHF will allow you to learn the generally accepted practices and customs with fewer technical hurdles . Regardless , don ' t bother connecting the Baofeng to that antenna . It ' s going to be a poor match and at very best it ' s probably not going to improve reception . At worst , you ' ll destroy the radio if you transmit which you shouldn ' t be doing right now , anyway . If you have the radio attached to a mag mount antenna , assuming you ' re close to a reasonably populated area , you should be able to hear some traffic on repeaters . If you haven ' t already , spend ~$ 15 on the programming cable . This will make programming this radio much , much easier . Then , download and install Chirp . After you ' ve done that , you can go to a site like RepeaterBook and get a list of the repeaters in your area . Chrip will actually do this for you . Then you can load those frequencies into your radio and allow it to scan . In my experience , usage patterns are areaspecific . Here in Indianapolis , I can almost always find a conversation within a few minutes between 6 AM and 2 AM . When I lived in the DC suburbs , radio traffic seemed to die out earlier , usually before midnight , and peaked during rush hour . You should also find a nearby amateur radio club . They ' ll help you learn and will clue you into who ' s doing what on what frequencies .