[PCR-1000] pour HF performance

[Robbins, Matty]

Hi All
I am connected with the Radio shack discone antenna. My RF performances
is really bad and I can not receive even one ham or sea to land
transmissions. I only receive very strong SW signals. Are there any
beacons that I can test my reception?   I have a bad feeling that some
thing is wrong on the SW bands on my receiver. On VHF and UHF the
reception is ok. Is the SW condition fading with time? I use to listing
to SW like 10-15 years ago and it seems that then there was much more to
hear? I must say that then I used a Collins 51S.
One more question is there a program that can tell me what is the best
band to listing to according to propagation conditions?

Thanks
Matty