I was an air traffic controller for 8 years, using line of sight VHF and UHF radios every day, but I did not understand radio wave propagation until I got caught up in the CB craze back in the 70s. I could not figure out why I heard people 3,000 miles away, but couldn’t talk to someone three miles away. CB is on the wrong frequency band, and is not reliable for short distance communications, during high sunspot activity. So, after two years of CB, I got into Ham radio. It was a lot more fun.
We used to have a Ham radio guy just up the street. About 3am, when everyone else was asleep, he used to bleed over into the audio on our TV - Back before satellite, and all that when we had rabbit ears and antennas to catch what is now called local channels. His moniker was Country Boy.