Doug,
We are experiencing a solar storm right now and band conditions are bad but not completely gone. Yesterday I threw a cheapo 10 meter rig in my car and a Mag mount on the roof and worked a special event station at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA in the LA area of southern California on 28.400 while on my way to Dr's appointment. About two hours later I could still hear the guy calling CQ, This on a paltry 7 watts out. When I got home I checked into the Noon Time Net on 7.285.5 on the west coast of the US on 5 watts, got a 57 signal report. Even later in the day I checked into the Maritime net on 14.300 using my FT-817ND running 5 watts, and last night I checked into the YL System net on 7.245 using my uBitx and a EFHW antenna laying on top of my roof. So, while the band does indeed suck it's not impossible to make contacts. Just keep trying, it will get better. BTW, I strictly run QRP.
Joel
N6ALT
Joel Caulkins/N6ALT