I remember being a child, camping with my grandparents, and my late grandfather regaling us with how he just got off the radio with a guy in Australia! I asked him how he was able to talk to someone so far away, and he said the weather was just right for the signal to carry.
He was so proud of his amateur ham radio license that he got a vanity plate for his truck with his call sign.
Out of curiosity I just looked up his call sign, and, while his license is now expired, it has not been recycled yet.