HF installed - should I be able to hear the skeds on VKS from in town?

Howdy. Just had a HF installed by local Auto Elec (not the supplier of the radio). While not the most ideal arrangement, the testing etc has been left to me. Unfortunately there were no local suppliers of HF and so I decided to go down the path of sourcing the radio and having it fitted locally.

Have been fiddling over the last few days - mainly in my driveway in Moe (Victoria) and one drive a km or so out of town. In summary -

1. I can hear the Marine Weather out of Charliville on 8176.00kHz and less clearly on their neighbouring frequencies. I have also been able to pick up some relatively faint transmissions of ABC in the NT, and VOLMET (Sydney) aviation weather.

2. I cannot hear traffic on any of the VKS channels. I have been checking skeds from various bases on various frequencies - morning and night. Some extremely faint traffic during sked times - but mostly fuzz. On one occassion outside of sked time I could hear one part of a two way conversation clearly - which gave me a bit more sense of what a clear transmission would sound like. I suspect it was from a base as the operator was giving feedback on signal strength from the other party (who I couldn't hear).

3. I have used selcall to the beacon number of the Newcastle base and heard the revertative tones - but this has been a little hit and miss (ie. not repeatable). I have not been able to achieve this from other bases.

I guess my questions is, what should I expect? Should I be able to hear traffic during skeds from my driveway? Do I have to get out of town? If so how far?

If it doesnt sound like things are working as they should, is there anyone around in the Latrobe Valley who can give me a demo so I know what to expect?

Tim