so ive been chasing 3Y0 and some of the other rare ones for years now and never really had a system, just kind of called like everyone else and hoped for the best. last month there was a decent activity from a pacific island i wont name (dont want to start a whole thing) and i finally got through after about 45 minutes of trying different stuff and i figured id share what actually made a difference because a lot of the advice i read online feels kind of theoretical.

the biggest thing that helped was listening way more than i was transmitting. sounds obvious but i was honestly just keying up too much before. once i actually mapped out where the DX station was listening — he was working split, about 5 up, and slowly drifting higher — i just waited until i could hear the tail end of who he was working and then dropped my call once, cleanly, right at the right moment. no multiple calls, no sending my call three times in a row like some guys do.

also reduced power slightly which i know sounds backwards but i was probably over-driving my amp a little and cleaning up the signal seemed to help. running an IC-7610 into a AL-811H and my signal was probably a bit splattered before i backed it off. antenna is a 3 ele yagi at about 45ft pointed at the pacific so nothing exotic.

anyway curious what other guys do, especially on CW. phone pileups feel a bit different to me but the listen-first thing probably applies there too

yeah the listening thing is huge and its something that took me embarrassingly long to figure out. i used to just hammer away thinking more transmit time = more chances. completely wrong. the DX op has a rhythm and if you can figure out where in the passband he's pulling calls from and when he's ready for a new one, that's 80% of it right there.

on CW specifically i've had good luck sending just my suffix when the pileup is really thick. if he's copying partials anyway you might as well make it easy on him. once he comes back with a partial that sounds like mine i send the full call once, properly formatted. that back and forth is way faster than two dozen guys sending their full 6x2 call signs over each other.

the power thing you mentioned is real too. more power past a certain point just makes you part of the noise floor for everyone else. i run an ACOM 1010 and i've noticed cleaner runs when i'm not pushing it. intermod from overdriven amps in a pileup is a real problem and i think a lot of guys dont realize their signal sounds like garbage on the other end.

this is really helpful actually, im fairly new to chasing DX seriously and pileups still kind of intimidate me. i never know when to transmit or if im even in the right part of the band. does the DX station usually announce the split range or do you just have to figure it out by listening around? i feel like half the time i cant even find where theyre listening