so ive been chasing VP6R for basically three days straight whenever i have time between work and the family stuff and i finally got them in the log last night around 0200z. figured id share what actually worked since i tried a lot of different things and most of them didnt do anything.

first two days i was just doing what everyone does — calling on the DX station's frequency like an idiot (yeah i know, i know, listen to where theyre actually listening first). once i figured out their split was wandering around 5 to 10 up it got a little better but i still wasnt cutting through. my signal is nothing special, K3 running about 100w into a 3 element yagi at maybe 35 feet so not exactly a superstation.

what actually seemed to help was timing. i stopped calling right when they came back from a QSO — everyone piles on in that first second. started waiting maybe half a beat, like just a fraction longer than the crowd, and suddenly i was hitting gaps that werent there before. also started tail-ending which i know some people hate but it genuinely works if you do it cleanly without stomping the previous contact.

also switched from giving my full callsign every time to just the suffix when the pileup was really dense. heard the op working by suffix only so i just threw out the last two letters and boom, got a partial. built on that exchange over a couple calls and got in the log. whole thing felt almost anticlimactic after three days of trying honestly.

curious what techniques other people use, especially if youre running modest power like me. also does anyone have thoughts on using a second radio to monitor the DX while transmitting on a different band? been thinking about that for a while but havent tried it yet.

timing is everything man, youre not wrong about that. i ran a DXpedition to a small pacific entity a couple years ago (nothing huge, 6 man team) and from the other side of the pileup its really obvious who understands timing and who doesnt. the guys who just machine-gun their callsigns continuously are almost never the ones we pull out. its the ones who listen first, figure out the rhythm of how we're working the pile, and then drop in at exactly the right moment.

the suffix thing works but it depends a lot on the operator. some DXpedition ops love working by suffix, others find it annoying because you get collisions from people with the same suffix. when it works it works great though. tail-ending i have mixed feelings on — done right its fine, done badly it just makes more QRM. if youre stepping on the tail end of the previous guy finishing his callsign youre doing it wrong.

on your second radio question — yeah absolutely, SO2R style monitoring is a real advantage if you can do it without causing intermod in your own setup. spacing matters a lot. i run two radios with a bunch of filtering between them and even then certain band combos are just not practical. 40 and 15 works pretty well, 40 and 20 can get ugly depending on your antenna situation.

congrats on the VP6R, that ones been on my list too and i keep missing the openings or they're just not hearing europe when the band is up for me. what time were you getting through, like what propagation window? im assuming youre stateside. the 0200z thing makes sense for long path maybe.

the timing stuff you mention is something i read about in a QST article ages ago and sort of forgot. gonna have to actually practice it instead of just knowing about it in theory lol. i feel like my problem is i panic a little when i actually hear the DX and just start calling without really listening properly first, which is exactly backwards from how you should do it.