so i've been licensed about 6 years now and for probably the first 4 of those i just couldn't break pileups to save my life. like i'd hear a rare one, get excited, throw my call in maybe a dozen times and then just give up and go do something else. figured it was always the guys with the big linears and stacked yagis that got through and there was nothing i could do with my 100w and a trapped vertical.

anyway a buddy of mine who's worked almost every entity on the list sat down with me during the 3Y0J operation a while back and basically watched me operate for like 20 minutes before pointing out everything i was doing wrong. turns out i was transmitting on the DX's transmit frequency like an idiot, not listening for where they were actually coming back, tail-ending when i shouldnt have been, and my timing was completely off. also apparently i was calling way too long — he said two calls max and then listen, and i was going like 5-6 times before shutting up.

since then ive been working split properly, really listening hard for the DX's pattern before jumping in, trying to send just my suffix when the pileup is really thick, and my hit rate has gone way up even with modest power. worked a couple legit rare ones this past season that i never would have gotten before. curious what other techniques people use, especially for the really brutal ones where it feels like a wall of noise

yeah the timing thing is huge and nobody really talks about it enough. what i try to do before i even transmit once is just sit on the frequency for a few minutes and figure out the DX op's pattern — are they going by region, working up the band, favoring certain calls. some of the really good DXpedition ops have a very predictable rhythm and once you lock onto it you can kinda anticipate when your shot is coming.

the suffix-only thing works sometimes but honestly i've had more luck just sending my full call once, clearly, at maybe 80% of my usual keyer speed. a lot of people are hammering away at max speed and it just turns into mush in the pileup. slowing down slightly so your call is actually copyable seems to help more than raw power sometimes. i run about 400w into a 4-el yagi on 20 and i still find myself getting walked over by lid stations running a kw into a dipole if they have better timing than me.

one thing i'll add — on phone pileups it's a totally different animal. i almost never bother calling at the start of a run, i wait for the pileup to thin a bit and then get in. the big gun stations will work each other at the start and then it opens up a little. patience is underrated.

the listening before transmitting thing took me forever to actually internalize, i kept just wanting to jump in. also whats your antenna situation now? im in a similar spot with a vertical and 100w and wondering if its even worth trying for the really rare stuff or if im just wasting everyone's time in the pileup lol