so im listening to this dxpedition yesterday and they keep saying up 5-10 but then they seem to be working stations all over the place. one minute theyre answering someone at up 8 then next time its like up 2. is this normal or are they just not managing the pile very well

i spent like 2 hours calling and got nothing which is fine but it felt like there was no pattern to follow. usually i can figure out where theyre listening next but this was all over the map. anyone else notice this with some of the newer expeditions

Yeah ive noticed this too with a couple recent ones. The good dx ops usually have some kind of system - they'll work their way up the band systematically or at least give you hints about where theyre going next. When they just jump around randomly it becomes pure luck instead of skill

The really experienced guys will even announce stuff like "working up from 14.025 now" so you know roughly where to position yourself. Makes a huge difference in the rate they can work stations too

this drives me nuts. i was trying to work that same station i think and couldnt figure out their pattern either. seemed like they were just randomly picking calls from anywhere in the window

compare that to something like VP8 a few years back where you could actually predict where they'd tune next based on propagation and their established routine. made it possible for us little pistols to compete with the big guns by being smart about positioning instead of just cranking up the power