How Not to Work a Pileup

A few nights ago the solar report seemed favorable for 20m, so I dragged out the Buddistick and the FT-857 and got on the air. I could hear little more than noise and a few weak rag chews. I had been hoping to make a few random contacts. DX is always good, but I would have been happy with a few domestic contacts. I finally did make a contact with a friendly operator in Tennessee and then moved on looking for something else. At about 20:00 CDT, I heard a station near San Francisco finishing up a QSO with someone who he was obviously acquainted with. I listened and waited for the other station to sign off and got ready to call to the SFO station.

It turns out I wasn't the only one with such plans. As soon as his first contact was done, several stations called him. He stated his surprise that so many stations were interested in working a California station, but he observed that the bands were dead, so obviously people were working what they could. He started working through the pileup. I sat back and listened, trying to figure out the best way to call.

As I listened to him, it became evident to me that some things work better than others when working a pileup. First, if you want to work your way through the pileup, you can't spend much time on each station. Exchange call signs and signal reports, maybe make a quick comment about your equipment, then move on. In this station's defense, he did not get on the air looking for a pileup. Still, he did decide to work it and I remained hopeful for another logbook entry for a bit, but eventually gave up.

The biggest problem with his style was that he was allowing the calling station to make the final transmission in the QSO. Since I could not hear the other side of most of the QSOs, I could never figure out when to call. I listened for a while, hoping that I would eventually get an opportunity, but as long as he was allowing the calling stations to make the final, he was never really in control and eventually I decided that getting some sleep was more important than another bay area contact.

I have only had my general license for a couple of months now, so I am certainly no expert or authority on working HF, but I have already noticed that some operators can plow through a huge pileup in a short amount of time, while others seem to struggle. A while back I came across the DX Code of Conduct, but that seems to be from the point of view of the calling stations. Perhaps there is something similar for the operator working the pileup. The basic rules for making contacts are pretty similar to the basic rules of almost anything else. If you condense it down to the basics, it's simply be clear, concise and polite. If you're the station in the middle of the pile up, I'll add stay in control.