There is a rhythm to a pileup  or should be. How many times should you give your callsign? Listen to how the DX station is picking out the callers, many DX stations can respond rapidly to calls in a pile-up, picking up one on the first round of call-ins. Others may not respond until 2 or 3 calls. This will determine whether you give your call once or more times. Inexperienced pileup management results in a free-for-all and you will have to listen to see how the DX station is handling things, if at all.

One might ask about 59(9) reports when in fact the DX is weak, maybe a 3 by 4, well many DX stations and particularly DXpeditions and contest stations don’t want to waste time writing or typing a bunch of reports, so they draw a line through the report column of their log, or program the computer for all 59(9) reports.

Lass Too – or calling with only the last two letters of your call  may be against the FCC rules, never the less some operations take on this characteristic. But it has been suggested that as long as you ID within the rule time limits, it doesn't matter how you call, even with two letters, so long as it is not deceptive, of course. The problem is where a station only ID’s with their suffix, never getting the opportunity to give the full call within the time limit. But why not give your full call, followed by calls of “lass two” until the 10 minute rule applies???

Some DX stations will ignore callers using the “last two”, so listen for a bit and you can determine how the callor is picking out stations. When the DX contacts you with “last two”, they will need your full callsign and this somewhat makes things legal. After all, in a pileup, who knows what you said before you announced your “last two”. This works for DX operators who can’t seem to get a complete call. You’ll hear “the WD6 – go ahead”, this is a tipoff how the DX op is perceiving the pileup. Most good DX operators discourage the practice as it slows down the Q-rate.

In a contest, the report might include a serial number 59(9) 307, or a zone report 59(9)06. CW contesters almost always use 5NN as an abbreviated form of 599.

After working several stations, the DX station usually announces QSL via (CBA  – call book address), (Burro - bureau), (my manager W10XYX). They also will announce their location if it is not obvious from their callsign prefix. In severe pileups, the DX station may opt to work split (up 5) or by selective calling (W6’s Only – California), EU only – Europe).

5-1.            THE ANATOMY OF A PILEUP

If you encounter a pileup it is sometimes puzzling as to what’s happening. As an example lets say you encounter a pileup and after listening for a bit you can’t hear a DX station. There are four possibilities:

1. The DX station is simplex  - listening and transmitting on the same frequency. e.g., 14.195 MHz.

2. The DX station is operating split  but only listening on one frequency e.g., transmitting 14.195 listening 14.205 MHz.

3. The DX station is operating split but listening on a range of frequencies e.g., transmitting 14.195 listening 14.200 to 14.210.

4. The DX station is operating split but listening on a discrete multiples of frequencies e.g., transmitting 14.195 listening 14.200, 14.205, 14.210, 14.215. This is rare and peculiar to certain operators.

In 1 above - the DX is operating simplex, listen for a while and determine if you can hear the DX, you may not have propagation to that point in the world but the other callers do. Check the packet clusters, chances are you can determine who is on from the spots. Don’t ask on frequency, this just adds to the confusion. Another tip off is there are no cops saying he’s working split.