Going by district

[Robert A. Wilson]

A novel approach that I only heard used once seems worth an
experiment.  Instead of going by call districts or by geographical
area, ask for stations by "the last letter of your call."  Instead of
shrinking the pileup by 1/10th, it is shrunk by 1/26th (2.6 times
smaller).  The smaller the pileup, the quicker stations can be worked.
It is easy to explain (on phone), it goes in a predictable pattern, it
is fairly difficult to cheat (though someone is bound to sign
"portable Alpha!"), and it gives most everyone a fair shot.  The
stations with good propagation are going to get through first, but
they should all be worked quickly and then the weaker stations should
get through.  When no more stations remain (or if all that remains
is inaudible weak ones), it is time to move on to the next letter.

The one time I listened to a guy do this (simplex), it seemed to work
spectacularly well.  If anyone has a chance to try it while on a
DXpedition, let us know how it works!

I believe the primary cause of policemen, yakkers, and other
avoidable QRM is pileup frustration.  Nothing raises pileup frustration
more than listening to some rare DX spend hours on 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and
5s, completely missing the 45-minute West Coast opening.  Another
cause of pileup frustration is "I'll work five stations per call
district and then move on to the next."  Arghhh!

Anyway, I'm just glad my call isn't W0ZZ... (sorry John)

This discussion isn't directly related to contesting, so we should
probably QRT for now.  I mention it here because I think contesters
have the best shot at making it work.

73,
Bob, N6TV