I finally worked VK9ML this morning on 80 and 160 meters on my third day of trying.

I run 1,000 watts and have an Inverted L for 160 and an inverted V on 80. It might be easier for them to hear you if you have more power and/or better antennas.

Please note: I have a low noise floor on both 160 and 80—no S-meter level showing. In the time window I note below I am always hearing some signal from VK9MA. They are very-weak to weak and I never see them move the S-meter.

Here are some tips to make it easier for you.

They don’t hear nearly as well as their signal is strong. They are patient in making the QSOs and are only running around one or two contacts per minute. They peak for me near the end of our gray line. I use DXATLAS for tracking gray line in equal azimuth view—I view this all the time for low band operations. The pile-ups (USA) are mostly calling incessantly on 80 meters, which compounds their poor ability to hear your/my signal. The pile-ups on 160 are more orderly.

Be prepared to start listening at 0500 in the morning local time (1300Z) and give it up at 0700 local time (1500Z) which is after sun-rise. Starting an hour earlier may help your chances but, has the detriment of still being dark in the US East of W6 land and those eastern US stations contribute to the bad pile-up interference.

My Icom 7600 has a band scope and for making the 80 meter QSO the ‘scope was key to making the QSO. On 80 they generally work 2 kHz up and will vary +/- one kHz either way, sometimes higher. However, if he is making better rate he will stay within 250 Hz of his selected RX frequency (typically 3 kHz up). When the rate is low, the operator will dwell on a frequency for a period of time and then move randomly up or down. I finally worked them on 80 by moving to the opposite side of his RX range. E.G., VK9MA was at 3.525 is working his pile-up at 3.528 and I went to 3.526 and made the contact in a few minutes—this was after ~75 minutes of chasing the pile-up.

On 160, VK9MA is usually working three up and the pile-up is being worked +/- 250 Hz. Although, it will spread down somewhat. The QSO rate seems higher for them on 160 so I assume they hear better on 160. The operator moves up or down from the center frequency appearing to return to the center after each QSO, unless a quite strong signal appears on the previous QSO frequency. Most of their QSOs will be on the pile up center frequency. I tend to place my carrier about 100 to 200 Hz below the previous QSO in order to change the tone of my CW signal from the previous QSO.

In general both low ban operators seem to spend more time picking out very weak stations (us!) in a narrow band rather that sweeping a few kHz trying to find a stronger station. Only when this fails do they move frequency to sweep the pile-up. It’s frustrating because at any given time you don’t know if their RX problem is the incessant calling or their inability to hear our signals. In either case making YOUR signal louder would help you.

Good Hunting and

Best Regards,

Dave, w6de