Last night I spent a while trying to work 8R1Z who is based in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. He was a strong 5x9 into Brooklyn at 0147z, but slowly faded, and was inaudible by 0242z.
I tried every technique that I know to bust the pile up. Firstly, I tried to put myself on the same frequency as the successful callers, but almost everyone was replying directly on his frequency. I also tried to listen for gaps in the QRM, because he seems to respond once he could actually hear a station, but that did not work. There were lots of gaps, but he could never hear me.
I ran the homebrew rig from my power supply, rather than from the 12 volt SLA battery, so that I could drive the amplifier fully. 14 volts gives about 5 watts out, which drives the PA to a full 50 watts. That made exactly no difference.
Frustrated, I starting thinking of other ways to secure the contact. A quick search on Dx Summit shows that he is frequently active, usually starting about 2000z or 2100z and running as late as 0100z or 0200z. That's 3pm to 9pm local (or 10pm his time). Sometimes he is on later, but that seems typical. He frequents 7150-7158.
Last night he started at 0143z on 40m according to a spot, he was on before that, but on a daylight DX band. He had faded by 0240z at my location, but I could still hear others working him.
I need to find him just as he is sending his first CQ. I don't have enough power to break the pileup. I am most likely to be successful if he starts up just as I am getting gray line propagation. I will check the band each evening when I am home from work. >/p>
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