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Question about operating 'split' in DX pileups

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K7BCV:
I've worked very little DX, and I have a question about the big guns operating split.
I haven't been able to work out if there is any sort of standard offset between the
big gun's listening frequency and his transmitting frequency.

IS there some sort of rule-of-thumb, or do you just hunt and search and hope
you get lucky?

Does this vary by band? By contest? By ITU region???

K7BCV

KC9TNH:
Fair question. Not a contester here & don't play one on TV, less a few very short CW events or the occasional cross-band military event once in a blue moon. (These folks will publish well in advance what they're transmitting on & their listening freq).

The short of it is that it's the calling station's decision, assuming he can make it work on both frequencies; and apparently they don't give that alot of consideration either.  The most common thing I've heard from a DX station (OCONUS) is "listening up five", so for example he is transmitting on 14.295, therefore listening on 14.300, which makes everyone pile up their signals on an internationally acknowledged emergency frequency center point.

From what I can tell the biggest difficulties from originating stations, especially those who are quite far away from their listening freq, is that they seldom identify, which should include the above notification. They get on one time and then just keep saying QRZ so, as you say, hunting them down can be tough.

Seems these days if someone isn't "spotting" on the internet no one knows who they're talking to. You can hear stations getting their standard '59' signal report and then asking the DX station, "your CALL, please give me your CALL."
There might be some more secret-squirrel etiquette involved in one of the DX "How to" guides online or from DXCC or DXZone.
Good luck with all that.  :)

Recon prepper:
I haven't been able to work out if there is any sort of standard offset between the
big gun's listening frequency and his transmitting frequency.   NOPE Only because you never know where people will be transmitting and you cant always say I will be here or here because that frequency may already be in use. You just have to find open bandwidth to operate.

IS there some sort of rule-of-thumb, or do you just hunt and search and hope
you get lucky? LUCK

Does this vary by band? By contest? By ITU region??? not really

Most will say I transmit here and listen here that way you know.

K7BCV:
Thanks guys.

I guess the solution is just to listen to those trying to reach them, and when
I hear someone acknowledged, I know there were close enough to correct
that the big gun could hear them. Either that or when the pile up diminishes,
the big gun remembers to announce where he's listening.

Jeff, K7BCV

AD:
If its a big well publicized DX event, they usually will list the freqs on a website

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