How to manage your first pile-up.

Foundations of Amateur Radio

There are skills that come from thinking and there are skills that come from doing. There is place for both in Amateur Radio.

There is nothing in the world that is like the experience of working a pile-up, unless the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange counts, but I've not personally been there and it doesn't look as intimate as a radio shack.

Working stations across the planet that are coming in thick and fast is an amazing thrill, not unlike getting onto a roller-coaster. The long slow journey to the top of the ride is calling CQ, the crest of the hill is the first response and the loop-de-loop is when they're all calling at the same time; rolling back down to earth at the end of the ride is the petering out of the calls, only to start again.

If you've never experienced it, I'd strongly recommend that you find a way to put yourself in the position where you are exposed to this absolutely thrilling experience.

So, what do you do when you're actually in this situation?

Hopefully you're not going to be on your own the first time, but it does happen and it might be that the person you're with has never had the experience either, so here's some ideas on what to do.

The first thing to remember, this is YOUR pile-up. You're the one running it, you're the one in control of it, it's your actions that make it work, or not.

I've said in the past, it's all about rhythm. It's about expectation management. If the pile-up sees you floundering about, not being consistent, not giving out succinct information, they'll go elsewhere and the experience will be over before it begins.

So. The noise is overwhelming, there are stations all over the place calling you. If you hear a callsign, or most of a callsign, then call that. Don't change your mind if someone else comes back instead.

You've called CQ and let's say that you heard, K1R. You call back, K1R, 59. If the station operator on the other end is any good, the response might be HK1R, 59 also. Your response will be HK1R. CQ VK6FLAB.

But lets say that you only heard K1. You call back, "the station with K1". The response is three stations at the same time, one SK1Q, one VK1AA, one JA7BG. You could get upset about the JA7 station calling, but remember, he too has lots of stations calling around him, he might not have properly heard either.

You say "the station with K1, K1 only please". Two stations come back. SK1Q and VK1AA. You pick the one you hear best. SK1 again. You hear SK1Q.

"SK1Q, 59."

If your memory is great, you could also go on to say "VK1AA 59" and then call CQ. This is not something you'd do on your first or 10th pile-up, but it's something to work toward.

The thing that took me a while to recognise is that there are idiots on the band who think that their callsign is the most important. My best advice is to ignore them. This is hard. They'll be very noisy. One trick, call while they're calling, rather than let their rhythm destroy yours. Remember, this is YOUR pile-up.

Other things to note. I've spoken in the past about the so-called standard phonetic alphabet. As you might remember, there is no such thing. This will trip you up. Don't let it bother you. Other fun stuff that happens in a pile-up, especially if it's been going for a little while, is that you notice little comments. You might inject one of your own. "HK1R Big Signal, you're 59". Or if it's a friend, K9CT, you might say: "K9CT, Hi Craig, long time no see, 59." It's the little inserts in the middle of a pile-up, in the middle of the night that make you smile and give you that shot of adrenaline to make it last longer.

I have to admit. For me, there is no stronger drug that riding a pile-up.

Of course, this is not all there is to learn about pile-ups. It's to give you some idea of what's going on and what you might do to keep it alive when it happens to you.

Feel free to get in touch with questions if you like.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

This and other episodes are available online at http://podcasts.itmaze.com.au