DX Expedition
The pile-up trainer puts you in the queue. This puts you on the other side, where the queue does not end and the log lives in your head.
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Several stations call at once. Pick one, type it, press Enter. Then the next wave comes - and some of them you have already worked.
The log is the exercise
This is what separates a DXpedition from a pile-up drill. In a real one the same stations call again, because they are not sure they got through. Somebody who worked you two minutes ago is back in the queue, calling as hard as everyone else.
Work them again and you lose time and gain nothing. Ignore them too readily and you lose one who genuinely is trying again. There is no signal that tells them apart - only your memory of who you have already logged.
The log builds up below the tool. During the run it is the reminder it would have been on a real expedition; afterwards it is the score.
Why the score is a rate
DXpeditions talk in contacts per hour, not in percentages. A team that works 900 an hour is doing well; one that works 200 with perfect accuracy is not, because the queue outlives the operators.
So the number here is a rate, extrapolated to the hour - and the absolute count stands next to it, because at short runs an hourly rate is large and says little.
Accuracy is shown too, and the two belong together. A high rate with many duplicates is not a high rate; it is a busy operator who is not getting anywhere.
The four levels
- Quiet - two callers, no repeats. This is a pile-up in name only, and it is the right place to learn the sequence.
- Busy - three callers, one in five is a repeat. The memory starts to matter.
- Rush - five callers at 26 words per minute, a third of them repeats.
- Madness - seven callers at 30, nearly half repeats. Nobody copies this cleanly; the skill is picking out one and moving on.
The last line is worth taking seriously. On a real pile-up you do not try to hear everyone. You hear one, work it, and let the rest call again.
What this does not simulate
Plenty, and it is worth being clear about it.
There is no split operation here - on a real expedition the DX station listens on a different frequency from the one it transmits on, and finding where to call is half the game for the callers. There is no signal report exchange, no band conditions, no propagation opening that closes under you.
What is simulated is the one thing that transfers: hearing a callsign out of several, deciding fast, and remembering who you have already had. The pile-up trainer covers the other side of the same skill.
Frequently asked questions
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What is a DXpedition?
A group of operators travelling to a place with few or no active stations and putting it on the air for a few days. Everyone who needs that country calls at once, and that is the pile-up.
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Why do duplicates cost me?
Because the contact already exists. Working it again takes the same time and adds nothing - and on a real expedition the time is the scarce thing.
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Should I try to copy every caller?
No, and that is the main lesson. Pick one, work it, let the rest call again. Trying to hear everyone gets you nobody.