Dick Carroll wrote:

Robert Casey wrote:


Back in the early days of my HF career, I figured that if the band seems
empty, well either
propagation is out or everyone's asleep or at work or such. In any
event, there's nobody
to qso with, so check other bands.

But--- did you listen carefully for any very weak signals on CW? Often that
is the clue to what's happening, or about to happen, on an otherwise seemingly
dead band.
Sometimes when you tune around carefully, listening for any hint of signals,
you'll start something - you hear a very weak one, peak him up with your
receiver filtering, whatever you have to work with, listen long enough to ID him
and where he's located. If he signs off with the station he's working, and
you've tuned up, you give him a call. If he's copying as well as you, he answers
and suddenly you've turned a dead band into a QSO. More often than not, others
will hear you two in QSO and next thing you know they're either calling in
tailending you, or calling CQ nearby and drumming up their own contact. When you
next tune around, there'll be several QSO's going on on the "dead" band.

This scene plays out far more often than you would think, or used to back when
HF experienced hams were the norm rather than the exception. Sure is worth
trying, anyway.

Dick

One more hint-some of the best DX contacts I've ever had occurred when I called
CQ
on a "dead" band. You get to work the rare one who answers without the "benefit"
of
the hounds, no pileup, no QRM, at least until enough others hear you working him
to
draw a crowd.