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[K4HB]

We discussed calling with Tx1, Tx2, and sending the final 73 in another thread. There's something else I'm not really sure about, and that's when to call. OK, you spot a station you want to call. That station is in a QSO with another station, or calling another station at the time. Should you wait until the QSO is completed before you call, or do you just call away. I find it easier to call away. If you pause, someone else may claim your spot on the waterfall.

With DXpeditions, I believe it's OK to just call away, and they expect it. But sometimes I wonder if individuals get annoyed if you call them while they are in the process of working someone else. Sure, it's not a good idea to do that with SSB or CW, but things aren't the same with the WSJT-X modes. With openings to JA on 6M, I've had by board lit up with red lines. Doesn't bother me, I'll go down the line and work all I can.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Like I said, I don't care if stations call me while I'm calling or working another station with the WSJT-X modes. I'll put them on hold until I'm finished or I give up. But everyone doesn't think the same, and I hate to lose a possible contact that I need over this. Any thoughts? Pro or con, a general consensus is what I'm trying for.
 

[W1VT]

I prefer that rare DX to Connecticut simply call away so I have a better chance of finding them.
I consider coastal West Coast stations to be rare DX on 6M, as this is 4000km multihop E skip path.
These stations are easily buried under single hop stations.

On HF, Asian stations typically get priority over nearly everyone else.
With 284 entities on digital and 2438 Challenge points I've finding it more enjoyable to hand out QSOs to stations that need CT when the band is open than to look for stuff that simply isn't there.  There was a recent opening where I worked a lot of EAs on 6M.  No sign of the EA9 I need on 6M.

Zak W1VT

[VA3VF]

OK, you spot a station you want to call. That station is in a QSO with another station, or calling another station at the time. Should you wait until the QSO is completed before you call, or do you just call away. I find it easier to call away. If you pause, someone else may claim your spot on the waterfall.

I'm assuming you are not on the same frequency of the station you want to call, or any other station for that matter, then call away.

With DXpeditions, I believe it's OK to just call away, and they expect it.

Specially when using F/H, this way the DX can populate the queue.

But sometimes I wonder if individuals get annoyed if you call them while they are in the process of working someone else.

I wonder about that as well and I don't know the answer.

[K4HB]

I'm assuming you are not on the same frequency of the station you want to call, or any other station for that matter, then call away.

Right, I call split on what appears to be a clear frequency at my location.

[K4HB]

I prefer that rare DX to Connecticut simply call away so I have a better chance of finding them.
I consider coastal West Coast stations to be rare DX on 6M, as this is 4000km multihop E skip path.
These stations are easily buried under single hop stations.

Those are good points.

There was a recent opening where I worked a lot of EAs on 6M.  No sign of the EA9 I need on 6M.

When there's a good opening on 6M to Europe from my location, Spain usually comes in here like gang busters. I have 28 grids for Spain alone. Only have one EA9 on 6M, and that was a SSB contact in 2008.

[K0UA]

We discussed calling with Tx1, Tx2, and sending the final 73 in another thread. There's something else I'm not really sure about, and that's when to call. OK, you spot a station you want to call. That station is in a QSO with another station, or calling another station at the time. Should you wait until the QSO is completed before you call, or do you just call away. I find it easier to call away. If you pause, someone else may claim your spot on the waterfall.

With DXpeditions, I believe it's OK to just call away, and they expect it. But sometimes I wonder if individuals get annoyed if you call them while they are in the process of working someone else. Sure, it's not a good idea to do that with SSB or CW, but things aren't the same with the WSJT-X modes. With openings to JA on 6M, I've had by board lit up with red lines. Doesn't bother me, I'll go down the line and work all I can.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Like I said, I don't care if stations call me while I'm calling or working another station with the WSJT-X modes. I'll put them on hold until I'm finished or I give up. But everyone doesn't think the same, and I hate to lose a possible contact that I need over this. Any thoughts? Pro or con, a general consensus is what I'm trying for.
 

I don't seen anything wrong doing what you are doing.  In any case I do the same.  Of course we are calling "split" so as to not interfere. It can take a lot of tries sometimes to get the entity that we need. You never know why you or they might be "rare" to the other guy. Perhaps for grid, or county or even prefix.   After all, who needs another KØ, or Missouri for that matter, but some people do want my county.  Squeaky wheel gets the grease. I say call away. If nothing else he may answer you to just get rid of you. 

[NN2X]

We discussed calling with Tx1, Tx2, and sending the final 73 in another thread. There's something else I'm not really sure about, and that's when to call. OK, you spot a station you want to call. That station is in a QSO with another station, or calling another station at the time. Should you wait until the QSO is completed before you call, or do you just call away. I find it easier to call away. If you pause, someone else may claim your spot on the waterfall.

With DXpeditions, I believe it's OK to just call away, and they expect it. But sometimes I wonder if individuals get annoyed if you call them while they are in the process of working someone else. Sure, it's not a good idea to do that with SSB or CW, but things aren't the same with the WSJT-X modes. With openings to JA on 6M, I've had by board lit up with red lines. Doesn't bother me, I'll go down the line and work all I can.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Like I said, I don't care if stations call me while I'm calling or working another station with the WSJT-X modes. I'll put them on hold until I'm finished or I give up. But everyone doesn't think the same, and I hate to lose a possible contact that I need over this. Any thoughts? Pro or con, a general consensus is what I'm trying for.
 

It depends if the Ham Operator is using "Automatic" Program like SV9FVE (Modified WSJT-X) If you call a DX Station, and you are not first, you have to wait until 73's and repeat the reach out...(If manual (No Auto tool) the DX Operator can pick the order in which he or she desire..

Not only that, there other programs that will indicate if the DX worked you before, it will not respond your call..

FYI, there is automatic logging...You can set the system up whereas all 100% automatic, including logging.

You can go out for dinner, go to the mall, shop with the wife, go fishing with your kids, and come back and work DXCC, without even being at the radio

Takes the fun out.

But that is where we are at today..(That is why I am migrating back to my roots, CW!)

DE NN2X Tom

[K4HB]

I say call away. If nothing else he may answer you to just get rid of you. 

I've found myself calling away again and again when I felt a station may be ignoring me. I usually got a reply eventually, and figured it was to get rid of me. But in a few cases, a station "forgot" to log me. I recall one station who would not budge. I needed his state on one of the WARC bands. Day after day, I bombarded that rascal with calls every time I saw him on the band I needed. On his QRZed page, he wrote in the 3rd person and referred to himself as Mr. so-and-so. I must have been out of that big shot's league. I finally got another station in his state.

If my memory is correct, JTDX will automatically halt your Tx if the station you're calling calls a station other than you. If that is in fact a feature, that's another reason to wonder if some out there have a problem with calling away. Haven't used JTDX in a while, and my memory may be foggy. And if that is the behavior of the program, there may be a way to change it in settings.

[K6BRN]

Harold (K4HB):

Responding to a station already in a QSO is done all the time and is a favored practice of JA hams - they are masters at it and are generally excellent operators.  The response to the station already in a QSO is made on an apparently clear frequency that is different from the current QSO in progress.  Responding with a signal report rather than just grid square allows the follow-up QSO to complete more quickly.

The response will appear in the receiving station's right FT8 RX window (queue) along with the current QSO.  A polite (receiving) operator will finish the QSO in progress then work the responding stations in the queue in order of response, while keeping their TX frequency unchanged.  The responding station may also keep their TX frequency unchanged or less often move to the receivig stations frequency.  Moving frequency can be a risk as channel noise and interference at the receiving end might be different and the QSO can sometimes be dropped.  I generally keep my responding frequency.

Occasionally I see a receiving station work two (or more) responders at once, interleaving calls.  This can be an annoying practice and often leads to WSJT-X losing call sequencing.  I do not recommend it.

In SoCal, JA stations tend to boom in later in the day and pile ups are common - I just work through the responders one at a time, in order, often as much as four deep. 

Some rare DX station QSO pileups can be a free-for-all and are nowhere near as polite as a JA pileup.  In those cases, some DX stations will then ingnore responders with bad habits, particularly those that respond on the DX stations frequency while another QSO is in progress.  Responding to a DX stations CQ on the same frequency is fine - but sometimes it works better to respond off frequency to avoid the inevitable mashup of responses on that frequency - its a (fast) judgement call on a case by case basis, depending on how the pileup goes.

Brian - K6BRN

[K4HB]

Responding to a station already in a QSO is done all the time and is a favored practice of JA hams - they are masters at it and are generally excellent operators.

That's so true, I've worked a lot of JAs that way. I've had them calling me on 6M like I was rare DX. I enjoyed working them, and picked up some new grids on 6M, and new IOTAs on 6M and HF.

[AF5CC]

I usually got a reply eventually, and figured it was to get rid of me. But in a few cases, a station "forgot" to log me.

That is a trick that some DXpeditions and DX stations have used for pileup management for stations that repeatedly break the rules, like calling out of turn.  They are asking for 3s and a 2 land station keeps calling. You work them so they stop calling, but don't log them so they aren't rewarded for their bad behavior.

Not that you did anything wrong.  I am assuming that this station wasn't specific in their CQs or their QSOs, just working away on the band.  The working but not logging worked much better before on-line logs and LOTW where the offending station couldn't figure out they weren't in the log until after the DXpedition was over.

73 John AF5CC

[K4HB]

I am assuming that this station wasn't specific in their CQs or their QSOs, just working away on the band.

Those stations were usually not calling CQ. They appeared to only be answering stations they needed, the heck with anyone else. Since I needed them for their state or whatever, I called them. And I usually waited until their QSO was over with other stations before calling. After getting the impression they may be ignoring me, I got more aggressive with my calling. And that usually worked, and I figured they wanted to get rid of me. But with a couple of them, a solid QSO didn't get a LoTW confirmation. The only station I recall that didn't budge was the one who refers to himself in the 3rd person on his QRZ page as Mr so-and-so. Guess he showed me he's just as stubborn as Mr K4HB.