I worked K1N on 20 meter CW yesterday afternoon. What a huge pile up. But I found for the first time that the second receiver in the Elecraft K3 can really do the job.
I had tried using it before, but when it is activated there is a 3 dB drop on the main receiver. When you’re barely hearing Tromelin, cutting it my 3 dB brings it to nearly nothing. In this situation, the K1N signal was strong. So all I really needed to do was move down the pile up listening for the station who was responding. Once I zeroed in on that, I was able to move around a bit, eventually find a small window, and make my call. After about three or four attempts, he came right back to me. I was amazed. It worked.
So yes, there are big pile ups and lots of silly interference. But it is possible to get them into the log. Next, I hope to work them on RTTY. Good luck.
Update: I did manage to work them on 20 meters RTTY and 12 meters CW.
