I don’t know how it happens, but very often I find myselv being on the right frequency at the right time. The right time means when a DX station starts calling but before the crowd begins shouting.
It happened again today! I was scanning 17m trying to see whether I can work any EU stations using my HF2V. Not much activity on the band, however, suddenly I could hear ZS6BQI start calling CQ. I quickly replied to him and after a second attempt we were exchanging reports!
I guess this is how I work most of my DX contacts. After all, I do not have any big power amps nor full-size yagis and I am generally very little in a pile-up.
This QSO was also the very first one using the HF2V on 17m, which is not even supposed to work on this band. Heck, not even the built-in tuner in the IC-765 could mach it. I had to use my MFJ manual tuner to bring the SWR down to an acceptable value (around 1.5).