A good DXer rule is "Stay away from cluster spots", especially if you live in a not easy radio area like yours truly, and if you like to work barefoot. If you have no noise on a channel, maybe weak, but the other station could hear you. In the middle of a human zoo, with people playing who screams louder, your chances are close to zero since the beginning. So, pratically, what one has to do? Something that every SWL learnt very well in his headphones days: to scan the band until you find a DX station calling for your area. The opposite is easier, but that's what you must look for, since you are his DX too, so it's pretty logic he calls for you. Then, try to answer: if propagation is there, it should do the magic. It happened me yesterday afternoon, at 15.38 UTC, on 14290 kHz. A QRB of 10.162 kilometers with 40/50 watts and a vertical homebrew antenna (the mighty "fishing rod"): believe it or not, it's possible! Patience, deed to search the band and not pretending a 5/9 report for every whisper on the air. That's what completes a DXer luggage. Good luck, everybody!
 

73,
Chris