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RagChew

Edition 13/2026

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Link to our Weekly

COORS

Net

Reporting

Form

Dah-di-dah-di-dah
This Week’s

Reports

Wednesday’s

Post Morsum

The Choice of Morse
Vi Curve Tracer
CW

Code

Report
Cheerio

Practice

Redfest 26
Calling CW Testers
Watam

Hill

Drake Twins
Morse Training

Net

A New

Epoch

for CW

Morse

Code

QSO

There’s

Sport in the SW

Mates

Pacific

Sought

No Such Thing

° Circuit Drawing
°0 What
©

is QRS?

Reporting

° Signal
Prosign

Signal

strength

Strength
Loss When

Narrow

Filtering

of the Month

Di-dah-di-dah-dit - including this week’s
About the CQ QRS

Group

smile-maker

RSS

Dah-di-dah-di-dah
Well well well - who’d

have believed after the geomagnetic storm early in

the week, that things would

have settled down

thought there was less CQQRS

by Tuesday evening.

stations on 40m than usual when |

but the reports below show that as usual, | was wrong!

listened,

64 different

stations reported by 45 of our family members.
Some found 40m to be particularly quiet (noise-wise), and for others there
was a preponderance of DX stations, all falling over each-other as is their
want sometimes!

20m

performed ok for our mates down-under in Europe,

and a growing number of us up top in Oceania
hearing things.

have been listening-in and

Great stuff!

And speaking of 20m, to make

life a bit easier from Patrick VK2IOW who

edits the text reports from your report submissions on our webform,
can report on 15m and 20m
something

in the 80m

segment of our webform,

you

by doing

like this:

[15m]
Your text
[20m]
Your text
[80m]
Your text

And of course, when

entering any 15m or 20m callsigns in the

Heard or Tried fields of the 80m form, please append
callsign (eg VK6QI@15

VK2KI@20) to make

@15

Worked,

or @20 to each

life easier for John VK2RU

who

edits the spreadsheet each week.
And speaking of 80m, this week was quieter than normal, but it’s good to
see that more and more people are giving 80m
and yes antennas are a challenge,
across Oceania, with some

atry.

Yes it can be noisy,

but after dark, 80m

can do really well

nice signals.

To make things a little less

frustrating when the band’s quiet, | recommend

our CQQRS

Alerts group - a quick “VK2KI calling CQ on 3555kHz” will often bring a
response or two.

And.... when we finally ditch Daylight Saving time and

the sun sets on the ionosphere earlier and earlier, the band will open
earlier than now - hooray!
Speaking of Tuesday’s net, please have a read of the nicely-crafted report
by Peter VK3WOW.

Our bands are for everyone to use - QRS, QRQ, QRP,

and probably a bunch of other QRs - everyone

has the same right to be

there, irrespective of whether or not we happen to choose to use a
segment for our beloved QRS Net.
understanding;

So hopefully there was just a mis-

it’s really hard to convey true meaning, voice tone, facial

expression etc in CW!

Peter has taken the initiative of apologising on

behalf of our QRS family to the operator concerned;
worked

thanks mate.

We've

really hard to create a friendly place for new operators to have a

go at CW safely, and for CW fans to get together for a bit of fun and
practice among

friends - but the resource is ours to share;

operators who come across our mob to remember
perhaps join in themselves
newcomers.

I'd like all

it in a positive light,

in future, and certainly recommend

the net to

So back to this week’s newsletter.

Once again, we have excellent articles

contributed by our team

- thank you all, and we have even more

members

There’s No Such Thing questions that I’m keen to hear your thoughts
about.

And | hope you enjoy the end piece - I’m hoping more people will

scan all the way to the end each week to see what awaits.

Website
If you'd like to find out a bit about our net, or would like to pass information
to others about our Tuesday get-togethers,

here’s the link to our website.

bit.ly/COORSWebsite
So here we go - on behalf of the CQQRS

Editorial team, please enjoy the

newsletter.
dit-dit

Mark

Bosma

VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful

South

Bowning NSW

Patrick

John

Milthorpe NSW

on a track

VK2IOW

cagrsnet@gmail.com

VK2RU

somewhere

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Nigel
G4RWI
our other grey
nomad

Richard
VK6HRC
Padbury WA

Reports

Lance
VK7TO
Margate TAS

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

With thanks to Nigel G4RWI’s clever software, and John VK2RU’s clever
spreadsheet work, here’s the 64 stations heard by 45 members

of our

team on Tuesday:

COORS

Team

Member

Qso

DL/MONNK | Worked 20m |

VK2IOW

DL/MONNK |

G7BED

Tried 20m

DOZEMR

Heard on air

G7BED

Worked 20m |

G7BED
G7BED

Heard 20m | DL/MONNK|
Tried 20m_ | DL/MONNK

VKIWA

Heard on air

VK2A0E

Heard on air

VK2ASB

Heard on air

VK2DLF

Heard on air

VK2EBN

Heard on air

VK2GAS

Worked 40m |

VK3DBD

WKA4CEG

Qs0

VK2KI

UT2UN
VK2KI

VK3KLE

Qso

Qso 4

Qso5

QSO

Qso7

Qso8

VK2IOW

Worked 20m | DL/MONNK

VK2KI

Heard 15m

VK2KI

Worked 20m | DL/MONNK

ZL3TK

VK2KI

Heard 20m

VK2KI

Tried 20m

G/BED

VK2KI

Worked 40m |

VK2EBN

VK2KI

Heard 40m | VK3MOW |

VK2RU

Heard 40m

VK2GAS

VK2WP

Worked 40m |

WK2DLF

VK4BRO | VKSDRQ|

VKLWA

VK3ACU

Worked 40m |

VK3KLE

VK2DLF |

ZK3TK |

VK5A0 |

VK3BWN

Worked 40m |

WK2DLF

VK4EV |

VK5CZ

VK3BWN

Heard 40m

VK3DRQ_

VK3DBD

Heard on air

VK3DRQ

Heard 20m

VK3DBD

VK3DRQ

Tried 20m

G7BED

VK3DRQ

Worked 40m|

VKSET/P

VK3DRQ

Heard 40m |

VK3BWN |

VK2DLF

VK3KLE

Worked 40m |

VKITAAW |

VK2GAS | VK3ACA | VK4CEG |

VK3KLE

Worked 40m

WE6M

VK5FD

VK3DBD

VK3KLE

Heard 40m

VK2KI

VK3KLE

Worked 80m |

VWK2EBN

VK3WOW

| Worked 40m

VK6BA

VK3 WOW

Heard 40m

VK3KLE

VK3WOW

| Worked 80m

VK7TO

VKGHRG |

VK4IM

VKACEG | VK2GAS |

VK2WP | VKIWA|

| VK3DRQ | VK2ARZ | VK3ACU

VK6KHZ | VK2WP |

|] VKS5SA0O |

VK4LX | VK5AO |

VK2ASB | VK2WP |

ZL1CJB |

VK3XE |

VK7TA |

VKAEV

VK5AO |

VKSEV |

VK5CZ

VK5A0O |

VK/TA |

VK3CU

VKSET |

VK/TA

VK2KI

Heard 40m

VK3DA

VK4AW

Heard 40m

VK6HRC

VK2KI

VK4BRO

Worked 40m |

VKACEG

VK2WP

VK4BRO

Heard 40m

VKIWA

VK4IM

VK4CEG

Heard on air

VK4EV

Worked 40m |

VK3BWN

VK3KLE

VK4EV

Heard 40m

VK2ASB

VK3DRQ | VK3ACU |

VK5A0

VK4IM

Worked 40m

VK2KI

VK4IM

Heard 40m

VK3CLE

VK4IM

Heard 40m |

VK3BWN |

VK2EBN | VK3DRQ|}

VK2DLF | VK2ASB}

VKS5A0

Worked 40m |

VK3DRQ_

| VK3ACU

VK5CZ

Heard on air

G7BED

VK2IR

VKSET

Heard 20m |

VK2IOW

VKSET

Worked 40m |

VK3DRQ

VKSET

Heard 40m |

VK3BWN |

VK5FD

Worked 40m |

VK3KLE
VK2ASB

Heard 40m

VK5PH

Heard on air

VK6BA

Heard on air

VK2SB

VK2DLF | VK3KLE | VKSWP |
VK3DRQ | VK3ACU

VK6FN

Heard on air

VK6HRC

Worked 40m |

VWK6KHZ

VKGFN

VK6HRC

Heard 40m

VK6JDM

VK3ACU | VK3DRQ|

VK6HRC

Tried 80m

VK2KI

VK6JDM

Worked 40m

VKGFN

VK6JDM

Heard 40m

VK3KLE

VKGHRC | VK2DLF | VK3DRQ|

VK6JDM

Heard 40m

VK3ACU

VK5A0

VK6KD

Worked 20m

VK5GG

VK2IL

VK6KD

Heard 20m

VK2IOW

CK3ALC | MONNK|}

VK6KD

Tried 20m

F5SIN

VK6KD

Worked 40m |

VKOKHZ

VK6KD

Heard 40m

VK6KW

VK6KHZ

Worked 40m |

VKGHRC

VK6KHZ

Worked 80m |

VK6HRC

VK6POP

Heard 40m

VKGKHZ

VKSATK | VK5SAO | VK3ACU

VK6POP

Heard 40m

VK6KHZ

VK5ATK | VK5SAO | VK3ACU |

VK6ql

Heard 40m

VKGHRC

VK4IM

VK6QI

Heard 80m

VK2KI

VK7TA

Worked 40m |

VK3KLE

VK7TA

Heard 40m

VK6JDM_

VK7TO

Worked 80m | VK3\WOW

VK7 WW

Heard 40m

ZL1ICJB

Heard on air

ZL3ABX
ZL3TK

VK/TA

VKSAO

Heard on air

VK2KI

G/BED

VK3XE

VK5FD

VK6BA

VK5CZ

VK/TA

VK4AW

VK5KFG

VK2S5B |

VKGFN

VK2KI
VK4IM |

VKGKHZ | VK2WP | VKIWA]

KG2K]J

VK7TA | VK6KD |

VK2IR

|] VK6KD
VK6KD

VK2KI

VK2ASB | VK2WP |

VK6JDM

VK2GAS | VK3KLE | VKGKHZ|

Heard 40m

VK5KFG

VK4IM

Heard 15m

DO2ZEMR

VK3XE |

VK6FS |

VKS5SCZ |

VK4EV

VK2WP |

VK2IR

VKSPH

VK2KI

ZL3TK

Heard 20m | DL/MONNK]|

ZL3TK

Worked 40m |

ZL3TK

Heard 40m

VK4CEG

VK4EV

ZL3TK

Heard 40m |

VK3BWN |

Comments:

VK7TA

G/BED

VK3ACU

John’s spreadsheet above shows the known stations heard or worked on
last Tuesday’s CQQRS
the comments

Net (reported via our webform

in the team

members’

bit.ly/COORSNET );

reports follow.

The comments

compiled for us by the clever software built by Nigel G4RWI

were

and the layout

was perfected by Patrick VK2IOW.
Thanks again to Nigel, Patrick and John for the work, and to every team
member who submitted a report -

HU
From Nic VK7WW

at Legana

[40m]
A lot of “Flash!” QRN

around tonight! Thunderstorms earlier!

From Chris G7BED at Northampton, England
[20m]
Considering

the radio black-out that we had yesterday

due to the solar storm, | didn't think anything would
work this morning. But how wrong was that
assumption.

My CQ

OC got a call from UT2UN,

and as | like working Ukraine, we engaged
short rubber stamp QSO.

Then

and had a

David, VK3DBD

called

with a wonderful RST 579 which held up nicely for 15 mins or so. Following that
QSO,

| copied a very weak signal, which may have been Mark, VK2KI

Mark, my apologies,
queue, which

| was still in when

had a

| went on air, but | found another ‘localish' SDR that

did the trick. | then heard Ross DL/MONNK
we didn't manage

- if it was

it was SO weak here in the UK. The Ironstone WebSDR

call me (via the Australian WebSDR)

but

to hook up. All in all, a good session considering, so my thanks to

you all for trying and | hope to get you in the log soon. Best Regards, Chris G7BED

From Scotty VK4BRO

at Gold Coast

[40m]
Work has got in the road the last couple of weeks

- but not tonight!

Great to be back on air for a couple of QSOs and to listen to a few
more to practice.

From Ross

Thanks!

DL/MONNK

at Exeter UK via Stuttgart Germany

[20m]
The

OSQO

with

Mark

VK9?KI

was

classic "groping

in the dark" radio

- right on the edge of readability,
but definitely a contact. Then

| got

a signal so loud | practically had

Using RCForb software to radio in Stuttgart
would be Pat VK2IOW
And

to tear my headphones off to

avoid being deafened!

| knew it

- nobody else has a signal that strong and clear. Thanks,

Pat.

many thanks to Mike DL3YZ for letting me use his FT-991A radio in Germany

over an internet connection from here in the UK.

From Darrin VK3AAP

at Sandringham

[40m]
Very quick RX around but very high QRM tonight.

From Lance VK7TO

at Hobart
[80m]
| was tied up with visitors for the evening

to pop in for one contact before bed.
shape so dropped down to 80 m.
| was answered

had a lovely 599+10

the effort

There was no discernible

activity, but the WIA morse beacon was
out a CQ call.

but made

40 m wasn't in great
booming

in so put

by Peter, VK3WOW

into Hobart.

who

It's not often that | enjoy

signals like that, so enjoyed a true arm-chair copy QSO.

From David VK6KD

at Ballajura WA

[20m]
We

don't

have

a camments

area

for 20m

hit

"WOW"

90m

was

wow

open and active.
QSOs

wvuwerwy

| stayed within our QRS

own

wee

frequencies so

were with stations within or very close.

don't think some stations were working on QRS

Somehow,

speeds but it

gave me a pickup in my step to match their speeds and keep
me working hard.

At one stage | used the recording function on my ICOM7610

so |

could play back their call sign numerous times before | was sure | got it right, hihi.
Great fun and hope 80m

is a bit more lively into my end of town next week.

73s to

all. VA6KD
[40m]
Activity on 40m appeared a bit dead compared to previous weeks.
Ballajura WA

most activity was

being heard up on 20m.

At my QTH

| did achieve one QSO

40m but signal levels dropped drastically in a very short time making an extended
QSO

challenging.

From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn

[20m]
| waited for too long for Chris G7BED,
RSN

he was

221. | call several times without luck. Cdx

were not good and he was for too long on another

osm
Nothing, rien, was heard from OM

Edi on 15m.

[40m]
Apart from the higher than "normal" Noise level,
little else to report.

After finishing the last QSO, a phone call came through and lasted more than an
hour. That "made" my day.

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere
[15m & 20m]
\Whean

| sav

'heard'

| mean

the

statinne

were

eee

detectable but QNP,

ere

See

identifiable only because of

the frequencies listed by ops on OM

Mike's activity

page.
[40m]

40 m was looking really good.
lamentably low QSO

count, | was

catch up on Zoom for CWops

From Donald VK6JDM

Supreme key by Eric Sorenson

To explain my

real busy with, among

Academy

other things, attending a

alumni.

20 km west of Esperance

[40m]
Had a QSO with Max VK6FN
who

reported reception as 579.

This is a remarkable change and
suggests the felling of a number

of trees may have removed
some of his 360 degree antenna

null. He was 599 on my clear
view antenna which stands atop

Wotam Hill.
Listened to plenty of stations

from 0800 UTC for two hours great morse practice. Plenty of
stations on 40 heard thanks to
the Bosma

effect which appears

to be building in strength.
The photo shows the tower on

top of Wotam Hill and the nearby hut which is called Lady Chatterley's garden shed.
It bears a sign next to the french doors saying "gardener vacancy".

If | could evict her

ladyship the hut would make a great radio shack. We can only dream.

From Bob VK6POP

at Albany WA

[80m]
Iwas

ina

ZOOM

meetinn

at the

time

wasn't

in a

nasitinn

take the plunge.

From Paul VK3KLE

at Stawell

[40m]
Many stations worked on the Ten Tec Omni,
paseter keyer. The band was like glass later
in evening, great propagation and zero static
crashes, 80m
Ten

Tec Omni

From lan VK7TA

also surprisingly quiet for

summer months.

at Latrobe

[40m]

| thought | was running 100w, but only at the end of the
evening did | realise that | turned the power down to 10 or

20W! Still, George VK2AOE was only running 4W from his 1
valve rig but the copy was good here.

See

From Craig VK3CLD

Ve ont,oem

at Alexandra

[40m]
Se

Mount Buller

Unable to even listen to the QRS Net as we
have

From John VK5ET

severe

storms

atm.

at Hope Valley

[20m]
| ate

af noise

taninht

whether

it was

the

new

SOTA

gry

re rr ee

band, linked dipole | was trying out or condx.

Did hear

other stations apart from G7BED

on 20m, but

too much

and VK2IOW

noise to QSL callsigns etc.

[40m]
Condx

not very good, sounded

were very weak compared

like there was lots of ‘doubling’??

to last time here.

me strong report, RST 597+40,

Generally signals

Enjoyed good QSO

my RST to Manny

559.

with Manny,

gave

Pity other stations were not

as good.

Due to noisy condx / weak signals and worn out by hot weather while locating a
suitable area for the antenna,

| retired early, enjoying the sunset through the trees as

it was starting to cool down a bit. 73 John.

From your editor Mark VK2KI

at Beautiful South Bowning

NSW

[15m]
No luck hearing Edi DO2EMR
from Mike DL3YZ's
and calling.

this week, but we knew

reporting page that Edi was on

| did hear Stan ZL3TK calling him 1kHz

lower as coordinated via Mike's webpage..

[20m]
Ross

DL/MONNK was up and down

below the noise floor.

in the slow QSB

- sometimes

He was struggling to hear my 50 Watts.

Q5 other times

Chris G7BED

was

about the same strength, but slightly poorer readability (and it wasn't just my poor
CW skills this time).
RSN

| received his RST 229 report but he wasn't able to QSL

311 - nearly, but no banana this week.

[40m]
At the start of the net I listened in to Graham VK4CEG

North of Brisbane chatting to

Armin VK2GAS

North of Sydney - both good signals here.

Brian VK2EBN

up at Newcastle whose

| then hooked

up with

Flex radio and dipole lineup was thundering in

here at S9.

After returning from 20m,
makan.

When

| listened in to a number of QSOs

before heading off masa

| returned, the band was full of DX, but not much

in the way of

Oceania stations;

however my calls paid off with a QSO

with Richard VKGHRC

Padhiirw

wara

nit

Sianale

arniind

Ait

warkahla

and

af tha

OGR

AaMvuly:

ici

| then hooked

WW Ned

CAP

up with Adam

been his first CW QSO

VK4IM;

NCR

CAP

I'd worked Adam

for many years.

StL,

two weeks

ago which had

Well his code was coming along nicely - and

| found myself slowly notching up the speed until we were humming along at around
10wpm,

which he reported was comfortably adequate in terms of copying enough to

get the gist.

We even exchanged SKCC numbers - just to celebrate the use of

straight keys at both ends.

[80m]
Called for a fair while on 80m tonight - no luck was the stern reply.
DX activity going on around 3535kHz that seemed

There was some

to be causing a ruckus, but it was

all too fast for my slow brain.

From Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful south Bowning NSW vis the
VK6SEG

KiwiSDR at Hoddys Well near Northam WA.

[40m]
Interesting to look at signals on the Hoddys Well
Joondalup

KiwiSDR.

When

| was working Richard VK6HRC,

fairly weak into the SDR
I

~ Rockingham

probably beyond ground wave, possibly a bit of high angle
refraction - or maybe

signal was around S6.

over a distance of 60km

he was

Later when

back-scatter possibly?

| was working Adam

VK4IM

However

North of Brisbane,

Adam's signal was consistently about an S-point stronger than mine (RSN 561 vs
951).

Adam

has a full-size quarter wave vertical which should have a lower angle of

radiation than my 80m Double-Extended Zepp at about 7 m, and probably 3dB more
power as well;

so this all gels nicely.

Amazing tools these KiwiSDRs.

[80m]
Nothing but myself heard, apart from the DX kerfuffle further down the band.

From Patrick VK2IOW

a ea

between

Onlv
-

Bathurst and Orange

hrieflv this

aveaningn

Had

a OSO

with

Ross

MONNK,

mere

who was using Mike's rig in Stuttgart.

Conditions were good both ways.

After our QSO

ltalian ham called me and we moved

up 2 kHz.

me his antenna was an indoor vertical, which

an
He told

| thought

was pretty good for a VK contact.

From Peter Dann VK3WOW

at Blackburn

[40m]
One odd incident on Tuesday

night left me wondering

had adopted a "cop on the beat" role for the QRS

if someone

net. | hope not,

and it's possible | may have misunderstood the situation.

Around 0955Z | heard a station call "QRL?" (twice) on 7028 kHz,

;

and then proceed to call CQ (without, at this point, the "DX" suffix | heard this station
use when

calling later in the evening).

| did not Know it at the time, but have since

verified (via RBN) that this station was calling at 17 wpm.

| did not recognise the

calling station as a Tuesday night "regular". | immediately responded, sending my
own call sign twice at a speed similar to the calling station's. Before the station calling
CQ got a chance to respond, a third station jumped

in informing the calling station

that this was the "QRS net". The calling station apologised with "sri", and ceased
calling CQ.
At this point a FOURTH

station attempted to contact the station that had been calling

CQ with a series of rapid dots and dashes that appeared to be symptomatic of a
pretty severe keying problem of some

sort. | continued to listen for some time as this

fourth station struggled to send the callsign of the station that originally called CQ
then "de (own callsign)". Whatever the keying problem

may have been, it took a long

time to resolve, but the station that originally called CQ was a model of patience,
making several attempts to decode what at this stage was quite a messy call back.
| hope | misunderstood whatever the third operator thought he was doing in alerting
the calling station that a QRS

net was taking place — an intervention that prompted

an apologetic response from that operator which the third operator did not attempt to
explain was actually unnecessary.

| imagine it must be clear to most of us that we do

band on Tuesday nights. As it happens, this fact would have been very clear for
anyone who happened to hear several VK stations participating in a decidedly quickfire pile-up just above 7024 kHz not long after the incident | have described occurred.

Post Morsum 25th March 2026
From Richard VK6HRC.
Five on the VK6RLM

rptr and AllStar/Echolink hub this morning.

VK6KD

David

VK6FN

Max

VK6QI

Mark

VK6HRC
VK6MRB

Mulligan swil.

David started out folowing the action on 20m, heard Ross MONNK and a French
station F5IN after that worked

Ron VK6KHZ

and heard VK6KW

on 40m.

Monitored 80m for a while but no contacts there.

Max worked the locals on 40m and was impressed a strong stable signal from
the homebrew Para set of VK6JDM Donald in Esperance. He also heard Ross
MONNK on 20m via a local Kiwi sdr.
Mark listened out for Edi DO2EMR ON 15M, nothing heard and on 20m worked
Ross MONNK

tried Chris G7BED

but not succesful there. On 40m

heard seven

and worked three.

| worked three on 40m and one on 80m. The highlight was catching up with Mark
VK2KI in beautiful South Bowning for a quick chat.
After the Post Morsum a very interesting discussion about CW protocol and other
topics took place, more in the Ragchew at a later date.
As usual thank you to all on last night and this morning.
73
Richard.

Reporting
After next Tuesday’s Group, please remember to send me a
worked

list of who you

and / or who you heard using our web form here:

bit. ly/COORSNET

Even if you didn’t hear anyone, we’d still like to know that you had a go.
And to make your report more interesting, please consider sending a
photo:
cqarsnet@gmail.com

So, please help attract new and old team
submitting your report each week.

members to have a go by

Submissions close 1300 (Eastern

Australian Summer time) on Thursdays.

The

Choice
Code

of Morse

Cheerio

by Lance VK7TO
Given the current prosign of the month

(),

| thought I'd offer this

article on some history and alternatives.

The Choice of a Morse Code Cheerio:

By Lance, VK7TO
How do you finish a CW QSO? | always thought the standard procedure was to
pronounce your key going silent with . It was only recently whilst digging
through my new QMX’s settings that an odd option piqued my interest. Is there more
to e e e — e — than meets the ear?

QMxX’s terminal, showing CW Decoder options.
The last entry offers the curious choice of SK

or VA

After some digging, it seems that there’s a bit of an Atlantic divide in the origins
of and , with the former being European and the latter American. In the
end though, it’s worth noting that the signal predates the letter concatenations, so

there really is no right or wrong. It’s the same as , where the commonly used
mnemonic “Save Our Souls” was only later adopted.

2. The end of the work between two stations shall be indicated
by each one of them by means of the signal « « « — « — followed
by its own call-signal,
International Radiotelegraph Convention, 1912. htips://qs!.net/gOftd/other/ituradioregs/
1912%20radio%20conference.pdf

So when did they start being used?
The earliest use of | could find was a
officer published in 1941.

training booklet offered by an RAFVR

DOUBLE DASH on BREAK SIGN BT —=++— fit Yn

DISTRESS CALL SOS «++ —~——s+
ATTENTION

CALL

—emmem

“RECEDES Every Taansanssion

C Q =:=." ——-—
GENERAL ENQUIRY
END OF EACH
AR e=+=s
ENDING SIGN
WAIT
AS +=*** or Q== om

END OF MESSAGE VAsse—om esmssionrmisie
DECIMAL

POINT,

i.e.:

2°1 would

be sent—2

point 1

The new morse code manual, 1941 by A.W. Eley, https://archive.org/
details/the-new-morse-code-manual-1943/page/34/mode/2up (5th

edition)

The earliest identified use of on the other hand was The Radio Amateur’s

Handbook from 1926. Interestingly though, in the 1955 edition of the ARRL’s

“Learning The Radiotelegraph Code”, they didn’t refer to pronouns at all, rather
referring to the signal simply as “didididahdidah*.

——————EES—e
ae
4. Signing off: When through working
a station send “AR SK” followed by YOUR
OWN CALL sent once.
“SK” indicates to
others that you are through
with the
station
which
you
have
been
working
and that you will now listen for whoever
wishes to call. Never “CQ” after “SK”

-until you have covered the dial thoroughly
looking

for

stations

calling

you.

The Radio Amateur’s Handbook, 1926 by Francis Edward

Handy. hitps://archive.org/details/the-radio-amateurs-handbook-arrlfrancis-edward-handy-ed-1-1926/page/120/mode/2up

What about then, as it doesn’t even sound the same? To explain this one we
need to travel back to 1859, when the world was still black and white, and the

Western Union Telegraph Company standardised their Morse code system with the
publication of their “92 Code”. In it, “Finish” was coded as 30.

By examining the American Morse chart, we can see that upon joining 3 and 0 it
looks remarkably familiar: e e e—e

Here’s an anecdote from from Dave, VE7AHT:

To add to the folklore regarding VA/SK

meanings, when | started my career in

|
uo
nh
~
ao

...~.- Which is indistinguishable from the

if)

“

FSF

-—-

—

. Railway Morse code for
the number 3 is ...-. and the number 0
is a LONG dash. Sent as a prosign, it is

1911 Chart of the Standard American Morse
Characters (Wikipedia)

prosign save for the slightly
longer timing of the final dash. | have
often mused that like so many
expressions inherited from earlier times,
when railway Telegraphers transferred
to jobs requiring international code,
was easily commuted to
with the same meaning.

Just my personal observations and unsupported conclusions (at my age, !
am entitled to such conclusions! Hi Hi)
ps For those who might care, newspaper Type Setters parsed news bulletins
into boiler plates scattered around the daily news paper, with -30- at the end
of the article to let the reader and publisher know that was the end of the
message (text).

CO)
Popular Electronics April 1969 — https://archive.org/
details/popularelectroni30unse_2/

That’s what I’ve found.

Do you have any additional historical perspective or insights?

73
Lance

VK7TO (In Ebbing Tide, Adieu)

If you have an article or two that you think might be of interest to our
readers, please let me know so we can Share more thoughts and ideas;
guidance on writing for RagChew,
material to Mark VK2KI:

see Articles below.

Please email

cgqqrsnet@gmail.com

My Workbench

VI Curve Tracer
From
Ah

Ross MONNK

Anwar

| AA

hARA

Dem

nat

AANA

AAT

intan

teauthla

unith

thia

ana

| AAW

ant

for

Wil

Usal,

Piru

yuiiiy

YoU

TIL

LWW

WWII

UII.

PUTT

Weddil

offend anyone - I’m just expressing a personal opinion about a device that has
interested me.
The last edition of RagChew featured, in the “On My Workbench’ section, an article
by Jack Child on what he called “An In-Circuit Component Tester’ and which | know
by the name of a 'VI Curve Tracer’. The V standing for Voltage; the | standing for
Current.
Here’s how it works (using the circuit diagram of my own homebrew Curve Tracer):
A mains supply is used because it has an Alternating Current. A step-down
transformer converts this mains AC power supply to a safe voltage.

oe
: ae

K oscilloscope
probes

fed

probe

cuneke

—o

voltage

blackd

probe

This alternating supply is used to 'swee" a voltage across the component, from a
positive voltage to a negative voltage, at 50 Hz. The variable resistor in my unit
allows this sweep voltage to be adjusted to keep the voltage within a non-damaging

range.

While sweeping the voltage, the Curve Tracer outputs that voltage to the horizontal X
channel of the oscilloscope. The resultant current through the component is
converted to a proportional voltage (because oscilloscopes measure voltage not
current) by the 1k Ohm resistor across the "current" (vertical or Y) oscilloscope
output. You need to use a 2-channel oscilloscope to measure these two outputs

separately and then use the oscilloscope’s 'X-Y plotting’ function to display the result
as a graph of Voltage versus Current (hence the name “VI Curve Tracer’).

The shape of the line tells you what component you have. If the line is not what you
expect for a known component, then the component is faulty.
If you find that explanation confusing, have a look at the first two minutes of this
video - he does a great job of explaining it, using a simplified circuit diagram.
A year or so back | built one of these because a) the old-school electronics guys
rated them highly, and b) it looked a simple build. Having read Jack’s article (thank
you, Jack), | dug mine out to refresh my memory.
Here you can see it hooked up to a +12v/-12v AC power supply and with both leads
of my USB oscilloscope attached. What you may not be able to see is the small
diode held by the black and pink crocodile clips.

You can see now why, with those eight legs, they’re nicknamed an “Octopus” by
some technical types.

Somewhat amazingly, my cheap Chinese USB oscilloscope does have an X-Y
plotting function and here is the result for the diode:

“current”

forward

volts

ns lett

| can see from the L-shape that my diode is functioning as it should.
As | understand it, the short horizontal line going from zero to the left represents
“Forward Voltage” increasing (but no vertical current flows) until it reaches the 0.7
Volts Vf threshold, at which point the diode opens and the current shoots up. The
voltage line going from zero to the right does not end in any current in the opposite
direction because this is a diode. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Armed with this information, it’s a simple thought experiment to work out why a
resistor shows as a diagonal line, going through zero volts and zero current.
That was all quite a palaver and (arguably) tells me very little about the component
under test so, for comparison, | dug out the cheap Chinese 'Transistor Tester' that |
normally use. It just requires a PP9 battery to power it. Below it's shown with the
same diode clamped in place.
I’m not sure if you can see the display but there's a diagram identifying the
component as a diode and its orientation, and three lines of data about this particular
component. eBay is awash with these dirt cheap devices which seemingly work with

just about any through-hole component, and have pads for testing loose SMDs too.
For a few more dollars, you can get them with a colour display.

| think you'll already have guessed where I’m going here - VI Curve Tracers are really
interesting devices and | strongly recommend you build one yourself if you have an
oscilloscope with an X-Y plotting function. But, as a useful device for the modern
shack, do yourself a favour and spend a few dollars on something that doesn’t “trace”
(geddit?) its history back to the beginning of the electronic era.

At this point, | should mention that Jack was advocating the use of the VI Curve
Tracer as an in-circuit component testing device, whereas my Chinese 'Transistor
Tester’ only works with unmounted components (although it would be a trivial matter
to insert a couple of wires into the clamp and use those as component probes). So

maybe it’s a case of “horses for courses”.

Should | also mention that some of the

latest up-market Multimeters have similar functionality? But, crikey, you pay a steep
price for it.
Don’t worry about offending me - | don’t know that much about electronics (just
enough to get me through the exam for a Full radio license) - so, shoot me down,
Jack OM (or any of the many members of the QRS Net who are more knowledgeable
about electronics than me). But | hope that all you nerds out there will agree with me
(and Jack) when | say that these are fascinating devices and definitely worth a closer

look.

[Thanks Ross.

When / saw Jack’s article last week, | thought most older

cathode-tube type oscilloscopes did not have an ‘X-Y Plotting’ function and that was the domain of more up-market machines and the newer solid
state oscilloscopes.

When | mentioned that to Ross, he scurried away and

found several YouTube videos that demonstrated that many older CROs do
in fact have the function. Well I've learned several new things - so Ross’
and Jack’s articles have already been a success:
e My old cathode ray oscilloscope that I'd inherited from my father and
which had been sitting on its end on the floor for some years, does
still work (Revelation

1).

e Not only that, it also does have an X-Y mode thatI didn't know about!
| had to download and read the instruction manual,
hidden

but there it was,

in plain sight (Revelation 2).

e So let's assume that many

still-working oscilloscopes may possibly be

so-equipped as well.
The explanation in the video Ross refers-to
(httos:/www. youtube.com/watch?v=Gwo3pEH7hUE) is very clear - and|
have to admit, the way the diagrams are normally drawn was confusing to
me, and !/ couldn't get my mind around what was going on - his explanation
Is perfect!

And well done Ross for explaining to me what the variable

resistor in the diagram

Is for as well!]

What’s going on on your workbench?

If you have an article or two that you

think might be of interest to our readers, please let Mark VK2KI
email to

cgqrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

QRZ?
From

Who’s

the

other

your editor Mark VK2KI

Our net is a fun

know;

see Articles below.

end?
/ VK6QI

get-together that people enjoy returning to each week.

It’s really nice to know who’s on the other end of the QSO.

So, please

share some thoughts about yourself to cgqrsnet@gqmail.com for a future
RagChew.

Practice

This year we’re using Aesop’s Fables. These are short moral stories, often
using talking animals, that illustrate simple truths about human behaviour
and character.
Aesop’s Fables originated in ancient Greece, traditionally attributed to the
storyteller Aesop who is thought to have lived around the 6th century BCE.
The fables are generally smaller files of two to three hundred words that
have been recorded at 15 wom

and run for about 15 minutes. If 15 wpm

a bit quick for you, load it onto your phone and set the playback speed at
0.75 X or even 0.5 X - whatever works for you. 0.75 X will play the MP3 at
a bit under 12 wom.
It is suggested that you read the text file before listening to the audio file.
That will make

it easier to follow the audio file and prepare you for any

unusual words.
Any punctuation that is not usually used with CW
This week’s fable is ‘The Crow
are attached

here:

and the Pitcher’,

has been removed.

and the MP3

and TXT files

If you prefer a different speed or tone you can create your own
converting the text file with the Eoook2CW app -

MP3 files by

https://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html.
You can either play the MP3 files in any media
into the Ditto CW:

player, or load the text file

Morse Player app - https://dittocw.andro.io/.

Both options work well, however Ditto CW gives you complete control over
all Morse settings, while a normal

media

player only allows changes to

playback speed, and does that in steps (e.g. 1.25x,

Other

1.5x, 1.75x).

News

Other things we’ve received from our 250-plus
readers.

Pedfest

—

Digital Communications
Exciting Amateur Radio Event

11" April 2026 9:00am-1:00pm

Jeception

Bay

North

33-49

Bay

Road

Old

Entry

Tee

Onis

‘Kids

[=]

State

Deception

$5.00

are

School

for

Bay

aqguilts

Tree.

For more details & on-line
ticket sales:

www.redfest.org

Calling CW Testers
From

Chris G7BED

A friend of mine (HB9HKN,

Matej Sustic) has written a 'CW Complete

Trainer App' and is looking for friendly testers. | think this may be of real
interest to the QRS

Net Community.

The App is called CW

Complete Trainer and

will be released shortly on Google Play store
(IOS coming a little

later).

Complete Trainer is designed to teach

Morse code the right way from the beginning:
by building instant character recognition.
Instead of memorising

dots and dashes visually

or counting elements,

it teaches you to

recognise each character as a unique sound
pattern—just like you recognise spoken words.
Learn to Hear, not to decode,

using the right

way from the start - character speed vs

ero dita
eS

Farnsworth speed with gradual speed

progression. It is intended to train your

Character
Training
Koch

Method

Training
Word

Text & QS0
Training
Sentente

Lists

& AAM

Browsing

israuias

Settings

brain, not your eyes and the app focuses entirely on auditory learning.
To participate in the testing programme,

all you need to do Is send your

email address to hb9hkn@sustic.com so you can be registered in the
Google Play Store backend
download

(HB9HKN

- Matej, will then send you a

link when the App is released). Please make sure the email you

register with is the email you use with Google Play Store.
More details of the App can be found here:
https://www.hb9hkn.ch/CwCompleteTrainer/user-guide.html
| met Matej through the CWOps

Community and he's a very creative guy

looking for constructive feedback on the App, issues, likes, dislikes, or any
ideas on how it could be improved.
Best Regards
Chris G7BED
chris.raynerO6@gmail.com

Watam
From

Hill

Donald VK6JDM

near Esperance

From this week’s reports, you may have noticed the photo of the tower on
top of Wotam

Hill with Lady Chatterly's Garden Shed in the foreground. As |

said, he top section of the tower can be wound
make

when dealing with Max!
The sign to the right
declares it is Lady
Chatterley's shed,
the black and white
one says Gardener
Vacancy - it would
appear
thus that the
good (or not so
good) lady has tired
of Mallard the
Gardener.
The

name

Wotam

Hill is after my Uncle
Fred Wotam. The
name

up a further 10 feet to

it taller than Max's towers, you cannot let Max win. Size does matter

Wotam

appears in Norse

mythology as a god
of war. Now we have
a neighbour who
was making
unwelcome visits, So
| decided

if you have

a neighbour from
hell the answer was
to invite (or invent)
a relative from hell
to stay.

The small mud

brick hut in the distance in the photo Is Fred's hut.

Now Fred's hut Is a safe distance from the house for Fred was described

his old comrades at arms as “a crack shot, when sober”.
There are unkind souls in this part of the world who swear Fred Wotam
does not exist and that Wotam

stands for Waste of Time and Money.

People can be so cruel.
A good friend felt the tales of Fred and his potential for violence would get
me in trouble. She rang the West Australian and asked to place an add in
the obituary pages. The person at the West Australian told her they only
took ads from registered funeral directors because some

people put

fictitious ads in! My friend explained that she was on the medical ward
where Fred had just died and that she doubted the Wotams

would use a

funeral director. The paper apparently thought about this and rang the
hospital, were put through to the ward and Claire answered the phone,
confirmed the sad death of Fred and arranged to pay for the ad on behalf
of the grieving relatives. The first | knew of this was Claire turning up at the
Surgery and telling me to inspect page 46 of the paper under her arm.
Now when ever | see Claire chatting to someone
lot of chatting), | casually come

in town (and she does a

up and point out to the person she is

talking to, to be careful, for this woman

murdered

my uncle.

Fortunately | do not think the neighbour reads the obits in the Western
Australian.
Cheers,

Donald VK6)]DM

Drake
From
DA

Twins

Paul VK3KLE

Tiitaenanns! em

Annrnrtiznn

FNDC

CNA

RAWAM

vsAis

AARA

Fiin

lack

ninht

AIA

Diz

UIU.

the way your CW carrier tone has a slight warble to it. | think the VCO

INC

PUESUAGY

VIAGLLILCE

the old Kenwood

YWINYD

VV,

TIUVO

YUU

ITIGU

TUT

TGSULTHUYUTILC

might be a bit close to the cliff edge, maybe

Goa

needing

alignment and parts. No sooking now, I'm being helpful not critical. | take
forever to do some things too Nana.
VK7TA had magnificent CW keying and tone, I'd love to Know what set he
nad on Tuesday night. Jordan also excellent, think he was using home
and 20 Watts. It sounded

amazing

on my Omni.

brew

Last night | had the omni

on 1.8k bandwidth and used the CW audio filter - it was a joy. You need to
work split on that set as It has no RIT control.
With the U310 fets I've installed you can use RF gain (IF gain control
actually) to roll off the band noise and the IF AGC gives superb crisp CW
audio above a near silent band noise.
It has amazing

QSK as well. | would

recommend

that model Omni

Our readers if they want a vintage transistor CW transceiver.
Omni VI onwards are DSP, better for voice perhaps?

5 set to

The later

However I'm told all

later Tentecs have better frequency stability, important If working a fussy
new rig these days. Saying that, my TS-590SG

has a CW Auto tune to give

exact centring of the RX CW tone. You just use the RIT and keep the TX
fixed in hope the receiving station does the same. Otherwise it's cat and
mouse VFO chase hihi.
On Tuesday, the band was in fine shape on 40m,
very low background
Omni

noise. | worked

no static crashes and

USA on my 100 Watts from the Tentec

later in the evening. Only got a 229 report, but an intercontinental

CW contact on 40m just the same.

Probably on a QRO

boat anchor set

might have done a 339 etc.
Re Drake Twins:
oremature

I'm now the owner of a Drake T4XC.... actually,

in my claim. Yes it's still in the post, but | have tracking anda

photo.
The set has been shed parked, not my favourite storage method.

But has a

good face and all Knobs and dials and meter look very FB. Cosmetics and
Originality are quite important for a restoration project.
So in a week or two and after
some

new parts and tubes &a

bath in contact cleaner with dry
cleaning fluid and compressed

air

| should have a clean working
Drake twins set. My RX Drake
already has clean tail feathers.
She is CW

ready and waiting to be

partnered with her new husband
the T-4XC.
They

apparently have good keying and fair stability and good power. The

RX drake R-4C | have had for years and Is very reliable and sorted. It has
new can caps from Hayseed

hamfest In USA - they are exact drop-in can

Caps - perfect In appearance and function as supply filters.

Please have a kind thought to a new marriage of seperated and re
partnered

Drakes... soon to remarry at my QTH of all places hana.

there are no nests or eggs inside, quack quack.

Hope

Soon to be on our QRS practice nite too | hope.
| already have a Drake power supply from my TR3 that should be plug and
play, cutting down

my restoration-to-on-air time considerably.

Regards
Paul VK3KLE
73
[Thanks Paul;

no sooking over my TS-120S - yup, it’s on my pile of things

to be fixed here!]

Morse Training

Net

Our team

Nic VK7WW

member

every Wednesday

at 7pm

runs an on-air Slow Morse training net

EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign

of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club VK/7TAZ on that net.
Many of our team

learned Morse code with the

Support of Nic, and the weekly training session
comes

highly recommended

for anyone who

wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up.
Everyone’s welcome - 3580kHz at 7pm
time every Wednesday;

Eastern

you'll hear lots of the

Sea
pe

CQQORS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has

anal —

Yo Ue

ralso ecorded the complete set of lessons which
you can now find here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLHSOmZz6fBXO/7swAfbTmutrbbEL1
7fUQL
Contact Nic VK7WW

for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com

how to join the NTARC

DISCORD

including

group to follow the action, or just come

along and join in on Wednesdays.

Announcing

a new

Epoch

for CW

Sport in the South-West

Pacific.
From

Stan

ZL3TK

Are you up for expanding your CW
sending and receiving accuracy?

You'd

be doing it in an environment where
Speed has no part to
play whatsoever, quite the opposite in fact.
a contest,

but if that Is true then

it’s much

more a cooperative effort between

Some call RandomGram

it’s the slowest contest

In existence.

No,

participants who patiently

spend as much time as it takes to ensure both parties in an RG QSO
received their code group correctly.

(RG)

have

RG perfectly fits the paradigm

established by the ‘Morse with a Purpose Society’, delivering tangible

results for your labour.
RandomGram
exchanging

Now we're taking it a step further.

(RG), is a monthly international CW activity which focuses on

random five-character code groups,

one group each way per

Qso.
Last Saturday (UTC), RG event # 41 ran for 24 hours.
are computer generated,
are allocated upon

registered and scored for each RG event.

request

by email.

They

Station logs to be sent to RG HQ are

simplicity itself, consisting merely of an emailed
groups you've received,

Fresh code groups

list of only those code

no call signs, names or signal reports required, a

clever computer does all the collation and math

based on it knowing which

code groups have been issued to whom.
Most participants operate individually, however teams based around
common

interests, such as those who use straight keys or sideswipers,

members

of specialist clubs such as CWops,

building camaraderie.
affiliated member’s

also play an important role in

Each team’s total points is the aggregate of its

points.

RG is very popular in the US, the high amateur radio population and large
land mass favours RG, so it’s no surprise to find in the results for the latest
event, 77 % are Americans.
and one ZL.

Which

raises an interesting question.

Australia, by AR population,
relative to the US?

The others consist of two VEs, two Js, two VKs
Is continental

producing a proportional

number of RGers

We’ve done the math and found both our Oceania

counties are punching above their weight by population ratio, even when
fielding such a ridiculously low number of participants.
to bluff ourselves into complacency

But that no reason

by ceasing to promote the activity.

the contrary, a new epoch has been launched to boost our numbers and
make the US take notice.
Since we’re out on a limb here

appropriately named

in the south-west

Pacific, an

RG team

‘Oceania’ has been created to challenge the existing

teams based in the US.
Team

Oceania

is unashamedly seeking new members.

We want our

existence to be felt and to inject a feeling of esprit de corps, just like
American AROs

have been doing since Hiram Percy Maxim founded the

ARRL in 1914.

We don’t need political oversight to develop esprit de corps,

we can do it very nicely ourselves from within our new geographic RG
team.

This activity is suitable for all levels of CW competence, that

includes you!
Please register your interest in RG with Drew
af2z@arrl.com

You

will then

receive

RG+owner@groups.io

an emailed

invitation to the next and

subsequent RG events.
When

requesting your code groups for an event,

be sure to register your

affiliation with team ‘Oceania’ each time, team affiliations do not carry
over.

Although

not strictly part of Oceania, Japanese AROs

invited to join team
cunning

‘Oceania’ since there is no RG team

have been

in Asia,

plan is obviously to boost points earned in the western

the
Pacific

theatre at no cost to anyone.
A full wardrobe

of information

is available at

httos://groups.io/q/RandomGram
seen

and this month’s

httos://groups.io/g/RandomGram/message/656

results can

Stan

ZL3TK

ome

X Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club Inc.

>
TT

Home

Clubinformation

Courses

‘

Meaning:

gg =

End of Contact

[Put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for Tuesday....
and tell us how you went!]

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here we

hack

tha

COORS

Slaw

C\Al

OSO

go.

nractice

net

AINE

LEI

Next Tuesday’s

Net

Our CQQRS

Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0600z until

about 1200z;

see https://bit.ly/COORSWebsite and navigate to the Net

Details page for details.

(Note - 20m

Coordinated Universal Time
;
;
;
DXperiments will start at a different time if required)
Western

Australia Time

UTC

Central Australian Time

Australia

UTC

0600z to 1200z

+ 8 Hours

1400 to 2000

+ 10.5 Hours

1630 to 2230

Easter Australian Time

UTG

+ 11

Hours

1700 to 2300

Queensland Time

UTC

+ 10 Hours

1600 to 2200

Na Time

UTC

+ 13 Hours

1900 to 0100

New Zealand

Frequency

06002 to O900z
Note - 20m

20m

14039-14051 KHz

times and frequencies will be allocated by Mike

DL3YZ

prior to the net.