Past

Issues

Translate

View this email

CQ QRS
What happened
e

Reminder

in your browser

RagChew

last Tuesday, and a reminder for the next net.

for 21Nov23

CQ QRS

e Three firsts
e

Lightning’s on the other foot

e Two

new Victorians

Phillip and

Richard

try Bluetooth

Introducing

Craig VK3CLD

Lightning Tracking

Revealed

Wasn't it great to have a more normal

number of stations on the CQ QRS

Slow CW practice net on Tuesday evening?

| counted at least 15 known

stations, and no-doubt there were more listening.

And what’s more - we

had one first-time CW QSO (woo hoo - see below) plus two new VK3s joining
our team - welcome Jordan and Craig.
One of the things | really like about our net is that so many of our team
make the time to get on and have a practice.

Most of our people are on

every week - and since starting the net two years ago, there hasn’t been a
single week where we haven’t had lots of people on - including Christmas,
New Year, etc!
- our team
Code.

I think one reason is that our group is particularly collegiate

members

like to chat to each-other albeit slowly and in Morse

| heard one saying the other day that these days he now really

didn’t enjoy nattering as he had in the past - preferring instead the
challenge of using CW as well as digital modes.
nice to have a chat to some of our team

members

AllStar network (I have a node here in NSW
in terms of other operating,

I’m finding the same - it’s
on the South West

permanently monitoring) - but

most of the other communicating

| do is

working VKFF Parks and SOTA stations, or getting out and operating
portable myself;

| don’t even know where the microphone for my FT-817 is

any more!
So to continue to foster our nets as a great place to come to each week,
like our RagChew
time

newsletter to spotlight some our members from time to

(similar to what we

did with

Richard

VK6HRC

absence of hearing their voice, chatting to someone
be just that much

I’d

recently).

In the

in Morse Code would

nicer if you could visualise who you’re chatting to, where

they are and what gear they’re using.

| think a bit of background

information, other interests and most importantly, photographs of
antennas, equipment, etc will to help this and add to the enjoyment of the
net.

RSS

Appreciate if you’d put a few ideas together and send them to me
(mark.bosma@icloud.com) with some photographs for use in future
RagChews.
Anyway,

back to last Tuesday’s net;

here’s this week’s list of stations

heard:
14Nov23 COQ ORS Net
Total active stations this week:
Total 50s (rote tnat
this figure wort be correct - 50s mayy be counted twice or more!
Instructions:

Existing Users:
Go dawn te the line with your callsign on the left (Calumn A), Use the slider on the right hand edge of the screen to scroll down.
If you can't see the lines, expand the spreadsheet downwards by clicking on the bottom of the window and dragging downwards.
Move across to OS01 (Column C], click on the cell and select the callsign of the first G50 you had or heard.
Back text - QSLed,

test - heard but net worked,

Ble text - incomplete

50 [nat OSLed).

Repeat the O30 entry against the other station's row.

Moving to the next cell te the right in your raw far the second O50 ete
Ifyou hear someone just calling OO, find them on the list in Column A and then enter OQ in Column B.
Ifyou hear or work someone not in the left hand column of drop-down
-

list, comtact Stuart or Mark and advise;need to be copy/pasted).

We'll then update the spreadsheet (the spreadsheet has hidden formulas that need to be copy/paated).
Stuart:

shujeASh@emaileon

Mark: | mark. bosma@icloud.cam
Cirl-S to save the spreadsheet when done,
If the sareadsheet is tao confusing, send the

list of your eontacts and heard stations to Stuart or Mark to update the spreadsheet (te make it easy, you could take a phote of your log and se

New Users:
Contact Stuart or Mark {click om email address above] and ask for your callsign (or name if unlicensed) to be added.
Include a fist of callgigns heard or worked, and we'll add the OS0s.

MY CALL
a

Calling CO.

Qs01

aso2

Qs03

aso4

Qs05

Qso6

Qso7

aso8

Qs09 | Q5010 | Q5011 | Qs0 12 | a5013 | as0 14

VK2KI

VKSPH |

VK5CZ

VKOFN

VK6IS

VK6PZT | VK2GAZ | VKGBEK | VKGJDM | VKGAAV

rt CO. or Listeningif no C150)

VEITE
VE2ZBHO
VE2BHO
VE2GAZ

VE2KI

VE2IK
WK3CLD/p|

VE2KI

VKSPH | VK2GAZ |

VK6IS

VK6KD | VKGDEV | VK3ACU |

VK6QI

VEK2NV
VE2ZWEO
VE3ACU

VEQKI

VE3ADX
VK3BTV
VK3CLD/p

VE2KI

VESPH

VK3DBD
VK3KO
VEKSCZ

VK6IS

VEKSET

VKSFD
VESIP
VKSKFG
VEKSPH

VK3CLD/p]}

VK2KI

VEK6ATB
VEK6AAV

VE6BEK | WKOPZT

VK6BEK

VK6IS

| WKGPZT | VKBAAV

VK6CK
VK6DEV

VE6PZT | VK6KD

VK6FN

VK6KD

VKBIS

| VKGPZT |

VK2KI | VKGAAV

VEK6GAL
VE6HRC

VK6IS | WKGBEK |

VK6FN

VKBKD | VKGAAV | VKGPZT |

VK5CZ

VEQKI

VK6QI

VK6IR
VK6IS

VEBBEK | VK6FN |

VK6IDM

VK6FN

VK6KD

VEBFN | VKGDEY | VKGP2ZT |

VK6KD

VEQKI
VK6IS

VK6KQ,
VK6LD
VK6MK
VK6ENC
WK6NT
VKGNW
VK6PZT

VKBBEK | VK6FN | VKBDEV | VKBAAV |

VK6QI

VK6BEK

VKBIS

VKGFN

VK2KI

VK6KD

VEBKD | VK6PZT | VKGDEV | VKGAAV |

WK2KI

| VK6HRC

VK6TY
VKEXU
VE7TWW
VETKPC
VE7ZA.

Reports

& Comments

So here’s this week’s
From

Donald

Dear

Mark,

| managed

VK6JDM

reports.

near Esperance:

to put off my run to Kalgoorlie and so was able to join the group

tonight.
At 10.23 Z| heard VK6FN,

however he clearly did not hear me. From

previous SSB QSOs with Max | know he has a null in his antenna
direction - | assume
At

in my

it is not intentional.

10.32 on 3558 you replied to my CQ - thanks. Initially you were RST 469

but conditions deteriorated due to increasing static crashes. We had a
series of thunder storms pass over here earlier in the day. Flashes of
lightning then appeared

so | gave it away.

| was having trouble getting a stable frequency shift in the VFO so! have
come to an arrangement in which | feed a 750 Hz audio signal through a
low pass filter to strip any harmonics then feed it into the microphone
socket. | am assuming the audio circuit in the transmit circuit will prevent
chirps as it has a limited frequency response. VK6YD

recently listened to

my signal in Perth and felt it was clean. Hopefully it is.
Now people were noting their lightning stories. About 40 years ago | was
living in Broken

Hill. A thunder storm was passing over and a bolt hit the

Norfolk Pine in the block across the road. My wife said she thought it might
be God trying to strike me. Continuing

her line of humour | threw open the

back door, looked up and said "you missed!"
the next bolt crashed down on the roof

| had just shut the door when

directly over where | stood. The

entire room and those in it were illuminated for a second or so with a
glowing aura about 6 inches deep. | have been more respectful toward

him

up stairs since.
Thanks again for cranking us all up to develop some CW skills. You are
doing a great job.

| will be back in 3 weeks.

73 Donald VK6JDM.
[Great story about the lightning Donald - thank you.

Terrific to work you

from the East at fast.
The main lightning culprits were in the South East of the State and the West
of SA.

No noise noticed here in NSW at the time, but it sure was strong on

the Remote in Perth when | used it much later in the evening...

al! Telstra

10:53 pm
@ blitzortung.org

OPEN

Destination Gold Coast

Sunshine and Good
® Times
x

Blitzortung.org

235

TOCcUsS

contributors

Hinutes

A worldwide, real-time, community collaborative lightninc
location network. © 2003-2023 Blitzortung.org
Contributors
Your signal sounded great once again to me - no sign of any undesirables
or instability what so ever.
moving to higher power,

But to give you some re-assurance about

when | next hear you on CW if 1 have time and

signals are good I'll use the VK6QS SDR to have a look at the close-in
spectrum of your signal (I'll be able to open up the passband to look for
spurii above and below 750Hz) - and I'll try to get a screen shot so you can
see for yourself how clean it is - albeit that the vertical scale won't be
calibrated dB-wise of course).
Cheers and well done!]
From Jordan VK3ACU

at Meredith:

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the QSO - much

appreciated. Well past my bedtime so forgive

the mistakes;

| must admit | am never up that late, but had some live stock

things to sort out on the farm so | was fairly tired.

All the same really

enjoyed it and will be up next Tuesday.
This was my first CQ calling QSO and you were a strong signal at the start
but the static crashes did roll-in as you mentioned.

Nic VK7WW

has kindly

had a few pre-organised contacts with me in the past, | have replied to the
odd Parks contacts - just a simple QSO with a signal report.
Looking forward to reading the email with my morning coffee;

see you next

week.
Kind regards and thanks for your patience with my QSO
Cheers,
Jordan...
[Hi Jordan - an absolute pleasure mate!

Thank you again for the CW

contact and | was pleased to be your first CQ responder - HI!

Nice sounding

CW, and it’s great that you were able to come up on the net.

There wasn’t

very many

VK1, 2, 3, 5 and 7s on this week - but with your 40m end-fed

long-wire 14m up, you should have no trouble working the pile of VK6s that
come through late evening on our net (they’re there from 0900z of course,
but the ALF is too high at that time for any skywave propagation).
! look forward to lots more

chats.

Cheers Jordan].

From

Richard VK6PZT

at Dalyellup:

Hi Mark
Six contacts for me this evening.

The first two were pretty ropey as | was

attempting to use only my left hand to do the sending while taking notes
with my right hand.

Sorry Shaun and Max.

Later, | found sending with my right hand and drinking a beer with my left
hand more relaxing.

Who

Hi Hi.

| worked:

1 - VK6BEK
2 - VK6FN
3 - VK6DEV

579
599

sent - 559

rcv

- 559.

599-599

trans suburb.

4 - VK6AAV

589-589

5 - VK2KI - 439 - 459 or possibly 279 not sure - (hard work with all the
noise)
6 - VK6KD - 579-569
My trans suburb contact with Phil VE6DEV sounded
tones,

a bit odd, almost two

a bit like my wireless headphones were picking up a much

higher

harmonic directly... but alas this cannot be the case as I’m certain the
proximity to my own antenna at 50W would

produce the same

result.

In any case, better results than last week.
Richard...
[Nice report mate - thank you muchly.

Sorry it was a struggle - I’m amazed

you could hear anything with all that QRN!]
From

Richard VK6HRC/p

Good

morning

Wowee

at Gidgegannup:

Mark,

alright ! Still trying to get to grips with what happened

was my first ever CW

net, thanks to you and the team who make
When

last night! It

contact and of course, first time joining the QRS
it such a good

place to be.

my head stops spinning will get something together for the

Newsletter.

| also had a short SSB QSO with Donald VK6JDM

on 80mx and

he was happy to report that he also had a contact with you, but the
was still creating havoc so we gave it away.

storm

Would

be most happy to catch

up with you on the Allstar network later this week.

Have a great day - CUL.

Richard.
[Hi Richard.

Well! was honoured to be your first CW

Now that’s rare DX!
Tuesday mate.

contact - fantastic!

Congratulations and thank you for coming up on

With all the static crashes, you were game to give it a go -

the QRN would have made for a nerve-racking experience I’m sure.

But

your patience in waiting until your receiving was confidently comfortable
was evident - your Morse Code keying was faultless - perfect timing with an

Richard

continued:

A
a

Concen:2A UMTLONS
fe |!

ofl ke ees

Ver

AA
WAT aa

METER

“alae

hes t']
ta fhe i Poy
ee

CDT SATED,

b
so

Wes,

é€byre

Of
at

Sie..f18

mf;

aaa
Cfo

124

Sra stile.

yh
“co

re
EROM

Cy)

efASie

E\caiep

—

“Uf (Hyef

SI Tithe.

Ue |a

VEEQT

- well done].

SNM
§

excellent rhythm

| forgot to mention that | was up in Gidgegannup

last night but back home

now.
| had been monitoring the net from the start and most people seemed to
have headed

off, so just parked on that frequency and was having a mug

tea when you called. | just tapped the key to see if all was good to go
thinking you would

not hear me but you did and sent a question mark.

without thinking, | sent my callsign and the rest is history as they say!
| was expecting to just send a signal report and sign but had to grab the
pencil and start scribbling and managed

to copy most of what you were

sending. BTW your sending was great, any failings were at my end Hi. SRI
for the gobbledygook | sent your way, things can only get better. Missed
you on AllStar as | was tuning around on HF but will be around tomorrow.
Cheers.
PS my neat log after my mad scribblings, a shorthand version of what you
were sending
[Fantastic!

Congratulations mate.

Yes

| wondered whether when you hit

the key during my CQ call whether it was an accident!
accident of it was.
solo flight!

But a very good

As / said, you certainly chose a tough night for your first

The static crashes were bad over there by that time.

| gave you

a call on AllStar on Wednesday morning (after Rob, our VK6KD David and
Bob, and before Max and Bob) but you were probably still tucked up
dreaming of dits and dahs!]

And

Richard followed

with

Hi Mark,

Great to catch up on AllStar this morning, thought | would tidy my log up
and send it on.

Seven stations in the log all local, but other stations out

there getting buried in the noise.
Stations heard :
VK6IS

589

VK6BEK 589
VK6FN

599 +

VK6KD

589

VK6AAV

559

VK6PZT 559

VK6QI

599

+ brief QSO

Thank you very much - have a great day.
Richard

VK6HRC...

[Yes, terrific to have a chat to you and Max this morning.
By the way, if any of our readers are interested in finding our more about
how to get on to the famous South West AllStar net, give me a hoy.

The

network is permanently connected to a couple of dozen repeaters or
hotspots (simplex 2m or 70cm transceivers) around WA as well as other
places;

more nodes are being put into service as people discover how well

it works and how useful it is.

The network can also be accessed with simple

DTMF (touchtone) commands from other AllStar nodes and networks
around Australia, or via Echolink.

And unlike some of the other digital

modes, you don’t need a degree in Astrophysics to use it - like Apple things
used to be... just press the button and it just works].
The

Malusa

Report from John VK5ET

at Hope

Valley:

G'day Mark, things didn’t go to plan with my portable ops on Tuesday this
week.

| aborted the idea to set up the antenna

Jipsi hobbling around in the morning.

late Tuesday arvo, due to

Apart from her arthritis, she got tiny

sharp grass spikes in her paws which she was continuing licking. So | made
the decision to put my dog first, chucked all the gear back in the ute &
headed for home ASAP before the day got hotter.

We were both glad to get

home after 4-1/2 hours of non-stop driving.

Both pooped

by the time we

got home, Jipsi still hobbling a bit at home,

but settled down

after a good

stretch & feed. NO more long trips for Jipsi, more comfy at our home QTH
due to her old age (even if she misses my company).

| hit the sack about

20:00.
Best part of the trip...

got rid of 6 rabbits for the owners.

73's John...
[Hi John.

Bad luck - and | hope she’s ok.

From memory,

dogs can get seed

splinters in their paws that can’t be easily seen - hope she gets them sorted
out.

Need your rabbit skills here too! | have had a gun cabinet for about 10

years, but haven't installed it - so no rabbit control - apart from a trap
which is more miss than hit! Actually that’s a point - now that the grass
has browned off, | could start again with the pindone... or borrow a smoker
and re-start the phosphene treatment - bloody rabbits!

Take care mate,

and thanks for the report - you missed a good night, although you may
have been troubled by the TS on the SA/WA border that came up /ater in
the net].

From

Claude VKI1TE at Pearce:

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the QRS 231114
previous QRS 231107
already sent you.

report.

Please find the two pics from my

mail. They are under webp format like the ones |

Last night | did some SDR listening as my mobile station

was not able to get out.

> Ap wiepeaevers

Two transceivers, two paddles - what more could you want
for convenient CW mobile ops!
Claude

continues:

As you'd warned, the Tecsun SDR was off air and the propagation did not
seem to be very good - | switched between the SDRs at VK6QS, VK1CM,
VK5ARG

and VK5CAP trying to catch something.

different stations all-up as follows.

Time

Freq

SDR

Callsign

2040

3555

VKICM

VK2KI

2045

3558.5

VK5PH
3560

VK5CZ
VK6QS

VKO6FN
VK6IS

2105

3555

2119

3557

VKICM

VK6PZT

2120

3560

VK6QS

VK2KI
VK2GAZ

2124

VKO6FN
VK6BEK
VK6PZT

2128

3562
3555

VK6BEK
VK6PZT
VK6OFN

In the end | logged 10

3557
2130

3562
3558.5
3557

VKICM

3558.5

VK6QS
VK5ARG_
VK6QS_

VK6JDM
VK2KI
VK6BEK
VK5CZ
VK6JDM
VK2KI
VK6IS
VK5CZ
VK2KI
VK6IS
VK5CZ
VK6AAV
VK6BEK

| felt a bit tired and switched off before 1000 Canberra time.
Looks like the mail | just sent you did not keep the columns aligned.
trying to adapt CQRLOG

for SDR listening as well as other things and |

attached a sample of an HTML export.
hand

I’m

| am also trying different ways of

logging and hopefully will opt for the one | feel comfortable with soon.

Online SDR Logging

is quite a different experience compared to logging

from your own QSOs and one needs to experiment and adapt.
Please find the pics under other formats and let me know which format you
prefer.
Thanks Mark, hoping to be on air next time.
Cheers,

k...

[Thanks Claude - excellent nights SWLing - well done.

| was also swapping

SDRs and saw you on several - but | didn’t always have time to enter my
callsign (when I use the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs they remember my
details).
Logging and CW Is challenging for me.

I’ve tried a few logging programs of

late - too inflexible for me in the heat of the moment when copying CW.
| now use a simple spreadsheet for logging at home;
although

when portable

VK5YL’s excellent iPhone iParksnpeaks app goes close, I’ve given

up electronic things for logging - | use a printed spreadsheet page and
hanad-write the log - much easier!

1 then manually transfer the info to my

spreadsheet at home.
Anyone else with thoughts and experiences of logs for CW?
Thanks for the re-send of last week’s missing images.

Yes, neither my iMac

or iPhone could see the ones you'd sent - joeg works best and goes straight
into MailChimp without any conversion needed.
Great job on Tuesday mate - thank you, your log makes interesting reading
and I’ve updated the summary attached at the start of the RagChew/].

From

Shaun

VK6BEK

at Quinns

Rocks:

Hi Mark,

Yes thanks, | received the QRS Ragchew for this last week.
Surprisingly a good night last night given the QRN from the east.
narrow filter fixed it.
and Mike VK6AAV.
bit low down.

The

| had good sessions with Peter VKO6IS, Rich VK6PZT

The end-fed was behaving

itself for once even if it was a

| heard Rich at 59 calling you around 7pm.

Regards
Shaun- VK6BEK...

From

Craig VK3SCLD/p

near Tumut

NSW:

Hi Mark,

Thanks for inviting me in on the net last night. Plenty of static crashes and
a broken straight key but all enjoyable anyway.

It was nice to make a few

contacts besides my usual POTA-only CW experiences.
again next Tuesday from Cooma,

I'll listening out

but I'll not be in a suitable area to rig up

an 80 metre wire antenna for a QSO.

Thanks again Mark.
73's VK3CLD...
20m and 40m on the left, 35 metres of wire inverted L off the 5m squid pole on the right.

Rey

id:

ee a

Site ee

eta

= shit

Sie pein Sa oar

[Hi Craig.

Terrific to work you for the first time on Tuesday - and | look forward to
many more on the CQ QRS net.

By the way, have you tried your 40/20m

vertical on 80m using your MF] coupler?

It probably won’t work as well as

your inverted L, but might allow you to get on air from confined spaces and judging by the photo below, you're probably adept to confined spaces!
Even if you can't transmit from places, a note of who you hear on Tuesday
nights will be really useful for the RagChew newsletter.
Thanks for the photos - photos help bring the group together by giving out
team an idea about who they’re working, and makes the RagChew much
more readable.
See Other News below for more from Craig.]
From

Max VK6EFN

at Manjimup:

HI Mark.
Many thanks for a very newsy newsletter - appreciated.
Only Four Stations were worked on Tuesday being:

6KD David. RST 599 both ways. Very nice Morse.

Peter 6IS Mr Reliable. RST both ways RST 579,

Thanks Pete.

Richard 6PZT. Great sigs RST 599 Both ways.

Nice effort Richard.

Finally, Mark 2KI with a difficult RST 359, | was 589. Difficult copy
however we exchanged

reports and some dialogue. Well done.

Quite a number of other stations heard but not recorded
recall was Mike VK6AAV.

by me - one |

A better effort from me recording received

stations next week.
73's All
De fn.
[Thanks Max - and yes, | think it would be really helpful for our reports to
include not only stations worked, but also any stations heard.

Not

suggesting of course that people should be listening rather than calling
CQ.... but if you happen to hear someone

who you don’t get to work,

scribble them down and let us know each week.

It’s quite likely that some

you hear will be people not already noted by others who happen to
contribute reports that week.
Good job, thanks Max].
From

VK6QI

at Bedfordale

via the

and

the

VK6QS

SDR

VK6CRO

at Brookton,

Remote

the VK6SR

Remote

at Carnarvon:

Seems that our seemingly quiet net last week (well, there was still 11
stations on - but it sounded

quiet!) was rewarded with a more normal

level

of activity this week.
| heard Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks chatting with Peter VK6IS at
Wundowie,

and in parallel, Max VK6FN

Manjimup working David VK6KD

returned stirring the airwaves from

at Ballajura.

| also heard lan VK5CZ from

Clare and noticed Claude VK1TE at Pearce listening in on the VK6QS SDR.
Peter then chatted to Max while further down the band, Richard VK6PZT
was Calling CQ from Dalyellup and hooked

up with Shaun.

After that, Richard was ionising the Dalyellup environment with a crosssuburb contact with Phillip VK6DEV;

as you'll see in the WhatsApp feed

below, Mister Hard Quiz even thought he could hear Phillip direct in his
wireless headphones,

even without his IC-7300;

better send your 7300 to

me if you don’t need it mate!
For those who don’t know, Richard won the ABC TV Hard Quiz last year with
the knowledge topic of Morse Code.... so perhaps he was just hearing
Phillip’s Code in his head!

Anyway,

| heard Richard then on to work Mike

VK6AAV at Forrestfield, and noticed the static crashes from the storms
along the QSA/SA border building up to a proverbial crescendo in WA.
So | concentrated on what was happening

here in the East (see below),

before what | expected to be a rounding-out of the evening with a one-way
propagation test (see previous RagChews)

using the Southern

Electronics

Group Remote

HF transceiver at Bedfordale, and my transmitter here in

Bowning

However, the S9+ static crashes in WA (from the WA/SA

NSW.

border), combined
Remote

with the slow sampling

rate of the S-meter on the

meant that | couldn’t do an S-meter check - but it sounded

propagation

East-to-West was about the same as West-to-East at 1300z

(midnight here) this time - supporting the thought that the one-way
propagation

I’d experienced frequently in Winter wasn’t permanent.

Over the last month or so, I’d been pleased to find that my Vees and
callsign transmissions from the Remote were always answered
in WA - eg rare DX like Matt VK6XU
VK6KD.

by someone

or less rare, but still appreciated,

However this time | was blown away!

David

So there | was, happily

sending Vees from each end trying to compare signal strengths when
way through

| heard a strong dit - ah ha - someone

was listening in - good!

| sent a ? (di-di-dah-dah-di-dit) to which came the reply:
VK6HRC.

As discussed above... woweee

mid-

VK6Q/ de

- that was our Padbury monitoring

Station, Richard having a go transmitting CW for the first time!

Richard’s

code was faultless - it didn’t sound at all like a first-timer - perfect rhythm,
Spacing and timing - | wondered
abducted

whether he’d gone to Manjimup and

Max to do the keying for him using his Begali racing-bearing

special key!

Richard and | exchanged

RSTs despite the really trying

conditions - the signal from his portable set-up at Gidgegannup
40km from the Remote

(about

at Bedfordale) had some QSB (I’d guess ground-

wave mixing with NVIS - Near-Vertical Incidence Skywave)

and the static

crashes were relentless.... however, despite the tough conditions, Richard
managed

to safely land after his first solo CW QSO - congratulations

Richard.
So what an exciting night!

A good number of stations on on the West side,

and yet another first-time CW contact on our net.... it doesn’t get any
better than that!

Also From

me, VK2KI

Extended

Zepp

at Araluen

NSW:

at Bowning

antenna

from

using

home

my TS-50 and

Double-

and also using the Tecsun

SDR

So even though there was lots of action from my other personality, the
Eastern side didn’t disappoint - although a number of our regulars were
quiet on the night, | was still kept busy - made
Tecsun SDR at Araluen NSW

more challenging

being out of action.

by the

| use the SDR as a

spectrum waterfall display to watch for Eastern States’ QRS traffic on the
net while I’m having QSOs from NSW or WA, and not having it made things
more challenging.

Luckily there were several other KiwiSDRs that | could

use, however, they all had time-outs, which meant that | could only use
them for say 30 or 60minutes total per 24 hour period - tricky for our net
that | operate for four to five hours each Tuesday.
First cab off the rank,

even

before the net started

was

a first-timer to our

net, Craig VK3CLD/p at Blowering Dam
subscriber to our RagChew

near Tumut NSW.

Craig had been a

newsletter for about four or five months,

like so many others was limited by not having an 80m antenna.
he’d rigged up a 35m

but

For the net

inverted-L using a broken squid pole (it’s not just me

that has that problem apparently), and we had no trouble over the 85km
path with RST 599 both ways.

Like me, Craig had been getting practice

with the simple CW exchanges

used by SOTA and VKFF Parks activators,

but is keen to join in our net whenever he can.

As you'll see in the

introduction to Craig below, he and his wife are grey nomads - with no
permanent
possible;

location - so getting his 80m antenna up won't always be
I’d operated

portable from the same spot that Craig was - plenty

of room for antennas, and nicely next to a huge ground
welcome

plane if needed.

Craig, and | look forward to checking out the propagation as you

move from place to place.
However, all didn’t go well for Craig on the night;

the cheap key that he’d

bought had arrived incomplete... eg - missing things like knurled lock nuts
and, would you believe, the knob!
anyway,

However,

he had a go with what he had

but the key kept locking-up on transmit - bugger.

through ok, as did Paul VK5PH

at Glen Osmond

also chatted to Paul who was coming

Anyway, we got

who worked

Craig next. |

in RST 599, albeit with QSB.

Paul has

a KiwiSDR at Ironstone Ridge SA which | also used during the night.
that | chatted to Garry VK2GAZ

at Hobartville - about 250km

After

away (about

the extreme end of NVIS propagation) who had QSB but was up to 589.
Good to work Garry again - Tuesday nights during school term weeks are
usually a problem for Garry.
By around

1030z, the band had opened

to Max VK6FN

up to WA from NSW,

and | listened

and Richard VK6PZT’s conversation before hearing a CQ,

which turned out to be Donald VK6JDM
brewed transmitter and receiver.

West of Esperance using his home-

Donald was RST 479, but on receive was

struggling with the static crashes which were originating in his back yard
just about.

| forgot to ask what power he was running, but it was terrific to

work Donald at last.

It’s an interesting paradox that so many

people

struggle with the noise on 80m, yet others can be so successful with low
power and fairly simple home-brewed

equipment;

that what Donald and our other home-brewers
simple - far from it - | mean
digital processing

and no, I’m not saying

have done is in any way

in terms of the technology compared to the

power of today’s amateur radio black boxes.

Well done

folks - tip my hat to you.
After getting over the excitement of working

Donald, | heard Shaun VK6BEK

and Mike VK6AAV chatting before working Peter VK6IS.
RST 379 (Q5 on QSB peaks) and Max 589.

| then worked

Peter

Richard and | struggled to make

a QSO out of it, but thanks mate for persisting - my report of RST 279 gives
an indication of how many times | asked
in the end.

him to repeat his report - got there

| then listened to David VK6KD

and Phillip VK6DEV’s QSO, then

heard David work Richard then Peter.
| figured that being around

1130pm

in the East, my chances of working any

other Easterners was pretty limited, but | came across someone calling CQ
with a nice solid RST 599 signal.

It was Jordan VK3ACU

at Meredith;

Jordan

is one many of Nic VK7WW’'s CW students, who had been encouraged
Nic to have a listen on our net.

He had hoped to be on last week,

may recall was chased off by local lightning;

but you

welcome to our net Jordan,

and | was pleased to be your first non-pre-planned QSO
responding to a CQ call).

Jordan was using a 40m

(ie by someone

end-fed long wire up

14m, so we can expect lots of successful QSOs on the net from Jordan in
future - welcome to our team

mate - and thank you to Nic for the vector.

Other
Other things
From

Claude

VKI1TE

I’ve received

News
from

our 100-odd

readers.

at Pearce:

Hi Mark,

| hope you and your family are well.

| just found this video on a simple 6m

antenna experiment with some good explanations.