Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email CQ QRS What happened e Richard e Does e Success from e Claude RagChew last Tuesday, and a reminder for the next net. looks over the horizon lightning follow Craig? Gidgegannup gets embarrassed e Wednesday post-Morseums e The elephant in the room e This week’s brain-teaser e in your browser Reminder for 19Dec23 CQ QRS So did you have fun on Tuesday? But it’s no fun for some when ot Telstra = 9:15 pm the band’s Sa full of static crashes ea @ map.blitzortung.org = * Viieatanl Philippines | sure did. laysia Static crashes drove nearly all of the Crow-eaters under the blankets - lan VK5CZ at Clare and John VK5ET at Hope Valley were apologies as was Terry VK6CK up in Geraldton. But despite this, | was flat-out all Indonesia PIO e e dl BS night. See . It’d been a big day after not enough sleep the previous night then going up to the YassFM Community Nisielel Radio station’s transmitter site with our broadcast contractor to install a temporary antenna (ref last week’s article about the phased antenna SEEKRby Caframo © The Authentic SiroccoIl Fan < > paradox); so all neurons were’t firing in fA synchrisity ma when | eng (made up got on the net; | a new word) I struggled 99's bit to keep up with what was going on here in VK2, let alone monitor who was chatting in the West. Luckily here there was no evidence of SA’s static crashes, although Craig VK3CLD/p parked-up in Benalla Victoria only 350km was horrible there. counted away said the band | filled my log with lots of QSOs and had a ball. 19 stations this time and | know more were listening; also had as much fun as me. | | hope you a v RSS Here’s this week’s list of stations heard: 12Dec23 CQ ORS Net Total active stations this week: 19 Total Qs (rete that this ture won't be correct Instructions: 0505 may be counted twice or more| 64 Existing Users: ‘Go down te the lime with your callsign on the left (Coburn 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 aerods bo OS01 (Calume C), click on the cell and select the callsign of the first G50 you had or heard. Back text - Q5Led, Green text - heard but not worked, Bue text - incomplete G50 (mat O5led). Repeat the G50 entry against the other station's row, Mowing to the next cell te the right in your row far the second O50 ete If you hear someone just calling OO, find them on the list in Column A and then enter OO in Column B. Ifyou hear or work someone net in the left hand column of drag-down Tat, contact Stuart or Mark and advisesneed to be copy/pa - We'll then update the spreadsheet (the spreadsheet Stuart: stujenso@ gmail.com Mark: mark. bosena @icloud.cam Crl-S to Save the sareadsheet when If the soréadsheet is too confusing, Contact Mack has hidden formulas that need to be copy padted). dane. send the fist of your contacts and heard stations to Stuart or Mark to update the spreadshest New Users: Stuart or {click on email address above] and ask for your callsign jor name if unlicensed) to be added. Inchude a fist of callsign heard o¢ worked, and we'll add the O50s. MYCALL | é CallingcQ | aso1 | asoz | aso3 | aso4 | asos | aso6 | oso7 | asog | asoa | aso10 bert CO or Listeningif na C0) VK1HF/p VK2KI VKITE/m VE2ADE | | VK3DBD VE2KI VE3KO | VK3ADX /VKGHRC/p| VKGFN VEK2A0E WEKITE/m| VK2KI VK1HF/p | VWESPH | VK3DBD | VK7KPC |VK3CLD/p| VK2A0E VK3ADX VEKITE/m| VK2KI VEKSBTV VK2KI VK2BHO VE2BHO VEZGAZ VE2IK VE2KI VE2ZNV VE2ZWEO VE3ACU VE3BU VE3CLD/p VE2K VELHF/p | VKSPH | VKSDBD VK3DBD VKLHF/p | VKSPH VK2KI VK3KO VEFKPC | VK2KI [VK3CLDp |VKITE/m|] WK3KO |VK6HRC/p) VKSADX [ VEKSCZ VESET VKSFD VKSIP VESKFG VKSPH VK2K VK3DBD VKEPZT | WK6IS WEBHRC/p| VE6KD | VK6PZT | VKBBEK VKGATB VEBAAYV VEGBEK /VKGHRC/p| VKGFN VEK6CK VKEDEV/p VK6GFN VE6GAL VEKGHRC/p VEBBEK | VK6FN | VK6KD VEQKI VK6lS | VK6PZT | VKGKHZ VE6IR VK6IS VEKBBEK | VK6P2T VK6JDM VK6KD VKEFN VE6KHZ VWE6PZT /VEBHRC/p VK6KQ VK6LD VEBMK VE6MU VEKGNC VEKGNT VKENW VE6PZT VEKBBEK | VK6KHZ | VK6QI VEBBEK | VKGPZT | VKGKHZ | VK6IS WKS? VKBFEN VK6IS [VK6HRC/p| VK6FN VK6TY VEGXU VK6WE Listening VK6YV VETWW VEVKPC VE3DBD | VK2KI | VK3KO VE7ZA Reports And From Richard VK6PZT e VK6BEK - Shaun & Comments here’s this week’s reports. at Dalyellup: lots of QSB and week signals e VK6KHZ - Roni sent 599 sent 558 rcved 249 nice code from Ron but he struggles with my poor straight keying e VKGIS - Peter - sent 589 rcvd 579. Nice long QSO with some very smooth sending from Peter e | thought | heard VK5DEV, however i might of picked up a DE V in amongst DE VK5PH e VK6FN Max 599 ++ as always. Nice long QSO, chatting about call- outs and hot shacks without air con Then !! | got distracted by massive 4 second every 40 seconds on 14020-ish. bursts of digital signal Not sure what it was, but it was very regular - all over SDRs in WA but not in SA; very odd. [Unfortunately| couldn’t insert Richard’s video, but those on WhatsApp can see and hear Richard’s recording]. | would love to know what it was ?? Richard VK6PZT [Thanks mate - good report. burst on 20m. Glad you had a day off. Looks man-made Interesting about the - OTHR accidentally on the wrong frequency perhaps?] Richard continued: Perhaps OTHR - can’t find and reference to OTHR on 20m, but it could be !! | found this video about Russia’s OTHR: https://voutu.be/h9qNAIE4830?si=4hHq6QywH-aoOIW8 At the end it suggests they use up to 32 MHz and they have a new site in Eastern Russia - it could be my mystery wide band QRM on 20m?? Richard Richard Ayre eae de ‘. Kontayner - Russia's BIGGER & BETTER Over The Horizon RADAR » Buy me a coffee: youtube.com https://youtu.be/h9gNAIE48307 si=4hHq6QywH-aoOlws Sea pis | found this video about russias OTHR at the end it suggests they use up to 32 Ghz and they have a new site in eastern russia - it could be my mystery wide band Qrm on 20m ?? 3:49 pm From lan VK1HF/p Hey Mark, at Mount Coree: Well..I got on last night..! | thought | worked VK2KIV...but was it you | worked? Was up on Mt Corree with friends so not quite ideal conditions focus-wise. There were a few stations who came up when | bailed which | hope to work next time. All in all very good. 73, lan - VK1HF [Hilan. Out, c’est mots. I’ve worked people before who thought my callsign was KIV - | think that says my spacing between enough when using Farnsworth QRS. Phillip VK6DEV words isn’t long Imagine what it must be like for - could be quite confusing for new CW operators? More from lan below]. From Craig VK3CLD/p at Benalla: Currently at Benalla and just back from a soaring adventure - tuned up ready to go, but lots of static crashes. Looks like the storms keep following me! Called it quits at 1OO5UTC. Listened to the QSO (?) before between listening to a QSO QSO with VK3DBD VK2KI between and VK1HEF/p VK2KI (?) then and VK3DBD. heard VK5LHV | then had a - good signals to start with but then the QSO went south just as we were warming up hi hi. Had to bale-out as signals simply died; but that’s why we play radio isn’t it? | was on a Straight key tonight and not my usual single paddle; | rather enjoyed the ‘pounding’. Cheerio from VK3CLD. [Gliding is such a great experience eh? Another of the ‘I’d love to do that’ things for us both... but gliding takes lots and lots of time, so about 45 years ago | opted for the challenges of powered flight instead. on Tuesday - | was flat out all night. three stations calling - HI! Yes lots on | even had a pile up at one stage with Thanks for being there again mate. More from Craig below]. From Daniel Hello Mark, VK6WE at Cottesloe: | have been listening on Tuesday evenings to practise decoding signals but everything | heard so far has been too fast and/or poor quality for me or my KX3 to decode. On Tuesday it seemed the same, so | just thought | would try sending using the paddle on the KX3. There was nothing on 80 and 40 metres but to my surprise | got a response on 20 metres; a good clear signal at my slow 12 wom pace! The decoder in the KX3 even worked so | decided to try contacting this station which | was able to decipher as VK3TBV in Horsham. | managed but QRS didn't get a mention. to exchange names (it was Tim) and QTH | was thrilled to get a good signal from the East and actually complete a CW contact, even though book and full of errors. it wasn't by the It is encouraging to think | might get this to work properly so | will be having a go more often. 73, Daniel VK6OWE... [Hi Daniel. Great to hear from you again. What a pity you’ve had trouble decoding the folks on our net, but isn’t that fantastic that you worked Tim? Congratulations - it gets easier from now on! I’m really hoping that you'll now have more confidence to give transmitting a goon our net - no-one’s going to worry if you make mistakes, or even If you don’t get the callsigns correct - just send ‘PSE RPT’ or ‘RPT?’ over and over until you get all the letters... and end each over with a space, then ‘K’ or ‘BK’ (break). And if the speed ts too fast - send ‘PSE QRS’ again and again until you can copy. Then once you have the callsign, send ‘RST 599’ or whatever RST you received the station at - and don’t worry - everyone has trouble decoding and watching the S-meter early in the peace (I still do) - so if that happens, you could say ‘RST NEXT’ then ‘BK’. Because you're still trying to get on top of the Code, you can even make a little card with the basic QSO format in both letters and dots and dashes you can then follow the bouncing ball on transmit. You can find the basic exchange info here: https://sites.google.com/a/parg.org.au/www-parg-orgau/training-and-practice-sessions/cq-qrs---slow-cw-qso-practice-net Thanks for the report Daniel and congratulations for your first solo! | look forward to hearing you on the net soon. Cheers and good luck mate]. From Richard VK6HRC/p at Gidgegannup: Hi Mark, here’s my report for the net last Tuesday from my friend's bush block in Gidgegannup. antenna | was using the KX3 @ 15w and a horizontal loop in amongst the trees. Heard: e VKOIS e VKO6OPZT e VK6KHZ Annoyed! VK6BEK VK6FN VK6KD VK2KI All local signals were 599+ and Mark VK2KI was 449. Very low noise at the start of the session and | was hearing the Eastern states crew, but not strong enough to get callsigns unfortunately. | got on and annoyed some of the very patient locals; | was not having a good night sending - my sending was poor and erratic to say the least! Gidgegannup | need to practise sending or just send Gidge in future. Shaun worked out what | was trying to send after multiple attempts from me and replied with Gidgegannup? Easy when you know how Towards the end of the session signals from the East were improving along with the static crashes so it was difficult working the end; again. Mark but we got there in as usual your signals were good as we were signing, Mr Murphy Thanks to all on the net. ( Panic, Chaos, and Disorder my work was done ! ) 73 Richard VK6HRC Hi Richard. Thanks for your terrific report again. VK6 | heard over here - how good Is that! as usual - that's the fun of it - HI! Well you were the only Yes - signals were up and down How big was the loop and how high? Any photos of your /o? ! heard you once or twice on the SDR - your sending sounded bloody good to me mate! Don’t sweat the small stuff - your keying and rhythm is outstanding. | usually write down my location when operating portable - It’s really hard to spell a place you're not familiar with - and GIDGEGANNUP - hal. | was knackered after a poor night’s sleep and a day up at the YassFM transmitter site and having trouble being in three places at once - so! didn’t get to decode as many of the VK6s as I'd have liked. We need a Reverse Beacon Network that decodes everything in a band, not just CQs Al! Great to catch up on Wednesday’s Post-Morsum at 0630 WA time on the South West Allstar network. | could hear you ok when you were first on with Max - and couldn’t work out why he was complaining about your signal; which AllStar locations did you use, and what were you using for a transmitter and antenna for that? Hello Mark Back home now to get out of the heat; it was up forty degrees in the shed yesterday but fine in the shade under the trees. length of aluminium welding wire through The loop is random insulators suspended from the trees as high as possible, and back to a matching unit at the shed; photos this time unfortunately. no The VHF rig | took up was hooked up to a vertical on the shed but the signal reports were not good, so used the rig in my ute. The rig in the ute is an Icom ID-880H with a Comet SBB5 antenna.. | was on mid-power to start with but bumped got good signal reports after that. UHF/VHF the power up and | used both VK6RAV and VK6RLM as a test, also tried Roy's node but nothing heard there. My goodness you had long day and longer evening yesterday, don't know how you do it and a Reverse ¥9 ¥ g . beacon recorder/decoder —— y would =? th; bie wt a —_ —~— {genet ) — 2 WEAT . EA AL Be. sure do the trick! 73S Richard VK6HRC From Peter VK7KPC at Evandale: Hi Mark, Mains 18V PSU was connected to my Racal Syncal - so | had 11W output this week. Still waiting on the Ozito battery adapter. | heard VK3DBD, then tnx for QSO and 379 with QSB from you; were 499 at Evandale. you | then had a QSO with lan VK3KO with 577 rx report. | replied with 599; was Mornington, his QTH but it took a couple of tries to reply with Evandale. Not sure if he got my callsign correct due to QRN. Did copy his rig being Icom 73?? either 99 or 00 Cheers, Peter. [Hi Peter - well done - it was great to hear your Racal Syncal and although conditions between us weren't optimal, the Racal sounded nice; no sign of the chirp heard with your (flat?) lantern batteries. Yes | caught up with lan 3KO after you - and | tried to correct him that you were KPC not RPC - however, | don’t know if he heard that. Anyway - he’s a RagChew reader so it'll sort itself out. €Y CW again next Tuesday mate. (More from Peter about using an adapter on a power tool battery to provide 18 Volts below)]. From Claude VK1TE/m between Pearce ACT and Tinderry NSW: Hi Mark, Having to diverge from my planed schedule, | somehow managed some limited QRS activity last night. As you experienced, | also managed to briefly overlap one of your QSOs while you were struggling, squeezing some info from a weak VK6 station! Oops! An unforgivable mistake, unless we are a complete newbie! ;-) Unfortunately, at those hours, | am not as fresh as a cheese of the day and prone to mistakes! Where My apologies. | was, in ACT, the noise levels were averaging depending becomes ;-) ;-) on the area... When between you start a mobile QSO S4 - $9+20, 599 and it suddenly 239 while driving it can be a bit frustrating as well as challenging! One of the problems while driving is that we can't always stop when and where we feel like, due to the traffic and road situation, we often just have to keep running... Starting a bit late did not give me a chance to contact lan VK1HF/p as he might have run out of battery by then - never mind. As you can see on the attached mobile 80m session! when you answered ;-) log, it is not too bad for an impromptu | was at the entrance of my driveway at Tinderry my call, just before | switched the TS-480 off! Thanks again for your dedication and all the best, 73, CW next time, k vklte - vk2cl... time_on callsign namefreq rst_srst_r qth 12:06 WK2KI Mark 3.555 559 589 rem 11:45 VK2KI Mark 3.562 379 SWL Bowning ORS 11:45 WK3AOE Orge 3.562 379 SWLSydney 11:36 11:33 11:33 11:15 11:00 WK6FN 356 219 VWK2KI Mark 3.5622579 VK6HRC 3.5622 119 VK3ADX Merv 3.56 559 VK3KO 3.5681 389 11:00 VK2KI Mark 3.5681 579 SWL Bowning QRS 10:12 WK2AOE Orge 3.555 599 Bowning QRS QRS SWL QRS SWL Bowning QRS SWL QRS 239 Ballarat QRS SWL QRS with vk2ki 379 Sydney QRS SDR Hermes [Hiya Claude. Excellent to hear you on Tuesday night. Re: “...an unforgivable mistake...” - absolutely bloody not! There’s no way that you would have heard Richard VK6HRC/p with 15 Watts when you were driving, and for any mobile op to be able to deal with QSB, QRN, concentration, tiredness etc is amazing! traffic, It’s par for the course on 80m that most people can’t hear as well as they send because of switch mode power supply hash. Sol’m slightly worried that you think | may have been upset.... c’est la vie mon amie! And you had the cognitive capacity to realise that | sent a quick PSE QRX and stood by. down the band a /ittle for a quickie. Sa l’m glad | found you Nevertheless... it was great to have a pile-up of people calling me - HI! Thanks for your report. | hope you’re enjoying writing the reports as much as!am We are all time (and for some of us, cash!) poor, but reading them. / really appreciate that you make the time to contribute to what we’re trying to achieve through the newsletter and by being there on the night. €Y CW Tuesday! More from Claude below]. From John VKS5ET at Hope Valley: G'day Mark, No Slow Morse Tuesday, 12th, due to visitors. 73'S, John, VK5ET... [Boohoo! Thanks mate - apparently things were very noisy in SA - lan gave up and Paul didn’t seem to be able to hear anyone again. Cheers, and €Y CW on Tuesday]. From Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks: Hi Mark, Returning to the end-fed revealed a dodgy connector near the transceiver. This may have been the cause of the spiral loop problems last week; tuned. Once fixed the end-fed was working well. stay | was fairly busy on Tuesday night and managed was a bit early, his signal came up much to work Richard VK6PZT (it louder later), Richard VK6HRC/p (a strong signal at my QTH), Peter VK6IS and Max VKO6FN. As you know we had a lot of trees removed at the end of last week to lower our fire risk. | Can now easily get to corners of the property that were difficult before and will review the current situation over the next few weeks and try and improve the antenna setup. Here is a picture of the old inverted V parallel dipole from 6 years ago before the solar panel problems.... The first issue is how | will handle local noise. | can now try a few options which were put on the back burner before. The 32 panel solar array causing the noise problem is mounted on the rear property which is built on top of a 2.5m retaining wall. | have already used a small short wave receiver to do an initial assessment of the noise levels on 80m around Shadowed my property. Nothing has changed but | did find a area below the rear retaining wall which is quieter than further out into the back yard. | have a loop on ground built a couple of years ago. (LOG) antenna which was | might try it in this area. Apart from this, the noise gradually decreases up to the front of the block and is quietest in the front corner away from the house where | had the old listening loop which may come back later in a different form. an envelope of noise extending 2 to 3 metres around need to keep antennas out of this area. actually tried to measure Meanwhile | Knew this before but hadn't It. | will be trying to set up a much than | have had tn the past. resurrect the old 40m | did confirm my home and ideally better noise cancelling antenna Unrelated to this, less trees means | can inverted V on the driveway side of the house where the support eyelets are still in place (See the picture above). nice if this worked on 80m. It would be Maybe one of those fancy ZS6BKW doublets with some loading for 80m? [Hi Shaun. Lots of fun now that you have space for your antenna farming aspirations. Interesting about the noise blob around your house; are you absolutely sure that some of the noise problems aren't coming from switch mode power supplies and your routers, ethernet cables etc? guestion.... but others will be interested in 80m noise (see more below). | know - rhetorical the secrets of tracking down | have a 10kW solar power system here that doesn't appear to be offensive to 80m. Loop on ground - sounds /ike a variation of the Beverage antenna which also has a low noise pickup... but probably requires a tad more space than you have. John VK5ET uses the ZS6BKW with the ends turned vertically down toward the ground - and it works well (he tried elevating the ends into a Z-shape, but felt the performance wasn’t as good. would | believe be a challenge. doublet, Loading or trapping the doublet The antenna is a modification of the G5SRV where the balanced feed-line is a specified length to achieve its multi-bandedness. | hope you have some fun with your MF]-1026 noise canceller. See the Other Topics of Interest section below for more on noise cancellers. | look forward to reading about your experiments Shaun]. From David VK6KD at Ballajura. Hi Mark QRS CW report from 12 Dec 2023. | didn’t get on till late and left early. QsSo#1 3.560MHz 7:55pm wst vk6fn (Max) | sent RST 599 8:07pm pm finish. QSO#2 3.555 8.20pm vk6hre (Richard) | sent RST 569 8.30pm Regards David VK6KD [Thanks David, From me cheers]. VK6QI at Bedfordale via the and the VK6QS SDR VK6CRO at Brookton, Remote the VK6SR Remote at Carnarvon: Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks and Richard VK6PZT were early off the blocks - chatting 10 minutes before the net started. signal and nice rhythmic keying from Ron VK6KHZ were finally answered | also heard the big at Yangebup, which by Richard who was enjoying a day off work and an early start At around 0930z | heard Richard VK6HRC/p which was answered by Shaun. at Gidgegannup calling CQ, Shaun went on to chat to Peter VK6IS up the road from Richard at Wundowie. I'd seen the note from Max VK6FN at Manjimup transmitter call-out, but motivated by a need for seed-dubbya, reporting a broadcast Max was back on and chatting to Richard, having missed only an hour. As mentioned earlier, | was pretty knackered and although | was watching and listening to the activity in WA on the SDR, | struggled to catch any callsigns while | was busy pounding brass in VK2. | didn’t even get to do my weekly one-way propagation tests using the Southern Electronics Group Remote in WA - having an early start on Wednesday, meant | hit the hay by 2330 my time - which means | also missed out on catching one of the late listeners in WA as I'd been looking forward to; oh well, there’s always next week. 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 | got in early to give the Tecsun SDR at Araluen a try, but having just been restored to air (thank you Garry Cratt VK2YBX from TecSun Radios Australia) it was too popular - all four channels were in use so | joined the queue waiting for a slot; was let in. However, popular receiver - it took about an hour before | | caught lan VK1HF/p at Mount Coree in the ACT, despite the QSB over the 50km Vertical Incidence Skywave path; | guess. to contact lan, but no luck this time. calling CQ on the same frequency, noise in SA to make contact; ground wave mixing with Near David VK3DBD at Yakandandah At the same time, Paul VK5PH tried was but David wasn’t able to get through the | think | tried as well without luck, so David and | had a nice 2 x RST 599 chat instead. Ms Elizabeth’s Morsle rescue delivery... Next up, | was called by Peter VK7KPC transceiver shown at Evandale, using the Racal Syncal in last week’s RagChew.; smiling this time, but we did exchange the propagation gods weren't RSTs ok. Meanwhile the Tecsun SDR at Araluen let me in and | heard that David had gone on to have a good long rag-chew with Craig VK3CLD/p at Benalla. After David, | tried to work Craig who was RST 599 to me, but the signals dropped and Craig lost me in the QRN before we could exchange | then heard George VK2AOE at Kogarah having a chat to Claude VK1TE/m on his way to Tinderry NSW again. Meanwhile, | heard Peter chatting to lan VK3KO at Mornington, who although had been on the net before, | worked for the first time. It was nice to receive on- RSTs. air thanks for the newsletter and for the follow-up reminder on the day that the net was on. | was so chuffed that | told lan that | was watching our QSO on the VK6QS SDR at Brookton, and that he had a stronger signal from his 100 Watts to an inverted Vee up 20m than my 70 Watts to a double-extended Zepp up 7m; | need to get one of Jordan’s drones (see last week’s RagChew newsletter) to get my 100+ metres of antenna up higher in the trees HI! After a nice long QSO with lan, | was called by George who was looking forward to the end of school term, allowing more time for radio. | moved to some CQ calls and was really pleased to hear Richard VK6HRC/p Gidgegannup who was operating QRP. on at But then something terrific happened.... a pile-up on the CQ QRS net! | was also being called by two other stations who couldn’t hear Richard or each-other - there was much QRXing going on, while | was having fun picking Richard out of the noise with repeated “RST AGN?” requests. Richard was only RST 269 through the noise at this end but was hearing me 559 - but as happens often on our nets, there was a lucky few QSB peaks that allowed QSLs. After Richard it was good to have a nice chat again with Merv VK3ADX at Ballarat who had been waiting patiently, despite it getting late over this side. And to round out the evening, | had a quick QSO with Claude who by then had arrived at his destination at Tinderry and was ready to call it quits. As | said above, | was pretty tired by then and had an early start the next morning, so pulled the big switch (er, actually pushed two buttons, clicked windows closed on two computers and rotated the antenna switch) by about 11.15pm; what a great fun night - thank you all. Other Other things VK6JDM I’ve received Article on Balanced News from our 100-odd readers. Feed-lines Did you see the article in the latest Amateur Radio Magazine from our team member Donald VK6JDM from Esperance? Donald discusses the use of Klippon Vine Ties (an agricultural product for tying grapevines to the support wires) as spacers in open wire feeder. Nice article Donald. As it turns out, that is exactly how I’m going to feed my 80m doubleextended Zepp; | have a bag of 1000 Vine Ties and a roll of 7/067 building earth cable ready and waiting to be assembled.... to replace the 45m run of strictly temporary 300 Ohm TV ribbon that | installed as a test. Thoughts on noise from Claude VKI1TE from Pearce: Hi Mark, | am glad that, thanks to your perseverance, you managed your QSO with Donald VK6JDM when he disappeared on the previous Tuesday. in the background to complete | gave up listening noise and increasing QSB. The more you mention your noise issues the more | find it interesting! | wonder what you have done thus far to identify the origins of your local noises. Did you proceed by methodical elimination steps? In Canberra noise sources are everywhere and the levels go from low to very high intermittently, depending on which section of the city we are in. All of that on top of natural noises, to a point that it is often difficult to distinguish between them... At the moment my station settings, using vertical antennas, catch all possible noises available! ;-) | imagine and hope that the horizontal antennas that you are using are more immune to noise issues than any vertical ones. The only time | am sure that | am hearing natural noises only is when on the farm in the bush, away enough from man made noises. | am There are high voltage power lines over there too, crossing properties, and | assume that when we are about 1Km away from them they should have a minimal effect, unless | am wrong! ;-) | have been playing with the few usual embedded (analogue & digital) and one external noise "cancellers" or "reducers" to realise that one needs a lot of practice to really take advantage of them. Often | find it better without them or | use them sparingly, just enough to improve readability without chewing the useful signal away. In CW overusing them can lead to altering the quality of the signal itself rather than just cancelling noise, if we use the wrong settings. right balance between with the notch etc... often end up spending QSOing! Finding the RF gain and all the noise cancellation plus playing more time doing that than ;-0 | have to admit that | don't do much of that when bumpy dirt road! | am operating ona As simple as it can be is then the rule and my ears are the only filters... When you are driving and try to adjust anything along those lines you realise that your fingers have their own mind, they go everywhere but the right Knob or button. Just some of my brief observations... If you play music instruments, as | used to a lot, years ago, it can help you enjoy a "musical rhythmic" CW experience, if you are in the right conditions: Not tired, focussed, in the right mood and not driving;-)... and with a fine tuned key. Now, | am enjoying another experiment: tapping on one side of a ‘cheap’ Chinese magnetic paddle with the first finger and setting the keyer as straight key on the radio. That works even better than the thumb experience | already mentioned. That type of paddle has a soft touch, just right to do that. 25wpm+ no problem. More comfortable and accurate than many standard straight keys. Also much driving than a paddle & keyer. Then, you feel you are in close to full control. less prone to mistakes while As you noticed, | keep trying different things but, like you with your WTS8 AMP keys, after a while we tend to get used to what we feel comfortable with and get back to that after exploring something else. Same for operating systems and | always get back to NIXOS linux, Antix (for old PCs) or FreeBSD, even though | have tried dozens of distros. I'll try and see if it is possible to hook some recruits from Kiwi land —_—_—— Fe s\ each time | catch one on the air, to add a spark of exoticism to our QRS parties. ;-) Could try to do the same for different parts of Australia. = — a Sg & Also x > oe a “i aes looking forward to catching some [Ease Sandgropers next times. [ MESS [Tomy eet) AS “s About once a week | copy stations from Darwin in the UTE and more often from around Brisbane... Unfortunately, once on a very busy road | don't always have an opportunity to do more than surf-listening. C. W. next time, 73,k VK1ITE [Hi Claude. Yes, the noise seems to be a real barrier to entry for new ops on 80m - or for oldies who have come back post the switch mode power supply, internet router and solar inverter proliferation; [’m sure you'll remember the previous bug-bear we used to have on 80m... sprogs every 15.625kHz, the line frequency from CRT style TVs. | think the switch mode power supply hash really is the elephant in the room that scares far too many people away from 80m - thinking that there’s nothing they can do about it. Shaun VK6BEK, Richard VK6PZT and Lin VK6NT are examples of our team who have worked hard to overcome the noise problems with success.... now they’re working into the Eastern States whereas when they first come to 80, all they cold hear was hash. I’ve started discussing noise in the Other Topics of Interest section below and I’ve noted in my Future RagChew Plan to do a few articles on taming the noise on 80m; but even better, it’d be great to get our readers’ experiences on this - everywhere is different when it comes to noise. My first attempt at a solution was to move my antenna about 40m away from the house; that reduced the noise a little - but not as much as expected, based on previous testing of my ZS6BKW portable antennas away from the house. However, there could be a number of reasons for the less than expected drop in noise level, which I'll explore. Cheers Claude Even more And from Claude below]. another about noise from lan VK1HF at Denman Prospect: Well I've worked out that there is massive local interference on 80mtrs..so anogoforme. Might see if! can't go mobile and work you guys from there. Your newsletter is soo long...why don't you make a magazine from it easy week..you clearly enjoy writing..and it does seem content...would like it's good be a nice read on the iPad..eQRSSmag ..I'd be keen for sure. Put it out there.. I'd happily pay a few bucks etc for it also.. 73, lan - VK1HF.... [Hi lan. As you can see by the two items so far - switch mode power supply noise on 80m Is a very common problem for everyone who gives 80m a try. But there are things you can do; see Other Topics of Interest below. Great that you were able to get going from Mount Coree last Tuesday - with a good antenna, providing there isn’t too much in the way of static crashes around, you'll be able to work across the Country on the net from there Cheers, and CW Tuesday. 18 Volts for a Racal mb]. Syncal from Peter VK7KPC at Evandale: Hi Mark, Another 3 d printer creation - this time a Ozito power tool battery adapter httos://crossfireoower.com/collections/diy Mains PSU for Syncal transceiver now attached, and the adapter has arrived and is connected. Cheers Peter slo [Wow.

PGE 2:22 When / lived up in Kuala Lumpur for three years, | wanted to power the FT-817 that I'd spotted in a shop window In Hong Kong for a bit longer than the inbuilt batteries. My drill battery was a good choice, so / spent days crafting an adapter using a sacrificed plastic cutting board; today thanks to 3D printing, the solution appears to be much neater, easier and guicker]. A note from Stuart VK6MK normally at Australind: G’day Mark. I’m still up in Broome and haven’t been able to get an antenna up. I’m home end of December and will be back on then. Cheers Stuart. That’s why things were so quiet from Australind for a while]. Radio Amateurs’ The RAOTC Magazine. RAQTC mambar No 134 Network Old Timers puts out a nice magazine called OTN - Old Timers’ News. The magazine usually includes interesting articles about historic aspects of radio communications around the world. in Australia and A return to its bygone days Herman Willemsen VKZIV [Ah ha! More often than not, there’s often articles about restoring Morse keys. The RAOTC been is for people who have licensed for 25 years or more; | used to look at the advertisements in AR Magazine and grin - Ha, 25 years - boy they must be old! I’ve been Now licensed over 50 years - eeek!. However, for those who'd like to enjoy a really good read about some fascinating topics, Associate membership is available for people licensed for 10 years or more. for more information. Also from Claude www.raotc.org.au_ VKITE Thanks for the WhatsApp at Pearce: link, Mark; now reading the 1km long page of terms & conditions + privacy of WhatsApp. | am glad | didn't bet as | thought you wouldn't notice my new second callsign! ;-) My first callsign was VK1FS, dropped it was given by the ACMA of that time, then | it as | was not active enough. It still appears on grz.com. | re applied and chose the most CW friendly one available VKI1EE - | dropped it as well for the same reason. This time around, | chose VKI1TE, which was also the most CW friendly one that was available, as VK1EE was already retaken. Later, once in awhile, | had a look at the list of available 2 letters callsigns in NSW. None were available at all, most of the time. friendly one which would had some become | was looking for another CW available, or a non CW friendly one if it particular connection that | would find interesting. a few days ago, when That was until | had another look and, bingo, there was just one single 2 letter sign available, which was VK2CL! As you mentioned, it is one of the least CW friendly one could think of but, in my case, could not match any better with my first name! Now, | no longer really care about having the shortest call sign possible and consider myself lucky to have found a 2 letter one at all, and so easily, in such a crowded NSW! | should celebrate for being so lucky to get that call sign, literally, from a hat! ;-) So, as you can see, there is no merit to it other than a bit of patience; just luck, for a change... now! You'll have one more call sign in your QRS inventory ;-) | might even consider my HAM to become name CL or even K, as it is tedious to punch my entire first name that | find way too fiddly for CW purposes. Mainly if, at some point, | get involved into CW contesting. | envy those called John, Bob, Tim, Lee, Mark, Pete, Mike etc... By the time | finish entering my first name during a QRS you had enough time to read the news paper and enjoy a cup of tea! ;-) You might see such a change as a strange idea. not uncommon, | have been told that it is and is allowed, to change your real name into an alias for the duration of a contest, as long as you keep the same one during the entire contest. You have a very CW friendly first name that you might happily keep using ad vitam for that purpose. Technology is evolving so fast and in such a way that we use what is available now for what we want to achieve, replaced any time by something knowing that it could be more suitable tomorrow. WhatsApp today, WhatNot tomorrow. To enjoy radio amateurism you have to enjoy ongoing struggling situations. And when you stop struggling it means something you are no longer learning new things! ;-) without the d. Most pronounce CW is going wrong, and that | pronounce CW as in Seaweed it ‘See Double You’; who cares? soon. Good night and 73, k vkl1te - vk2cl [Hi Claude. NSW. Yes you certainly struck it lucky finding a two-letter callsign in A good reason for our Foundation and Standard license holders to work hard and knock over their Advanced licenses... so they can get a nice short two-letter call. Interesting thought about using the name CL on air; worth a try! When / was in the Air Force, like many | had a nick name - Boz - one of those things that just stuck. But! noticed that most of the people who called me that had grown up in the country. So when / retired and moved to a rural area, | figured that I'd give it a try - for example, when | present on the Community Radio station YassFM - that seemed to work well - and lots of folk around here call me that. | thought I'd try the same on amateur radio - / started using that name on air... but when friends I’d known on air for years started using the name, | found | didn’t like using it on air - so dropped the idea for amateur radio. And by the way, funny that your original VK1 callsign is on QRZ.com... but that your new one isn’t - by the way, your new-new one Is still shown as the Hellenic Amateur Radio Society of Australia - HI! But don’t get me started about those stupid Contest callsigns though! How ridiculous! Love the CW AGN, CW Tuesday etc! I’ve started using it in the RagChew - let’s see if your idea takes off? CW Tuesday]. Chatting with Craig VK3CLD/p The soaring adventure was tandem as they say hi hi. at Benalla. gliding above Benalla. Whilst in Rome Was there many on last night? Craig... [Thanks mate - sounded good - thanks for being there from Benalla mate. Any photos? We’ve been there a number of times recently - travelling by public transport (train / coach) to reduce carbon use. Couple of times we’ve bought some nice steel artwork made from old farm implements in Benalla and carried them home on the train / bus etc - great fun! Gliding is such a great experience eh? Another of the ‘I'd love to do that’ things for us both... but serious gliding takes lots and lots of time, so! opted for the challenges of powered flight. Yes lots on last night - | was flat out all night. stage! Where Moved on today and now at Welshman’s | even had a pile up at one will you be next week?] Reef for at least 2 days. Next Tuesday we'll be around the Ballarat area-ish, then Heywood/Drumborg for Xmas. After that it will be back up to Cowra taking our GU CC and camper and kayaks where they will be stored until... whenever. Ya must have a better bloody antenna than me ‘cause | heard very little! So annoying, but on the flip side, | get to change QTH every other day hi hi. Looking forward to the newsletter. [Double Extended Zepp (2 x 5/8ths in phase) - over 100m Iong.... might not be all that practical for /m operation though! Don’t worry, it’s just been tough with the static crashes for a while - it’ll settle down. If Claude can work happily into VK3, 5 and 7 from his little Tarheel mobile whip, so can you mate! Barriers to success: e grounding of the antenna e static crashes e QRM from your/other switch mode power supplies, solar regulators, fridges e lack of headphones e patience Ciao. CW Tuesday]. From Alf VK6FARF Greetings, at Albany: | have been labouring through a magnificent book on the life and times of Australia 1910 to 1920. Phwargh what a read. But i wish everyone on CQ QRS a happy and safe Christmas time and a healthy prosperous 2024. Cheers all, Alfie Frater VK6FARF Albany WA Post-Morseum | prepared really well for Richard's AllStar Post-Morseum this morning.... went to bed really early for a Tuesday CQ QRS night (2330 local), set the alarm for an early start and packed my trusty $20 Baofeng BF-888 70cm handheld along with the paperwork needed for an early rego check in Yass (about 15km away). Things went down hill from there... | forgot that my normal 0530 phone alarm is set to not go off on Wednesdays after late CQ QRSs - so | slept in. Then found that my handheld was switched on - so into the charger for a quick battery top-up. time. Breakfast and on the road in good Post-Morseum time... 0630 WA time and ready to go... hey, where's the radio? Still at home in the charger! Oh well - at least | could sort of get on via Echolink - albeit with a flakey connection. To find out more about our Wednesday VK6HRC, From Post-Morseums hosted by Richard see further down towards the end of the newsletter. Murphy Max VK6FN at Manjimup: Mark... You say that it never happens twice... Ha! great night on CW Tuesday... Then it happened rang for a broadcast service call-out. let u Know that | was called away. happened previously? | was all prepared for a again... the dammed phone Next a SMS message to you Mark to How many times has the same thing Thinking that | must be cursed. Luckily the call was just 5km away so all speed records broken and | was back home in just over 1/2 an hour to my beloved key. even managed 73's. de. Sunday to work six stns...Ended up a good HOORAY. And | night.... 6fn CW Net From Merv VK3ADX at Ballarat in response to Max, Claude and others’ interest in non-QRS CW practice. that’s gone on for many many years - | suspect at least 25. mornings from about 10am Hi Mark, Eastern time until midday. room only....the net controller would frequency to QSY to. there’s been a Sunday CW net Not QRS, Sunday Used to be standing pair two operators and give them a but the net was once very popular. So if you have nothing to do Sunday mornings call CQ on 7025 or 7028..there maybe someone [Thanks Merv. listening..73. Merv. This should be good for our folks who are after non-QRS CW practice]. Another Lightning Tracker From Mike VK2DAI from the Wagga Amateur Radio Club: This is a really good local lightning tracker httos://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss:t=3;s=0;0=0:;b=;ts=0;y=-34.9957; X=147.0925:Z=10:d=2:dl=2:dc=0; give it a try for your next storm. Regards Mike VK2DAI [Thanks Mike. Looks like this one runs off a feed from blitzortung.org that we’ve discussed in previous RagChews’ Topics of Interest on static crash propagation. The beauty of Mike’s link is that it projects the strikes onto a normal close-in map in different formats. By using your own latitude and longitude rather than the ones in Mike’s URL, you’ll get to see strikes in the vicinity of your chosen location. / use a similar thing in the Lightning App on my phone - useful for the Rural Fire Service - many / most grass fires in our area are started by lightning strikes - so it’s useful to know where those strikes are or have been. Smouldering trees from night-time lightning can start grass fires the following days when the wind picks up]. Araluen SDR | use the Tecsun Radio Australia KiwiSDR at Araluen NSW with the VK6QS KiwiSDR at Brookton WA for the CQ QRS Nets on Tuesdays. in conjunction Last week Garry Cratt VK2YBX from Tecsun Radio Australia repaired the SDR and | was able to use it for Tuesday’s net. | asked Garry about the antennas he uses for the SDR. e Garry said: Because | want to cover both polarisations, | run a trapped dipole and a trapped vertical into an HF combiner, then into the SDR. e There are a number of common mode chokes to reduce noise, the whole thing runs from a linear 5 volt power supply. e The link to the world is via a Starlink terminal. e | have a 6.5kVa diesel generator and an ATS, just need to wire that up to keep power on when the mains goes down; | might get enthused this weekend endurance to go down and get some is 8 hours. photos for the newsletter - depends on the temp. 41C in Brookvale this afternoon. Best regards, Garry VK2YBX Thanks for the information about the SDR Garry; photos. | look forward to some And thank you again for providing the SDR for the CQ QRS net - it does the job really well. This Week’s The Phased The Phased Antenna Topics of Interest Antenna Elephant Paradox & in the Room Paradox Last week | discussed an apparent paradox that | couldn’t sort out concerning phased antennas. The situation was the stacked pair of folded dipoles at the transmitter site of the Community Radio Station YassFM in NSW where I’m the Friday afternoon presenter. The two folded dipoles at the top are the phased pair fed via a Power Divider. YassFM is licensed to emit 1500 Watts Effective Radiated (ERP), but the Power limited to a maximum Power Divider is feed of 500 Watts (if nothing else, limited by the power rating of the N-connector at the feed point from the half-inch Heliax cable. So intuitively, | would have said that the station’s effective radiated power was a bit below 1000 Watts; 3dB gain from a pair of dipoles in phase. The Power Divider is the white vertical tube just visible to the right of the pole, half way between the dipoles - input at the bottom, two outputs at the top. But then looking at the ZCG (the antenna has made Scalar manufacturer) website me question my intuitive understanding. 500 Watts input to the power divider produces 250 Watts at each output port which gets fed to each dipole 250 Watts per dipole; dipole would so each radiate approximately 250 Watts ERP (if it had an omnidirectional radiation pattern). So if | stand in the far field in the plane of the dipoles - the EM field from each antenna will arrive in phase, and | will see the effect of 2 x 250 Watts ERP - ie 500 Watts ERP. But hold on, what happened to our 1000 Watts ERP predicted for the 3dBd gain stack? So that’s my dilemma - this simple arrangement should have an ERP of 1000 Watts.... but using the logic above, it seems that isn’t true. What am | doing wrong with my heuristics? Owen Duffy VK2OMD ( httos://owenduffy.net/index.htm ) has put up his hand to help, but we’re still working on that - and we’re enjoying another challenge he’s posed about how a Bird 43 Watt meter deals with forward and reflected power - and so far, he discussion has helped me overcome my lack of intuitive understanding about the direction of power movement in a coaxial feed-line. However, the paradox (ie my thinking) hasn't yet been resolved. Any thoughts from readers - please let me know - mark.bosma@icloud.com Coax Loss Tuesday’s visit to the transmitter site with lan Clifford our transmission contractor from IAC Communications hadn't experienced before. demonstrated another thing that | We were unable to bring the mast down because the site’s Cyclone fence was in the way, so instead, lan put up a temporary folded dipole, at ladder height below the existing antennas (the antenna is in the top photo). The antenna was fed with RG-213 flexible half-inch coax terminated with an N-connector; the antenna and the N- connector were rated for only 500 Watts, so the transmitter was set to a bit below that figure. The spare cable was coiled up and hung grabbed a bite to eat. When it was pretty warm! Amazing we came in free air under a bench while we in to close up, we felt the cable - boy how much heat was generated by the loss, when fed with only 500 Watts. in the RG-213 To avoid tempting fate, we re- arranged the cable so that it formed a huge spaced coil under the bench with plenty of air circulation. We also did a electro-magnetic called a RadMan radiation safety check using a little tool - a simple wide-band detector with LED / audio indicators of field strength exposure safety. Interesting thought with our 80m antennas that are often close to the ground wavelength-wise... and slow CW does involve longer-bursts of EM energy compared to SSB. Hmmm. Might have to buy a cheap Chinese calibrated EM field strength meter off eBay and have a look at what comes off my two x five-eighths in phase up only 7m. Wilkinson Power Divider In last week’s RagChew, | included a picture of the works of a Wilkinson Power Divider next to the one in use at YassFM. error! Spot the not-so-obvious The Wilkinson divider has a half-wavelength of coax between the output ports - so it appears that the two ports are in fact out-of-phase. Yet the feeds to each element of the dipole stack are equal length - that would probably produce a four-peak radiation pattern in the vertical plane - which wouldn't help if we were trying to increase our gain on the horizon. Oh and by the way - I’m hearing reports that the signal from the single lower dipole is the same or better than the phase array before it failed! Hmmm! The Elephant in the Room Talk to other amateurs about our terrific 80m net, and many will tell you that they can’t use 80m 80m because of the noise. static crashes, TV line oscillators, switch mode solar power inverters. has always been noisy - power supplies and now, However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be used - there’s lots of local nets on 80m across Australia, and people work the ‘grey line’ DX around the world on CW when conditions are right. Our team members have overcome some or all of the problems - so it’s quite possible to either get the man-made get it down to zero. Remote Rob VK6LD HF station at his home noise to a useable level, or to hosts the Southern in Bedfordale; net - and most of the time the noise level is S-O! Rob has worked Electronics Group it’s the one that | use on the But that wasn’t just luck - hard to get the noise down - and you can too! Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks has been plagued noise, Richard VK6PZT was plagued Similarly, by solar power inverter by noise from among other places, his neighbour’s TV, and Lin VK6NT had an interesting challenge from the 6WF AM broadcast transmitter just down the road. These guys are now able to enjoy the net just as much as everyone else, but of course, the job never ends... there’s always new things to try to get rid of that next iota! So lets kick off with a little about | was talking to Tony VK6DQ noise cancellers. a few years ago about 80m noise, and | was idly contemplating whether it was possible to use a second antenna to pick up noise, and by using coax delay lines, feed an anti-phase signal into the receiver along with the signal from the main antenna. Tony’s response was “I've got two of those!" and he introduced me to the MFJ-1026 noise canceller, that | hadn’t heard of before. | fell over when | priced the MF] unit, but found out that a simpler kit was available from VK5TM. | have had a VK5TM Noise Canceller kit sitting in my shack waiting to be built for a number of years - remarkably, itself yet. it hasn’t built Instead | use a Chinese copy that | bought new from Ali Express for less than $100, because if nothing else, | could use the nice steel case for the VK5TM unit. a) Sd Mt ec But as it turned out, the bought one worked well enough, every CQ QRS net. and | use it for | also have an MFJ-1026 that | bought from a friend’s Estate - unfortunately | think one or more of the FETs have failed because is doesn’t work at all.... it’s also waiting repair, along with everything else! I've ended up using four different noise pick-up antennas with the noise canceller (the unit’s telescopic whip, a helical vertical in the shack, an active antenna located in the ceiling space next to the QRM-radiating ducted air conditioning unit, and a 6m wire antenna suspended just above the corrugated steel roof); coaxial switch. the antennas are selectable with a five-way Often, the simplest high loss antennas work best as noise pick-ups - of course you’re aiming to pick up noise, but at the same time, you don’t want to pick up the desired 80m signals - so a poor antenna can work best. So although the noise cancellers have lots of limitations (including significant signal strength loss in return for much ratio) and can be very tricky to adjust, enhanced signal-to-noise | think they will help lots of people get on air on 80m despite the noise. In the mean time, I’m going to shout myself one of these hand-held at Tecsun Radios Australia (the provider of the Araluen $80 ee the latest model in our truly handheld range of multiband radios. The unique shape and size o our net in the Tecsun short wave the Tecsun PL365 design was based around the requirements of our The Tecsun PL365 receiver on special at the moment as you can see. The receiver covers LF to 30MHz Cnt) $100 The Tecsun PL365 radio is Garry has promoted listening blog - thanks Garry. RADIO See, SDR that | use for the net, who we heard from above). PL365 MULTIBAND receivers from our reader Garry VK2YBX TECSUN military and law enforcement customers Clip it on your belt when out in the yard or working around the house. (plus the FM band) and has a signal strength read-out in dBuV - which looks to be very useful for tracking down noise. The receiver appears to also be a good general coverage receiver, including SSB and presumably CW. The directional rod antenna pictured is 2 for the AM broadcast band, but I’m hoping it will also work on 80m for DFing noise; if not, the antenna could be easily replaced with either a coax loop or another rod with less turns on it for 80m; the antenna connects via a 3.5mm jack - and Garry sells a BNC adapter to suit. So stay tuned for a future article of three on dealing with switch mode power supply noise on 80m. Please let me know your experiences with this challenge that we all face, so we can share more thoughts and ideas; email to mark.bosma@icloud.com a Brain How Teaser did you go? Jules Perrin JP VK3JFP has created a terrific resource to help guide learning for all levels of amateur radio licenses: https://www.julesworkshop.net/Amateur%20Radio.html This week’s quiz questions from Jules’ Workshop example test questions e Complete the sentence. An electric current iS ...............008 e To prevent radiation of radio frequency signals when a transmitter is being tested continuously, you should use 1. atransmission line 2. an artificial antenna 3. an indoor antenna 4. astanding wave ratio (SWR) meter e To convert microFarads to nanoFarads 1. multiplication by 1,000 2. division by 1,000 3. multiplication by 10,000 4. division by 10,000 requires e What is the Urgency Signal in radiotelephony? (a) PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN (b) MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY (c) QRZ QRZ QRZ (d) SOS SOS SOS Answers next week. Answers from last week’s Quiz: e You get zapped touching a machine after walking on carpet. What sort of electric charge is this? Answer: Static electricity. e The distance from a transmitter to the point where the signal first returns after refraction from the ionosphere is called ° multi hop © skip zone ° skip distance © ionosphere prediction distance Answer: Skip distance. e The approximate forward ° 0.2 volt ° 0.6 volt ° 0.9 volt ° 1 volt Answer: 0.2 Volt. about the much bias value for a germanium transistor is If you answered 0.6 Volt, you were probably thinking more common silicon transistor. e An amateur operator hears a distress call on 3725 reasonable time no acknowledgment kHz. After a is heard. What should the amateur do? a) Call the station in distress on 3725 kHz, acknowledge the call and offer assistance (b) As 3725 kHz is not an amateur frequency, no help can be given (c) As 3725 kHz is not an amateur frequency, take down the information supplied and pass it to the relevant authority (d) Nothing. Only authorised distress or disaster stations are permitted to assist in a distress situation... Answer: A. Safety of life above all else. How did you go? Tuesday’s CQ QRS Net Reminder. Tuesday So back to the Slow CW QSO practice net. always on Tuesday from around 0900z; Our CQ QRS Net will be on as see below for details. Stations in the West, East and in-between will start coming up on various frequencies between 3540 and 3570kHz, calling CQ QRS and listening out for new and old CW operators - simple exchanges (eg callsigns, RSTs and perhaps names) for new stations, rag chews for old. Propagation In the East, near vertical incidence skywave and low angle skywave should be starting around that time as the sun will have travelled around the Earth (just checking that you're awake) sufficiently for the D-layer to start fading; in the West where the sun won’t set until around 1115z (and later for the ionosphere), tough conditions might be expected early on. conditions somewhere in between | imagine. And who Knows whether the crescendo of static crashes we've experienced challenge. Post SA will have lately will add to the One way or other, we’ll have fun. Morseum And for those who are within earshot of an AllStar node, we hold a quick Post Morseum hosted by Richard VK6HRC at around 0930 Eastern / 0900 SA / 0630 WA time (+/- 15 minutes) on the South West AllStar net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA). All you need is an FM 2m or 70cm transceiver and an AllStar node nearby; Echolink. somewhere or you can have a listen via If you don’t know whether you’re within range of an AllStar node in Australia, let me know ( mark.bosma@icloud.com see if | can help; ) and I'll or if you'd like to find out how to connect your local AllStar network to the South West network, or how to access the network via Echolink, drop me a line. Teamwork So thank you so much to our outstanding team of 16 contributors (some submitted several articles too) this week! Thanks to: VK6PZT, VK1HF, VK3CLD, VK6WE, VK6HRC, VK7KPC, VK1TE, VK5ET, VK6BEK, VK6KD, VK6MK, VK6FARF, VK6FN, VK2DAI, VK2YBX and VK3JFP. team - a superb effort - it’s the thoughts of the team makes RagChew so interesting to the 110-odd Wow, thank you plus the photos that (perhaps 110-plus would be safer) subscribers. Reports So for everyone, please let me know by email to mark.bosma@icloud.com who you work or hear this coming week on Tuesday’s net, and also send me anything that you might think might be of interest to your fellow QRS fans. The reports are important - because during the netl can only attempt poorly to listen-in and log QSOs while having QSOs myself - so | really want your comments newsletter interesting. each week to make our RagChew And again for those who | work on Tuesday night, please accept my apologies in advance for the pauses, repeated dah-di-di-di-dahs etc while | attempt to pick up and log callsigns that | hear in parallel, send WhatsApp notes, do one-way propagation tests, etc. Our WhatsApp Group And don’t forget our CQ QRS group on WhatsApp - a terrific way to exchange alerts and comments during the net and also to spot QRS stations at other times. The feed from last week is below; join in on the WhatsApp group if possible. Please let Stuart VK6MK stujen55@gmail.com or me mark.bosma@icloud.com phone number, and we'll add you to the group. €U CW on Tuesday, I'd like you to know your mobile mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark.bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione cogitationis “Without antennas, amateur radio just wouldn't be the same” - author: About the CQ Here’s the dah-dah dit! QRS Net details. The team will be on again for our usual Tuesday arvo / evening Practice QSO This Net. CQ QRS will start at 0900z until about 1100-1400z+. translates to 1700 - 2000-2230+ and 2000 Pace - 2400+ Eastern WA time, 1930 - 2330+ Summer time. SA Summer time (I think!). Yourself So tune around and call anyone you hear, or find yourself a quiet spot in the 3540kHz to 3570kHz segment and start calling CQ QRS at about 75% of the speed you're comfortable receiving at; hopefully responders will match (or send slower to their comfort level). And if you’re proficient at CW and can race along at 20 or 30wpm - terrific, but please remember, the net’s aim is to encourage, can hammer the key. not show how fast you | often find myself going too fast during the nets - especially if | hear a new station on a different frequency and want to catch them! helps - send each letter at your speed, but leave 700ms to 1 second between letters (longer for between words); a number of times I’ve been told that | don’t leave enough of a space The Farnsworth but between method repeats of my callsign (eg people often hear VK2KIV rather than VK2KI) and they hear my DE as B Listen to Sidetone - more concentration needed at my end. - Use Headphones So for experienced operators, please send slowly where you can and concentrate on rhythm - listen to your side-tone, get that wrist action going and make a special effort to make it sound like perfect CW; go with our net, the more | understand just how many listeners we have! the longer we non-transmitting If you’re an experienced operator, please try to send nicely balanced slow CW to give them a chance to practice and gain confidence.... they'll reward you one day by coming up on air to say g’day and thanks - how good is that? And if you’re new or like me, just rusty.... ignore the above... just have a go - the lather of sweat will be worth it and there’s plenty of time to get the details sorted out as you practice. Match Them And also for the oldies like me, when you hear someone their sending speed - or slower. new, please match The person you're replying to may not be as deft on the decoding as you - it may be their first ever CW QSO remember your first? Lather of sweat, key that refuses to send that you tell it, brain that refuses to decode those complex half an hour ago, etc! And if someone copy - “PSE RPT PSE QRS” or “AGN? letters that were right there is sending too fast to comfortably PSE QRS” will make life easier for everyone.... and might just encourage other listeners to have a go themselves. The other thing to remember - most operators are writing down what they hear... so when you put it back to them, expect a delay while they read your words of wisdom, Whose before replying. Frequency? The aim is to give everyone a go at contacting others - no-one owns their calling frequency on this net. So unlike working DX, if you hear someone Signing off - jump in and call - doesn’t matter who was first on the frequency - we really are all good mates on this net.... and besides, at the speed we're sending, after a QSO first! most of us will have forgotten who was If you really want to move off frequency (eg because of a spurious switch mode power supply signal that’s just drifted into the conversation), you could try sending an abridged callsign of the person you're after, followed by “UP 5” or “DN 5” then K; then call that person on the designated frequency and keep your fingers crossed, they may have understood you and followed... or not. Tips As always, for newbies, operating suggestions are available from the operating hints link here: httpos://sites.google.com/a/parg.org.au/www-parg- org-au/training-and-practice-sessions/cq-qrs---slow-cw-qso-practice-net. If in Doubt, Call Again There's usually people around catch someone. until after 1330z - so keep calling until you | should be on as usual from home in NSW and via the Remote at Bedfordale WA, and I'll also be trying to watch the proceedings using the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW CQ QRS respectively. WhatsApp Traffic from the CQ QRS WhatsApp Here’s what went on on the CQ QRS WhatsApp Feed Group. message group this week: [7:52 pm, 11/12/2023] Peter Scales: Three Amigos [7:57 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK6BEK and the day-off guy VK6PZT chatting early on 3562. [7:59 pm, 12/12/2023] estimates 6am lan - VK5CZ: No net for me pwr out from storms. Closest in morning. vk5cz [8:01 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: @ [8:05 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK6KHZ calling CQ on 3555. [8:08 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK1HF calling CQ on 3550. [8:16 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Dam dam dam... A bloody call out just as | was about to fire up Cheer 6fn [8:26 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: [8:41 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: On my way back.. Bypassed a UPS temporally ... Only 5klms down the road.... 6fn [8:51 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: Excellent work Max! [8:54 Mark VK6IS pm, 12/12/2023] [9:03 pm, 12/12/2023] Bosma: and VK6BEK Mark Bosma: VK6HRC chatting and VK6FN on 3560. chatting on 3565. VK3CLD/p at Benalla and VK2KI chatting on 3553. [9:10 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK2KI calling CQ on 3562. [9:13 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK6FN [9:13 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: [9:27 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK7KPC and VK3KO chatting on 3568. VK1TE/m and VK2AOE [10:21 pm, calling CQ on 3565... slowed down - phew! Max had to slow down after working Richard! chatting on 3555. 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK2AOE and VK2KI chatting on 3568. VK6FN amd VK6PZT having a good old ragchew on 3555. [10:24 pm, 12/12/2023] &| CG > | fetynet.org.au:... Notsecure| we. austravelsa he er |G google 4 A Richard Ayre: check the difference betwen wa and sa Sinn ic Map ii) O * @ aa 5 :F | » I) G gooale &)> BB: 10:24 pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: Richard Ayre: yup [10:53 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: [10:54 pm, 12/12/2023] Richard Ayre: only on sdr [10:54 Mark 12/12/2023] Bosma: Wow QSO with VK3ADX Richard Ayre: s1 on my rig Mark [11:09 pm, 12/12/2023] 20m is ?? [11:10 Maps @ ion cee ta" WSPR ae Ve How are you making out Mark.... [11:04 12/12/2023] Q WA on left? [10:54 pm, 12/12/2023] pm, 7 g.org.au:su74 iwisdrare€g.0rg, Not secure || kiwi Gmail | (9 YouTube iia [10:24 pm, 12/12/2023] pm, ™ VKSARG Public KiwiSDR Receiver ASL 360m, [map], SNR 33:33 dB Tatlee, South Australia | Grid PF95IR, i ebison.net ‘i RitRnne the On" feature qo KiwiSDR: at AU/VK6CI 1 please Use’ Hea [map], SNR 31:32 dB Raroon Western Australia | Grid OF77xb, ASL 280m, ai mili GA Bosma: VK1TE/m calling CQ on 3562 Max. on 3555. Richard Ayre: does anyone Inow what this massive signal on burst every 40sec or so pm, 12/12/2023] Mark Bosma: VK1TE/m and VK2KI [11:17 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Cheer’s all . 73's. de 6fn chatting on 3555. [11:17 pm, 12/12/2023] Richard Ayre: me too qrt 73 [11:17 pm, 12/12/2023] David Potts: Cheers Max. Tks for qso. [11:18 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Like wise David...Great speed...Seeya [11:19 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Good night Richard .. Tks for so tonight.... Max [11:20 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: So [11:20 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Qso [11:24 pm, 12/12/2023] Richard Ayre: thanks max_ sri for thinking you were Lin for a few mins [11:26 pm, 12/12/2023] Max Faulkner: No probs Richard.. I’m sure Lin is a fine Chap.. [2:55 pm, 13/12/2023] Mark Bosma: Prepared well for Richard's AllStar Post-Morsum this morning.... went to bed really early for a Tuesday night (2330 local) and set the alarm for an early start and packed my trusty $20 Baofeng BF-888 70cm handheld along with the paperwork needed for an early rego check in Yass (about 15km away). Things went down hill from there... | forgot that my normal 0530 phone alarm is set to not go off on Wednesdays after late CQ QRSs - slept in. Then found that my hand held was on - so into the charger for a quick battery top up. good time. radio? Breakfast and on the road in Post-Morsum time... 0630 WA time and ready to go... hey, where's the Still at home in the charger! Oh well - at least | could sort of get on via Echolink - albeit with a flakey connection. [3:15 pm, 13/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Mark... You Say that it never happens twice..| was all prepared for a great night on CW ....Then it happened again..The dammed phone rang.. Next a SMS message to you Mark to let u Know the | was called out.... How many times has the happened previously.... Thinking that | must be cursed.Luckly the call was just 5klms away so all speed records brocken and back home in just over 1/2 an hour to my beloved key.. HOORAY... And managed 73's. de. to work six stns...Ended up a good night.... 6fn [3:24 pm, 13/12/2023] Mark Bosma: wasn't able to do too much | was like a lizard drinking last night - so | monitoring of who was on... my tired brain wasn't doing the listen to three CW stations at once (or send while listening) very well - and | could see on the SDR that | was missing a bunch of people. So would you send me your list again please mate? [4:31 pm, 13/12/2023] Max Faulkner: Fine Mr Telephone Head.... You do a great job.... [6:39 pm, 13/12/2023] Mark Bosma: Aw shucks, you're just saying that! [6:50 pm, 13/12/2023] Max Faulkner: No... | am sure u did your time at Bletchley Park.....Sure u rubbed shoulders with Phil 6gx & Steve 6sj there... [3:46 pm, 14/12/2023] Richard Ayre: https://youtu.be/h9gNAIE4830?si=4hHq6QywHaoOlW8 [3:49 pm, 14/12/2023] Richard Ayre: | found this video about russias OTHR at the end it suggests they use up to 32 Ghz and they have a new site in eastern russia - it could be my mystery wide band Qrm on 20m ?? ssia's BIGGER & BETTER https://youtu. be/hO9gNAIE48307 si=4hHq6QywH-aoOIws | found this video about russias OTHR at the end it suggests they use up to 32 Ghz and they have a new site in eastern russia - it could be my mystery wide band Qrm on 20m ?? [3:57 pm, 14/12/2023] Mark Bosma: Good research Richard. You could be right; you're probably aware that Australia has an OTHR system as well - but only an operational accident would see it transmitting in an amateur band. 32MHz. [11:44 am, 15/12/2023] Richard Ayre: 32MHz correct I think you meant The opinions expressed The opinions Send in the RagChew do not necessarily comments newsletter are those of the individual contributors. reflect that of the editor or of the CQ about the RagChew Copyright (C) 2023 QRS Group Newsletter. CQ QRS. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences Es eS INTUIT mailchimp members. or unsubscribe