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CQ QRS
What happened

Static crashes,

QSB,

impedance

a dead

and

Noise Cancellers

e This week’s
e

Reminder

rain static, auroral

e Artificial Intelligence
e

RagChew

last Tuesday, and a reminder for the next net.

e Trevor Bennett VK6ATB
e

in your browser

buzz, changing

noise canceller
Noise

Elimination

(Part 4)

quiz

for the January 9th CQ QRS

net.

Last Tuesday’s net was another ripper - with at least 18 known stations on
or listening despite the extensive thunderstorms over the Eastern part of
the continent.
However,

More news from our reporters on the ground follows.

unfortunately there’s also a sad start to this week’s newsletter

with a note from Max VK6FN
Trevor Bennett VKGATB
The good

about the passing
from Pemberton;

of our team

member

see below for more from Max.

news is that we have yet another three new members

of our

team:
e
e

Chris VK2NAP

at Marrickville who joined the net last Tuesday.

Nigel VK6NI at Denmark who came to visit Elizabeth and me in NSW
this week, and figured that the only way to stop me rabbiting on about
the net was to join the team!

David VK5PL at Williamstown who had a nice rag-chew with Shaun
VK6BEK during the Straight Key Century Club’s January Straight Key
Month, and decided to join in the fun.

Welcome folks - | look forward to either hearing you on the nets, or if not,
getting reports from the nights that you’re able to make
have fun.

And thanks Shaun - a good

it;

| know you'll

reminder to our existing members...

if you’re chatting with someone who may be interested in CW
may not know about our net, please point them
mark.bosma@icloud.com
Here’s this week’s

list of stations

heard:

in my direction

but you think

RSS

2Jan24 CQ QRS Net
Total active stations this week:

Total QSOs (rote that this figure woe't be correct
Instructions:

0305 may be counted twice
or more

Existing Users:
Go down ta the lime with your callsign on the left (Column A). Use the slider on the right hand edge of the screen te scroll down.
you can't see the lines, expand

the spreadsheet downwards

by cli

ng on the bottom

of the window

and drapping downwards,

Move acrods to O01 (Coburn Cl), click on the cell and select the callsign of the first QS0 you had or heard.
Black text - OSLed,
Repeat the O50

Green text - heard

entry against the other

but not worked,

Hue

text - incomplete O50

(not OSLed).

station's row.

Moving to the next cell to the right in your tow for the second O50 ete
you hear

germeone just calling

20,

find ther on the list in Galurnn A and then enter

OO in Galumn B.

Ifyou hear or work someone not in the lett hand column or drop-down list, contact Stuart or Mark and advides;need to be copy/pasted).
-

We'll then update the spreadsheet (the spreadsheet has hidden

Cerl-5 ta

‘Stuart:

stujens5@ gmail.com

Mark:

mark. bosma@ichoud.carn

forenulas that need te be copy/pacted).

save the soreadsheet when dome.

If the toreadsheet i¢ tao confusing, dead the fist of your contacts and heard stations to Stuart a7 Mark to update the ¢preadshest (to make it eady,
New Users:
Cantact Stuart or Mark [click on email address above] and ask for your calbign (or name

if unlicensed)

te be added.

Inchude a list of callsigns heard or worked, and we'll add the OSs.

MY CALL
+

Calling CQ

VK1HE/p

VEITE
VK2A0E
VK2BHO
VK2BHO
VE2DLF
VK2GAZ
VK2IK
VK2KI
VK2NAP
VK2NV
VK2ZWEO
VK3ACU
VE3ADX
VK3BTV
VK3BU
VK3CLD/p
VK3DBD
VK3KO
VESCZ
VKSET
VKSFD
VKSIP
VESKFG

oso1

Os502

O50 3

Os04

Os05

Qso 6

Oso7

WEK2KI
VKGFN

VKBMK

VK2Ki

VK7KPC | VKGBEK | VK6P2ZT |

WK1HF/p

VWE?7KPC | WKSFD | VK2NAP | VK6P2ZT

Qso8

oso09 | o8010 | Q5011

rt: COhor Listening if no O80)

VK5FD | WK2GAZ | VK2NAP |

WK5SPH | VK6HRC

VE2KI

Listening.

VKSPH_

VKBAAV
VK6ATB
VEK6BEK
VK6CK

WK2KI

VEKSPH

VKSFD

VKBFN

VK6DEV/p
VK6DV
VEKGFN
VK6GAL
VK6HRC
VE6IR,
VK6IS
VK6JDM
VK6KD
VK6KHZ
VK6KQ
VK6LD
VK6NMK
VEK6BML
VK6GNC
VKGNT
VKGNW
VEKGPZT
VK6Ql
VEETY
VK6XU
VK6WE
VK6GYV
VE7WW
VK7KPC
VK7ZA.

VKBKHZ
VKBME

VEKGBEK | WK6P2ZT

VE6QI

VKGKHZ | WK6DV

VKGFN | VK6P2T

VE6Q!
VKBDV

VEKGFN

VE6PZT

VKGFN
VK6KHZ

VEK6ME
VK2K
VK6DV | VK6HRC | WKOKD | VKGMK |

VK6FN | WKOBEK | VK6PZT

WK2KI

Reports

& Comments

So here’s this week’s
From Jordan VK3ACU

reports.

at Meredith:

Hi Mark,

See how we go tonight - massive lightning here ATM.
with a 162m

huge thunder crack made

Jordan

out of the blue a

me jump and quickly wind it all up!

If it clears catch you tonight ©
Cheers

| was outside playing

long antenna the length of the paddock when

Lightning strikes.
°

{

Newstead

Ss A

ee*~,
’
die

one.
2 N

@&*
&

slung

0
3

~
SS
ei

, oi
~

3:
eo

eo"

Having a listen around on an SDR for
.

some

practice tonight. Stormy here

so antennas

)

are disconnected

he)

Nic VK7WW

From

;

e
°

other plans - lightning here is
extreme!

+
et
fan-— BR

Ter

(ge @*

«e

That was the plan but nature had

Daylesford

(

°¥

ve?]

quarter

Bee

[620m

ae ee

——

[Stay safe mate!]

at Legana:

Apologies, still in the silly season wid visitors.
73 Nic.
[Cheers Nic].

From
Was

lan VK1LHF
that you

portable somewhere

| worked

at 8pm...or VK2KIV

in the ACT:
... So much

QRM!!!

73,
lan - VK1HF...
[C’est mois!

Yes, that was me.

Thanks mate - your signals jumped just

after we finished - NVIS happening.
I'm home

Want to try again later?]

now... last after your started 73ing me hi hi..!-

having a bit of an early bird segment say 7pm

What about

but 40mtrs? That been

done?
73,
lan - VK1HF
[What,

and miss out on all the fun on 8Om?

Heh

heh.

An alternative is for

you to join the CQ QRS WhatsApp group - and when you're up for a QRS CW
QSO outside of net times, just post a message
that you’re calling CQ].
From

David VK6KD/p

near Bridgetown:

Thanks Mark. Transmitting from
Marinup Ford camp ground on 20w.
QRM

at s7. Just using vertical whip

on vehicle.

| really need to get out

of the camp ground for RF quiet but
food prep is on the agenda.

73..

with your frequency advising

[Q5 into the Bedfordale Remote and well before dark - was working well
mate].
From

Richard VKG6HRC

at Padbury:

Hi Mark,

Well conditions were not good

last night six local stations in the log,

nothing heard from over East.

Band conditions not good with QSB

wreaking

havoc once again.

Stations heard :
VK6KHZ
VK6QI
VK6DV
VK6FN
VK6MK
VK6PZT
It appears that you were the only one hearing me last night, my signal
seemed to be fine on the VK6QS sdr but nothing across town. Thank you for
firing up the VK6SERG

remote and

bagged

as best | could.

and decoded

Good experience to hear real CW

the brief contact, after that just sand

not computer generated code as per my

online lessons.
TNX
Richard

And

VK6HRC

Richard’s

Post Morseum

Report:

Hi Mark
on the net this morning :
VK6PAW
VK6KRC
VK6LD
and yourself until the gremlins got involved at your end!
No Max (VK6FN)

probably still under

the Quilt as he was reporting cold
weather with occasional rain
showers last night.
Have a great day
Richard VK6HRC...

[Thanks for the report Richard.

Yes Max reported that he was back on the

Internet but now his WiFi was acting up - so no AllStar from his Baofeng
transceiver under his quilt!]
And

a double

report from

Max VK6FN

at Manjimup:

First the report from Boxing Day (delayed due to the Internet outage):
Hi Mark and other Operators.

After a shaky start last Tuesday (I

was again called tout o geta
Broadcast TX back on air, just as |
was about to commence
session).

the

Band conditions were very

quiet for a nice change.

Managed

work in total FIVE stns, Didn’t even
hear any Other Siders on air.

e VKOHRC

Richard . Rot RST 5/79 and | received RST 599. Was great to

have a contact with you Looking forward to the next one.
e VK6OBEK Shaun.

RPT RST 579 and received RST 599. Tks Shaun

Nice

Morse and easy to copy.
e VK6PZT Richard, RPT 579 and received a nice reply of 599. Great CW
from you Richard. Airing off the Straight key | hear...
e VKO6IS Pete, RPT to you was RST 599. Thought | had missed you.

received a RST 599. Thanks Peter and nice Morse.
e VK6KD

David. RST from memory was 599 (writing) and | received RST

599. Was really a pleasure to work you, fine Morse - quite fast as well.
Excellent.
Another wonderful session. Tks to all who participated.
73's to all
De Ofn...

And

from January

2nd:

Hi to all the QRS operators. Conditions were unusual last night with high
levels of static and other non-descriptive noises across the band. Signals
were generally down compared

to the previous weeks, and | managed

work only three stations.
e VKOMK Stuart. Very nice Sig and great CW. Stuarts RPT 599 and mine
was also 599. Hope to see u next week Stuart.
e VK6OBEK Shaun. A little difficult with all the noises. Sorry Shaun
not make a note of our RSTS From memory

| did

| think you were around

479. Thanks for the contact and all the best.
e VK6PZT Richard. Thanks,
dropping away.
discussed

Rich for the contact. Your RST 599 with sigs

My RST suffered much the same - RST 599. As we

| had trouble adapting to the straight key - HI.

There were several other STNs on the air however | didn't work them.
Nothing heard from over East this week.
And that’s my lot this week.
Cheers & 735
Max

de OFN
[Thanks for your report Max - over East there were fewer than normal on the thunder storms had driven them under the covers;

but / still didn’t hear

you - perhaps you weren't pressing the key hard enough?
From

Donald

VK6JDM

at Dalyup:

Got tied up with other activities yesterday,
event next week.

Cheers.]/

hope to rejoin the CW QRS

73
Donald

Howarth

[Hey Donald.
From

Trust all’s going well with your recovery.

Craig VK3CLD/p

Cheers].

somewhere:

Switched on and got ready.... and then visitors knocked on the door. HoHum.
[:-D Are you still on the road?]
Yes, for the next fews days. Picked up our other camper (GU 4.2L Patrol and
Tommy

Camper slide-on, with a trailer towing my Hobie Pro-Angler14 and 2

x USA Wilderness kayaks) and my wife is following me in the RV up to
Koorawatha

NSW. The GU, camper and kayaks will reside there (or Cowra)

until needed.
Permanently on the road Mark, no home QTH.

Bloody hot in Benalla (36)

with no AC as we are free camping. A 2 hour bottle-neck on Melbourne’s
ring road sure didn’t help either. But all good, and we’ll be set-up camp

Koorawatha for a few days and then who know’s where from there.
Craig.
PS: intend to have a look at your backyard,

Bowning,

in the next few weeks.

Sounds lovely; but then so does everywhere else hi hi.
73's, 44’s and

77's.

Pss: my Morse really does suck!
[Cool bananas Craig.

Let us know when you're likely to be in the area

mate].
From

Claude

VK1TE

and

VK2CL

at Pearce

ACT:

Hi Mark,

As usual, your diligent presence on
the last CW QRS was impressive!

a point that | think most of us would
enjoy watching a video reporting a
sample of your processing methods
and achievements during the
Tuesday evenings... and after! ;-)
As | still have to fix my 80m

antenna,

in the mean

SDR instead of actively participating on air.

time, | enjoyed some

It's a sport, just keeping track

of what is going on with 5 or 7 different SDR pages open, trying to catch a
CW fish here and there.
all of a Sudden

You wait for a while, hoping to see something

and

it's busy all over the place and you jump between several

QSOs and pages at once, trying to get all of them; at least their basic info.

JELCOBINE

NSW WALLALONG
JELCOBINE

JELCOBINE

You can see my logs attached, one is sorted by time, the other is by callsign. You pick what you like.
Thanks again,
CW

next time,

k vk1lte-vk2cl...

[Wowee!

Boy were you busy Claude.

Thank you for your excellent report

again mate].
From

Paul

VK5PH

at Glen

Osmond:

Hi Mark.

Apologies for last Tuesday - | was trying to be a good husband for a change
and took interstate relatives out for a meal and didn’t get home until late.
Had a look at 80m on the SDR but not a whole lot of CW activity was
visible.
| did talk to Allen VK5FD at 2135CDST and he was an easy copy at 10 over
9.
73
Paul...

[One station heard Is all you need mate.... and one worked Is a bonus!
Cheers. ]
From

Peter VK7KPC

at Evandale:

Hi Mark,
Tnx for the QSO;
5W.

| was listening via the VK3KHZ

The SDR works on 80m and 40m;

515, but there was too much

SDR - and TX PWR was

my normal

noise on the night.

Was being slack so only one QSO for Tuesday night
Cheers
Peter VK7KPC

rx for this set is an NRD-

[Hi Peter - terrific to work you with 5 Watts under tough conditions - well
done.

And re “only one QSO...”, see my comments to Paul above!]

From

Nick VK6DV

at St James:
Heard vk6mk with vk6fm? early in
the session;

had short contact with

Ron vk6khz - effectively about RST
229...!

Noise at my qth was S9+ for

some

reason;

and then had visitors

and had to depart unfortunately;
Need to re-hoist the 89/40 trapped
dipole to get clear of some

noise

sources sometime soon - or try/
reconstruct a 1m loop (have parts)
é

at.

to see if it is a little less noisy.

IHF Magnetic Loop Antenna Module 1 to SOMHz

Thanks

[Hi Nick.

Nice report thank you.

Talk to Shaun

all.

VK6BEK about his good

experiences with the MiniKits active loop, and of course, there’s always the
noise canceller option... or even better (spoken as a true hypocrite!), get
rid of the sources of noise if you can - HI].
From

VK6QI

at Bedfordale

via the

and

the

VK6QS
VK6CRO

SDR

at Brookton,

Remote

First cab off the rank | heard Ron VK6KHZ
week’s new member
calling CQ.

After much

Remote

at Yangebup chatting to last

Nick VK6DV at St James.

listening-in on the VK6QS

the VK6SR

at Carnarvon:

| noticed Craig VK3CLD

SDR and also heard Richard VK6HRC

at Padbury

clicking and fiddling | brought the VK6SR Southern

Electronics Group Remote at Bedfordale on-line and worked

Richard - albeit

that he was only RST 519 - being still broad daylight in VK6 the D-layer was
doing it’s job absorbing the 80m

signals well.

It didn’t help that the

Internet went out here for a period as well - good thing we had the
WhatsApp

CQ QRS chat Group as a back-up.

Richard with a QSO with David VK6KD
| also noticed that Craig VK3CLD

| followed the chat with

at Ballajura.

and Claude VK1TE were listening in on the

Brookton SDR and | heard Max VK6FN

at Manjimup chatting QRQ to Stuart

VK6MK at Australind (I don’t even remember QRQ from when
Regulations exam

| did the

in 1972... had to look it up... and at my skill level, have

very

little call for it HI!).

Which

reminds me, if you want to

have a bit of fun with QRQ,

posta

request on our CQ QRS WhatsApp
group and have some fun, Knowing
you can always request QRS when
things get too hectic.
Next | heard Max chatting to Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks then Richard
VK6PZT at Dalyellup.

Richard then went on to work Stuart across the bay,

which | thought would wrap things up for me in VK6 - see below.

Also From

me, VK2KI

Extended

Zepp

at Araluen

NSW:

When

| cranked

at Bowning

antenna

from

using

home

my TS-50 and

Double-

and also using the Tecsun

SDR

up the computers to watch the two SDRs and my trusty

Kenwood TS-50, there was something

odd;

when | turned on my noise

canceller, there was a distinct lack of sound from the bypass relay, and an
even distincter lack of cancelling going on!

ORM

Uh oh - looks like my Chinese copy

Eliminator

noise canceller was offended

by last

week’s CQ QRS newsletter article
about the stolen intellectual
property from Terry VK5TM’s

noise

canceller kits - and it decided to turn
up it’s toes!
| may have left my antenna
selector switch in the un-grounded
position after last week’s net, and
perhaps there was a build-up of
Static electricity that damaged

the

noise canceller - we’ll see when

take it apart this week.

By the

way, This Week’s Topic of Interest

below has the continuing article

about noise and noise cancellers.

Sore
5

SURV ANN OMe a
MELBOURNE
a

ter
ec
meet
ae ee

Oh well without the noise canceller, it looked like | was in for an interesting
night of switch mode
usually around

power supply hash;

S9+5 to +10dB,

the noise level here on 80m

but with either the front end pre-amp

turned off, the front end attenuator in, or both, the noise could be reduced
to S6-8, S4-6 or SO respectively.
produced

My double-extended Zepp antenna

usually

reasonable signal levels for Near Vertical Incidence skywave

(beyond ground wave out to about 200km)
propagation (into Victoria, Tasmania

and single-hop F-layer

and South Australia), so | figured the

receiver should be useable in combination with the SDRs if needed.
First cab off the rank was lan
VK1HF/p,

no doubt operating from

one of the many VKFF PARKS or
SOTA locations in the ACT.

Although

lan was SQ, the static crashes were
relentless again this week - so |
struggled to report RST 399.
When

| came

back to the East side, |

noticed Claude VKITE also listening
on the Tecsun

DSR.

with Peter VK7KPC

| hooked

at Evandale who |

gave RST 489 in QSB from his 5
Watts.

And to add to the interesting

night of switch mode

power supply

hash and static crashes, there was
some

light rain around

here, and my

receiver was alive with the rising
squeal of rain static and | needed to

al! Boost +

9:56 pm

@ blitzortung.org

frequently

Quick Links
Important Advices
A worldwide, real-time, community collaborative lightninc
location network. © 2003-2024 Blitzortung.org
Contributors

adjust my Pi-Coupler on the antenna as the wet support rope on my
balanced feed-line changed the impedance.
another phenomenon...

auroral buzz!

When the rain passed we had

Anyway,

It was nice then to catch up with Allen VK5FD

| was having fun.
at Blakeview who was 499,

but Allen was struggling with the static crashes at his end, so | was only
Q3.... or perhaps it was my sending?
Next | heard Chris VK2NAP
Marrickville.

coming through on F-layer skywave from

Chris was RST 489 in QSB with 20 Watts to a 10m vertical.

liked Chris’ sense of humour on his grz.com page;

I’m pleased to welcome

Chris to the team and if his page is anything to go by, look forward to his
reports.
Next up, liaising on WhatsApp,

Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup and | tried a

contact - we both struggled and despite repeated repeats, all | could get
was RST 3x9 - as often happens,
strength report.

QSB every time he sent the signal

Eventually we gave up.

So | then took off my headphones and started writing an email to welcome
Chris VK2NAP;

but! could hear CW coming from somewhere...

sure it was VK6LD.

and | was

| use a stereo mixer to bring the audio from the two

SDRs and my transceiver together...

| only have two ears, not three.. so it

took a few seconds to work out where | was hearing this rare DX from...
turns out Rob was coming through on my transceiver here in NSW.
back to Rob gently (Rob’s an avid reader of the RagChew
not a CW fan), then brought up the VK6SR
on the Remote

Remote;

| went

newsletter... but

sure enough,

Rob was

(it’s physically located at his home), and was testing the

set-up to find out why | had complained

about the terrible audio on CW.

Rob knows from bitter experience that if | don’t like someone’s audio, I'll
keep niggling them!

Rabbit hole warning:

about six months ago | was

complaining to Rob that his mobile audio on AllStar wasn’t up to scratch.
few days later we were chatting about it on his Dick Tracey wrist-phone as
he drove.

| cleverly observed

audio had improved;

part-way through our chat that his mobile

“Hey Rob” | said, “your audio is much

better now”.

Rob’s reply was “Yes. That’s because I’m talking to you on the phone!”.

D'oh!

Anyway,

Rob and | chatted using the

Remote’s Chat text, then swapped
to voice intercom using the Test
mode of the Remote..

Rob then gave

me a lesson in how to use the
KiwiSDR TDOA (Time Difference of
Arrival) system to do directionfinding and locate transmitter
locations.
Amazing

stuff!

Thank you Rob for staying up late and apologies for being

so slow and making so many finger-trouble mistakes at 0130 in the
morning!

A Tribute

to Trevor VK6ATB

now

SK
From

It is with much

Max

VK6FN

regret that | am advising you of the passing of Trevor

Bennett on 31/12/23.

My friend Trevor was a fellow operator on our Slow

Morse Group.
Although Trevor may not be known to many of the CQ QRS operators, he
was well-known to many on 160M CW.
Trev was of the Old School type - using only an old Military lap-mounted
Straight key and matching
Australia’s highest 160m
trees!

headphones,

a home

brew ATU and one of the

Dipoles at 130ft supported

by two giant Karr

He was renowned for very large, long wire antennae on the low

bands.
Being my most regular CW contact Trev will be missed greatly by me and
many others.
Trevor was only 70 years old and was affected by cancer over the last three
and a half years.

His wife Christine has told me that his passing would

have come as a great relief for him.
Trevor is survived by his wife Christine, two Sons and one Daughter plus
Grandchildren.
Best 73’s OM

and

CUL dit dit.

The Funeral is on Thursday 11th at 1300Hrs
William Barrett & Sons
Bunbury Chapple
9 Spencer St
Bunbury
73 de 6fn
[Thank you Max - nicely said on behalf of the team].

Other
Other things
From

Paul VK5PH

News

I’ve received from

from

our 100-odd

readers.

Glen Osmond:

Hi All,
| subscribe to this little telegraph magazine - free please subscribe if you
like it - some

issues are better than others.

https://www.k9va.org/index.php

FYI - interesting story about the Helen Anthony from Heathkit fame - notice
the Frank Lloyd Wright designed

home complete with antenna - the tower

overgrown with ivy.
Paul
VK5PH

[Thanks Paul.

Perhaps we should get a staff of five to edit the RagChew

newsletter as well - HI! Apparently my maths isn’t good enough - | couldn't
get the Spam Check to work with multiple attempts... | even counted on my
fingers and tried a different browser;

I'll have to keep trying.

Heathkit was such an amazing company which made amateur radio
accessible to so many people with it’s brilliant kit equioment; I’ve had a
couple.

When! lived in Dayton Ohio, | visited the Dayton Hamfest one year

and came away as the proud owner of an SB-1000 amplifier kit... which
became my Sunday night post-study relaxation... it was just so nice to have
every nut and screw provided... right down to the solder!

The SB-1000 was

great fun when it was finished as well.
Thanks for the vector Paul].
From

Owen

VK2OMD

at Bowral:

I've been doing some experimentation on MW effective radiated power
measurement:
strength,

Reconciliation

antenna

of transmitter

factor, ground

wave

power,

EIRP,

received

propagation

etc @

576kHz.

[Thanks Owen - another outstanding article on your blog;
useful in terms of my question to Jordan

signal

and particularly

VK3ACU last week about how

amateurs measure or calculate their effective radiated power on the 620m
band - where we’re limited to 5 Watts EIRP, and short antenna performance
is likely to vary considerably from one set-up and location to the next].

From

Claude VKI1TE / VK2CL

at Pearce ACT:

Hi Mark,
You are still happily steering the 80m
much

appreciated

QRS CW

boat for us all to enjoy;

indeed, that you keep the momentum

brings good vibes when

new QRS CW

The only 80m

| have is now QRT.

antenna

rolling.

very

It also

non-adepts appear!
Each time | start using the Little

Tarheel Il (https://www.tarheelantennas.com/little
tarheel ti) | cross fingers,
thinking “is it going to give up the ghost now or next time?"

As you must

Know very well, one can use electrical or electronic stuff but never firmly
rely on them, as they will break at some
as a bonus!

point, and when they work | see It

;-)
The Little Tarheel Il is a "screw
driver" antenna type and the one
I've got stops moving
reaching the 40m
including 80m.

before

band and lower...

It behaves as if the

top limit switch "moved

down",

which seems a

I'll figure out

bit odd.

what's going on when

| put it on the

operating table. The first time |
heard about that type of antenna
had some apprehension

regarding

their sturdiness, as their concept
seems to be on the fragile side. The
conditions under which | use it are
quite rough, on very bumpy dirt
roads and crossing places full of
trees and bushes...
| would never expect selling any of my equipment coming out of my UTE
second

hand as it is being used up to Its limits! ;-)

Just to say that | won't be on 80m for a little while, until | find time to fix it
or use another option.

Lately, no luck on SDRs | was willing to use either as

they were booked out each time | tried to access them... Never mind, one
can't always win...

If | were to advise anyone to start looking at online

SDRs | would suggest to go straight to:
Which

http://rx.linkfanel.net/

is an SDR world map for kiwi SDR receivers. Pick whichever one

you'd like and start exploring it to see how it works and behaves.
stuff something

If you

up, get out of it, reload and keep playing with it until you

feel comfortable with its main options. That's the way | got into it and
worked for me...
There is another SDR network, that | find a bit more challenging to use, but
it has some

interesting sides that you might like to explore also.

http://websdr.org/
Happy new year to you and your family,
CW
73

next time,

vkite-vk2cl...

[Thanks very much for the update Claude.

Bad luck about your only 80m

antenna - and | hope that the surgery is successful when you get it on the
bench.
And thank you for posting about how to access the KiwiSDRs - that’ll be
very useful for many of our readers.

Interesting that the other websdr list

doesn’t have any Australian receivers - the plug-and-play KiwiSDR with all
it’s built-in decoders sure is popular].
Hi Mark,

Just in case, you might have a look at this site and see if it is worth
considering

mentioning our existence as a CW QRS group to them:

httos://internationalcwcouncil.org/cw-events-calendar/

You might also find this page interesting:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/History_of
wireless telegraphy_and_ broadcast
ing_in_Australia/Topical/Publications/On_
Air
There is already a lot of info for CW

newbies and this is one more of them

that | find interesting as it summarises some of the most useful aspects of
CW for beginners in a concise way.
https://www.morsecodeclassnet.com/ch7-operating-procedure/
One good

news is that we are not alone:

https://cwars.it/en/welcome/
And I’m always looking around for different ways of teaching-learning-fine
tuning the CW art - | just fell on this one, which is very well done and fun, in
case you haven't seen it yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=walFtVodHHM
Cheers,
Thanks again,
CW

next time,

k vk1lte-vk2cl

[Thanks Claude - terrific response to the question we had in the last week
or two about other QRS nets and opportunities].
From Jules VK3JFP
exam

whose

website we

use for the amateur

radio

quiz questions:

| have updated the amateur radio information website and added the first
two videos on amateur radio topics.
Power formula with resistance
Decibels in amateur radio
The link is

httos://www.julesworkshop.net/Amateur%20Radio.html

If there are other topics | should expand

on, please let me know.

| also

encourage feedback on how to improve the site.
Thank you.
Jules Perrin JP
0457585974
VK3JFP
www.julesworkshop.net
Support our veterans.
A New

Noise Cancelling

Option

Shaun VK6BEK has been experimenting with a new form of noise
cancelling.
Hi Mark,

| spent last night doing some testing on a RM Noise a product which "uses
Al with the goal of removing

noise from a CW or voice radio signal". | had

seen a couple of enthusiastic YouTube videos about it and since it was free
decided to give it atry.

The results were surprising.

VK6BEK

Recording

on VK6PZT

& VK6FN

Regards
Shaun - VK6BEK
[Hi Shaun.

Your recoding of the conversation between Richard and Max Is

pretty amazing - clear as a bell when the system is engaged.
I'll publish Shaun's terrific article in the next CQ QRS RagChew,
move on from Noise Cancellers - see below.

when

In the mean time, if can’t

access to the recording linked above, let me know mark.bosma@icloud.com

This Week’s

Topic of Interest

Noise

Cancellers

This week we'll finish the discussion about noise cancellers.
were about 80m

noise and the dreaded switch mode

Part 3 discussed

how the phase-type noise canceller works.

Parts 1 & 2

power supply hash;
And this week,

we’ll look at how to connect the noise canceller and other uses for them.
®

amr
“&

You may recall that the noise

cancellers work by mixing the signal
from your antenna with a signal

ORN

* Tony VK6DQ: “I've got just the thing”
G
* Martin VK6EEE:

kit"

a
“VKSTM fase noise canceller

from a simple noise pick-up antenna.
By adjusting the relative strength of
the

two

signals

and

adjusting

their

ohase relationship, it’s possible to

null-out the noise while retaining the
desired signal.

The noise canceller requires a power
supply (carefull... another switch

mode

power supply) and is

connected

between your antenna

and your receiver as shown. The
unit is also connected to the PTT

Noise Cancelling
* Connecting

output of your transmitter (usually
used to drive an external power
amplifier), so that when you hit the

key, the noise canceller is bypassed
via internal relays.

Transceiver Tay Noise

ATU

Failure to

connect the PTT (or if the connector
drops off unexpectedly while you’re
ratting around the cables behind the
equipment) will result in tears.

Now let’s have a think about other
uses of the noise canceller.

Noise Cancelling

you've got rid of your noise, but are

> Static Eraslies

annoyed by static crashes (ha!), how