Subscribe Past Translate Issues View this email in your browser CQ QRS What happened e More last Tuesday, new members e WhatsApp changes RagChew and a reminder for the next net. e How to be really happy e Brookton SDR e New address for reports email back on line e What’s this RSN e Big country e Cryptography e Life on the ocean e Reminder about? waves for 7Mar24 CQ QRS Net Our little net just keeps getting better in leaps and bounds! ‘only’ had 39 known Although we stations transmitting last Tuesday evening and conditions were variable across the country, everyone just had so much fun. It’s not a contest - doesn’t matter whether you heard one or a dozen stations... the fact that you were having a listen and having some fun is what’s important. Notwithstanding though.... check out the number of stations some of our team heard or worked last Tuesday: 27Feb24 CQ QRS Net Total active stations this week: 44 Total QSOs (note that this figure won't be correct - QS0s may be counted twice o1 146 Black text - OSLed, Green MY CALL ‘iting q Cf qsoi1 text - heard but not worked, Blue text - incomplete QSO (not QSLed). Qso2 Qso3 qso4 qsos5 Qso6 Qso7 Qsosg qso9 qgso 10 | Qso11 r Listening if no QO} VK1HF/p VK1KVS VKIPWE VK3KLE VKLTE/m VK2DLF VK3DBD | VK3ACU |VK3/G4RWI| VK2CO/p VK2kl VK2NAP | VK2NNW| VK3ADX VK3AE | VK3BAP VKL1TE/m cont VK3BYD VK3DEZ VK3DPH VK3KLE VK3KTT VK3RU | VK3TBR | VKSHAA | VKSKFG | VKGHRC VKLTE/m cont VK6KHZ VK7TA ZL4BDG | VK3ADX VK5SGG VKLWA VK1ZD) VK2A0E VK2BHO VK2DLF VK2GAZ VK2NWW | VKITE/m | VK3DPH VK2IK VK2IOW VK2KI 40m VK2NWW | VK2DLF /VK3/G4RWI| VK3ACU VK2TER VK3AE VK2KI 40m VK7TA VK3KLE VKIPWE VK6PZT VK6BEK | VKGNAP VK2DLF | VK3ACU VK3CLD/p | VK3AE VK3AE VK4JM VK3ACU VK3ACU VK3/G4RWI] VK1TE/m | VK2TER VK2NNW VK7TA VK3BYD | VK3ADX VK3/G4RWI| VK7TA VK3AE VK3AE VK2TER VKSPH VK3ADX VK6QI VK2KI | 80m | CQ VK2NAP VK2NV VK2NNW VK2TER VK2WEO VK3KLE VK2WE ZL4BDG | VK2NNW VK3AE | VK3BYD VK6KD ZL1HJ VK3DBD | VK6NT v RSS VK3BAP VKLTE/m VK3BTV VK3BU VK3BYD VK3ACU VK3AE VK3CLD/p VK2DLF VK2NNW VK3DBD VK3DPH VK3FG VK3KLE VK3KO VK3MJ VK3RU VK3TBR VKa WOW VK3XU VK3/G4RWI ZL1HJ VKITE/m VKITE/m | VK20LF |VK3/G4RWI VKIPWE | VK2NAP VK3RU | VKITE/m 2L1HJ VK3DBD VK4JM VK6TX/4 VK2TER VK3KLE VK6PZT VK2KI VK5GG VKITE/m | VK7TA VK3AE VK3ACU VK3BYD VK7TA VK2KI VK6ENT VK2TER VK3AE VK2TER ZL4BDG | VK3DBD | VK1ITE/m| VK3ACU VKSPH VK1PP VK6DEV | VK2Kl VK2COS VK6NT VK2NAP | VK6P2ZT VK3KLE VK3ACU | VK3ADX VKSAO VKSCT VK5CZ VKSET VKSFA VK5FD VKSHAA VKSIP VKSKFG VKS5PH VKS5PL VKITE/m VKITE/m VK3AE VKBAAV VK6BEK VK6KD VK6IS VK6CK VK6DEV VK6DV VKG6FN VK6KHZ | VK6IS VK6Q) VK6PZT VK7TA VK6IS VK6P2ZT VK6KHZ VK6BEK VK6DV VK6KD VK6BEK VK6PZT VK6BEK VK6DEV VK6IS VK5GG VK6PZT VK6Q) VK2KI VK6GAL VK6HRC VK6IR VK6IS VK6JDOM VK6JK VK6KD VK6KHZ VK6KQ VK6LD VK6MK/p VK6MU VK6NC VKG6NT VKENW VK6PZT VK6KHZ VK6IS VK6DEV VK6WE 2L3TK VK6QI VK3TBR VK7TA VK6DEV VK6KHZ VK1TE/m | VK6QI cont VK6TY VK6XU VK6WE VK6YV Z2L3TK VK3TBR | VK3ADX VK6EDV VK3ACU | VKITE/m VK6QI | VK6BEK | VK2KI VK2DLF VK6FN VK3AE VK6PZT VK7WW VK7KPC VK7TA VK7ZA ZLIANY ZL1HJ ZL3TK ZLABDG New VK3KLE 'VK3/G4RWI| VK6PZT VK3AE team VK3DBD VK6QI members This week I'd like to welcome Adam VK1PWE and Greg VK5KFG believe? Amazing! WhatsApp VK2NNW up near Glen Innes, Scott at Willunga to our team - 146 now would you changes I’ve tilted at windmills CQ QRS WhatsApp Group _ e es and caved in to pressure... our CQ QRS WhatsApp 7 group has now been converted to a ————— ‘Community’ (bit like buying a Hotel ore in Monopoly) and has now been split | into two groups - one for Alerts (eg “VK2KI calling CQ on 7032”, looking for a QSO on 20m “VK6QI between 14050 and 14090”, etc), and one for chats. This will allow you to have separate alerts on your phone for each group - eg a sound for Alerts, nothing for Rag Chews for instance. More details further down. New email address for reports For reasons that will start to become obvious, I’ve created a separate email address for your contributions to RagChew. caarsnet@gmail.com Happiness Studies have consistently demonstrated that one of the things that helps people to be really satisfied with their life is to help other people - to do things for the human community rather than just for themselves. That’s one of the things that motivates people we Know to teach for example, Morse Code. QRS QSO same It’s also one of the things that motivated me to start our CQ practice net - helping others to pursue an interest. And it’s the motivation that has kept me going to write the RagChew newsletter every week. However comma, | also have other significant pursuits that | need to attend to - so | now need to share the love a bit - I’m looking for three more people to have a go at editing the newsletter - so one person edits it one week, and a different person edits it the next week over a monthly cycle. the newsletter once per month would make Editing my life more satisfying because I'd be still helping to motivate others, but would have more time for life. So do you enjoy writing and have basic computer use skill? Would you be able to help me by putting up your hand to have a go at editing the RagChew once per month say? I'll help of course - | enjoy writing | (strange for someone who had to be given a conceded . f? pass in final year High School English!) and believe me, there’s no shortage of material available for inclusion. / = wy -< Ly a You could publish the newsletter in the same form as it is, or you could try your own style - simple or complex doesn’t matter; as long as we keep motivating the team to develop or maintain their Morse Code skills and participate to help others, then I'll be happy. If you give it a try but don’t enjoy it, there’d be no obligation to continue if things don’t go to plan of course. What do you think? good? Are you able to help others while doing something And perhaps you can show me how to shorten the newsletter in the process! And here’s another option too - the weekly editor doesn’t an amateur. For example, need to be is there a member of your family or a friend who might be interested in writing and helping your pursuit of the hobby? Please have a think about this proposal. | want the weekly newsletter to thrive - and your help might just be the key to your overall satisfaction with life! Please let me know by email to mark.bosma@icloud.com Reports Let the team know & Comments who you worked or heard on the Tuesday net cqgrsnet@qmail.com From Nick VK6DV at St James: My rig was a KX2 at about 4 Watts on a random wire with 64:1. Tried CQ on 40 and 80 but did not spot myself as had very limited time again. Sorry Peter VK6IS - | had to QRT on 80m at very short notice - glad we again made an exchange. Thanks also lan VK7TA for the brief QSO; sorry that we had to terminate due to QSB. Great fun again as always - looking forward to next week. 73 VK6DV Nick [Thanks Nick - glad you had some success this time. ] From Local Time 1900 Craig VK3CLD/p at Seymour: Freq 7035 VK2DLF in QSO with VK2NNW 1908 7037 VK2TER 1909 7018 ZLIALA 1911 7037 VK3AE 1917 7037 VK2TER calling CQ 1920 7033.5 VK3AE 1927 7030 VK3DBD calling CQ... 1930 7030 VK3DBD in QSO with VK1TE/M 1938 7038 VK3AE 1944 7025 VK3ACU 1947 40 metres becoming very noisy. 1949 7038 VK5PH 2001 7025 VK3ACU in QSO with VK2TER in QSO with ZL4BDG rest lost to QRM in QSO with VK2NNW in QSO with VK1TE/M in QSO with VK3AE calling CQ Now to 80 metres ... and no joy whatsoever. Ciao. [Thanks for your report Craig; boy you were busy for the hour - sounds like you had a bit more success this time, and the storms didn’t find you either. Perhaps you didn’t hear anyone on 80m because you were a bit early; there’s no reason to not slide down to 80m any time (especially if you post an alert on WhatsApp), but the advertised segment didn’t start until 2200 hours Eastern last week. ] From James VK2TER at Terrigal: Hi Mark, On Tuesday | operated for the first hour of the 40m this week: net. Three contacts Dylan VK3AE, David VK4JM and Jordan VK3ACU. Regards James (VK2TER) [Thanks James - I’m glad you had some fun, and especially that you caught up with David in Brisbane.] From Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith: Hi Mark, Great night on Tuesday on 40m - | made a few contacts - | needed that after a few slacker weeks due to work but | am back! G4RW/VK3 Nigel out portable in Frankston VK1TE / m Claude From Mawson VK2TER James tricky copy 339 but we made VK2NNW 599 nice signal from you Adam it happen thanks James with your dipole VK7TA lan thanks for the nice chat. Good copy into Meredith and thanks for asking about being safe from the fires. VK3BYD Warren thanks for the chat on your dipole at home. Huge signal from VK3AE Dylan who | did not work - he was down the road from me in Ballarat - looking forward to a contact soon. | received the newsletter thank you I'll look forward to reading it tomorrow. Well, that’s enough for tonight | spent quite a lot of time practising this morning came before work... brain is now dots and dashes. Thanks to all who up looking forward to next week. Jordan VK3ACU [Nice report Jordan - thank you for making the effort to get on after your busy weeks, and I’m glad you had fun.] From David VK6KD at Ballajura: Hi Mark Sorry about the no-show last week - | had just picked up a new caravan and ran out of time & energy. 27/2/2024 QRS report A good starting time of 1723hrs WST but | faded fast so hit the sack at 9pm. QSsO Contacts: VK6BEK Shaun. 1723 hrs VK6IS Peter 1821 hrs | received msg from VK3ACU who could hear me calling on 3.550Mhz not pull me out of the mud to fully copy. Thanks for trying Jordon. but Regards David VK6KD [Thanks for your report David. | think | also heard you (or perhaps it was Shaun or Peter working you) - but failed to put you in my log. Good luck with your caravan preparation and thanks for mentioning the net when you were chatting to others on AllStar - you never know who we’ll attract next to give it a go.] From Adam VK2NNW up at Deepwater near Glen Innes: Hi Mark There was certainly a lot of CW stations about on Tuesday night. I'm on 40m most evenings and afternoons. | use mostly straight keys and sometimes a single lever paddle for sending over 15 WPM. Hope to work you soon. 73 Adam VK2NNW [Hi Adam From - great to have you on board. ] Brendan VK3BAP at Truganina: Hi Mark, Many goings-on at my QTH last night so | only sat down for a brief time. | replied to Claude mobile VK1TE/M combination of QRM but although he was initially 559, a and QSB meant only a partial copy. Still, it was nice to meet Claude as | wasn't even planning a QSO last night. | also heard the following stations on 40M: VK3AE, VK3ACU, VK3BYD, VK7TA VK2KI and my first time hearing WA; VK6NT who I think was in a QSO with yourself at the time? Cheers, Brendan VK3BAP [Doing pretty well for someone very much for your report. who wasn’t going to transmit mate! Don’t worry... soon you'll be working into WA on 80m as well, ] From Nigel VK3/G4RWI/p at Point Leo: Hi Mark Another thoroughly enjoyable QRS night. Nigel gearing-up for the net Thanks Found a perfect spot at Point Leo to operate from. For the first time no wind to contend with. | feel I’ve joined the grown ups now I’m in VK3 land. This weeks excuse for my mistakes is a flock of Ibis attacking the bbq, and two old birds causing QRM (my partner and her sister). Sigs were great, especially from ZL, all well over the 9. You can’t beat an EFHW and being next to salt water. | worked: VK3ACU VK3ADX ZL1H} VK3DBD [I’m so pleased that you’re having fun Nigel; isn’t this net just amazing?! Thanks for your suggestion about a deep (fast) end and a shallow (slow) end; interesting idea. Where to next? our monitoring station So many places, so little time for CW!] From Richard VK6HRC at Padbury: Hi Mark CQ QRS Net Very interesting conditions on Tuesday night, good signals from the locals to start with, but after a while conditions changed and it was just hard copy after that. Signals from the East were not that strong, but | managed hear quite a few people chatting away. Stations heard on 40Mx (may not be 100% VKO6IS VK6PZT VK6KHZ VK6BEK VK5GG VK1IPP VK6DEV VK3KLE VK2KI Worked, VK2COS in Nowra thanks Rob. Nothing heard on 80Mx on Tuesday night. accurate ©): to Looking forward to next week Post Morseum - AllStar South West Network As you know we got off to a good start on Wednesday VK6RLM morning but the repeater failed this time, not the AllStar network. | remembered that there was another linked repeater in the area VK6RNA So listened in until you and young Max signed off. On this morning : VK6KD/m VK6FN VK6QI VK6KRC Thanks to all, cheers Richard VK6HRC [Thanks for your report on both nets Richard. Good you worked Rob - unfortunately | don’t have an email address to invite him to join; next time? perhaps | see that like others, you had an interesting time decoding Scott VKIPWE’s callsign - heh heh! Hey, thanks so much for coordinating the Wednesday morning Post Morseum again.] From Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks: Hi Mark, | started with a good chat with Dave VK6KD VK6IS who had a very loud signal. there was very bad QRM on 80m. Later | worked and | think we also had someone frequency and things got a bit confusing. bad qrm here after 7pm on 40m. You were in there somewhere QsO. | worked but else using the The SSB guys up north caused | finally managed 40m. Rich again Peter | tried to work Daryl VK3KL on 40m to work Rich VK6PZT on afterwards but not clear enough for a later on 80m. Regards Shaun - VK6BEK [Nice report thanks Shaun. Yes | had the same problem with a DX station running QRQ smack on frequency when | tried to work Lin from here. See comments elsewhere about trying to use the half kHz frequencies on 40m when the band starts opening. Hard to deal with the Northern SSB though - a narrow filter and perhaps front-end attenuator might help, but sometimes It’s c’est la vie!] From Claude VK1TE/m: Hi Mark, While 80m has interesting sides, 40m impression that it fits the bill a bit better (at the moment). | am wondering, as far as I’m concerned gives me the in case sometimes 40m wouldn't work well enough, the best way to practically, quickly figure out witch other band would do the trick. As a mobile station | rarely have an opportunity to contact VK6s on 40m 80m. or | wonder if 20m, for /m and /p stations could sometimes work better than 40m. | was lucky enough to get a 569 with VK6GX 579 from IKOIXI on 20m/m on 20m/m last Saturday and this Wednesday. Just a thought... Please find my attached QRS240227 logs. 735, CW soon, k vkite ARARAT VIC [Thank you Claude - another terrific report and log this week - and you found several more new stations to invite. As the seasons change and we start to head down the sunspot cycle rollercoaster, options. we'll need to look at I didn’t really favour 40m because the QRQ DX stations and associated QRM may scare new operators who need a safe practice location (hence 80m); | suspect 20m would be worse. However, 40m has turned out to be a boon and has doubled our numbers - but the risk Is there, so 80m will remain - especially for those taking their first steps. However, our CO QRS - Alerts group is the go when you're travelling and about to call CQ.... and if you need to be frequency-agile because of the DX, perhaps specify the upper and lower frequencies you'll be tuning between?] Claude’s response is in the Other News section. From Richard VK6PZT Evening at Dalyellup: Mark. Eight contacts for me on Tuesday night: 1 - VK6KHZ - RON - SENT 589 - DIDN'T COPY THE RX 7028,HZ 1610HRS 2 - VK6IS - PETER - 599 TX RX 7035 - 16:23 HRS 3 - VK6DEV - PHIL - 599 TS RX 7037 - 599 + 20 TRANS 4 - VK6WE SUBURB - DAN - 599 RX TX 7037 - 17:40 HRS - NEW CONTACT 5 - ZL3TK - STAN 7033 6 - VK6QI - MARK - 7033 - 19:40HRS 589 BOTH 7 - VK6BEK - SHAUN 8 - FINALLY VK6KI FOR ME HRS 19:00 HRS 339 SENT 529 RX 7033 20:00 579 BOTH WAYS WAYS. MARK - direct from NSW - on 40m - sorry | lost the notes | made on our contact. | was flipping between vertical ground my regular end fed dipole (cut for 80m), anda plane (with about 30 short radials, and a longer feedline). The dipole was definitely quieter, and the signal to noise ratio was waaaaay better. much | found the 40m band quite noisy on the night and the dipole was better for copying every contact, both local vk6 and dx contacts. | could not see any difference in my signals received on SDRs, and VK1. However, | made vertical. So, maybe it works better at much my first 40m in VK6, VK3 contact to ZL TXing on the longer distances; maybe, it's a Skip distance issue? | suspect the 40M vert is underperforming due to the short radials, and long feedline, and the 80m better than expected, dipole is performing due to the end of the antenna perhaps pointing toward the eastern states, and the downhill slope in that direction. | will be trying both antennas a few times more, to see how they perform under different band conditions. By the time | got to try 80m rest. Great night, | was jiggered.. and had to give my ears a most contacts on the QRS net for me ever. Richard VK6PZT [Hi Richard - great report - thank you. Wow - eight two-way contacts Is pretty impressive - Claude beat you by one... but who’s counting? Thanks for your comments on your antenna experiments - very interesting, and not what was expected, although the higher noise on the vertical was. you replaced your end-fed with a dipole, or is ita new antenna? a four-way antenna From Dylan VK3AE switch soon! Have You'll need Thanks again mate. ] at Ballarat: Well another great Tuesday night on the key, managed to start a bit of rag chew which is something I’ve always wanted to do. The band seemed to be a bit poor but still plenty of activity. Later in the evening | tried 80mtr but was unsuccessful. 27/02/24 08.17 7037.0 CW VK3AE 559 VK2TBR 539 james 08.33 7033.5 CW VK3AE 559 ZL4BDG 599 ben 08.49 7038.0 CW VK3AE 599 VK2NNW 599 adam 09.04 7038.0 CW VK3AE 599 VK5PH 599 paul 09.17 7038.0 CW VK3AE 599 VK3ADX 09.58 7038.0 CW VK3AE 529 VK6QI 559 mark 10.09 7038.0 CW VK3AE 599 VK3BYD 599 waz Thanks all for making this a fun night. Dylan vk3ae wellington 599 merv _ ballarat wangaratta [Thanks for the nice report Dylan - glad you had fun. ] From Greg VK5KFG at Willunga: Thanks for reaching out Mark. which | messed patience. | did have a contact with Claude on Tuesday up to an extent that even surprised me! It was the first time that | had used my 40m Thank him for his QCX mini and may have been a bit overcome with the fact that it worked. lam really pleased that your net is being successful and 40 active the other night. That is very encouraging. | am looking forward to getting more involved with CW. Thanks again, Greg VK5KFG [Hi Greg. Fantastic! messing up! And our group Is the last place to worry about Its there to helo newcomers have a go in a safe place where no-one’s going to worry if they make mistakes; bit rusty. ditto for oldies who are a Great that your QCX worked as you’d hoped. We have lots and lots of people in the group who enjoy using simple, small, QRP, refurbished, surplus etc gear - you'll probably hear just as much old (and sometimes drifting) gear as new. And yes, with SOTA / PARKS and our net, we’ve seen a huge increase in CW activity in Australia. Would you believe we have 146 subscribers now! Welcome Greg and / look forward to hearing you on air again on Tuesdays. From me VK6QI at Bedfordale via the VK6QS and the VK6CRO SDR at Brookton, Remote the VK6SR Remote at Carnarvon: On Tuesday | decided to concentrate on the VK6 side of the net - using the VK6QS KiwiSDR at Brookton and the Southern Remote at Bedfordale. RagChew, Well, best laid plans! Electronics Group VK6SR As notified in the last Matt’s SDR was down so instead | went to the Austravel Safety Net Kiwi SDR at Yarloop; that SDR has a limit of 1 hour use per 24 hours, so | needed to connect, listen, disconnect regularly. arranged for a re-boot of his SDR at around later in the evening. Luckily, Matt VK6QS 1100z, so | was able to use it If you haven't used it, the SDR is a ripper once you get used to the KiwiSDR mouse-controlled functions. low noise floor and a 20m x 27m x 31m The VK6QS SDR has a horizontal loop antenna (just visible in sh) eT a a , P 4 7S | 5: on Xe oa long building) approximately 4m high at the lowest point where the L Coe a a See yellow to the North East of the y me => iN he balun connects and rising to 18m at the furthest corner - so it hears very well - thanks for the rescue Matthew! 40m First-up | heard Tim VK3TBR at Horsham both coming through nicely into WA. Dalyellup chatting to Ron VK6KHZ Mawson working Georg VK2DLF After some ado, | got the VK6SR chatting to lan VK7TA at Latrobe - | also heard Phillip VK6DEV at at Yangebup and Claude VK1TE/m at at St Marys. Remote fired-up, the antenna coupled and my key interfaced.... now how to remember which callsign to use?! nice chat to Dylan VK3AE Max VK6FN | hada at Ballarat followed by a good old rag chew with at cold and windy Manjimup my receiving that was deceiving?). (surely not Max - perhaps it was It was terrific to then catch up with Lin VK6NT again, and we did a double act.... after exchanging RSTs from VK6QI, started opening | came up from home as VK2KI. Around 1030z 40m up to the US and the down-side of the accurate digital VFOs appeared - | just couldn’t differentiate Lin’s CW from the US station calling CQ dead on the frequency. | reckon as we hear the band opening we might need to Slide off the exact kiloHertz and start using the in-between frequencies, so we can use filtering / notching etc to get rid of the DX QRM. A while later | noticed some nice ae a ee rhythm BS Farnsworth, and it turned out to be Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup chatting to our member _ Stan ZL3TK at Horowhenua, South West of Palmerston | tail- ended North. Richard and caught up with Stan before attempting unsuccessfully to raise Chris VK2NAP; those who are on the CQ QRS WhatsApp group may know that Chris was having fun letting the smoke out of his X-Phase noise canceller; teeny-tiny FETs apparently don’t like having 100 Watts of RF applied - nor do some of the associated surface-mount resistors. So Chris was back to struggling with the switch mode power supply hash... and couldn’t hear my micro-Volts. SOMVvalicouldnitiresist After that | chatted to Richard from both VK6 and VK2, as he swapped between his dipole and vertical antennas; strangely, | couldn’t distinguish between the two on either the near-vertical incidence skywave path to Bedfordale or the low-angle skywave path to Bowning NSW. 80m 80m was dead-quiet by the time Richard, Shaun VK6BEK and | finished our 40m experiments around 1230z; not surprising, considering | was 1-1/2 hours late for 80. 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 As | said above, I’d hoped to concentrate a bit on the WA end of the net via the SDR and Remote that | usually use - however, the SDR wasn’t reset until mid-way through the net, so | had some fun from NSW instead. 40m While doing the dishes and using the Tecsun KiwiSDR at Araluen on my iPad, even before the net started | heard Georg VK2DLF chatting to Adam VK2NNW the Queensland up at Deepwater, North of Glen Innes up near border. | then listened to Nigel VK3/G4RWI VK3ACU at St Marys down near Frankston chatting to Jordan at Meredith, James VK2TER at Terrigal calling CQ and Dylan VK3AE chatting to Ben ZL4BDG. When instead ended Merv VK3ADX at Te Kuiti. up working Ben finished, Nigel tried calling Ben, but at Ballarat followed by Mick ZL1H) Mick then went on to chat to David VK3DBD while Jordan hooked at Yalandandah, up with Adam. Once the VK6SR SDR was back on line, as | said above, | had a QSO with Lin VKONT from here in VK2 while listening to Merv working Latrobe and Paul VK3KLE lan VK7TA at at Stawell chatting to Scott VKIPWE; Scott has a pretty tricky callsign - very easy to confuse with Dale VKI1PP... especially with QSB etc in the mix. | then worked Richard VK6PZT from here as mentioned above and listened to Chris VK2NAP at Marrickville chatting to Paul VK3KLE at Stawell, while Richard went on to work Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks. When and try to work them Shaun and Richard finished, | thought I’d be clever both at the same time; round-table CW QSOs can be a as we've discussed little challenging but fun; before, however, Richard wouldn’t play the game, so Shaun and | had a nice chat instead before | slid over to 80m, nearly 1-1/2 hours late. 80m 80 had gone quiet over this side of the country when | finally got to listen; all the sensible people had hit the hay | think. And interestingly, around 1230z, the buzz of an aurora came up at home in Bowning NSW and was visible on both the Tecsun Araluen SDR and the VK6QS Brookton SDR. Tuesday Overall In all | heard or worked none on 80m 25 stations from WA and NSW on 40m Tuesday, because | was having too much fun on 40m but and was late. But, what fun - no wonder | was pooped the next day. CQ QRS WhatsApp Traffic CQ After repeated from the QRS WhatsApp requests, I’ve finally reneged the time)... the CQ QRS WhatsApp e CQ QRS Feed Community. (I’m a bit of a dinosaur most of Community now has two sub-groups: Alerts - for spotting CQ calls and QSOs during the net, and for QRS alerts and members’ CQ calls (QRS or QRQ, simple exchanges or rag chews) at other times. e Rag Chews - for chats and photo exchanges between team members about who knows what - current projects, technical questions, in fact, anything of interest to CW operators... excluding religion and politics of course. Having two sub-groups allows you to have different types of notification on your phone or computer - eg a sound when there’s an Alert, and silence when there’s a rag chew message, or perhaps two different sounds. Rag Chews section is great for sending The photos of what you're up to - like Lance. CQ QRS WhatsApp Group Lance VK7ZA on Mount Montague this week Please let me know if you'd like to be in the WhatsApp group - I'd really like all of our net participants to join in the fun mark.bosma@icloud.com Other Other things From Dylan VK3AE I’ve received News from at Ballarat via the our 140-odd WhatsApp CQ readers. QRS chat group: Build this little single-tube old time transmitter - first two parts: https://youtu.be/NpthzBxnBi8? Si=F5i6nloum0-141K https://youtu.be/sw-DvcZ7QQl? si=yqcZYvrAizmH vdW [Thanks Dylan. From Boy 1 wish | was retired! Ben ZL4BDG I’m after CW at Upper practice. Hmmm.] Hutt: Are there any members who like slightly fast CW speeds? [Yes, absolutely - there's lots of our team who are experienced operators and would love to chew the rag at a faster speed. Suggest when you're ready, post a note in the new 'CQ QRS - Alerts' area saying you're looking fora QSO/rag chew at such-and-such a speed for practice - nominate the frequency, and you should be good to go. up, keep trying. If you don't get any takers first A number of our people have said they want faster chats outside of the net for practice.] From RSN vs RST - from Stan ZL3TK’s QRZ.com page: Back in the days of spark transmitters, the T in RST was there to indicate to the transmitting station when the other operator had a problem, mains hum or arc-over, such as which was causing his signal to sound something other than pure DC, or rough was the term often used; ie the T was used to show when the other operator had a problem with the transmission. These days the T still exists merely for tradition and serves no purpose, so logically it's position in a signal report can be replaced by an N to good effect. Now before you cry out in consternation at such a suggestion, ask yourself a simple question: "How many times in the past ten years have | sent any number other than 9 to signify the tone of the other op's transmission? Answering for myself, it's pretty close to, if not exactly zero. And who would take the slightest notice of a T5 anyway? Ergo, today the T serves no purpose whatsoever. Now let's talk about using an N instead of a T, and how N is of magnitude more useful. represents 'noise' based orders N eens | upon the aN Uh co) BET eC A rn nea i |) Beach Ta » eas usual signal strength 1 ~ 9 scale and represents ambient band noise including QRM. So if the S-meter is reading 5 and the received CW signal pushes the needle up to 7, then the report you give will likely by RSN 575. If there's an unhealthy dose of QRN would be even more appropriate; as well, then maybe 'RSN 375 QRN' now the other operator has a good indication of your conditions. Of course when the report you give is RSN 225, the other operator will be aware that he is very close to being QNP and that you're really struggling to read him. He may decide to modify his sending to a more appropriate style or even QSZ without your having to ask. Now that would be real gentlemanly. RSN is already widely used in NZ traffic nets but will take time to gain traction elsewhere; granted, the concept may have to be explained at times, but the more ops who drop the T in favour of an N, most useful tool will be adopted the sooner this by the majority, and lead to much understanding of the other op's situation; better isn't that what it's all about? | am very fortunate to usually have a low noise RF environment, m, so although the N 1 that I give in most of my RSN even on 80 reports may appear ubiquitous, at least as bad as all those 9s automatically given to T in RST, that is in fact NOT the case. The N has been known to rise to between and even to 5 occasionally. Use of reduced RF gain and narrowed 2 IF passband further reduce apparent ambient noise allowing very weak signals to be discernible, even if still sometimes difficult to read. advised, N 1 is not my default report, or a proforma considered number. response pertaining to the live circumstances. So be It is a For the reasons given above involving filters, especially RF gain and IF passband reduction, my signal strength reports may be lower than anticipated, nonetheless, they will be a best guess and as honest as conditions allow. Only when the RF gain is fully open, along with normal IF passband and no other pre-detector filters such as a notch are used, will any audio-derived Smeter reading be reasonably accurate. Summary RSN from maritimeradio.org is an attempt by some Australasian radio amateurs to try and address the shortcomings of RST. The “N” stands for Noise. Because virtually all transmitters now have perfect Tone, the T is seldom useful - but we do have very high levels of Noise these days. As an example, if we send a report of RST 369, the other guy has no way of knowing why his readability is mediocre. Is it QRM? such as “RSN 368,” he will understand that, although QRN? QSB? Perhaps even QSD? By sending a report his strength is a respectable S6, the Noise is stronger at S8, so he’s losing the battle. From my neighbour Jack - an antique radio restorer: So, teil me about yourself / collect » : \ radios. / ail From Matthew VK6QS at Mt e Hawthorn: Hi all, Got the farmer to boot and (or reboot) the unit http://vk6gs.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/ now back online. [Thanks very much for getting it back on line for us to use on the net Matthew - very much appreciated. ] The Mysteries of HAARP - Exploring Amateur Radio Activity in the lonosphere Garry Cratt VK2YBX from our friends at Tecsun Radios Australia (which provides the KiwiSDR at Araluen used every week by the team for our CQ QRS slow CW practice net) stumbled upon an intriguing discovery during his online perusal. A fascinating blog post that sheds light on the enigmatic world of amateur radio activity. This information was sourced from EI7GL’s “A Diary of Amateur Radio Activity”. ra RY 27—MARCH Ee eR D 90? : ae eal RL enn at the University of Alaska Fairbanks You can read about it here: nttps./tecsunradios us. list. manage.com/track/click? u=6da0ffe5ca671ecc582c50492&id =) 300a2 elfa&e= C2 ee5c1777 Sorry we're a bit late. And don’t forget Garry’s competition - send in your favorite old-time radio Uniting or other shack pictures to be in the ny : oo : competition to win this interesting OR s ‘AS : Through Shortwave: taba elec att tees Invites You to Share Your ee EES haris Ge cereac book. [Thanks From Garry.] Scott VK1PWE: G'day, Mark. Thanks for the email and info about the QRS group. | had no idea this existed and is great news. There were a lot of stations the other night and it did appear a little unusual to the normal VK CW activity! | will be a willing participant to the group and happy to help anyone wanting to develop their skills. I've long thought about getting a local CW group together on 2 or 10M, especially those wanting to learn, but | won't reinvent the wheel just yet. Thanks again for letting me know about the group and hopefully talk to you soon. Ver iA / So i TT, PAG f Regards, MPM ST a te Pea Scott. [Terrific Scott - welcome. Yes there are a number of options for people who want to learn - internet and radio.... so you're probably right about reinventing the wheel; the flip side of course Is that having a local mentor probably helps motivate some people. The Northern Tasmanian CW training Is popular - and the tutor Nic VK7WW is a regular on the CQ QRS net, and he suggests to his students to use the CQ QRS net when they're starting to near the skill level to get on air. And keep repeating your callsign.... eventually the penny will drop - HI] CW Cryptography Stan ZL3TK and Stephen ZLIANY are actively involved in a New Zealand CW net called SAS - Signals and Secrets. The net is all about practice sending, receiving and decoding encrypted CW. now linked up with Stan to explore the field. RagChew Several of our team have Hopefully we'll get reports for as the activity grows across Australasia. EERE GV Se a Da ae | y i het i Wi eel ce i pRB (a di)ai Ne a Ry i ee ee a (\., ee a (\< a 1 Bo Ry Ns ee ( Lr a a () sa ae ia By Ry Bya ny ( a 4 a (\; a a ‘ (xg a iad Ne i e ie) i ed “las i 3 bain — Was Pi Pry ie) i Py i — : . © ae : | ty lertifiecde af , if f =. —F “ Viet = i Hees Coryblag raphe Up ¥" VA . if SAMG|}CHIONE nme ——" my “4 ee : wertificdte ra i puronelly f > Heh Cnyrographie i <>) re = Wi a Lr BS oy aa ae Tang Saag ae ag Tan 3 : rt) fir Oe ster! fe fs & Y : age = > ton( Vause of saccosfully decrypting the = Franetion _—— AN 7 a4 ae tn recog nidte art —_ . . CF, Corti roule S COnegraphic -Pehiewement st | , a ah (: Yan 5 Dortime Farko Hioreal Sooehy Wo | es aes cM Cad Ma David Ine ee Ma Me ee aa oh ae ae eM ied ME gM VK5PL eh SM CAMs cM _ PA hes Mig ee 7 at Williamstown: G'Day Mark, lt was too hot for me the other night, plus | usually forget to tune in. wondered if there are any members | looking for another way to learn Morse Code? |am a member of the Long Island CW Club who provide 138 lessons each week for both learning morse code and of interest about radio/CW. There are more than 4500 members If anyone all over the world. is interested in learning go to longislandcwclub.org for more info. For us in Australia, If you work it may be difficult to attend lessons but for retired non working folk you have plenty of classes available. There are classes for Beginners and also for Intermediate (12-20wpm) Advanced (20-45wpm) and and also for Kids/Grandkids. There are forum type classes for the Morserino, Portable operations, 3D Printing, V Band, a ladies class and others. There is a fee to join, but it is worth it for the resources available. Dave VK5PL [Thanks Dave. I’ve been gathering info from a number of our team members on how the Code Is learned these days for a future article or two. l’ll add your into; thanks for taking the time to put your thoughts together. ] From Kees VK1KVS Classifieds - Junker key and spare cover for sale on VK © Junker MT. $140.00 Seller's other Ads Amateur G... VWKIKVS ‘Country Australia. Stata/Regi... Australian Capital Te mitory ‘City Wanniassa Post Code Email 2903 Kees. Vanderspekiin @tSpeec.com.au Tyie, Listing Tella Friend — Report Listing Posted Feb 25, 2024 ‘Quantity Available 1 Seve as POF Description Junker M.T. (= ‘Morse Taste’, Morse Key}. Post-1978 model, whan the Josaph Junker factory in Bad Honnef, Germany, first began using their simplified gap adjustment mechanism, using @ rubber ‘O-ring to provide friction on the adjustment thumb screw (replacing the previous spring-loaded ball-bearing ‘clickstop’ mechanism, 1978 being the earliest date found for this change so far). At the same time Junker introduced the plastic resin cover, replacing the previous diecast aluminium covers. Both developments were likely cost-saving measures. This model offered here is rare, as mostof these post-1978 Junker keys caried the silver hammertone colour {the Kriegsmarine’ or German Navy, and the socalled ‘citizens’ versions). The dark green versions were ordered by the Rohde & Schwarz company for supply with their army radio sets, although there is no Rohde & Schwarz nama plate inside the cover as found in other specimans. Tha green colour used by Rohde & Schwarz is of a darker shade than the NATO Olive drab graen wsed by the German Bundeswehr since 1955. The cover here has seen a fair bit of wear, both through use, but also bacause the smooth resin surface of the cover meant that any paint never adhered really well, an issue found on both thease green as well as the silver hammertone versions. The key is fitted with the standard RFI electronics inside the Bakelite base. The key is in perfect working condition and comes supplied with a spare genuine Junker rubber “O'-ring. The orange cardboard insulation card inside the Bakelite base is stamped P? AUG 90’, its manufacturing date (the exact day not legible). A spare unpainted original cover can be added for an additional S20. Also from Hello Mark, Kees: Yes, all good here. Have been listening but very intermittently and thought not worth to report. Also helps you to keep the RagChew Previous weeks too much shorter, hihi! happening to sit down for any length of time. Hope to be on next week and am already making arrangements with James VK2TER to listen out for each other. lan VK1HF other from vband. and James we know each Now more of the real thing in CQ QRS, but difficult to sit in front of the radio for six hours. But I'll be there! Hope you found a way to keep the RagChew shorter. | personally do not see much not read them all. We merit in everyone’s reports and | would know for ourselves if we had a successful QSO, with or without QSB, QRN, QRM, etc. But up to you, obviously, if the workload is manageable. Keep up the good work Mark and hope to hear you next week. 73 Kees VK1KVS [Thanks Kees. So far, I’ve been using the reports to identify new stations not already on our subscription list - and every week | see new people in the reports - most of whom join up! | also use the reports to track how many stations we’re getting each week via the spreadsheet. However, | might try just summarising the QSOs in the next RagChew to see what it looks like. Any other thoughts out there for ways to make the RagChew more manageable for readers and me?] From Stuart VK6MK, still portable at Broome: Thanks to those who suggested that we split the WhatsApp CQ QRS group into separate alerts and chats groups, and to lan VK1HF for finally annoying Mark enough about it - | think it’s a brilliant idea. the well-named And to Phillip VK6DEV for groups in our now CQ QRS Community; a big improvement. Well done all - impressive numbers... 40m (another of lan’s arm-twistings) is a real plus. | had friend here last week and will miss next Tuesday also. I’m looking to put a resonant 40m 30m antenna up when | get back to Australind; | havea Delta Loop which | don’t use, so I'll look at modifying that. Cheers Stuart [Thanks Stuart. More from Fingers crossed. ] Claude VKI1TE / VK2CL: To keep it simple, | think I'll be open to all available bands when (once I’m QRV on 80m again). band So when driving I'll be 40m if | feel like trying one when the conditions seem the WhatsApp mobile or any other promising. I'll use CQ QRS - Alerts group in case any of the team would like a Qso. Regarding QRS practice, finding a quiet window is important for any beginner or rusty CW ops to feel comfortable; it doesn't really matter where it is located on any band, as long as it is quiet enough. If | remember correctly, all band plans allow CW through nearly the entire spectrum of each band. At the moment, foreground) bands. in most of Canberra the background noise is between (or should | say S7 and S9+ on my vertical car antenna, on all It is hopefully less noisy on some different types of antenna setting ups. Around a week ago there was hardly any noise at all for a few days. thought such loud noise was mainly due to local origins; is close to continuous and omnipresent. also enjoying that much WhatsApp, | at the moment it | wonder if other Canberrans are noise, or if it's just me, due to my set-up? element, telegram, session, signal and the like are very nice instant messenger apps to have available, as long as one has mobile or any sort of internet coverage! ;-) A big advantage when using an instant messenger combined with ham operations is that, among adds a other benefits, it lot of flexibility and allows for quick improvisation and adjustments - seems to work very well for our QRS net and for skeds outside the net. As soon as | am around the farm in the bush at Tinderry NSW, I can only rely on my ham rig in the ute (at the moment) with someone! Or, if the propagation allows, | could use the mobile on top if | want to communicate of a hill, which is quite an exercise that | can't always afford... Thanks Mark for keeping the ball rolling and CW soon. 73, k vk1lte [lf the noise disappeared suddenly then came back, | wonder if it's something in your car, or your phone, GPS - who knows? Could also be auroral buzz - which was there later on Tuesday in WA and Araluen. Nigel VK6N/ and his lady Jane stayed here for a couple of days when they passed through with their caravan recently; Nigel couldn’t believe how noisy it was around our property, despite being rural. And our mutual friend Jack next door has also found that the Fixed Wireless internet gear used in this area for the NBN radiates lots of hash. ] Take care mate, and yup... CW Tuesday ] From Nigel VK/G4RWI now travelling through Victoria: | genuinely look forward to Tuesday nights. | was really confused on my last visit to Oz at the general lack of amateur activity, of any kind, let alone Morse. | realised part of the problem was the vast distances here. Back in Europe you can go on the air anytime of the day pretty much and get a contact; all that changes during the day is how far into Europe those contacts would be. Translate that to Australia, and that means you are probably not going to get out of your State! So apart from allowing those new to CW to get on the air, what the net also does is provide a peak of CW activity once a week. will get there - so much not all about Hopefully more people good fun to be had working other VKs - on CW it’s DX. As I've said to you before, the biggest hurdle is just getting on the air. The next hurdle is making it a habit More power to your elbow! [Nicely done Nigel - thank you.] This Week’s VK2AOE Topic of Interest - Life on the Ocean Waves This week, one of our team characters - George VK2AOE - tells us of his adventures becoming a maritime radio operator. If the text is too small to read - try opening the email full-screen or zooming in;... if that doesn’t work, send me an email mark.bosma@icloud.com and I'll send you the document for your reading pleasure. Thanks George.... Hi fellow lovers of all things OW. CW. Here is a litte bit of background on why | love the magic of radio and Back in the 20's as a teen, | was given a Dick Smith Fun Ways inte Electronics. This & where ebsesdion the with all things electrical began. As good fartune would have it, a good family friend (John) was a ham, and on visite te his Houde | remember the Aladdin's cave of tech living in his basement. He had Yaesu FTL01 hybrid line up, 2m and 70 ern gear and old teleprinters that had been converted for HF RTTY. These cantankerous machines would chatter away, spewing their O50's from places afar ante the dusty and component strewn floor. This friend alse had a tower with a multiband Yagi and a GSRV for the lower bands. He even ran an amateur TY station! Many an afternoon was spent home brewing rudimentary DC power supplies, ATU's of spinning the VFO dial on his rigs. | was in heaven. In short order, | worked on my Morse code and started studying for my MAQCP which | got at the age of 13. With “ticket™ in hand, | fronted up at Andrew's Communications and purchased a Kenwood TS4305 to add ta my Kenwood 5590 receiver which John gifted me to listen to the WIA CW broadcasts. This transceiver eagt mé around $900 AUD, my life savings!!! My parents helged me with half this cost. John helped me out once again with a homebrew PSU. By the time | hit my final year of high school, rather than Study for my HSC, | studied for my AOCP and got it. Many family friends af more studigus children ‘wringed their hands at this lack of commitment to matters more academic. Kenwood ASS90— my first love (not the actual one] Kenwood TS4205 At school as the end af Yr 12 loomed, | wondered careers advidar office, [sighted & crumpled what | would parnphlet On do with myself. Sitting im our shabby being used te steady the corner ots tottering bookshelf. Ripping it out, luntolded my destiny! it was a gent replete in a navy-Slue merchant Radio Officer epaulettes. He gent were the words “a life on the adean waves”. The Australian Maritime was seated at a radio cansole and pounding af l went far 2 pears, te study their Associate Digloma of Maritime uniform, with 4 key. Above College beckoned Radio communications this and so [ADMR). The next 2 years went by in a blur [often drunken). My Morte tutor was very proud to get me to 15 WPM in a matter of days, until he realized | had “punked* him about being a rank beginner at code, After the fire year we were told GMOSS was on its way and needed. We were advited to stop the radia communications subjects [the ADME course). Six or so intrepid souls, td Sick to our guns and pet the ROGCP [the that Radia Officers would training and take up more encouraged by the radio officers’ “ticket"). no longer be electronics radio course leader decided Many fellow students laughed at ud and said, “you will never work at sea" Ta cut 4 long story short we did go to sea, for the next8 or a0 years. This work wad often in the offshore oil and gas industry and paid REALLY welll! Please click the links below for shipa | gol ta have fun on and otul? | did. httos://youtu.be/5wtNhOOQdoyE?si=NOROIhVapMUzy68D httos://youtu.be/JIYYC6SwGY8?si=-LVrTBvUvvg7jGG1 Needless to Say, the parents of children year-old could earn 48 much, The first couple wanted who if not more of year wad on were more etudious were suddenly aghast ehat 4 20- than they were earning and after only 2 years at College! exp loratory rigs and productia fh facilities in Australian to work on 4 real wireless telepraphy (WT) ship but was told this would waters. |really never happen. Well, “never say never", ag on ome Christmas break, | received a frantic call from CSA shipping. They asked could you get on plane NOW and fly to Adelaide (from Sydney). | was there in chart order and aa | boarded the vessel the gangway was raised (before | got off it], and the shig was stearning off!! The ho | replaced had broken his ankle and na AO had meant HO sailing, oo they were in a huery. ‘Onboard the Captain asked “what's your code like” | giggled at first, thinking surely, they had a standard C. The Captain's countenance thanged, and he sternly Said “the vecoe] ig WT and Nav Warnings arrive via Morse”. | found mysell saying with and all the Wx feigned confidence “It's been a while, but Ill werk it out”. The thack af the Ormiston VIIK— That beautiful receiver if an Apollo That evening | rummaged the radia office for a cassette recorder, in the hope of recording the Morse broadcasts. Alas none was to be found. My first trip to the bridge was most embarrassing. As | handed the 3" Mate the WX, he lagked perplemed and asked, “what is this!|!" | mumbled “the WL..bad static tonight". twas like an unsolvable crossword, written by a mad man, letters scattered amongst 4 sea of asterisks. The fellawing morning the captain came down. Eying me up and down he said, “pet me a radhpone to this number”. Nervous sweat appeared on my brow as | eyed my nemesis the conqueror HS transmitter bristling with 46 | needed this channel, but!) would dials and knobs. It wad already tuned to CHB 11, whith was need to request this channel on the mast fortuitous, S00kHe CW call frequency fram Sydney Radia [¥IS) first. Tuning up in front of the skipper would only further exer plity my intompetence!! Suddenly | eyed the emergency reserve transmitter. It had & handful af buttons and dial and & Morse key that stuck out the front and was idiot proof {ie., me proof}! it also needed te be tested! | jumped on the key and sent the necessary O codes which | miraculoudly remembered (OR) — Radphone channel please, OSY- change frq CH8L1 ete). Te my surprise Sydney radio answered with a ROGER {BRK) and CU More, eanie up there!!! The Captain seemed to be a bot more in, by pure will, | managed com pleted his eall and having seen me send and receive, at ease in my presence. The next time the WR to pet it ALL! (Whilst spewing intermittently and NAY warnings inte a néarby bucket due to deasickness). | got 2, 6-week stints an the MY ship the Kowulka (both ripped printouts of the WX precarioudly on 4 nearby Being the Ormiston and even got a short stint, during my leave on the sister bulk carriers]. On and NAY the latter | dlegt on & banana warnings off 4 hastily installed lounge first yourg radio officer, the crew had deen and fallen silent. in 4 while, | was made taken athere often to be bed astray One treasured memory for my watch Standard C satellite unit perched bench. The transmitters on thia ship had already if 4 drunken most welcome afternoon on the and was poop deck in Port Pirle, We were smoking seafood we had caught, in our homemade smoker, made by the engineers from an old oil drum. This what wad & Sweltering day. | started food was washed down by counthess liters of ice-cold beer on raczing the Chief Engineer about never filling the pool. | asked him why he couldn't just flit for me NOW? The Engineer said the harbor was filthy, due to the nearby lead amelters and all the heavy industry. | looked over the side and in my drunken state was net happy with this excuse. Alter much shB*& talking, he agreed ta fill the pool, an would swim, under penalty of death. As the pool started ta All the murky foam and give off the arama of a chemical waste dump in a third world the provise that | brown water started to country On completion of the fill, the Chief Engineer said, “OK Sparks time for ya swim !S, | rather timidly said “mot on 4 full shamach”, shortly after which | wad hoisted unceremaniously by the other lads and hurled inte the filth. Being a¢ Radio was now my job, line loner wanted te “play radio” in my spare time. Eventually | sald all my harm gear and that was that! 30 years later whilst in my second year of a fulltime Mechatronics Engineering Degree at UTS, | distevered Peter Parker's YouTube channel and the radia bug bit hard - again!!! The degree was duly jettisoned in favour of RADIO PLAY. | wad so very happy and surprised ta hear that OW prices. fm was still happening and was in awe of all the cool gear that could be had at such cheap 2 years a crack, a the back inte the hobby, and still pretty naff at CW, O50 is not a matter of life and death (like it once was for me] ORSS and tay with watch https: youtube WZTAN 73 de VEZAOE dit dit George but the main thing if to just give Comninas it 6 just for FUN! the video below for why | like to believe CW will MEVER DIE!!! bolad?aizrnKmEBN FNHRWMUB So it Great story - thanks George! So if you have something that might be of interest to our team, me know so we can share more thoughts and ideas; please let email to mark.bosma@icloud.com Brain Teaser How’s your memory? 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 Define and explain each of the units. This diagram shows the circuit of: e a full wave rectifier e a half wave rectifier e an oscillator e a detector : 240¥ 50Hz SIE A 120 Watt 21.1 MHz frequency shift keyed ona radioteletype transmitter has a BWN duty cycle of Which of the following modes (a) RTTY (bo) FM telephony (c) Slow Scan TV (d) Fast Scan TV How did you go? is considered to be a "Wideband emission": Answers next week. Answers from Draw the Ohms last week’s Quiz: law triangle and enter the units. V Answer: (velts) (amps) | (ohrns) The standing wave ratio (SWR) on a transmission line is related to the: e voltage at the ends of the antenna and the voltage at the feed point e e maximum voltage and the maximum current in the antenna power fed to the antenna and the power reflected back from the antenna ¢ maximum voltage and the maximum current in the transmission line Answer:power fed to the antenna and the power reflected back from the antenna If the voltage across a resistor is tripled the power dissipated is multiplied e oOo fBWN e by Answer:9 The maximum permitted power for a Standard station using FM telephony iS: (a) 10 watts pX (bo) 30 watts pY (c) 120 watts pY (d) 400 watts pX Answer: (b) 30 Watts pY How did you go? Tuesday’s CQ QRS Reminder. Net Teamwork Thank you so much to our outstanding team of 25 contributors this week! Thanks to: VK6DV, VK3CLD, VK2TER, VK3ACU, VK6KD, VK2NNW, VK3BAP, G4RWI, VK6HRC, VK6BEK, VK1TE, VK6PZT, VK3AE, VK5KFG, ZL4BDG, ZL3TK, Jack Child, VK6QS, VK2YBX, VKIPWE, VK3JFP and especially VK2AOE RagChew so interesting to the 145-odd -plus would VK5PL, VK1KVS, VK6MK, for our feature article. This is why the (perhaps be safer) subscribers. So back to the Slow CW QSO Next Tuesday’s practice net. Net Our CQ QRS Net will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0800z; see below for details. Doesn’t matter whether you're brand new and want to try just exchanging callsigns and RST reports, or you're ready for a good old rag chew. We'll have fun. dah-di-di-di-dah For those who | work on Tuesday night, please accept my apologies in advance for the pauses, repeated dah-di-di-di-dahs etc during our QSO, while | attempt to pick up and log callsigns that | hear on the SDRs and sending WhatsApp Alerts, etc. Reports Please let me know by email to our new address cqgrsnet@gmail.com who you work or hear on Tuesday’s net. The reports are important - because during the net, | can only attempt poorly to listen-in and log QSOs while having QSOs myself - so | really want your comments our RagChew newsletter interesting. RagChew each week to make Also send me anything for the newsletter that you think might be of interest to our group. And by the way, when you send reports material to me, please address it to cggrsnet@gmail.com email; depending rather than replying to the RagChew newsletter on your email application, sometimes what | get is either unreadable by my iMac Apple Mail application, or attachments don’t come through; if nothing else, any attachments would be right down the end of the looong email... and if | don’t happen to scroll all the way to the bottom, I'll miss your pearls of wisdom... and that’d be bad n’kay! Post Morsum And for those who are within earshot of an AllStar node, Richard VK6HRC will run our Post Morsum hotspots all over WA 0600 WA time. on the South West AllStar net (via repeaters and - but available anywhere in the world via AllStar) from If you’re in WA, all you need is an FM 2m or 70cm transceiver and an AllStar node nearby. If you’re elsewhere, you may be able to connect your local AllStar-enabled repeater to the net, or you can have a listen via Echolink. Let me know ( mark.bosma@icloud.com ) if | can help with that. CQ QRS WhatsApp We've now got a good Group bunch in our CQ QRS WhatsApp Community who have fun exchanging alerts and comments QRS stations on at other times. during the net, and also spot If you’re not already in the Group, I’d really like you to join in on the Group if possible. Please let Stuart VK6MK stujen55@gmail.com or me mark.bosma@icloud.com know your mobile phone number, and we'll add you to the group. €U CW on Tuesday, 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 QRS dah-dah dit! Net Here’s the details. Frequencies The team will be on again for our usual Tuesday arvo / evening QSO Net. CQ QRS will start at 0800z until about 1300z+. 1600 - 2100+ WA time, 1830 - 2330+ Practice This translates to SA Summer time and 1900 - 2400+ Eastern Summer time. e For the first three hours (0800z to about 1100z) we'll be on 40m from 7025kHz to 7040KHz. e For the last two hours (around 1100z to 13002), we'll be on 80m from 3540kHz to 3570KHz. So tune around and call anyone you hear, or find yourself a quiet spot in the designated segment and start calling CQ QRS at about 75% of the speed you're comfortable receiving at; send slower to their comfort level). hopefully responders will match (or If we’re on 40m and you can hear that the band is open outside Australasia, perhaps consider calling 500Hz above each 1kHz slot - to minimise the chance of having to copy our team through QRQ QRM Landing that’s often dead-on the 1 kHz markers. Zone If the band goes really quiet, call and listen on 7032kKHz or 3555kHz. catch someone, there’s no need to QSY - enjoy the frequency. forget to tune around If you But don’t if it’s quiet - we have lots of operators with crystal locked transmitters - and they could be anywhere within the segments. For those who are locked, or can only transmit outside the segments, send a message on our WhatsApp CQ QRS - Alerts group advising of your current frequency. Speed 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 not show how fast you can hammer the key. new and rusty 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; the longer we go with our net, the more | understand just how many non- transmitting listeners we have - and they will most likely appreciate your QRS! So, 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 how good is that? up on air to say g’day and thanks - 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. Matching And also for the old buggers like me, when you hear someone match their sending speed - or slower. new, please 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 letters that were right there half an hour ago, etc! PSE QRS And if someone is sending too fast to comfortably copy - “PSE RPT PSE QRS” or “AGN? 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, before replying. Whose frequency is this anyway? 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 most of us will have forgotten who was first! 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. CW Tips As always, for newbies, operating suggestions are available from the operating hints link here: https://www.parg.org.au/ files/ugd/ebe236_ 3ca5ca08bb38429db4eee524b da2f97a.pdf. There's usually people around until after 1300z - so keep calling until you catch someone. | should be on as usual from home in NSW and via the Remote at Bedfordale WA, and I'll also be watching the proceedings using the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW respectively. mb VK2KI / VK6QI 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) 2024 QRS Group Newsletter. CQ QRS. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your (GE q s preferences or unsubscribe \NTUIT mailchimp members.