Past

Issues

Translate

View this email in your browser

CQ QRS
What happened

Reporting

International
1-30

RagChew

last Tuesday, and a reminder for the next net.

on Tuesdays’
Morse

nets

Code

Day Month

- Chinese Whispers

event

Apr

160m?

e Traffic Net Protocols
e Website?
e VK7WW

Morse Training

e A Nice Junker Mobile
e Zener Diode
e

Net

Key

Blues

Reminder for 2Apr24

CQ QRS

Net

Did you have fun on last Tuesday’s CQ QRS QSO

practice net?

| know |

did... another huge night - see the spreadsheets below for the good news.
Very interesting conditions on 40m with ZL signals coming

into WA early in

the net, despite the band not being open to the somewhat

less-Eastern

States.
Last Tuesday’s
Here’s this week’s

Net
list of the 42 stations

heard:

RSS

26Mar24 CQ QRS Net
Total

active stations

this week

(note that this figure isn't correct because it adds duplicate lines)s

Total QSOs (note that this figure won't be correct - 00s may be counted twice or more)!
Black text - OSLed, Green text - heard but not worked,

Team Member | CQ]

QsO1

Blue text - incomplete G50 (not OSLed).

Qso2

aso3 |

aso4 |

asos | aso6 | aso7 | asos

VK3DBD
ZL1ALA

VK3DRQ
ZL2GD

VK3FG
ZL3TK

VK30U
JH2UNG |

VK3XU
VK5SGG
VKSIP
VKiDO | VK2COS | VK2I0/P

VKSKLE

VK3RU

VK4DRK

VK5C2Z

WA? AXT

ZLAPC/P

ZL2TK

VKSAO

VK6MK

VKSCZ

ZL3TK

VK3¥VMM |

WK3ACU

{insert CO.or Listening if no Q50s)

VK1HF
VKLIKVS 40m
VK1IKVS 40m cont
VKIPWE
VK1TE/m 40m
VK1ITE/m 40m cont

VK2DLF
VK7ZA

VK1ITE/m 40m cont

VK3ACU

VK3KL

VK1ITE/m 40m cont

VK6PZT

VK7KPC

Heard on net.
VKITE

VK3TBR

VK2KIJ

VK1WA 40m
VK1ZD)
VK2A0E
VK2BHO
VK2COS
VK2DLF 40m
VK2EBN
VK2GAZ 40m
VK2IK
VK2IOW som
VK2IOW 80m

201

VKSLA

VK6MK

|VK/G4RWI)

VK2DLF

VK7KPC

ZL3TK

Heard on net.

VK2KI 40m

VK3ACU

ZL4TE

VK2WP

ZL2GD

VK1ITE/m | VKIWA

VK2KI 40m cont

VK3TBR

VK2COS

VK/TA

VK3MY

VK6PZT

| VK3BYD |

VK2KI 40m cont

VK7ZA

VKSCZ

VK6MK

VK4DRK

VIK3KLE

2K2GD
VK4DRK

VKIWA
ZL3TK

VK3KLE | VK/G4RWI|

VK2COS

VK2KI

VK7KPC | VKSKFG

VK3TBR

VK2DLR |

VK2DLF |

VK3TBR

VK2KI

VK7KPC

ZLiPC

VK4MFX |

VK3KLE |

VK2COS

VE2KI

40m cont

VK2KI 30m
VK2NAP
VKINV

VK2NNW
VK2TER
VK2WEO
VK2WF
VK3ACU 40m
VK3ACU 40m cont
VK3ACU som
VK3ADX
VK3AE
VK3BAP
VK3BAP cont
VK3BTV
VK3BU
VK3BYD

VK3CLD/p
VK3DBD
VK3DPH

VK3FG 40m

VK6PZT
Heard on net.
VKLTE

VK3SACU

VK1IWA

VK3KLE

ZL3TK

VK2WWF

VK3TBR

VK2DLU

VKSCZ
VK2RH

VK4DRK

VK3TBR

VK3ACU

VK6VZ
ZL2GD
Heard on net.

VKSCZ
VK3KLE

AND
VK2DLF

VK210/P

VK4DRK 4om
VK4DRK 80m
VK4JM
VK4MFX
VK6TX/4

VK3KLE
VK2KI

VK3ACU
VK3KLE

VKSKFG

ZL3TK

VK4/G4RWI

VK2KI

VK1DO

VK3ACU

VK2COS

VK3FG

40m cont

VK3KLE 40m
VK3KLE 80m
VK3KO
VK3MJ
VK3RU
VK3TBR
VK3VMM
VK3WOW

VKSCZ

VKSCT
VKSCZ 40m

VKSPH

VKSCZ 40m cont

VK3KLE

VKSIP

ZL2GD

VKSFA

VK4MFX |

VK3RU | VKSKFG | VK2DLF

VKSCZ 80m

VKSET
VKSFA

Heard on net.

VK5FD
VKS5HAA 80m

|
|

VKSIP

Heard on net.

VKSKFG

Heard on net.

VKSLA 40m

Heard on net.

VKSPH 40m
VK5PL

Heard on net.

VK6AAV

VK6KHZ

VK6MK

VKS5SC?

VK7FA

VKSKLE

VK7FA

VK6BEK 4om

VK6IS

VK6MK

VWK6VZ

VKSCZ

VK3ACU

VK6HD

VK6BEK 80m
VK6CK
VK6DEV
VK6DV

VKGIDM

VK6IS

VK7TA

VK2DLF | VK6BEK

VK5CZ

VK6KHZ

VK6AAV

VK1DO

VK6FN

Heard on net.

VK6GAL
VK6HD 40m
VK6HRC 4am
VK6HRC sam
VK6IR
VKGIS 40m
VK6IS som
VK6JDM som
VK6JK
VK6KD 4om

VK6Q!

VK6MK

VK6lIS

VK6BEK

VK6MK
VK6WE
VK6BEK

VK6BEK
VK6PZT
VK6IS

VK6DEV

VK6KD

VK6WE

VK6BEK

VKBJDM

Heard on net.

VK6KD 80m

VK6MK

VK6KHZ 4am

Heard on net.

VK6KQ
VK6LD
VK6MK 40m

VK6IS

VKGAAV

VK6FN

VK6HD

VK6MK

VK7ZA

VK3SACU

VKVKPC

VK6KHZ

VK6KD

VK6PZT

VK3ACU

40m

VK6MK 40m
VK6MK 20m
VK6MU
VK6NC
VK6NT
VK6ENW som

VK6PZT 40m
VK6PZT 80m

Heard on net.

VK6QI 40m

VK6MK

VK6HD

ZL2GD

VK6QI 40m cont

Z£L3TK

VK6BEK

VK4DRK

VK6QI som

VK6MK

VK6P2ZT

VK6KD

VK6IS
VK6KD

VK6KD

VK7 WW
VK7WW cont
VK7KPC/p som

VK3KLE

VK3ACU

VK6PZT

VK2KI

VK7TA

VK6MK

VK3MJ

VKSAO

VK2DLF

VK7ZA

ZL2GD

ZL3TK

VK3MJ

VKILTE

ZLLAJY
ZLIANY
ZL1HJ
ZL2GD 4am

ZLATE

VK3ACU

VKLTE

VKLIWA

ZL2EF

VK3TBR | VK3DRQ |

2ZL3TK

ZL2GD 40m cont

ZL1PC

VKSCZ

VK7ZA

VK4YD

VK2D5L

VK2DLF

VKSAO

VK6TY
VK6XU
VK6VZ 40m
VK6WE 4om
VK6WE gom
VK6YV

VK6IS

VK4ADRK

VK3TBR

ZL2GD 40m cont

VKSC?

VKSIP

VK7KPC

VK7TA

VK6BMK

ZL3TK som

VK1DO

VKLTE

VK2DAZ

VK3ACU

ZL2GD

ZL3TK 40m cont

VK3TBR

VK4DRK

| VK/G4RWI

£L1PC

ZL4BDG
ZLATE

ZL2GD

VK2WP

VK3ACU

VK2KI

VK3TBR

VK3KLE | VK2COS | VK2DLF

The spreadsheet is missing one member - VK5AYL who was listening in;
sorry Sue | missed your email when

compiling the spreadsheet.

Reports
A reminder - please send me a list of who you worked and / or who you
heard using our you-beaut web form
https://forms.gle/KWNZovWvtemLkdS69
To get the information into next week’s RagChew,
report via the form

by lunch-time

please submit your

on Thursday

after which time the

form will be turned off and won’t accept any new reports for the week.

Getting reports from stations and listeners is important to me - even if you
listened and didn’t hear anyone or weren’t able to copy anything - the fact
that you had a go needs to be recorded so we know that the net is working
and attracting new and old team

members to have a go.

And apologies to Adam VK2NNW

who emailed me his report last week,

somehow

| missed;

ditto for the others who missed the cut.

but

The new

system should overcome such problems... as long as the responses are
sent by lunch-time Thursday.
And I've had positive feedback from most people who have used the form to a tee, the response has been that the form is easier than
Thanks again to Nigel G4RWI for building the Google Form and the Python
software back-end that does the processing.
International

Morse

Code

Day

Events

See below for our Chinese Whispers event being held between April 1st and
April 30th, and the return of the riotous IMCD Quiz on Saturday April 27th.

New

Team

Members

Grant ZL2GD

at Oxford who was very active on the last two weeks’

joined the group - welcome

Grant. Wayne VK6NW

nets has

from Bridgetown who |

caught the previous week with a nice signal into VK2 on 80m

has also

joined the team, and has been providing our WA team with QRS
opportunities since then.

Sue VK5AYL at Goolwa was referred
to the Group by Paul VK5PH;

Sue is

Car

well known for her outstanding

PARES GTEAKS

ParksnPeaks

iPhone app which | use

for SOTA and VKFF Parks - Spots and

—

Alerts, maps and logging all in the
one smooth

package!.

Masthead

Image

And thanks this week to Lance VK7ZA for the nice Tuesday evening

photo...

looks like the cover had to come off to cool the key down!
Cheers,
mb

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW
mark.bosma@icloud.com

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s
The spreadsheets above show the Known
Comments

reports.

stations on last Tuesday’s net.

distilled from the reports I’ve received are below:

Comments:

From

Pete ZL4TE

at Cambridge:

o Apart from my massive false start, condx seemed

to improve.

[Great to hear our net is so popular that you started an hour early Pete!
Glad you had fun].

From
©

Martin VK3FG

at Mt Waverley:

Focus is on my Rx currently.

o Very enjoyable to hear so many
different Ops.

From

Grant

ZL2GD

at Oxford:

Heard

Peter VK7KPC

on his 5

Watts a good strength 6 here
this evening.
e Where are the VK8s hiding?
e

Had a

listen on 80 at 10.00 UTC

but nothing heard.
e Another great night on the key;
thanks guys.
[Thanks Grant AND

WELCOME.

Good question about VK&S;

we’re slowly

building numbers in VK4 at last... does anyone know of any VK&s who are
interested in CW?]

From

Peter VK7KPC

at Evandale:

e This week | ran 5 W in to an
end-fed

MFJ198

MP about 6m

above the ground.

[| think there’s something in the water down there Peter - amazing signals
seem to come out of Tassie on Tuesday nights].
e

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach:
o Grand to hear everyone's confidence building week-by-week and
QSOs
©

now extending way beyond

Everything

rig, QTH and ant.

is in place for a very successful Chinese Whisper

event to celebrate our International Morse Code Day month
April I'd say.

From

Derek VK4DRK

at Wyreema:

o The conditions on 40m

seemed

pretty good on Tuesday.

Paul VK3KLE was using a vintage crystal rig, which made the QSO
with him quite remarkable for me.

was running less than half my power, but we

didn't
have any problems whatsoever.
©

So, | enjoyed the net on 40m, and will try to join it more often.

| called CQ on 80m for a while, up and down the band, and Mark
VK2KI
came back.
about

We eventually had a successful QSO, that lasted

30 minutes.
© And, the good thing about a wire antenna

in a tree is

that the antenna slowly gets higher above the ground!
[Welcome and great to chat with you on 80m on Tuesday Derek;
much

had the tree grown

in 30 minutes?].

From

at Australind:

Stuart

VK6MK

how

e Great Rag Chew 30 mins + with
VK7TA lan.
e

Included comparisons of his two
antennas all on CW.

Great fun.

Rag chewing does fuzz the
brain after a while but at least
now, QSOs seem to be going
longer each time before the
brain says "enough"

e 40m

is rocking and 80m

seems

to have taken a back seat.

Not

an issue just an observation.

Is 15m worth considering for a quick 30mins
prior to usual kick off just to get some
earlier?

From Jordan

On second thoughts,

VK3ACU

° After not much

East-West happening

might be too late for 15m.

at Meredith:

sleep

on Monday night | was surprised | made as

many contacts as | did.
©

Having said that | had a great night!

Stan ZL3TK was my last contact for the night;

by that stage my

brain was fried but what a ripping QSO! Thanks Stan | bet you
could tell at times | was tired.
©

| will have to re-read last weeks news letter about our Chinese
Whispers event.

° Thanks all

From

lan VK7TA

at Latrobe:

| started bit late on Tuesday.

Not many QSOs,

Nice to have good sigs from VK6 - TU Stu.

From
©

Daniel VK6WE

but they were all long ones.

at Cottesloe:

Good signals early with several stations active.

| tried using a Kent paddle with my Icom 7300 without help from
a decoder.

o This brings stress levels higher and more errors were made!

Fortunately did make one 40 m
QSO with Peter VKO6IS at
Wundowile before having to go.
| did return much
succeeded

later and

with another contact

on 80 m with David VK6KD

Ballajura.

Signals were weaker on 80 m; | only found VK6KD

strong enough

to copy.

From Garry VK2GAZ
o

at Hobartville:

My contacts for this evening where: Joe VK2KJJ, Stan ZL3TK and
Michael VK3VMM

Band seemed

Many thanks to Stan ZL3TK for hanging-in there to complete our
QSO - | chased

very busy early on, nice to make a few contacts.
him around

7.033, 7.035 and finally on 7.030.

From Peter VKG6IS at Wundowie:
o The 40m

band does get fairly noisy after 1800 WST.

[Interesting about the noise level Peter.... sounds

to me

like a TV, phone

Charger or similar that gets turned on at 6om/.

From Tim VK3TBR
©

at Horsham:

So good to be back after a few weeks absence while away for
work!

°o Only a few QSOs this week, but the ones | had were nice lengthy
ones.

| loved hearing George has
been at the key for 33 years,
how cool is
that? What's even cooler, is
that he now has so many great
people to talk
to on CW

in 2024.

e Well done everyone, see you
next week.

From Paul VK3KLE
o

at Stawell:

Excellent conditions that continued till we all were pumpkins!

°o 80m was very noisy, we did a lot better on 40m.
o
o

Heading

into winter we will get more use from 80m.

Hope we can claim some
all) are advanced

calls;

160m too. A lot of our members

(but not

there are some squid-poles that could be

converted to inverted L antennas for 160m.
and we must use it to keep it.

It’s our historic band

See

about this in Other

Regards Paul Vk3kle.

News

below

[I'd really love to get something going on 160m - wouldn't

it be great to

hear a band full of QRS signals, just like we’re getting on 40 and 80m?
Perhaps one of our team would be interested in hosting a regular CQ QRS
net on 160m on Thursday or Saturday nights perhaps?

Very easy to do -

perhaps just put an announcement our on our WhatsApp group and see
what grows from there?]

From

Nigel VK/G4RWI

at the Gold Coast Hinterland:

The most challenging /P location yet.

Arrived at the Currumbin Valley camping

Quite a challenge getting the EFHW out in a way where it

area in torrential rain.

wouldn't touch any wet trees.
The location was surrounded

by rock, but clearly NVIS came to

my aid, and | could hear plenty.

From
°

lan VK5CZ

at Clare:

Thanks - great QRS net agn.

From

David

VK3RU

at Burwood:

Made 3 on 40 on Tuesday.

Thanks all.

From
°

Claude

VK1TE/m

at Pearce:

This time | worked /m static on 40m from my Faraday cage
driveway.

It was more difficult than when
gave some

| operate in the 'open' but still,

results with the little FT-857D and its ATAS-120A

antenna.
°

The last two fish | heard were Mark VK2KI and Derek VK4DRK on
80m on the TECSUN

From
°

SDR, which is when

| decided to QRT.

It was a bit different than usual and fun.

Lance

VK7ZA

at Margate:

| had an enjoyable evening,

bookended with a strong signal from

ZL2GD to kick proceedings off, and a very deep QSB effected the
circuit from VKITE which signalled the end of the evening for me.
The middle two contacts however were a real highlight with two
leisurely chats.

First ZL3TK, for about twenty five minutes, then

VK3MJ at roughly fifteen minutes long.
I'm regularly working on improving

my copying speed and

accuracy, so always feel like I'm not where | want to be, skill
wise.

It was a nice moment then when

and realised now far I'd come.

| caught myself mid QSO

My original CW goal was

SOTA/Park activations, with my stretch goal rag chewing; tick and
tick.

It's all still early days, but it was a pleasing moment to

recognise progress made.
For those | contacted,

here's a picture of the key | was using.

Whilst | use paddles for faster contacts, employing

my Junker

straight key during QRS contacts allows me to easily change

speed to match

my partner, with a secondary benefit of limiting

me to 16 wom.

It's also good

practice to keep my fist in shape.

73 Lance, VK7ZA

[Lance’s key photo has pride of place at the masthead of this week’s
newsletter;

thanks Lance.]

From

VK6QI

via the VK6QS

KiwiSDR

at Brookton

and

the Southern

Electronics Group Remote at Bedfordale:
°o Listening on the VK6QS

SDR was interesting especially earlier in

the
evening when the ZLs were pounding

into WA, yet signals from

the
(nearer - HI!) Eastern States were weak or non-existent.
© Grant ZL2GD

in particular was bending the S-waterfall with his

Inverted-Vee antenna

up 20m;

I'm guessing two-hop F-layer

propagation from ZL to VK6, but either the ionisation wasn't
strong enough

or it was so

strong that the ALF hadn't fallen enough for propagation from
Easterners.
o

Nice to hear a good

number of Sandgropers on 40m.

o At one stage | cranked-up the VK6SR Southern Electronics Group
Remote

and had all sorts of trouble with the automatic coupler -

the SWR was changing from 1.7:1 to 1:1...(a known
the Remote)

problem with

and signals were very weak (not a known

problem).

Rob VK6LD who hosts the Remote was testing the SEG's new
KiwiSDR before it gets moved

to Hoddywell,

and | suspect that

he'd put a temporary antenna on the Remote

instead of the huge

Marconi-Tee - sounded to me like he had plugged a multimeter
probe into the Remote's automatic coupler!
° Anyway,

whatever the antenna was, | did manage to catch up

with Geoff VK6HD

with his stealth portable set up in his back yard

- no antennas allowed where his home

is... not even of any kind.

Good to hear Geoff having some success on the night, returning
to CW after some time in the phone-only wilderness (Geoff in his
previous maritime life learned Morse
Code as light signals... must be quite a challenge to convert to
sound... | wonder if his brain does a sound-to-light conversion?
Must have a pretty fast processor).
°o As usual, | was fairly late getting to 80m... too much fun to be had
on 40m!
© Great to hear Derek VK4DRK coming

into WA on 80 - it's been

a while since I've heard any Queenslanders on 80m

e Also from me VK2KI

in WA.

at Beautiful South Bowning:

e Great to see the waterfall
display of the Tecsun

KiwiSDR

at Araluen
NSW

busy with signals in our

segment of 40m

on Tuesday.

And really interesting to watch the same display on the VK6QS
KiwiSDR in WA - the ZLS were pounding

into WA early in the net,

but us less-Easterners were either marginal, or not visible.
° The Big Effort award goes to our RagChew
VK/G4RWI,

who had driven his mobile home

software man

Nigel

up the dreaded

Pacific highway from Sydney to a very wet and hidden valley in

the Gold Coast hinterland on Tuesday.

Over 1100km...

in a truck

with its shell on its back.
o Yet Nigel and Jo still managed

to get an antenna

up and get on air

for the net - thumbsup!
© Also good to hear that the band finally opened
WA later in the evening.

Jordan VK3ACU

up from here to

at Meredith and Derek

VK4DRK at
Wyreema

were putting very solid signals into WA at around

1030z.

| was pleased to contribute to
the vertical vs horizontal
antenna

experiments of Richard VK6PZT
at Dalyellup as well.

Above:

Richard’s healthy dinner

going on on 40.

Derek VK4DRK up at Wyreema,

Paul VK3KLE

at Stawell and | had

some fun trying to work each-other late in the evening on 80m.
Paul was working another VK2 that | couldn't hear, while | was
trying to work Derek,
who Paul couldn't hear... but for a while, we all didn't know who
was
trying to work whom.

Confusion reigned until | worked

Paul then

sent
"DRK UP 1"

(I think) which Derek heard as 'DN 1' - luckily | was

also
watching on the TecSun

SDR and could see him calling me on the

lower
frequency, so we left Paul to catch the other station.
© Good thing we're all mates on this net... with so much

spectrum

available, we still all seem to land on the same frequencies!
o Thanks to everyone who was on or listening - great fun!

International Morse Code Day /
Month
Join the Celebration
In previous years, we've celebrated

International Morse Code day with a

Quiz hosted my Mister Morse Code himself, Richard VK6PZT via Zoom
videoconference.

In addition, we’ve run the International Morse Code Day

Corroboree, an on-air QRS event held close to IMCD.

Well this year, we're

doing two things for your entertainment - the popular and definitely fun not
serious Quiz will be held on the Saturday once again.

And instead of a one-

day on-air Corroboree event, Stan ZL3TK Is running a fun and challenging
Chinese Whispers event for us over the whole month of April.

Celebrate

International

Morse

Code

Day - Saturday

April 27th
Hosted

by Quizmaster Richard VK6PZT

cole.
International

Morse

Code

Day

Quiz

™

0845z April 27, 2024

Chinese

Whispers

- International

Month

Event

Hosted
IMCD X

we |
Morse

Code

Day

1 - 30 April

by Stan ZL3TK

Chinese Whispers

Month

To celebrate International Morse Code Day (IMCD) this year,
provide an opportunity to hone your CW skills,

as well as to

we will be running a

Chinese Whispers project from 1 April, ending 30th or earlier if the exercise
is completed

and we’re out of new stock.

Don’t worry, this is not a contest,

there are no winners per se, yet all are winners from the experience to be
gained.
Our Chinese Whispers works like this:
e Twenty-six, single-sentence Whispers have been prepared and are
ready to be sent to willing volunteer recipients.
e When

a Whisper has been received, it needs to be passed on to one

(and only one) other station via QRS CW.
e

Each Whisper has been assigned a name

in the range CWA

~ CWZ

followed by the digit 1 in the first instance.
e That digit is incremented as the Chinese Whisper is on-sent five more
times,

eg CWA1

becomes CWA2,

which becomes CWA3.... until it’s

passed around four times and produces CWAS.
e The recipient of CWAS is the end of the line for that Whisper.
she sends the received text by email to
the subject line CWA5

completed

He or

zi3tk.radio@gmail.com

(or CWB5,

CWC5

with

etc as appropriate).

e The resulting message will be compared with the original and the
results will be published

in RagChew.

Hopefully some

may be quite

amusing.
e And don’t worry, the identity of the stations along the path won't be
known to the organisers... we’ll Know only the identity of the first and
last stations in the chain.
e

Exchanges won't be limited to the Tuesday net - as long as they’re
passed

by QRS CW during the month

of April, we'll be happy.

The whole Whisper send and receive procedure can be conducted
language,

in plain

however for those wanting to extend their skills by employing

efficient traffic-net-style exchange,
e This Whisper-passing

here’s one suggested

protocol.

protocol is very gentle... no pressure.

e This is also an opportunity to use RSN (as an alternative to RST) if
you'd like to clearly indicate your reception conditions to the other op
so they can decide how best to send the Whisper... soeed, Farnsworth,
repeats, etc.
e Let’s say conditions are pretty poor but you’d like to proceed anyway.
e The sending station could send ‘QRV CWSPR? BK’ (ie are you ready to
receive a Chinese Whisper?).
e Affirmative response:

Acceptance could be in the form of a signal

report followed by QRV BK (eg
readable, | am
break)).

‘RSN432

QRV BK’ (your signal is mostly

ready to give it a go, break) or simple: ‘R BK’ (Roger -

One way to give yourself a better chance to receive as much

as possible in one go is to send

PSE QSZ,

meaning

‘Please send each

word twice’.
e

Negative response:

The other side of the coin is to decline.

send: ‘NO TKS

BK’,

‘QRX 15 MINS

Simply

BK’ (call me again in 15

minutes) or simply ‘N TU’ (negative - thank you).
e

So let’s say the receiving station is good to go.
sends:

[callsigns if needed] then ‘CWG3 -’ followed by the text of the

Whisper then

‘QSL?

BK’.

If the receiving station misses a word, they could send ‘PSE RPT
WORDS

The sending station

3 ES 7 - WORDS

3 ES 7?’

If the receiving station has enough words to fill in the blanks, they
could send ‘QSL ALL - TU BK’ or similar.

So it’s a fun thing to try through April in celebration of International Morse
Code Day.

Remember:

e A station can only pass a
particular Whisper to one other
station, regardless of its serial
number. So if someone offers
you CWTS3, but you’ve
previously sent the same
message to someone

else (eg

as CWT1), you'll need to
decline - eg ‘SRI NO - | SENT
CWT1

BEFORE’

e There is no restriction on the
number of Whispers any one
station can pass to another if
they have them

ready to go.

To keep track of the Whisper
messages you’ve handled during
April, you could use a spreadsheet
like this one.
If you'd like to be the first in the queue to receive a Whisper with serial
number

please email zi3tk.radio@gmail.com with the subject line

‘Chinese Whisper Volunteer’.

Stan will also send you the spreadsheet in

case you want to use it to keep track.

And once you’ve passed the

message on, you can ask Stan for another one to keep the ball rolling.
So who will be the first to exchange a CWSPR
2nd QRS event and the rest of the month?
Alerts to advertise:

on April 1st then the Tuesday

You could use the WhatsApp

‘CQ 7030 - | have a CWSPR

7030 - anyone have a IMCD CWSPR

message to send’ or ‘CQ

message to pass?’.

Keep an eye on next week’s RagChew - there may be updates to the
guidelines.

Veeko

Vijay knows

wonders

three Hindus

what to do

VKTHDU

The set of guidelines above may look complicated,
email to Stan who issues you with a phrase.
else via QRS CW.

but the event is simple:

Pass that phrase to someone

That person changes the serial number from 1 to 2 and

passes it to someone

else.

station emails it to Stan.

When

it gets to serial number 5, the receiving

Easy!

Thanks Stan for the huge amount of work in coming

up with this great fun

event to help celebrate 1-30 April for International Morse Code Day.
Richard VK6PZT and | had envisaged something
got too hard - yet Stan has cracked

it!

Other
Other things
From

Grant ZL2GD

I’ve received

like this last year, but it

Well done mate!

News
from

our 155-odd

readers.

at Oxford:

Just a quick note to say thanks for newsletter.

Many thanks and | look

forward to catching up with on the Net soon.
73, Grant
ZL2GD
[Thanks Grant, and welcome.

Great job on this and the previous Tuesdays’

nets. ]
160m
From

Paul VK3KLE

at Stawell

Hi mark I’ve sent my log on the form. Easy to use your a gem.
I've suggested coming

into winter we use 160m too. It’s very under-used

now and preforms really well.

It even has dx openings into USA at times.

An 8m squid pole with 4 x 10m

radials and a top L wire will fit any tiny back

yard.

Shunt cap required at base to tune it ( hv rf capacitor door knob etc ). If an
op can make a 40m

squid then it’s just a mod to get it on 160m.

Gee you could use a tree and some screw eyes and wire and make that
short 160m vertical. Essentially top hat and bottom

hat required - the

vertical part is the radiator.
[Thanks Paul - food for thought.

As | said above, it’d be great to expand the

net to 160m - perhaps on a Thursday or Saturday evening?

Any takers to

get it going?]
Super Slow QRS

Opportunities

From Jordan VK3ACU
If anyone

is reading and would

like to have a super slow speed contact or

maybe a first-ever contact but is nervous about getting on the air, please
let me know via WhatsApp. I’ld be very pleased to go as slow as you need.
Carrington-Level

Solar Flare Possibility

Over the next 10 years, there's a 12% chance that a "Carrington
Level" Coronal Mass Ejection or solar flare will impact the earth directly.
For much

of the world, the geomagnetic effect would damage

equipment and shut down the supply of electricity for weeks,
years. First-world nations' dependence

electrical
months, or

on electricity (for food, fuel,

communications, finance, etc.) is now critical.

The indirect fatality rates in

some of those nations from such a flare are expected to exceed those of an
all-out nuclear war.
Space weather specialists are as concerned for our future
as epidemiologists have been (and remain) regarding epidemics.
a matter of when,

It is

not if. Yet most government agencies are

strangely silent on the subject.

But for nearly every disaster (no matter

how massive) there have been pockets of survivors -- through sheer luck,
or by determined

preparedness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_
Event
Traffic
From

Net

Stan

Protocols
ZL3TK

Our Chinese Whispers event for the International Morse Code Day month
April will hopefully raise questions about traffic handling among

out team.

I'll be talking more about the art of CW traffic handling in future RagChews.
But to kick it off, let’s talk about how ow to choose between two options:
plain language and traffic net format?
For an event like our Chinese Whispers,
to dominate.

When

let's be realistic:

the first is likely

the second option is chosen, then it needs to be done

correctly to avoid forming
degrade its efficacy.

bad habits which in the future will inevitably

In anascent QSO,

the two stations may silently

evaluate each other's capability, then decide which option is more
appropriate.
Try this for an idea:
because [say]

When

something

after being trounced

by poor signal conditions.

station sends ‘PSE RPT IN PL’
brevity's sake,

has been missed or not understood

a Q-code was sent, (as opposed to the usual ‘AGN?’ request)

‘PL?’.

How about the affected

(please repeat in plain language)

or for

To assist folks to find an answer to the question,
format worth using?'

‘Is the international traffic

Here are comparative charts to consider:

Option 1:

Plain Language Format

Pros

Cons

No training required

Option 2:

Verbose
Time Consuming
Subject to misunderstandings
Vulnerable to poor conditions

Traffic Net Format

Pros

Cons

Fast and concise
No misunderstanding
Simple suffix to assign values
Robust under poor conditions

Self-training required

[Thanks Stan - I’m looking forward to the Chinese

Whispers event, and I’m

hoping it'll spark some more interest in handling traffic via CW.

People

interested in more can also contact Stan direct z|3tk.radio@qmail.com /.
Post Morseum
from

Richard

Report

VK6HRC

| missed out on the QRS net on Tuesday night but caught up with what took
place on Wednesday
long day for me.

morning's AllStar get-together.

Tuesday was a rather

| missed the net but checked WhatsApp /email/news etc

when

| got in.

24/7.

| also saw the News flash regarding the ship colliding with the bridge

Good to see WhatsApp

in the USA - amazing
On Wednesday

keeping everyone in the loop almost

but disturbing view from a well-placed camera.

morning’s Post Morseum:

e VK6FN
VK6KD/m
VK6QI
VK6HRC

and

our shortwave

listeners.

Happy to hear that band conditions had improved and ZL stations were
making

it into WA, thanks for the info Mark.

Looking forward to next week
Cheers
Richard
73
Richard
[Thanks for running

the Post Morseum

callback on the South

West Al/Star

network Richard - much appreciated].
From

our new Team

member,

Sue VKS5AYL at Goolwa:

Hey Mark, | did hear quite a few on Tuesday but although

| know what VK

sounds like, | couldn’t work out the rest of their calls. | was listening for
VK210 this morning,
When

he was in a park.

| got my novice licence with 5wpm,

| ramped

up study for the full call

and used to listen to slow morse on 80m
wpm

but | think | was learning 15 wom

the exam
exam

most nights. | was trying for 10
which was too fast to read at 10 for

and | failed the morse. Fortunately | passed the theory. The next

| had a Clipsal and PMG

key of old but just have to find them.

| think we

have one which Richard cleaned up for me. | used to use the Clipsal one in
the 70/80s | think.
Please add me to the WhatsApp

Group, I'll enjoy the conversations and the

newsletter. Thank you for starting this group, sounds like it is very popular,
who would

have thought, all those years when

people wanted

Morse gone

from the exams.
Many thanks
Sue
[Thanks Sue.

| used SOTA and Parks activations to come back up to speed

on CW - it's a good way

to do it.... and I'm sure you'll have fun.

Allen has

an SMS alert thing on parksnpeaks.org which sends an SMS for CW Spots which works a treat.

Hope you find your keys.

Yes, I'm astounded at how

popular the net is a week have 155+ people subscribed to the newsletter!
When | finally passed the CW in the early 70s, | vowed to never use it
again!
CQ

Now | just love the slow stuff!]

QRS

From

Website

Stan

ZL3TK:

On several occasions lately when

I've been doing a sales pitch for QRS, a

question has been asked: 'Where's their website?'

The hidden message

that question is, ‘I'll read about but don't want to hear about it’.
Mark indicated that he hasn’t had time to build a website, but let's ask the
question, how many prospects are either lost or never being found due to
the lack of at least a one-page website?
Forgive me for giving it a go, making a start, whatever.
qsl.net website for the Chinese Whispers event.

I’ve started a basic

New directories can be

configured at any time for CQ QRS should you want to publish promotional
material.

Else we simply forget it. A shortened

configured at any time for a useful site
short-term page.
73

bit.ly

URL could be

but has not been configured for the

de Stan

[Thanks Stan.

You're correct of course,

we need a website.... but there’s

not enough hours in the day for me to get a website going at the moment.
Stuart VK6MK was also going to have a chat to the Bunbury Radio Club
about tagging on to their site as well.

So if anyone would like to put up

their hand to help create something for the CQ QRS Slow CW Practice QSO
net, please let me know;
Morse Training
Nic VK7WW

even (gulp) a Facebook page would be a start].

Net

runs a Slow Morse training net every Wednesday at 7pm

EDST

on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign of the Northern Tasmania
Amateur Radio Club VK7TAZ on that net.

Many of our team

learned Morse

code with the support of Nic, and the weekly training session comes highly
recommended

for anyone who wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up.

Everyone’s welcome - 3580kKHz at 7pm

Eastern time every Wednesday.

Community

Radio

Many readers know already that | do a stint as a volunteer presenter on the
local Community

radio station, YassFM

We usually have a number of the CQ
QRS team
4pm

Mark Bosma
SMS: 0418161773
Phccrilinia ais Wasa TN:

listening-in via the Live

:
Stream on the internet.

on Friday afternoons NSW time.

1pm until:

Vineyard Selection - Frid
1
ho 4
NSW ti
Grthed-FidadinetsonNeiine
Live Stream:

NSW time | have a guest, my

mate Dennis who has a Vineyard in

vweww.yassim.ong

ote

ass 1m100

Yass is a great classical music fan -

Yass iil

3
r

and he brings his music to
Share from 1pm

until 49m.

And from 4pm

until 59m,

| do the Your Shed

program - things of interest to local rural businesses primarily.
To listen, www.yasstm.org

and click on Listen Live.

Send me an SMS to say

g’day If you’re listening In.

This Week’s

Topic of Interest

Junker Mobile

Keys

by Kees VK1KVS
The Junker type M.T. key fitted to a leg-clip and intended for mobile use is
known

as the Junker M.T.1.

Since Germany was not allowed to produce military-related equipment until
it joined NATO

in 1955, it seems

likely that the inspiration for this type of

mobile key came from the US Signal Corps J-37/J-45/J-47 key and leg-clip
combinations.

The key is mounted

on a Pertinax base that slides into the brackets of the

leg-clip (Pertinax is a composite material made of paper impregnated with
a plasticised phenol formaldehyde
between

resin). The one on the right dates

1955 and 1978 and still has the ball-bearing and spring-loaded

click-stop gap-adjustment mechanism.
The red eagle-shaped

inspection stamp in the lower-left corner of the key

has the lettering ‘BMVtdg’, which stands for ‘Bundesministeriumder

Verteidigung’ or ‘State Defence Department’, and the inspector’s number 117.
The key on the left is post-1978, which is the earliest date | have found for
the new rubber ‘O’-ring gap adjustment mechanism.

It also has plastic

binding posts as compared to the earlier brass/nickel plated ones. It may be
assumed

that these changes were intended to save on production costs

and somewhat similar cost-saving measures can be observed with the
regular JunkerM.T.

Morse key commencing

at the same time.

The Bakelite sub-base of these mobile M.T.1 keys has narrower dimensions
than the ‘standard’ Junker M.T. key, 53mm

x 97mm

versus 72mm

x 97mm

respectively. Even so, it still provides sufficient room for the inclusion of RFI
electronics. No documentation

survives that provides more specific

information about the development of this key or its changes over time.
Much of the Junker archives were lost during the 1993 river Rhine flood
which inundated the basement of the Junker factory at Bad Honnef where
the company’s documentation

was stored. The Junker company and factory

in Bad Honnef went into liquidation in November 2014, but by this stage,
manufacture of these mobile keys would already have ceased, coinciding
with the gradual phasing out of Morse/CW

by European

armed forces in

favour of Voice/SSB during the 1980s and 1990s.
Note: Junker is pronounced

‘Yoonker’;

junk they

are definitely not!

Kees van der Spek
VK1KVS

Thank you Kees - excellent article, created seemingly instantly when |
asked about another article for RagChew!
Articles like this are always very welcome - please let me know if you have
something

of interest, so we can share more thoughts and ideas;

to cggrsnet@gmail.com

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

With thanks to Baz VK6MU

for he idea, and Jules for the good

learning

website, here’s this week’s quiz questions from Jules’ Workshop example
test questions:

How is the value of a resistor displayed?
For a moving coil meter to measure
components would

resistance which additional

have to be used?

battery and diode
e

resistor and capacitor

capacitor and battery
battery and resistor

Filter capacitors in power supplies are sometimes connected
e

resonate the filter circuit

e
e

increase the total capacity
reduce the ripple voltage further

in series to:

e withstand a greater voltage than a single capacitor
An amateur station may be closed down

by an ACMA officer when:

(a) Interference is caused due to faults in the amateur station
(bo) A planning permit has not been obtained for antenna structures
(c) No accurate means of measuring transmitter power is available at the
amateur station
(d) A low pass filter fitted to the output of the transmitter overcomes
overload of nearby equipment
How did you go?

Answers

from

Answers

next week.

last week’s

Quiz:

Resistors and other items are given a power rating. What unit is power
measured

in?

Answer:

Watts

Operation of the Receiver Increment Tuning (clarifier) control in a SSB
transceiver:
e

increases the selectivity of the receiver

adjusts the receiver gain in small steps

e varies the sensitivity of the receiver
e

provides a small variation of receiver tuning

Answer:

provides a small variation of receiver tuning.

A semiconductor

has:

e very high resistance

high conductivity

less conductivity than an insulator

greater conductivity than an insulator

Answer:greater conductivity than an insulator
The possession of an amateur licence for an Advanced

station does not

authorise the licensee to:
(a) Communicate with overseas radio amateurs
(b) Pass third party messages during emergencies
(c) Claim

immunity from

(d) Communicate
Answer:(c)

interference

with Foundation

licensees

Claim immunity from interference

How did you go?

'
And

who

picked

last week’s solutions?

The zener diode in this diagram:

mistake

Thanks to

is forward biased

bts

Stan ZL3TK for providing this gentle

* has positive voltage applied to its

anode

« is not conducting

Answer:is forward biased

nudge.
Stan’s comment:

« is reversed biased

ACOs

——_——

“The first option is only masquerading

other three options are manifestly wrong.

Option

grossly misleading and technically incorrect.

as an answer.

1, the only possibility, is

reverse-biased diode exhibits a very high impedance...

A normal

until it avalanches

a virtual short circuit, and is therefore no longer

strictly-speaking a reverse-biased diode.

Instead it's a conductor,

the

current through which is limited only by the load resistor”.
Also from Stan, a comment

about the first question last week:

“This is a

good example of how electronic documentation

should NOT be written.

How many errors do you see?

Funny thing is it's actually

| count seven.

easier to use correct SI metric nomenclature than it is to accurately copy
Morse at 15 wpm.

Calculate

Errors are perpetuated because compliance with
the relevant standard is not deemed important enough.
In this. case the standard is SI Metric nomenclature
as defined for use in science and engineering.
Had the standard been observed, this question and

the following:

R=10000

_
E=500v

The

The zener diode has been

forced into an avalanche state as implied by the diagram.
at which point it becomes

Wrong

|=?

answer

Answer:0.5 Amps

would

appear

as shown

R=1ko

E=500V

Answer:

500 mA

below:

|=?

Thanks Stan;

you're not the first of our team to comment

sample exam

questions are written!

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here

So back to the Slow CW QSO

go.

practice net.

about how the

Next Tuesday’s

Net

Our CQ QRS Net will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0700z until
about 1300z;

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.
Reports
Please let me know via our Reports form
https://forms.gle/KWNZovWvtemLkdS69
Tuesday’s net.

who you work or hear on

If you make a mistake after submitting the form, if the

response window

is still available, you can edit what you’ve sent.

If not,

send another one with your callsign but include a note of the changes
needed

in one of the text fields.

Photos make the newsletter just so much