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RagChew

Edition 24/2024

Ping

Pong

Meat and Three Vegetables

e Artemis
e

Spanish

Reciprocal

QTC

SKCC

Signor Marconi

Reminder for 18Jun24

New

Callsigns

Oceania

Slow CW
Was

Saunter - This Weekend

Here

- Poldhu

CQ QRS

Station

Net

Schedule

Last Tuesday’s net was another corker;
but most of us had lots of fun.
Germany (our member

we only had 39 known

stations on,

This time we also had members

listening in

Mike DL3YZ

in Oberboihingen

Morse Code!) near Stuttgart) and the UK (Ross MONNK

(try sending that in
in Budleigh

Salterton (that one too!) near Exeter) - both using the KiwiSDRs in
Australia.

And what’s more,

chat on our Post Morsum

Ross joined us again for a late night (UK time)

on Wednesday

morning

here.

Isn’t this just

great?
And thank you to those who took the time to write a report of their
activities - this makes for very interesting reading for our +85-eded 185+
readers each week.
Last Tuesday’s

Net

So here’s this week’s list of the 39 stations heard - and we know there
were many more out there listening as well:

RSS

11Jun24CQ QRS Net
Total

active stations

Total

QSOs

this week

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

[note that this figure won't be correct - SOs may be counted twice ar more):

55
174

Black text - QSLed, Green text - heard but not worked, Blue text - incomplete Q50 (not OSLed).

Cs
Tees
Member
a

ca || aso

| aso2

aso3 | aso4a |

asos | asos | aso7 | asos

VK6KHZ

VK2IAM

VK3XU

ZL2TK

VKSFD

VK3KJE

VK6IS

VK6KHZ

VK6IS

VK3XU

VK2IAM

VK3KLE

VK2IR

VK3KLE

VK255

{insert CO or Listening if mo O$0s)

DL3YZ 40m

£L1PY¥

DL3YZ 40m cont

VK2A0E

G4RWI 40m
MONNK

4om

£L3TK

VK2KI

VK2GAS

VK2A0E

VK6RC

ZL?PCX

som

VK6FN

VK6PZT

VK3CTM

VESKFG

VELHF 40m

ZL3TK

VKSPL

VK4PH

ZL4BDG

ZL1PX

MONNK 40m cont
MONNK

VEKLKVS 40m
VKIPWE 40m

VK1ITE/m 4om
VKLTE/m som
VKLIWA 4om
VK12ZDJ 40m
VK2AQE 40m

VK7KPC

VK2IR

VKSA0

VK255

VKSKLE

VK2ASB 40m

VKSPL

VK6RR

VKSKFG

VK6XC

ZL3TK

VK2ASB 80m

Heard

on air.

Heard

on air.

VK2BHO
VK2CL/m
VK2C05
VK2DLF 40m
VK2EBN 40m

VK2EMU gom
VK2GAS 40m

|
Heard

on air.

VK2GAZ 40m
VK2GAZ som
VIK2IK 40m
VK2IK 30m

VK2IOW 40m
VK2IOW som
VK2KI 40m

ZL3TK

VK2GAS

VK3XU

VKSAM

VK2KI 30m

VKGXC

VK3CTM

VKSKFG

VK4DRK

VK2GAS

VKSCZ

VK2KIJ 40m

VK2NAP
VK2NV
VK2NNW 40m
VK2NNW som
VK2RH 40m

VK2TM

VK3XU

VK2RH 40m cont

ZL3TK

VKSAO

VK2RH 80m

VK2ASB

VK2RU

40m

VK2TER 40m
VK2WF
VK2WP 40m

VK3ACU 40m
VK3ACU som
VK3ADX 40m
VK3ADX 80m
VEK3AE 40m

VK3BAP
VK3BTV 40m
VK3BTV 80m

VK3BU
VK3BWN

40m

VK3BWN gom
VK3BYD 40m
VK3BYD som

VK3CLD/p

VK3CTM 40m

VK3KLE

VK2A0E

VK3CTM som

Heard on air.

VK3DBD 40m
VK3DBD som

VK3DPH
VK3DRQ 4om
VK3FG

40m

VIK3KLE 40m

VK3RU

VK2KU

VK3KW

VK3KLE

VK2DLF

Heard on air.

VIK3KLE som
VK3KO
VK3RU

40m

Heard on air.

VK3TBR 40m
VK3VMM

4om

VK3 WOW
VIKAALE som
VK4DRK 40m
VK4DRK som

VK3KLE
VK2KI

VK4EK 40m

VK4JM 40m
VK4MFX
VKSAO

40m

VKSAW

som

VK6FN

VK2RH

VKSFD

2L1PX

VKSCZ

ZL1HJ

ZL3TK

VK3XU

VK2KI

VK2GAS

VK6FN

ZL1HJ

VK LHF

VK2DLF

VK3KLE

VKSAYL
VKSCT 30m
VIKSCZ 40m
VK5CZ 30m
VIKSET 40m
VIKSET 40m
VKSET 80m

VKSFA
VKSFD 4om
VKSFD som
VKSHAA 30m
VESIS 40m

VKSKFG 40m
VKSKFG som

VK2ASB
VK3CTM

VKSLA 40m
VIKSPH 4am

VKSPL 40m
VK5SQA

VK2ASB

VEK6GAAV 40m

VK6BEK 40m
VK6BEK som
VK6CK
VK6DEV 40m
VK6DV

VKENW

VK6FN 40m

VKSPL
VK6PZT

VK6KHZ
VK6IS

VKEWE
VK6QI

VK6HRC
VK6KD

VKSAO

VK6FN 80m

VK6KHZ

VK6FN

VK3XU

VK6ENW

VKSAO

ZL3TK

VKSCZ

VK6BEK

VK6QI

VKSPL

VK6HRC gam
VK6IR

VK6FN

VK6PZT

VKO6IS

VK6IS 40m

VK6KHZ
VK6FN

VKE6RR

VK6BEK

VKGFN

VK6QI
VK6IS

VK6FN
VK6HRC

VK6QI

VK6RR

VK6WE

VK6FN

VK6NW

VK6XC

VK6KHZ

VK6BEK

VK6FN
ZL3TK
VKSPL
VK2A5B

VK6QI
VK3XU
VK6FN
VK6FN

VK3KLE
VK6WE
VK6PZT

VK6IS

VKGRR

VKGHRC

VK2ASB

VKEKHZ

VKGHRC

VK6KD/p

VK4DRK

VK2KI

VK6KHZ

VK2ASB

VK6NW

VK6BEK

VKSKFM

VK6QI

VK6FN

VK6GAL 40m
VIK6HD 40m

VK6HRC 40m
VEK6HRC

40m cont

VK6IS som

VK6JDM/m 40m
VK6JDM som

VK6IK
VK6KD/p 40m
VK6KD/p 80m
VK6KHZ 40m
VK6KHZ 80m
VK6KQ
VK6LD
VK6MK 40m
VEK6MK g0m

VK6MU 40m
VK6NC

VK6NC
VK6NT 40m
VK6NT 80m
VK6NW 4om
VK6PZT 40m
VK6PZT 20m
VK6QI 40m
VK6QI 40m cont

VK6QI gom
VK6RC 40m

Heard on air.

VEK6RR 40m

VK6IS

VK6TY
VK6XC 40m
VK6XC 80m

Heard on air.

VK6XU
VK6VZ 40m
VK6WE 40m
VK6WE som

VK6YV

VK6KHZ

VK6XC 40m
VK6XC som

Heard on air.

VK6XU
VK6VZ 40m

VK6WE 40m

VK6KHZ

VK6Q!

VK6FN

VEK7KPC som

VK2A0E

VK210/P

VK6FNC

VKSPL

VK2RUS

ZL3TK

VK210/P

LL3TK

VK7KPC 80m

VK3CTM

VK3KTE

VK6QI

VK2DLF

VK2IR

VK6WE som

VK6YV

VK7TA 40m
VK7TA 40m cont

VK7WW 40m
VK7WW

40m cont

VK7WW gom
VK7ZA
ZLIAJY
ZLIANY
ZL1HJ 40m

Heard on air.

ZL1PB 40m
ZLIPX 40m

Heard on air.

ZL2GD 40m
ZL2GD 30m

ZL3TK 40m

VKLHF

VK2ASB

VK2I0

VK2KI

VK3XU

ZL3TK 40m cont

VKS3KLE

VK3SRU

VK4DRK

VKSPL

VK6FN

ZL3TK

40m cont

ZL3TK 40m cont
ZL3TK 80m
ZL4BDG

40m

Heard on air.

ZLATE 40m

Reports
As always, please send me a list of who you worked and / or who you heard
after next Tuesday’s net using our new web form here:
bit. ly/COQORSNET

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
get recorded so we know that the
net is working and attracting new
and old team

members to have a

go.

Thanks again to Nigel G4RWI

for building the Google Form, the Python

software back-end that does the processing, the link and the QR code.

New

Team

Members

This week I'd like to welcome

Bob VK4RT at Coomera

who joined in the fun last week.
really got among

near the Gold Coast

And welcome to Stephen VK2RH

it on Tuesday this week as you'll see in the log above,

and reported below.

Stephen

has an interesting website:

https://vk2rh.com/about/ - and, like a number of our team,
interested in code-breaking... and lots of other things.
Welcome to the team gents.

Cheers,
mb

who

is also

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW
mark.bosma@icloud.com

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

reports.

The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s net.
Comments

distilled from the reports I’ve received are below:

Comments:

From

Mike

DL3YZ

near Stuttgart

/ Germany

[40m]
vii

100)

200,

300

Sr
°

Nationatpark

ett

pastshsser

spresesoure |

po tand
.

London

rausierta

ayeaen

pugade,

ole

,
h

sr
y

_ %

_£S

sViennaA

Mecaeicin

Aeratis java

nijcks2) CROATIA

aoe

ay,

grea

t fun hunting
un

ING

SWL

down under :-)
.
.
e All OPs did a great job

ics

Novi saa

SSMASNESS

won

fouibtte
© snow}

~ HUNGARY

y
-

]

SLOVAKIA _ 9°?"

558 huarna fi Sea
bs
Z
fue ~allake
x

ran

iin

[ 40

Pagtonite

czecnia CL

ein

Bye

dws

“SERBIA|

ot a omen

[Really pleased that you found the KiwiSDR and had some fun Mike terrific to get our first report from Germany.

As it turns out, we have a

house sitter for next week who comes from Langenau.... so there you go! ]

From

lan VK5CZ

at Clare

[40m]
e Met Peter ZLIPX tonight on CW from ZL.
yrs -

From

He had only been CW few

doing very well

Wayne

VK6NW

at Bridgetown,

Yalgorup

[40m]

=
;

=
ae

e Good sigs and band not too

bad

e Only had time for a quick
couple of QSOs before ducking
off to SES
woant ac,

From Ross

MONNK

’

tra i Nn i Nn g :

at Exeter, UK

[40m]
e ZL3TK was first out of the gate, calling CQ at 0701 UTC

« He was quickly answered
¢ They did a successful
¢ That's a tough

by VK2KI

"This day in history"

head copy task! You guys in the southern

hemisphere don't
seem to suffer from QSB - "This day in history" would be a nightmare
with
the frequent QSB we get up here
¢ | could hear VK6KHZ

near Perth (rather weak but readable) ona

Sydney
webSDR
« That was a nice example of long range propogation using modest
power,

and would've made an enjoyable challenge for one of the

more experienced

east-coast operators

[80m]
e Slow and accurate Morse
¢ A pleasure to listen to

From Stephen

VK2RH

at Newtown

[40m]

For the first two or three hours
of the net there were quite a
few stations with solid signals,
but | was too busy cooking
dinner! Lesson from my first
QRS

Net is the early bird

catches the contacts
e

There

40m

were

still QRS

signals on

after 1000Z but they were

harder to dig out with my very
compromised
e

dipole

Great fun all the same!

[80m]
e

From George

VK2AOE

80m was very quiet tonight!

at Kagara

[40m]
¢ Tried my AOE
« The

QRP

monster pile of junk and had no joy

Labs QCX

mini

(5watts)

got me

to TASSY

and VK7KPC

Evandale

From Roy VK6RR

at Geraldton WA

[40m]
* Sorry had to leave early!
[Working three stations and hearing three more - pretty good for having to
leave early Roy.]

From Richard VK6PZT

at Dalyellup

[80m]
¢ Had a go at CQ ping pong with Mark
e Lots of head-copy fun
¢ Worked

up from 3 letter words to 5 letters words then my head

exploded
¢ Back to downward

dog for me!

[Thanks for being the first to try Ping-Pong CW developed by Claude
/ VK2CL Richard.

| really enjoy the exercise - it’s great fun eh?

VKITE

recommenda it for anyone who’s got the hand-written code going well and
would like to try head-copy.

And / think Richard as a sonographer, Is

referring to downward dog the yoga position that places your heart above
your head, allowing gravity to increase blood flow and improve your
circulation. ]

From lan VK1HF

at Lake Burley Griffin - Canberra

[40m]

Had a really nice night working
from the car by the lake

Nice to see so many ZLs on!

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach
[40m]
e Arguably one of the poorer nights, trans-Tasman

propagation

wasn't playing
ball at all
e Fruitful in that a successful two way ‘Today in History’ QSO with
VK2KI was
heard by a number of others, including OM

Ross MONNK via SDR

well done!
[80m]
¢ Could hear (and see) a significant number of stations via SDR on 80
m but
not a whisper to be heard direct,

ie much worse than the already

poor 40 m
¢ Called CQ for 20 minutes, however as expected
[Thanks for the fun This Day in History Stan.

no QSOs

resulted

Well you did work me in WA -

conditions couldn't have been too bad!]

From Arthur VK2ASB

at Wentworth

Falls

[40m]
e Plenty of action on 40
e The noise was there but at this QTH

it wasn't too bad

e It's good to hear so many new ops on air
¢ Hoping we will eventually get back to the situation where you could
go on
air at most times and have a chat on CW
[80m]
e The noise on 80 was exceptionally high
e It wasn't the usual white noise but a sort of motorboating
e |'ve heard this noise before and it was associated with solar activity
e Didn't hear any stations, didn't even hear the BMARC

SSB net but |

was
very late going over to 80 and the net could well have folded by then.
[Hi Arthur - yes, it would be nice for CW operators to be there all the time...
together we're heading in the right direction.

/ suspect what you were hearing
on 80m

was Auroral activity;

we've had it guite often at the
sunspot cycle peak during the
net.]

From

Peter VK7KPC

at Evandale

[40m]

e VK2AOE

running 5W

From Richard VK6HRC

at Padbury

[40m]
e Very quiet in WA to start with.

So! monitored the Eastern States on

the
ironstone range

KiwiSDR - good copy practice.

¢ When

improved

the band

| went back to my home set up.

e | had fun listening in on Stan and Mark doing a this day In history
exchange| managed

to decode bits and pieces by head-copy but | could not

keep up!
[80m]
¢ Called it quits after working

Max;

my sending was deteriorating

rapidly!
[Uh-oh!

I’ve been dobbed-in for sending too fast... or more importantly,

not leaving long enough spaces between /etters!

| try to keep the pace

down 1. because there’s always people listening who are trying to learn
and be encouraged to have a go on air, and 2. because my receiving /
decoding has always been woeful.

Point taken mate - thank you.

welcome to the CW fist fatigue club mate;

And

my hand keying often gets

pretty ragged around the edges (er, and in the middle) after six or seven
hours on our net.]

From Peter VK6IS

at wundowie

[40m]
e jt was an very quiet night, all round
[80m]
e there ts still little action on 80m

From Daniel VK6WE

at Cottesloe

[40m]
e | turned on the rig just to check the band and ended

up talking to

three
stations tonight
¢ | must be getting more confident;

| even exchanged

a couple of

words in
French

It did take some time for all
contacts and effectively
distracted me from tasks in
hand!

[/'étais heureux d'échanger quelques mots de francais avec toi Daniel.
Merci beaucoup Monsieur. ]

From Derek VK4DRK

at Wyreema

[40m]
¢ | had one QSO with VK3 on 40m
¢« Next time

I'll try it with QRP

« It was maybe

not the best condx,

but it was still workable

[80m]
e After calling for a little bit, Mark came

back

¢ Perhaps not the best conditions, but again, it was still workable!
Thanks
everyone

From me VK6QI

at via the VK6SR

Remote and VK6QS

KiwiSDR

[40m]
¢ When

| fired up the VK6SR

Electronics Group Remote

KiwiSDR at Brookton and the Southern

HF station at Bedfordale,

ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach chatting to Drew VK3XU
¢ | also heard Paul VK3KLE

| heard Stan
at Wonga

at Stawell, Richard VK6HRC

Park.

at Padbury

and Peter
VK6IS at Wundowie

chatting to Roy VK6RR up at Geraldton.

¢ | then tried calling Arthur VK2ASB
success,

at Wentworth

Falls without

but

went on to have a nice chat with Ron VK6KHZ

at Yangebup.

¢ | could see that while | was using the Remote, VK6ANB

was

listening in for
quite a while;

does anyone

know his email address so | can invite

him join
in in future?
e | then listened to David VK5PL at Williamstown chatting to Arthur
then Max
VK6FN

at Manjimup.

¢ | also listened to Ron chatting to Roy before | attempted to work
Stan.
« We experienced apparent grey-line one-way propagation

(see

previous
RagChews for analysis and hypotheses about this ionospheric
phenomenon

that we have often experienced on our net) and

although Stan was a comfortable RSN
respond with RSN
me.

531, he was struggling to

311, and resorted to one of the KiwiSDRs to copy

e After that | caught up with Daniel VK6OWE at Cottesloe for a nice
chat
before | disappeared for dinner with our house guest from Germany.
[80m]
¢ When

| returned from dinner, | slid down to 80m to see If we could

stir up
some fun.
e The VK6SR

Remote station was a bit more cooperative this week,

and allowed me to get a usable but variable SWR on 3565kKHz.
e First up | heard Arthur VK2ASB

at Wentworth

Falls working our new

member
Ben VK6XC

at Forresttield.

e Interestingly, | could hear Arthur coming

in to WA from 1700km

away, but
not Ben (who was running only 5 Watts) over 25km;

however,

listening from
home

in NSW

| could hear Ben, but not Arthur.

e Next | listened in to Max VK6FN

at Manjimup chatting to Richard

VK6PZT at
Dalyellup then Richard the Second VK6HRC

at Padbury while |

chatted to
Richard.
e | thought I’d see if Richard was interested in having a go at Claude
VK1TE’s creation - Ping-Pong CW a head copy exercise (see later in
this
newsletter);

Richard was worried and told me that his head-copy

ability
was not good... but | insisted... and | think we had a ball.
e We started exchanging three letter words and while he wasn’t
looking, |
notched

it up to four letters per word.

¢ Soon Richard asked for fives!

So much for his head copy being

poor!
Anyway,

about 45 minutes later (!) we gave it away!

exercise created by Claude that | highly recommend

This is a terrific
for people who

would
like to start moving from hand-written copy to head-copy.
e When

Richard's brain was suitably deep-fried, we gave it away and

| said
g’day to Max who had been listening in;

Max offered up the “I have

to go
cook dinner” excuse when

| challenged him to try the Ping-Pong CW...

but |
knew it will happen

before long.

e After Max | was called by David
VK6KD/p,

using his mobile whip

antenna from 126km

East of

Karratha - mid-way to Port Hedland.
¢ David was a steady RST 549 over
the 1300km

path and we had a nice

chat.

¢ David reported nothing but rain, rain, rain on the first segment of

his
around-Australia journey;

| hope they will have had enough

rain by

the
time they get to the Northern Territory and will have fine weather for
the
rest of their travels around;
raining... and makes

it’s no fun in a caravan when

much

it’s

of the North and inland inaccessible.

¢ David went on to chat to Max - who was tickled pink when talking
about
about the long-haul QSO to David’s mobile station on 80m the next
day on
AllStar.
¢ It was quite funny - when

| started writing this on the day after the

net,
| was listening to Max on the WA AllStar network telling Bob VK6KRC
about
his terrific contact with David over 1700km

during the net;

and just

then,
up popped

a WhatsApp

message from David saying they’d arrived in

Port
Hedland, and that he could hear Max on the VK6NAD

AllStar node on

2m - but couldn’t access it to share the glory!
¢ Later on Tuesday while working
my home
$5;

Derek VK4DRK at Wyreema

in VK2, | could hear us both coming through

from

into WA around

so the band was nicely open across the continent at that late

hour.

Also from me VK2KI

at Beautiful South Bowning

[40m]
e | had less success on the net from home and using the Tecsun
KiwiSDR at
Araluen also in NSW, than using the KiwiSDR and Remote
* From the start | hooked

in WA.

up with Stan ZL3TK in Waitarere Beach and

we had
lots of fun exchanging
e And just to make

a This Day in History message each way.

it more challenging, Stan asked

me to send back

what I'd
received from him for marking and evaluation.
¢ | missed an i from the word

Louisiana (QSB?), but Stan gave me an

A-minus
report card, so | was happy.
¢ Stan also had fun following my slow-drifting TS-120S;

a minor fault

since
| bought it new back in the mid-70s... I’ve got the replacement VFO
capacitor somewhere

safe still...| hope... it’s only been nearly 50

years since | bought it!

One day.

e It also started raining here, so the impedance of my temporary
feeder ribbon which is supported for some of its length by rope was
changing - requiring a couple of re-tunes of my antenna coupler.
¢ In parallel with my conversation with Stan, | could hear Armin
VK2GAS

Norwest just finishing up with another ZL - but listening to them while
trying to work to Stan meant | missed the other callsign.
¢ | also heard May VK5AM

working

Drew VK3XU

WA
equipment where | was kept busy on 40m.
[80m]

before | fired up the

e When

| returned from dinner | listened to Tony VK3CTM at Junortoun

near
Bendigo chatting to Greg VK5KFG just South of McLaren Vale at
Willunga,
before | got busy on the Remote and KiwiSDR in WA.
e When

| came

back to listen on my home transceiver and the Tecsun

SDR at
Araluen

NSW just before hitting the hay, | heard Derek VK4DRK up

near
Toowoomba

calling, and had a nice late-night chat to him from home

before
giving it away around

midnight.

Conclusion:
* So | had fun - as usual.
¢ | enjoyed hearing a number of people on 80m

again, had a ball with

the
Ping-Pong CW exercise with Richard VK6PZT,

and enjoyed the

challenge of the 7his Day in History exercise with Stan ZL3TK.
e Thanks to everyone for making our net work so well.

Other
Other things
Post

I’ve received

News
from

our 185-odd

readers.

Morsum.

By Richard VK6HRC
A good turn up for the Post Morsum
associated

links on Wednesday

net on the VK6RLM

repeater and

morning’s Post Morsum,

going

international again.
On the net :
ZL3TK

Stan

VK6QI

Mark

VK6FN

Max

VK6KHZ

Ron

MONNK_

Ross

VK6HRC

Richard

and

our shortwave

listeners.

Max in Manjimup enjoyed the CQQRS

net on Tuesday,

stayed up later than

normal working as many stations as possible and got rewarded with a
contact with David VK6KD

up in Karratha on 80mx.

Stan did not do too well with poor propagation
he would

goodbye exchange
theme

but when conditions allow

like to encourage us to get past the rubber stamp hello
(ideas, thoughts appreciated). To expand

Mark has been actively involved with the

on that

‘This day in history’

exchange and the fun Ping Pong exercise, more details in a future
RagChew.
Ross commented

on the big difference between

home as opposed to

monitoring the bands from

logging on to the VK SDR online nodes.

been pressured into providing another article for the RagChew
when

he has time.

He has also
on this

The net went for approx one hour and was very enjoyable as usual.
73
Richard VK6HRC

[Thanks Richard - well done again mate.

Ross responded very quickly and

by the end of the day | had another article from him - discussing how CW
goes in Europe compared to Australasia.
and it'll have to slide to next week.

Ping-Pong

But I’ve run out of room again,

Thank you my

friend - excellent work. ]

c'est mois VK2KI / VK6QI
Claude VK1TE / VK2CL has come up with an innovative and really fun way
of helping CW operators start the transition from hand-copying
writing down

each letter as it’s received) to head-copying

CW (ie

(ie listening to

the CW and assembling the letters into words and the words into
sentences without writing anything down.
when

Claude manages to do this

he’s on air while driving!

Claude and | have done the exercise a number of times and found it to be
not only good practice, but hilarious.
away grinning from ear to ear.

Every time we tried it, we both came

As | said above, the first public beta-test

was this week with Richard VK6PZT who thought his head-copying wasn’t
good enough...

but ended

up with that same silly grin after over 45

minutes of fun!
Claude has taken the time to write up a full article on the exercise, but |
can’t fit it in this week’s
mean

edition - so it’ll wait until next week.

But in the

time - here’s the idea:

e We have 2 correspondents, A & B.
e They agree to PPCW, three letter words.
e After callsigns are sent, A sends her first three letter word:
e

DOG

B replies with: DOG, followed by his own word: CAT.

e A sends: CAR (Error: should be CAT), then sends her new word:
e

B sends:

ROW

ROW then sends the word CAT again because A got it wrong

the first time (he might have to resend the word CAT several times
until she gets it right)
e A sends: CAT, which is now correct, and sends: PIG
e

B sends:

BIG (Incorrect), followed by: TOW

e Asends: TOW
e

e Arepeats: TOW
e

and resends:

PIG

B sends: ?, asking for a repeat.
and resends:

PIG

B sends: PIG followed by: RIG... and so on until one correspondent
says they’ve had enough, or wants to increase to four, then five letter
words, or perhaps two words then three words per phrase.

Remember to identify every 10 minutes.... the session can be five
minutes or 60 minutes long - you'll be amazed

That's about it!

how addictive it is!

It sounds simple - but it’s actually quite challenging - not

only to head-copy,

but to remember what you sent so you can pick up

errors, and all the while thinking up the next word.

People in their shacks

inevitably end up sending things they can see... KEY, MAN, VOX, OFF, PTT,
GAIN, TUNE etc - when Claude and | practiced, he was in his car so we got
lots of AIR, HOT, TEMP,
RIGHT,

BRAKE,

HEAT, COOL,

PEDAL, CLOSE, etc!

HORN,

GEAR,

HAND,

LEFT, OPEN,

So who’s ready to give this a go on a Tuesday night?

If someone

asks, and

you're not ready, signals aren’t good, or you need to take a break - just say
NO TKS.

But if you want a real laugh - have a go!

PPCW anyone?

Reciprocal

Callsigns

by Ross MONNK
The readers of RagChew

might be interested to know that I've been

incorrect in using the callsign MONNK when
for the Post Morsum

routing through the VK6-HUB

net. My Echolink signal is being broadcast on local

repeaters in Western Australia therefore | should properly be using the
callsign VK/MONNK. That's a bit of a mouthful so please bear with me - |
want to operate correctly in accordance with my license and the Australian
regulations.
The same applies if | use any remote access radios in Australia.
[An interesting question you raise Grrasshoppaar!

Now.... the WA AllStar net Is also
usually connected to a node in New
Zealand, another one in the US, and
another in the UK!

How many

prefixes will you need - heh heh!
/ suspect that no one Is willing to
ask the question of the Australian
regulator (Australian
Communication and Media
Authority)... because there’d be a
high risk that a decision-maker
without knowledge of amateur radio
might decide that things like the
AllStar network must not cross
outside Australia, must not be

operated by people not in the country and that the network must not be
connected to (allocated license) repeaters and (non-allocated license) local
hotspots.

I’ve had a career in an arm of Government,

aren't pointed specifically at the ACMA

and my comments

- any Government policy-maker

could be make the same decision given the information to-hand,

that’s

Just how It works.
Sometimes it’s better to not ask a question if you’re not prepared for the
answer!
The WA Al/Star network Is used several times every day by overseas
amateurs - mainly from the US and the UK - either by the operators having
an AllStar node of their own (like me), using their DIMF microphone to
command a connection from their local repeater to one of the nodes in the
network, or by using Echolink to connect to an AllStar node in the network
(ile *VK6-HUB* or the node / built to connect the Mandurah
VK6RMH to the network).

WA repeater

| have not heard many (or even any) of those

operators using the reciorocal callsign VK/xXxxx.

However comma,

that being said, when / pull my finger out and give you

the info you need to connect to the Southern Electronics Group Remote HF
station as requested, you would then most definitely use VK/MONNK as
your callsign to transmit on HF.... or do what Gary W4GAL
have a separate

and | both do,

VK6 callsign.... it’s much easier and causes much less

confusion in CW.... just ask Nigel G4RW/ about the fun and games he had
here when operating on the CQQRS net for the six months that he was
here!
Good questions well asked Ross - thank you.]

Meat and Three Veg
by Stan ZL3TK
In amateur radio speak, ‘Meat and Three Veg’ translates to Name,
Location, Rig and Weather.
As astutely pointed out by Ross MONNK on this week’s Post Morsum
paraphrased

and

here, in Europe this bland diet is served up with many

variations due to the huge population and multitude of languages.
However,

in the relatively confined geography of Oceania, that unwavering

diet can become

boring rather quickly.

The same limited number of

operators dishing up their unchanging
month

‘Meat and Three Veg’ month-after-

provide scant opportunity to learn new facts, improve thinking and

muscle dexterity, or develop new skills.
Hence the introduction of activities such as ‘Chinese Whispers’ and ‘Today
in History’.

These have been conducted at a remarkably consistent,

considerate slow speed to conform with the CQ QRS Group paradigm,
have shown

disappointing

levels of participation.

but

Some operators even

seem to actively avoid such opportunities yet no one has come

up with any

better ideas ... so far.
Now is your chance to have a Say, tell us what you would find sufficiently
attractive to justify stepping outside your self-limiting comfort zone.
Please send your ideas to Mark at cggrsnet@qmail.com

and the me at

ZL3TK.radio@gmail.com
[Thanks Stan.

Ross MONNK’s discussion about European

vs Australasian

CW ops will be in next week’s RagChew.
Thanks for your thoughts again Stan.

As you know, I’m just overjoyed that

our net attracts people to have a go - either for the first time or after
they’ve become rusty - and if meat and three is what kept the net growing
for three years, then so be it.

However,

| agree that our team may have

ideas to make the net work better for everyone;

the move to 40m, and the

ZL-friendly start time are both good examples of where my old-factory
thoughts were overtaken by much better ideas.
/ used to be in the business process improvement world toward the end of
my career so there'll be no ‘change just for change sake’ - most people
don’t like organisational or process change, but I’m hoping for some fresh
ideas that help us better meet our goals, as long as our fundamental raison
d’etre remains... providing encouragement and an opportunity for new and
rusty operators to get on air in a safe supporting environment supported
by experienced operators willing to help.

So - thoughts folks?

What would you like to see happen that would

enhance our goals, grow the net and keep old operators interested?]

Artemis
by me

VK2KI

/ VK6QI

Today on the Southern

Electronics Group email group, a member

posted a

link to a YouTube video about Artemis - a multi-platform application (even
runs on Mac) that brilliantly allows users to identify the multitude of
strange signals heard (and seen on HF, VHF and UHF bands).
https://youtu.be/W_8Y_4FvoHI?si=CFUO43rE5huGY0eE
So things like different forms of analogue and digital transmissions, overhorizon radars, etc can be viewed and heard, and even looked up on a
database by frequency.
hold on,

|!am!

Hmmm

A Spanish

QTC

From

ZL3TK

Stan

So many toys, so little time... wish | was retired....

There's always time to learn lessons and have a laugh.
have noticed OM

Manny VKDRQ

week working five stations.
the patience of a saint!

plodding away in the Group last Tuesday

He is such a gentleman,

in his native language, or at least an approximation
Net.

NR 76

28/26

ZL3TK

WAITARERE

VK3DRQ

GRANDE

ESCUCHAR A EL SENOR

SENOR TRABAJOCONFIABLE
DETENTE
QSL?

SU APORTE

a rare Old Timer with

He richly deserved a note of appreciation so a QTC

on the 20 m VKCW
R

Some folks may

05442

of it, was sent to him

5JUN24

PACIENCIA Y SU ALIADO

MIEMBROS

DEL GRUPO

ES LO MAS VALIOSO

=
CERCANO

CQ QRS ANOCHE

ZL3TK

It was composed
Wednesday

with only seconds to spare before the net started on

at 0603Z

on 14.049 MHz

the code to Spanish characters.
of --.--

- so there was no time to fine-tune

The N in SENOR was sent as

instead

(N tilde).

If it is possible to hear tears of joy over the air then this was it.
expressed

Manny

most eloquently his deep gratitude... “from my heart” in CW of

course!
But like any operator worth his salt, and let's face it, OM
experienced

Manny's

plenty of salt in his maritime travels, that didn't stop him from

pointing out two identical mistakes, one in each instance of the word
SENOR.

It's fair to say both parties got a rather big thrill from making a

simple change to the usual traffic protocol on the 20 m VKCW

Net.

Translation: GRAND

TO HEAR MR PATIENCE AND

HIS CLOSE ALLY MR

RELIABLE WORKING

CQ QRS GROUP

LAST NIGHT STOP YOUR

CONTRIBUTION
And

MEMBERS

IS MOST VALUABLE.

the lesson to be learned?

Don’t

be afraid to innovate.

[Thanks for the nice story Stan, and congratulations to you, Manny and the

numerous other OT CW Ops who enjoy helping us young whipper snippers
learn and practice the art of CW.]

SKCC

Oceania

Slow

Saunter

from Garry VK2GAZ
Greetings to all.
The SKCC Oceania QRS Saunter will take place this Saturday,

15th June,

2024 from 00:00 UTC until 11:59 UTC a 12 hour event.
All are welcome to join in!!
All the details for the Oceania QRS Saunter (OQS) can be viewed on the
SKCC website at:
https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/oqs/
Please make use of the SKCC Sked Page and the CW Club RBN Spotter.
https://sked.skccgroup.com/
httpos://ron.telegraphy.de/

| look forward to contacting you during the event.

Best regards,
Garry VK2GAZ/VK2ZP

#5460C

SKCC

SK*CC

Straight Key Cantiny Club

aman seen

sen2 Hours 00:00
- 11:80 UTC.

Manager - SKCC Oceania QRS
Saunter

Morse Training
Nic VK7WW

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
Many of our team

on that net.

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 - 3580KHz at

7pm

The NTARC also feeds the CW

Eastern time every Wednesday.

live

via the Discord phone / computer audio stream, and previous weeks’
recordings are available.
Contact Nic VK7WW

for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com - or just

join in on Wednesdays.

Signor Marcon!
Poldhu

Was

Station

This Week’s Topic of Interest
By Ross Waddams

Here

MONNK
I've just come

back from a few days camping

on the Lizard peninsula,

Cornwall in the far south-west of England (as far south as we can go before
getting our feet wet).
In radio terms, the Lizard is notable for two things:

e the Goonhilly Satellite
Communications

Earth Station

(unfortunately not open to the
public),

and

e the Marconi sites at Poldhu and
at Lizard Point.

On a previous holiday | visited the latter but that will have to be the subject
of another article.

This time | visited the site at Poldhu where Marconi did

his first trans-Atlantic experiments.
Fifty acres of land were bought in 1900 and initial construction work
finished in January 1901.

The original 20 mast circular cone
shaped aerial was destroyed
storm on 17 September

ina

1901.

For Marconi’s trans-Atlantic experiments, a temporary installation of two
61 m masts with a fan shaped aerial was used.

The transmitter operated

with a power of roughly 13 kW and a wavelength

usually estimated at 366

metres.

Marconi and two assistants travelled to Newfoundland

December 1901 and on 12 December the pre-arranged signal of three dots
(the letter ‘s’ in Morse code) was heard by Marconi on Signal Hill at St
John’s, Newfoundland,

Canada.

By early 1902 the temporary masts
were replaced with a four lattice
wooden

mast design, at 850 kHz

and 25 kW.

Poldhu also

communicated

with deep sea

shipping using the callsign MPD and
also transmitted a regular nightly
Morse code news bulletin using the
callsign ZZ.

This was used by liners

to print daily newspapers,

whose

owners paid for the copyright.

The Poldhu station was taken over by the Royal Navy during the First World

War.

"What has all this got to do with Australia?" | hear you say.

Well...

In 1923

and 1924 Marconi used Poldhu for further shortwave experiments, to his
yacht off the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic and to Beirut in Lebanon.
The

success of these experiments took the world by surprise and quickly

resulted in development of the directional Beam

Wireless Service for the

British General

on 25 October 1926

Post Office.

The service opened

(beaming to Canada), followed by the Tetney Beam

Station (situated near

Grimsby tn the north-east of England) sending wireless telegrams to India
and Australia starting on 8 April 1927.

The receiving station was 40 kms

south, at Winthorpe (near Skegness).

| can highly recommend

his webpage

looking at

as there are some excellent photos of the installation at

Tetney. https://www.britishtelephones.com/cto/tetney.htm#:~:text=Tetne
V%Z20Beam%20was%20the%20transmitter, be%20isolated%20before%20w
orked%20on.
At the Australian end, the corresponding

beam

stations were at Ballan (tx)

and Rockbank (rx) 80 and 60 kms west of Melbourne (they also beamed
Canada).

After almost 90 years both of these sites are mostly intact.

Australia had other beam

stations;

there's a very Interesting article about

them at
nttps://opadula.triood.com/australiashortwave/id55.htm|
Poldhu continued to operate as a research station until 1933.
cleared in 1935, but a granite monument

The site was

was erected in November

1937

by the Marconi Company.

number of concrete foundations

and earth structures also remain. In
2001 the museum

building was

erected. It is also the clubhouse of
the Poldhu
man

Radio Amateur

Club who

building foundations

museum

radio clubhouse

the museum.

[Wow - thank you Ross - another fantastic article about a historic site with
links to VK/ZL.

Looks like a great site for an International Light Houses and

Light Ships httos:/illw.net/ activation in August mate!
And what a terrific idea for an amateur radio club station to use a historic
site, in return for volunteer support.

In Australia, similar arrangements

exist for some AR Clubs eg the WA

VHF Group at the Wireless Hill museum

and the Northern Corridor Radio Group at Whiteman Park, the HMAS
Vampire radio room at Darling Harbour NSW that we heard about recently,

and probably a myriad of others in VK and ZL that! can’t recall off the top
of my head... but | know if at least one amateur radio club in Australia
that’s looking for a home

Next week,

like that.]

Ross will tell us about what he found in the Poldhu museum.

If you'd like to contribute something
RagChew

newsletter,

and ideas;

like Ross’ superb article to the weekly

please let me Know so we can share more thoughts

email to cqqrsnet@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
website,

for he idea, and Jules for the good learning

here’s this week’s quiz questions from Jules’ Workshop example

test questions:
Exam

Questions:

What

does the term

USB

LSB

mean?

To convert alternating current to direct current, use is made of a:
thermister
e

resonant circuit
diode

e carbon

resistor

A 10.7MHz first stage IF is commonly

used in VHF receivers to:

provide a high degree of adjacent channel selectivity
e

reduce noise generated

in the receiver

achieve the high gain required
e

provide an adequate degree of image rejection

The “Q” code signal "QSY 3575" means:
(a) Emergency traffic is being received on 3575

kHz

(ob) Please change the frequency of transmission to 3575

kHz

even though

it’s outside our chosen CQQRS

How did you go?

T READ

LIBRARY

kHz

(b) Please change the frequency of transmission to 3575

THIS

Book

Answers

WHAT

DID YOU

| OF IT?

band segment.

next week.

THINK

—-|

REALIN

MADE

LOT

THINK

ME SEE

DIFFERENT.
To

THINGS

ITS GIWEN ME

“ee

ABQUT.

——

GLAD

ENJONED

from

last week’s

IT.

{ 17S COMPLUCATING
Wa LIFE. Dont

Let

We ANY MORE,

»®
Answers

kHz

Me5,

Quiz:

To transmit information over a distance, a carrier signal needs to be
modulated
FM.

in some way.

The two common

What do these terms mean

Answer:

AM amplitude modulation

wave changes

ways this is done is by AM and

and how does it work?
is where the amplitude of the carrier

in sympathy with the voice modulation.

modulation- frequency of the carrier wave changes

FM frequency

in sympathy with the

voice modulation.
The

reactance

of an

inductor

increases as the applied frequency rises

e decreases as the applied frequency rises
e decreases as the inductance rises
e

is proportional to the current flow

Answer:

increases as the applied frequency rises

The total effective capacitance of this circuit is:

B00pF

1L600pF

s00pF

Answer:800

j
800 picoFarads

200 picoFarads
.

3200 picoFarads

picoFarads

Severe static is harming
be?

(a) QRM
(b) QRN
(c) QSB
(d) QRO
Answer:

400 picoFarads

(b) QRN

How did you go?

reception. The appropriate "Q" code to use would

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here

So back to the Slow CW QSO
Next Tuesday’s

go.

practice net.

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.
have fun.

We'll

Reports
Please let me know via our Reports form bit.ly/CQQRSNET who you work or
hear on Tuesday’s net.
Post

Morsum

Richard VK6HRC

will run our Post Morsum

on the South West AllStar net

(via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time.

If you’re in

WA, all you need is an FM 2m or 70cm transceiver and an AllStar node
nearby.

If you’re elsewhere in the world, you may be able to connect your

local AllStar-enabled

repeater to the net, or you can connect via Echolink.

Let me know (cggrsnet@gmail.com)

if | can help with that.

Teamwork

Thank you so much to our team of 26 contributors this week:

DL3YZ,

MONNK, VK1HF, VK2AOE, VK2ASB, VK2RH, VK2TER, VK3FG, VK3JFP,
VK4DRK, VK5A0O, VK5CZ, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK5PL, VK6BEK, VK6FN,
VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6KHZ,
ZL3TK.

VK6NW,

VK6PZT, VK6RR, VK6WE, VK7KPC,

And special thanks to Ross MONNK for his very interesting article

on Poldhu Station.

Thank you team.

€U CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW
mark.bosma@icloud.com
non impediti ratione cogitationis

Ode

to CW

- thanks to David VK3RU:

In days of old, when ops were bold,
And sideband was not invented,

yee

eRe Gana

Words were passed by pounding brass,
And all were quite contented.
- Unknown

author

About

the CQ
Here’s

the

QRS

Net

details.

The team will be on again for our usual Tuesday arvo / evening Practice
QSO

Net.

Frequencies

and Times

CQ QRS NET - DEEP WINTER TIMETABLE
Coordinated Universal Time

Australia

New Zealand

o700z

13002

Westen ST

UTC+8

1500

2100

Central ST

UTC +95

1630

2230

os’

UTC+10

1700

2300

NZST

UTC +12

1900

0100

Time

Band

Frequency

07007 - 09002

40m

7.025 MHz ~ 7.040 MHz

09002-11002

ib m

7.025 MHz

~ 7.040 MHz

80m

3.540 MHz

~ 3.570 MHz

09002 - 1300z

a9 m

3.540 MHz ~ 3.570 MHz

So tune around and call anyone you hear, or find yourself a quiet spot in
the designated segment,

send “QRL?” and if the frequency is quiet, start

calling CQ QRS at about 75% of the speed you're comfortable receiving at;
hopefully responders will match
we’re on 40m

(or send slower to their comfort level).

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 that’s often dead-on

the kHz markers.
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,
can hammer the key.

not show how fast you

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

up on air to say g’day and thanks - how good

is that?

And if

you’re new or like me, just rusty.... ignore the above... just have a go - the
lather of sweat will be worth it and there’s plenty of time to get the details
sorted out as you practice.
Matching
And also for the oldies like me, when you hear someone
their sending speed - or slower.

new, please match

The person you’re replying to may not be

as deft on the decoding as you - it may be their first ever CW QSO -

remember your first?

Lather of sweat, key that refuses to send that you

tell it, brain that refuses to decode those complex

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
someone

DX, if you hear

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.
Landing

Zone

If the band goes really quiet, call and listen on 7032kHz or 3555kHz.
catch someone, there’s no need to QSY - enjoy the frequency.

If you

But don’t

forget to tune around 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.
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
mb

VK2KI / VK6QI

respectively.

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