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RagChew

Edition 46/2024

Simon MOKB] at Sea Palling near Norfolk - testing out then abandoning
a possible location on Monday before Tuesday’s DXperiment.

So much
Simon

fun it has to be illegal!

nearly gets his feet wet

To park or not to park?
Junker training

keys

AGC

or a curse?

- a blessing

Build a T2LT Antenna.
What Al thinks of our net.

RSS

ABC TV News

overture

SKCC

QRS

Oceania

Saunter - this weekend

Brain Teaser
Di-dah-di-dah-dit
About the CQ QRS

Group

Last Tuesday’s net was a bit quieter than we’ve become

accustomed to

lately (we had reports of 42 stations, versus the approximately five-dozen
that we normally know about... plus SWLs of course).
several times during the night using the Tecsun
(Farrer ACT)

and VK6QS

(near Brookton

WA)

When

KiwiSDRs,

rather than the

waterfall displays showing the usual half-dozen plus QSOs
there was only a couple.

| checked 40m

(Araluen NSW), VKICM
in progress,

Perhaps | tried at the wrong times, perhaps the

thunderstorms and static crashes had driven many of our team under the
blankets, or maybe the frequent geomagnetic disturbances at this time of
the 11-year sunspot cycle meant conditions weren't favourable?

Anyway,

there were a few stations on, lending a hand, learning and having fun that’s the main thing.
The DXperiment from our three intrepid European / UK operators was also
affected by the tough conditions - thanks for venturing out before dawn
guys, in what was likely to be less than ideal weather as they head toward
Winter.

And thank you also to Mike DL3YZ for coordinating the activity,

sending me the write-up on the Sunday before, so | can let the team

know

the sked details by email, and for running the web page with the three
Reverse Beacon

Network spottings.

Last Tuesday’s

Group

Here’s this week’s

CQQRS Team
Member

list of the 42

cQ
Heard on air
Worked 20m

Heard 20m
Tried 20m
Worked 15m
Worked 40m
Worked 80m
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Tried 40m
Worked 20m

Heard 20m
Tried 20m
Worked 40m

Heard 40m
Tried 40m
Worked 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air
Heard on air

Worked 15m
Heard 15m
Worked 40m

Heard 40m
Heard on air

Heard 15m
Worked 20m
Worked 40m

qso1

Qso 2

stations

Qso 3

heard:

Qso 4

qQso5

Qso6

Qso7

Qso 8

VK3DRQ

Heard 40m

VK3AGX | VKSBWN

VK2RKU

VKSEI

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air
Heard on air

Worked 20m
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Tried 40m

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m

Worked 40m
Tried 40m
Worked 80m
Worked 15m

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Tried 40m
Worked 80m
Worked 15m
Worked 20m
Worked 40m
Worked 40m
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air

New

Team

Members

Welcome this week to Peter VK3AGX

at Warrnambool

and Gerry VK3ZXC

Pakenham.
| had a nice chat to Peter when

| was camping

National Park near Grenfell NSW

last week, and was pleased that he took

up my suggestion to join the CQQRS team;

at the Weddin

Mountains

great to hear him chatting to

Ketut on Tuesday.
Gerry was first licensed in 1977 and returned to amateur radio during
COVID19.

He joined us after being encouraged to learn the Code at the

Gippsland Gate Radio & Electronics Club, and has been using Learn CW On
Line (LCWO.net);
up top 20wpm,

Gerry has found that he can receive Farnsworth CW at

providing it’s spaced at 5wpm

intervals - on the other hand,

like many of our team, he still struggles with evenly-spaced
Farnsworth Code.

Welcome

gain confidence and reduce the spacing between
forward to you having your first CW QSO

Masthead

non-

Gerry - I’m sure you'll find the net terrific to
letters... and | look

before long.

Image

And thanks this week to Simon

MOKB]

our latest member of the European /

UK DXperiment team for this terrific shot of his pre-DXperiment check of
Sea Palling beach

near Norfolk.

Luckily he tried the spot the day before

our net, and found the surf noise too high and the position too
uncomfortable,

so he was able to find a better spot for the actual skeds.

Read all about it on his terrific blog at https://sijharvey.org.uk/MOKB}/.

Reports
As uSual, after next Tuesday’s net, please send me a list of who you
worked

and / or who you heard using our web form here:

bit.ly/COQORSNET

Submissions close lunch time on Thursday.
If you hear or work one of our team on a different band on Tuesday,
just use the 80m

And when you enter the list of callsigns worked,
append

please

report area and annotate which bit applies to which band.
heard or missed, please

an ‘@band’ to each callsign without a space (eg VK2KI@20

VK6QI@15

etc).

The head of our software department,

Nigel G4RWI

has

continued to work furiously to produce a simple way of reporting on contacts
with our team outside of 40 and 80m;

| have a Beta version sitting on my

pile of projects waiting to be tested.
Please help attract new and old team

members

to have a go by submitting

your report each week.

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

reports.

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

distilled from the reports I’ve received follow:

Comments:

From Michael Welsh

VK4CCW

at Kawungan

QLD

horrendous

and

[40m]
¢ Terrible condx

as the static was

around..

From
[40m]

Ketut

VK3BWN

near Melbourne

no one seemed

to be

e This QSO

party is so much fun it has to be illegal.

[80m]
e Again, this is too much fun it has to be illegal :).

[:-D]
From Daniel VK6WE

at Cottesloe

[40m]
¢ Had little time as | was setting up a new computer.
times with no response.

didn't repeat their calls when

From Ross

MONNK

| called CQ several

| also saw two signals on the waterfall but they
| called back CQ on their frequency!

at Exeter UK

[15m]
e | couldn't find any DX to Australia today so | bagged a couple of European
Stations for my log instead. IR3RUDI was a special event station
celebrating 100 years of Italian radio broadcasting.

DOSCED

was a German

new to CW.

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Minutes

ele
id

cw rity psk31 psk63

E
Show Spotters

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NCDXF

CW Speed:

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Mode

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Copy URL to Clipboard
© Spotter (de)

@ Spotted (dx)
mOnnk
mode

type

snr

speed

ES2RR

“

MONNK

1246 mi

21052.5

12 dB

14 wpm

“

OH6BG

MONNK

1251 mi

21052.5

16 dB

14 wpm

09392 12 Nov

3 minutes

£0

K3stc

MONNK

793 mi

21052.6

17 dB

14 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

3 minutes

DLOPF

MONNK

766 mi

21052.5

32 dB

15 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

3 minutes

15 dB

14 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

3 minutes

f=) OE6ADD

“

MONNK

883 mi

21052.5

lst OK1HRA

MONNK

760 mi

21052.4

14dB

14 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

4 minutes

MONNK

845 mi

21052.5

26 dB

14 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

4 minutes

S50ARX

time

3 minutes

DkK3uA

MONNK

728 mi

21052.5

16 dB

14 wpm

0939z 12 Nov

4 minutes

S53A

“

MONNK

884 mi

21052.5

33 d>

0939z 12 Nov

4 minutes

Dw
a

freq

29
>»
>» oD
agaaeee

distance mi

so oo
ea2ee

®@ spotted

® spotter

eicgiai@'e/0/0/0/06

callsign

The Reverse Beacon Network (via Mike DL3YZ’s website) showed that Ross was certainly getting
out... but conditions just weren’t favouring the long-path to VK & ZL this time.

From Simon

MOKB}

at Strumpshaw

Fen, Norfolk

¢ On Tuesday, after a slow start, another successful attempt to span the
world in

Morse code.

e Yesterday | had failed to operate from the shore of the Norfolk Coast. The
sound of the surf was drowning distant stations. So | chose Strumpshaw
Fen

car park as a reasonable location for today. It's compromised
adjacent

by an

railway line, which creates an S4 swoosh of noise when

train passes every

fifteen minutes. Still, it was good enough for

me to get two new Australian
stations in the log and | heard others.
¢ | could tell from the Reverse Beacon

Network that my signals on

14045kHz
were getting out all over Europe and into Russia but were they reaching
Australia and New Zealand?

| monitored the WhatsApp

channel of the CQ

QRS
Ragchew gang and read that they were struggling to pick me up.
¢ | heard Brian ZL3XD)J calling me but he couldn't hear my replies. Mark

VK2KI
tried several times but again, although he was perfectly readable by me,
he
couldn't hear me. Manny VK3DRQ

and | attempted a QSO

but although |

copied
him at RST539,

he replied "SRI QNP QNP"

meaning,

sorry | don't copy you..

e Finally, Mark's persistence paid off and we had a brief exchange,

having

to
send my signal report many times for it to break through.
e | had resigned myself to the fact that conditions were against us. After
all, no European stations had even attempted to answer my calls. Then,
just
before 0800, David VK3DBD

came through clear and strong. He gave me

RST559
for my 20W signal and we chatted for twenty minutes. David is near Albury
in Victoria and he held a UK callsign, G3SCD

when

he lived in Lincolnshire.

e What have | learned? Well, that
patience and persistence are the
key. | was disappointed yesterday
at learning that the shoreline QTH
wasn't going to
work but it was well worth taking
the trouble to do a recce. Today's
location was among

trees, which

can't have helped, though the
Surrounding
wet fenland probably gave mea
good ground

plane.

I've written it up in my Blog of the

Log.

Simon with his JPC-12 loaded vertical for 10m
to 40m. Total length is 4m.

My JPC-12 came

mail-order from Ali

Express, and came with a 5m flat
10-core ribbon cable, which I've
split into three.

| usually spread out

the three radials equally but
yesterday | could only run them

two directions, 90° apart. It didn't
seem to make a difference.
It takes less than 10 minutes to set
up the antenna.

imagined

I'd get signals around the world with it.

73
Simon

| paid £118. | never

MOKB)

[Great story Simon - thank you;

let’s hope for better conditions next

week. ]

From John VKS5ET at Hope valley
[40m]
¢ Noisy this end

with QSB.

[80m]
* Very quiet.

From

David

VK6KD/4

at Roma

QLD

[40m]
¢ | wasn't getting out very well this week as | had not deployed the
squidpole. Too much

predicted lighting in my area.

[80m]
¢ | could hear many static crashes from lightning. | concluded operators
were
staying safe with rigs and antennas disconnected. Very quiet from my QTH
in
Roma

QLD this week.

From Wayne

VK6NW

at Bridgetown

[40m]
« 40m

seemed

depressed early in afternoon.

From Arthur VK2ASB

at Wentworth

Falls

[40m]
¢ During the time | was on air, the 80M

band was very quiet with few

stations
operating. Mostly | heard VK3 and VK2 stations. | didn't hear any VK5 or
VK6 stations until quite late in the evening when

| worked VK5SIP.

[80m]
* 80M was noisy but no noisier than usual and as usual with very few
signals.
| worked John VK2RU

with a good signal (599) from him but he received me

poorly (249) which is a pity because this QSO was John's first QSO on 80M.
Not a good introduction to an otherwise good
had had enough

band. It was at this stage |

so | pulled the plug and went to bed.

From John VK2RU

at Batemans

Bay

[40m]
¢ A fair bit of lightning noise but overall it was a very good
| managed

night for me.

to get over a bit of a hurdle tonight and had 6 QSOs.

* On a few of them

| tried to do something different as | get bored with the

same thing all the time. So | added a bit of conversational code. Hopefully
it made some sense at the other end.
« When

| finished answering one CQ call another station immediately called

me, so | answered. That went well until the first station came

in over the

top of us towards the end of our QSO and completely drowned

us out. The

first station had been using that frequency for some time.
¢ Should

| have asked the second station to QSY up or down

5 and left the

frequency to the original CQ caller? Apologies if | got it wrong.

me, so | answered. That went well
until the first station came

in over

the
top of us towards the end of our
QSO and completely drowned

out. The
first station had been using that
frequency for some time.
e Should | have asked the second
station to QSY up or down

5 and left

the
frequency to the original CQ caller?
Apologies if | got it wrong.

[Hi John.

Of course the normal protocol if you were concerned at taking

over another operator’s frequency would be to flash out a quick ‘NXX
(abbreviation of your caller’s callsign) UP 5’ or similar inviting the operator
to QSY up xkHz.

However,

it’s tricky on CW... and doubly so with QRS.

Also, our net Is usually so busy that unless you have a waterfall or other
spectrum display, you could very easily plonk yourself on top of someone
else’s QSO - and then there would be frowns all around!
The fact that we’re running a practice QSO net which includes many
inexperienced operators, the risks increase further.
So in the guidelines at the end of the CQQRS RagChew newsletter/
recommend that on this net, no-one

‘owns’ the frequency they’re on... SO

what you did was perfectly acceptable for the purposes of the net.

| know

that others will be saying to

themselves that we should be
encouraging the correct protocol on
our net seeing we're one of the
world’s most popular CW gettogethers these days... however,

balance of risks, I’ve stuck with the
simple principle... no one owns the
frequency they’re on.]

From

Richard VK6HRC

at Padbury

[40m]
e Tried out an Index Laboratories QRP rig on loan to me, not the best time
as
conditions were marginal

but Wayne VK6NW

made

it possible to exchange

Signal reports.
[80m]
e Very quiet, called at intervals with Peter VK6IS coming to the rescue
eventually and managed

From Andy VKSLA

to log a contact, thanks Peter.

at Winkie

[40m]
e After a couple of weeks off, due to work and other commitments, |
eagerly
returned to the fold only to battered back down to reality by dreadful QRN

from the maelstrom

of thunderstorms all around

me. Managed

a brief

"g'day"
qso with Jordan, 3ACU, then tried with VK3GB

who went QRT suddenly?

Maybe
he closed due to storms as well.

e Pulled the pin and had some
dinner, went on the 80m

Boat

Anchor next then
had a listen after for any CW, but it
was a lonely band with massive
Static
crashes not very supportive of a
QSO.

From Jordan VK3ACU

Next week!

at Meredith

[40m]
e With thunderstorms

rolling in, |

decided to play it safe and kept the
Shack
but | still had that itch
puny

the car, and spent the next hour

;

keeping

‘ i i hh

ol i

making a few solid contacts while

4 ie

disconnected,

to get on the air. So, | hopped

a close watch on the sky on the
mobile rig. Storm

never happened,

lightning or rain..

From Mathew

V VK3AFH

at Wantirna

[40m]
¢ Kept an eye on the sky for any storms, but nothing too bad turned up -a
work call did though

(different kind of storm). Caught the tail end of a

QSO sometime after 99m

here when

| finished, but that was about all

unfortunately.
¢ I'm still Keeping up my regular ICR and word practice, and
this weekend

| took apart an old computer mouse, added an audio socket

wired to the mouse

buttons, and gave the QSObot on

https://nhamradio.solutions/vband/ a whirl.
e My own
of

improvement since | last used it, plus using an actual key instead
keyboard

made

it much

easier than before and a lot more fun!

e I'm going to have to play with it more (when
and keep

nothing better is available!)

an eye out for others on there (anyone else here use it?).

From

Peter VK6IS

at wundowie

[40m]
e it was quite noisy again this week, and signals have been down all week.
[80m]
e an bit more activity for this week,

but not much

mid week though.

e Did try to follow the EU folks, but had no luck, there.

From your Editor Mark VK2KI

at Beautiful South Bowning

NSW

[15m]

e When

| went to listen for Ross MONNK on 15m

in the designated

DXperiment sked time, | discovered (= remembered)
Trio TS-

120S didn't work above 20m

repair to add to the pile.

any more.... just one more

listened instead on the Tecsun
digital mode

that my trusty old

KiwiSDR;

strong continuous carriers or

signals were again present in the sked segments,

and nothing

was heard of Ross.
KiwiSDR:

Software-defined

receiver at VK1CM

VKICM;

Wei
Your

Canberra, Australia | 8GridVartical
QF44no,
ASL 680, [map], SNR 16/13 dB
at S-14

Antenna:

Cushcraft

Vertical

esas
name

elnit
or ee callsign

.
09:30

CQORS MIRZEL

5-14m

Tre
UTC

20:30 Local

Australia/Sydney

(AEDT

15m Amateur

21052,00 [ seec ose sP exenson

=@0
AM

COCSCOO®

SAM

DRM

LSB

DP a
RF | WFi0

USB

~7—

/Audio

AGC

spectrum
NBFM

seat

UEC

Bsc

RXO

"(no identity)" (Lviv, Ukraine)
666.00 kHz am z11 3:27:57
;
"(no identity)" (Bandung, Indonesia)
1053.00 kHz sam z10 0:01:22
RX2 "CQQRS VK2KI" (Sydney, Australia)
21052.00 kHz cw 210 1:22:37
Your name

e The same

problem existed on the VK6QS

KiwiSDR.

previous DXperiments on the 15m

or callsign:

S$9+10+20
AJ

+40

| admin page |
+60 -97.5
.

dBm

This has happened

sked frequencies;

I've

listened on several KiwiSDRs - most have the signals there, but some
Paul VK5PH's

Ironstone Ridge SDRs) don't.

receivers, but without another 15m

(eg

This may be a birdie in the

receiver, | can't tell.

e Are any other VK or ZL stations also hearing the QRM?

If the carriers are

present

on other non-KiwiSDR receivers in VK & ZL, we might need to

recommend

different sked frequency for 15m.

[20m]
e Again this week,
MOKBR

I was a bit late getting to the net.

Q5 calling CQ when

| heard Simon

| turned on my old Trio TS-120S.

However,

the
time I'd tuned away to tune my manual

antenna coupler and my phasing-

type

noise canceller, Simon's signal had disappeared.
e Simon

reported via the CQQRS

WhatsApp Alerts that he could hear my

calls
clearly using his 4m
Tecsun

long centre-loaded mobile whip antenna, so | tried the

KiwiSDR at Araluen NSW - Simon was just copyable in the noise on

the
SDR.

| sent him an RSN 211 report and after many

finally heard Simon's complete RST 529 report;

"RST AGN?"

requests, |

isn't it funny how

selective QSB can repeatedly knock out one or two of the report digits!
Thanks Simon - well done!.
e At around 0930z | tried calling Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart but heard nothing

from him, and also couldn't see any spots from him on the Reverse Beacon
Network via the links on his DXperiment web page.
[40m]
¢ When

| moved to 40m,

| could see on the VK1CM

KiwiSDR that there were

much
fewer stations on 40m this week compared to normal;
eight QSOs

instead of six to

in progress, there was only a couple of signals on the waterfall

display.
« | listened to our new team

member

Peter VK3AGX from Warrnambool

chatting to
Ketut VK3BWN

at Keilor East, and was about to give Peter a call when

stronger station came up in the wide passband
« Later | caught up with Manny VK3DRQ

of my TS-120S.

at Blackburn who had a solid RSB

591
signal, thanks to my noise canceller.

Toward the end of our QSO,

our new team

calling from Pakenham.

member

Gerry VK3ZXC

| heard

Unfortunately, we
were not able to complete a QSO - so Gerry's first QSO award
sitting here on the shelf waiting for another occasion when

is still

he's ready to

give it a go.
¢ | rounded out the evening with a nice chat with David VK6KD/4 who was
using
just his 5 foot mobile whip from Roma.

I've been really pleased to have

been able to work David on most Tuesdays

during his around-Australia

journey - timed perfectly with the peak of this 11-year sunspot cycle.

From also from your Editor Mark VK6QI

via the VK6QS

KiwiSDR near

Brookton WA
[15m]
« | listened for Ross MONNK on the VK6QS

KiwiSDR;

as discussed above,

there were strong carriers or digital mode signals in the sked segments on
most of

the KiwiSDRs | checked.

[17m]

¢« Nothing

heard on the 17m sked frequencies.

[20m]
¢ | listened for MOKBJ

on the VK6QS

KiwiSDR;

stereo audio mixer and two computers,

nothing heard.

Witha

| was able to listen on the WA SDR

on
my right ear, while monitoring the NSW Tecsun

KiwiSDR in my left ear....

and my home transceiver in both!
¢ | tried to start the Southern
success.

Electronics Group Remote

Rob VK6LD

while the Marconi-

reported that the Remote was turned off

Tee antenna was being used for a trial of a

RaspberryPi WSPR

beacon.

Carnarvon

but as usual, it was in use for 6m

Remote,

near Perth without

| also

tried the Group's VK6CRO

Luckily, there are plans in the mill for the Southern
Group to add a second

FT-8 at the time.
Electronics

Remote at the site for VHF use.

So although there were far less stations on air this week, and conditions
were marginal on the long-path to Europe for the DXperiment for our three
amigos,

| had a great time on Tuesday.

Post Morsum

Report

from Richard VK6HRC
The CQQRS

group holds a Post Morsum

voice get-together on the WA

AllStar network every Wednesday

morning at 2200z (Tuesday GMT time)

which is 6 am WA time, 8 am Queensland time, 8.30am
Eastern and llam

in NZ.

SA time, 9am

The group discusses conditions and activity from

the night before, and is a great way to put a voice to a callsign.
more folks to join in.

We'd

love

For WA stations, you may be able to access the

network via your local FM repeater;

for the rest of us, those without AllStar

nodes, connect via Echolink to either *VK6-HUB* or VKORMH

- and for those

with AllStar nodes, connect to Node 42732, 42482 or any of the linked
nodes.

Let me know if you need help with this cagqrsnet@gmail.com

So over to Richard,

the Post Morsum

net controller:

Hello Mark,
notes on the get together on the VK6RLM
AllStar/Echolink nodes
VK6ENW

Wayne

VK6KD/4

David

VK6QI/M

rptr and

this morning.

Mark

VK5ET

~~ John

VKO6OFN

Max

VK6OHRC and our SWLS
Wayne

had two contacts on 40Mx experimenting with a combination of

radials on his vertical

ant.

He also commented

on band

conditions

still not

in Queensland

and made

multi

that good after the recent solar activity.
David tried a different set up from Roma

band contacts, they are on the move to a new location today.
Mark was busy as usual making

use of Kiwi SDR / RF modes to make

contacts and spotting on WhatApp.
John had a quiet night and hoping for better conditions next week.
Max is hoping to be back soon once he gets his HF station back on air.

| had a couple of contacts, one with

Wayne on an Index Laboratories
.

QRP rig on loan to me.

| also made

use of the NCRG remote to listen In
on some

of the DX from

ecm
er a

} al

.Bas

one

5.83223);

‘

rset cen,

MRE

eee

pee

FAT

\TL Rea

our

European crew.
Thanks to all, last night and this
morning.
73 Richard VK6HRC

This Week’s

Topics

interest
Junker Training
by Kees VK1KVS

Keys

LESS

46 q

f€:

These are my four Junker

training

keys.
The one on the far right is pre-1978
and still has the spring-loaded clickstop gap adjustment mechanism.
The other three are post-1978
which is the earliest date | have
found for the new rubber ‘O’-ring
which provides the friction to set
the gap

adjustment thumb screw.
The Bakelite sub-base has the same narrow dimensions as the mobile legclip version, 53mm
dimensions

of 72mm

x 97mm

(compared to the ‘standard’ Junker M.T.

x 97mm).

| have heard it said that these training keys were produced for army orders
from India and Argentina, but | have no confirmation of this. 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.

Kees van der Spek
VK1KVS
[Thanks Kees.

Interesting problem of lost records through physical events

or similar disasters.

An interesting opportunity might be to use an Al tool

such as ChatGPT to search for such lost information - people around the
world will surely have paraphrased some of the lost information for articles
like yours, collection blogs etc.

The Al information often can’t be validated

of course, but some Al tools now provide reference links to the source
material - which Is a step in the right direction for follow-up | guess.
Interesting times... using Artificial Intelligence to source Morse key
information! ]

Automatic

Gain Control

- a Blessing ora

Curse?
by Ross
AGC

MONNK

vs RSN

Recently | learnt to make
conventional

RSN signal reports (as opposed to the more-

RST). Being a Portable operator, | have a very low noise floor

but | found myself giving Noise as "3" and (eventually) that got me
thinking - why am | not giving a "1"?
AGC

- What

is it?

Automatic Gain Control does what it says on the tin - it automatically
adjusts the audio volume via either the RF (front-end) or AF (back-end)
Gain on your radio, listening harder for quiet signals down

in the noise but

turning down the volume when

It reduces

a strong station appears.

considerably the amount of twiddling you have to do with the Volume
knob, allowing you to adjust other parameters or just concentrate on

listening to those difficult (quiet or loud) signals.

Short bursts of loud noise (eg static
crashes from lightning) could cause
the AGC to turn down the audio
volume unnecessarily, so some

AGC-F

radios have an "AGC Slow" setting
to delay the AGC

operators

response

typically

time.

Q if

use "AGC Fast"

so° that theyje
can hear weak signals

(0 et

]

IPA
a
rey ee Sere)ee
TT 8

in the short gaps between their
outgoing words.

QRP-Labs admits that the AGC on their QCX series of radios is crudely
implemented

and, in my limited experience,

it only limits the louder peaks.

The Xiegu G90's AGC, on the other hand, is much

better - it seems to boost

the lows as well as limit the peaks.
Affect on RSN
Readability is probably improved,

because the incoming signal is heard at

a constant volume and your brain is not distracted by operating the
controls of the radio. This is why AGC

is popular.

Strength becomes difficult to judge because AGC boosts weak signals and
attenuates stronger ones. Most signals tend towards an S7.
Noise may be increased or decreased depending

on what your noise floor

is and the amount of AGC that's being applied. For instance, operating
Portable, my noise is typically $1, but with AGC On that becomes $3 as the
AGC seeks to boost weak signals. This means that, with AGC On, | have to
listen to more noise than with the AGC Off (but I'm more likely to hear
something way down).

If your noise is S7 (and | feel your pain if it is) then

I'm guessing that AGC

might reduce that to S4.

So, with AGC turned on, operating

becomes

(arguably) easier but it ruins

your ability to make an accurate RSN report. Some operators shun AGC,
preferring to listen to the incoming signal in all its noisy and chaotic glory.
Is AGC

helpful?

Myself, | can't make up my mind - for me, the Pros and Cons of AGC are
finely balanced.

| often have it set to "AGC Fast" but turn it off whilst I'm

making an assessment of RSN. That means
G90’s “AGC”

button presses (the Xiegu

button

cycles between

Off, Slow, Fast, and

Auto) so I'm distracted by a radio
control when

| should be listening.

Thus | find it’s simpler (but less
informative) to make

RST reports

than RSNs.
If | have AGC Off, | turn up the
volume anyway (to listen for weak
signals) so my perceived noise level
is higher than it needs to be. And
then | need to turn it down when
good signal comes

in. So,

once again, I’m fiddling with radio controls when

| should be listening.

How about you though - do you appreciate the assistance of AGC, or do
you prefer to operate "au naturale"?
[Thank you Ross.

See also Arthur VKZASB’s previous RagChew article in

Edition 23/2024 on use of the manual RF Gain control to reduce noise.]

On
The

T2LT

from

Ross

My Workbench
Antenna

MONNK

I’ve been struggling to get my wonderful Slidewinder coil and mil whip
antenna to tune well on the 15m

band so one solution is to have a

separate antenna for that band. After a bit of research, | chose the T2LT.

Why the T2LT

Radiating element

The advantages of a T2LT (as | see
it) are:
e

Fits in my small car for
transport; fits in the crowded
Man Cave for storage.

Shielded element

No radials for dogs and people
to get tangled in, and a small

Choke

footprint, so "car park friendly".
e

to radio

Easy to deploy (just tape it toa
squid pole and strap the pole
to a handy fence post or
signage).

If raised up well above ground

level, the T2LT has a low angle of take-

off (which is good for DX). This antenna

is taped to a 10m

so the driven element is 7.5m off the ground.
“~~

oni

eriwtl

squid pole,

Having the Lommon
12m

Mode Unoke 3m ott tne ground

of RG58 feed coax can be strung above the heads of pedestrians

- another

"car park friendly" feature. That 12m

of feed coax will keep

the metal mass of the car away from the antenna
many
e

means tnat tne

but not impose too

losses on my measly 20 watts.

It’s cheap and easy to build (RG58 is cheap and | already had the
squid pole). However,

| did use a ferrite core for this choke (because |

believe it will make the antenna

"better" for only a modest cost

Increase).
The design is well known
on their 11m

and has a good reputation, albeit with the CBers

band. It would be nice if it had some directional gain but

those types of antenna

have a larger footprint and so are only suitable for

summer operations away from potentially busy car parks.
How

to make

one

As | said above, building these is fairly easy. They’re a form of dipole, so
“do the math” or use an online calculator to get the theoretical length
(3.39m/3.39m for 21 MHz). Cut it slightly too long and trim it later. Mine
turned out to be 3.35m/3.35m.
| used a continuous 20m

length of coax for both the antenna and the

feeder. From one end, strip off the outer black plastic and the braided
Shielding but leave the clear insulation on. | found it best to do this in 15
cms sections. | used a rotary coax cutter to make the radial cut (make sure
you have it adjusted correctly - not too shallow, not too deep) and then
sliced along with a scalpel. The black plastic peels off and then (if you have
the rotary cutter adjusted correctly) you can slide the braided shield off.
It’s not difficult but it takes patience.

Most builders of T2LTs make an airwound

choke but | like to be

different so | used a Fair-Rite FT24052 toroid ferrite core. It’s more
compact and “better”. For what |
mean

by “better”, see this

article Amateur Radio (G3TXQ) Common-mode chokes
Based on the same article, | chose
12 turns, which | thought would
appropriate for the 15m

band.

Another advantage of using a ferrite
core choke is that, during tuning,
it's easy to push or pull a bit more
coax through the choke to keep the
Shielded and radiating sections of
equal length. Air-wound chokes are
typically glued together during their
construction so no such correction
is possible with those.

Y Max:

Ce a6

SWR

a
ml

T2LT for 15m
Frequency: 21.04 MHz
Resistance: 39.7585 ohms
Reactance: 5.1477 ohms
Leeneelanmean®

NONA

nh uwae

HPiPCUuciitc.s

wot

Wilts

| Inductive: 38.9395 nH

‘| SWR
1.8

YMin: 1.4 1325
10

C1 Auto

Chatformat [SWRS11 |

MHz

Frequencies:MHz

After trimming for resonance.

All that’s left is to fit a right-angled BNC
connector on the end

of the coax.

Finally, | applied a little “Liquid
Tape” to the exposed

sheath and

centre conductor ends to prevent
water contamination

in the wet

English climate.

They say that, “the proof of the pudding

is in the eating” and this cheap

and simple non-directional antenna got my 20 Watt signal all the way to
Australia. You can’t give an antenna

more praise than that.

So, “Breaker Breaker, got your ears on?”, this antenna

is not just for the CB

guys. “That’s a Big 10-4, good buddy”!

Other

Other things

From

News

I’ve received from

our 200-odd

readers.

Nigel G4RWI

Head of the CQQRS

Software Development

Laboratory:

| got Claude (Al from Anthopic) to analyse last week’s CQQRS
give me some

insights.

This is what came

Reports and

bac:

# Amateur Radio QRS Net Analysis
## Overview
This report analyzes participation and activity in what appears to be a QRS
(slow morse code) amateur radio net that took place on October 29, 2024.
The data comes from participant submissions documenting their contacts
and observations.

Your days may be numbered :-)

## Participation Statistics
- Total unique participants: 33 operators
- Geographic distribution:
- VK (Australia): 26 operators
- ZL (New Zealand): 2 operators
- M (United Kingdom): 2 operators
- JH (Japan): 1 operator
- DL (Germany): 1 operator
- Location unknown: I operator
## Band Usage
- Primary bands used:
1. 40m

(most activity)

2. 80M
3. 20m

(for DX contacts)

4. 17m (some DX attempts)
5. 15m

(limited activity)

6. 160m

(few contacts)

## Notable Observations
1. **DX Contacts**; Several notable international contacts were made:
- UK stations (MOKB/ and MONNK) made contacts with VK stations on 20m
- JHIUSR

(Japan) made several contacts

- DL3YZ (Germany)

was mentioned but was reported as unable to

participate due to iliness
2. **Operating Conditions**:;
- Generally good conditions reported across 40m
- Some QRN (natural noise) and QRM (interference) noted
- Strong signals reported after sunset
- Some participants operated QRP (low power), including successful
contacts at 4-5 watts
3. **Equipment Notes**:
- Various antenna types used including:
- EFHW (End-Fed Half Wave)
- Yagi tribander
- 160m loop antenna
- Vertical antennas
- One operator (VK3KIH) attempted using a vintage WW2 RC8& receiver but
found it challenging due to wide IF bandwidth
## Interesting Highlights
1. One operator (MOKB/) made his first appearance on the net, operating
portable from a historic location near a German military cemetery in the
UK
2. Several operators practiced message handling and copying skills
3. Multiple participants operated portable or mobile stations
4. Some operators used SDR (Software Defined Radio) technology and
compared reception between different antenna systems
5. The Reverse Beacon Network was used by some operators to find
potential contacts
## Technical Challenges Noted
1. VK6KD/4 reported mobile setup issues causing rig reboot problems on
80M
2. Some operators reported challenges with QRM when stations were
closely spaced in frequency
3. Several operators noted the importance of proper antenna tuning after
experiencing issues
## Recommendations for Future Nets
1, Consider dedicated time slots for 80m operation to increase activity on
that band
2. Encourage more use of "KN" or "BK" for smoother QSOs once
communication Is established
3. Continue supporting both QRP and standard power operations
4. Maintain the mix of casual contacts and structured message handling
practice
[Amazing!

Thank you Nigel. ]

From

Andrew

VK1DA/7:

Hi Mark,

| have been in VK7 during the last week.

Conditions have been atrocious.

The f0f2 has been very low, at times 5 MHz.
basically been either silent or unreliable.
die when these CMEs
challenge.

The lower HF bands have

Whereas

10m

does not seem to

hit. I’ve been increasing my score for the SOTA

10m

Now up to 27 summits activated and 120 unique calls worked

from summits on 10m.
Others have a much

greater score, especially in Europe, but here in VK,

one of the highest scores is Gerard VK2IO, who will be in VK7 for the next 4
weeks, often QSYing to 7032,
ZS6BKW

14044,

28044 for CW contacts.

He uses a

doublet and often parks in parks overnight so is active on CW

into

the night and in the early mornings.
In your most recent circular you wondered

whether a new Q-code should

be invented to report on static, which is normally termed QRN.

| doubt if

there is any need for a new Q-code - | think there is a numeric scale from
1-5 to describe the level of QRN.
And a thought | had when

reading of your problems receiving CW

band, with no Cw filter option - use an audio filter.

in a busy

I’ve had a few and

found them very useful.
You also mentioned
QTH.

Ron McMullen (SK), who lived not far from my home

| offered to take some of his excess collection of keys when

became frail but he wasn’t interested in seeing them disappear out the
door.
| return to the mainland on Sunday

10th.

73
Andrew

VK1DA

[Thanks Andrew;

terrific to hear you out and about again;

pity| didn’t

catch you on air while you were in Tasmania - | was out portable at the
Weddin Mountains National Park near Grenfell last week, and worked
Gerard several times Park-to-Park, including on a mountain top using my
(tr)uSDX plastic QRP transceiver that | pressed into use for the first time.
Thanks for your comments about static crashes and about using an audio
filter to compensate for my wide receiver;

| actually have a digital GNR-1

that Garry VK2YBX from Tecsun Radio Australia leant me to try some time
ago.

The filter

was made for speech and didn’t like CW using my (now il)

TS-50 with its narrow filter;

it’s packed up ready to return to Garry, but I'll

give ita go on my barn-door Trio TS-120S.

Re the fabulous Ron McMullen

key collection and website, things may be different now that Ron has
passed away - and his wife may now be more interested in seeing the
collection go to a good home.]

From

our CQQRS

Rag

Chew

group

Peter VK3WOW

Dann

Finally

The supposed “ABC” sounded in

Morse code at the start of the new

ABC 7pm T'V news theme is

malformed, with a dit too many.

Has Aunty lost her dash? Is she
going slightly dotty?

Peter Dann, Blackburn

| did actually report this to ABC TV News 2 weeks ago. Got nil

response.

In The Age letters today.

8:34AM

8:35AM

Actually my letter is wrong. Theme

has a dah too many.

8:41AM
Ketut VASBWN

Wiadnyana

| was complaining about it in the social media too. Why
can't people pound brass correctly? &
10:36 AM

Should be relatively easy to fix in a sound mixer, | would
have thought. First, though, you'd have to think it was
worth fixing.
11:05 AM

Peter

VKSWOW

Dann

SKCC

Oceania

QRS

Saunter

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

2024

from

00:00

UTC

until 11:59

QRS

Saunter

16th

UTC

a 12

hour event.

(OQS)

can

be viewed

All are welcome to join in!!
All the details for the Oceania
SKCC

website

on the

at:

httos://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/ogs/
Please make use of the SKCC Sked Page and the CW Club RBN Spotter.
httos://sked.skccgroup.com/
httpos://ron.telegraphy.de/

| look forward to contacting you during the event.
Best regards,

Garry VK2GAZ/VK2ZP

SK
Straight

5 46

Manager - SKCC Oceania QRS

Cent
ey

OQS

Club

SNE

pet

SKCC

Y CC
5

Straight

Key Century Club

Oceania

QRS

Saunter

aoe 4a Hours 00:00 - 11:59 UT

Saturday,

16th N

ber, 2024 @ 00:00 UTC

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.

Nigel VK6NI
Best wishes from the team to Nigel VK6NI our listener from Denmark,
who’s just had an unscheduled
the mend

100,000km

overhaul;

Nigel says he’s on

and is looking forward to the next 100,000.

Brain

Teaser

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 are the four layers in the ionosphere that impact HF
communications?
Voltage variable capacitor (varicap or varactor) diodes behave as
capacitors when:
e

biased

in the forward

un-biased

saturated

direction

bplased

In tne

reverse

direction

Which of the following solid state devices has the highest input
impedance?
PNP bipolar transistor
JFET
NPN

bipolar transistor

MOSFET

Answers

next week.

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here

So back to the Slow CW QSO

Next Tuesday’s

go.

practice Group.

Net

Our CQ QRS Group 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 bit.ly/CQQRSNET who you work or
hear on Tuesday’s Group.

The report form closes at lunchtime on

Thursday.

Post

Morsum

Richard VK6HRC

will run our phone Post Morsum

on the South West AllStar

net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time, then from
0700 WA time on 80m

(3605 LSB).

For the 0600 (2200z) net, 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.

and if you

can’t connect that way, give 3605kHz SSB a try from 0700 (23002).
Teamwork
Thank you so much to our team of 30 contributors: G4RWI,

MOKBJ,

VK1DA, VK1KVS, VK2ASB, VK2GAZ, VK2LF, VK2RU, VK3ACU,

VK3AFH,

VK3BWN,

VK3DRQ,

VK5ET, VK5LA, VK6HRC,
VK7TA, VK7WW

VK3FG, VK3JFP, VK3KEV, VK3WOW,

VK6IS, VK6KD/4, VK6MK, VK6NW,

MONNK,
VK4CCW,

VK6WE, VK7KPC,

Thank you team.

The Joy of Daylight Saving

There's usually people around until after 1300z on the Tuesday Group - so
keep calling in the segment of the band designated
you catch someone.

in the table below until

| should be on as usual from home

in NSW or 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.

Hope to hear

you there.

€U CW on Tuesday,

mb
Mark

Bosma

VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South Bowning NSW
mark.bosma@icloud.com
non impediti ratione cogitationis

An Ode to CW - thanks to David VK3RU:
In days of old, when ops were bold,
And sideband was not invented,
Words were passed by pounding brass,
And all were quite contented.
- Unknown

author

About the CQ QRS
Group
Here’s

the

details.

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

Frequencies

and Times

CG rinnactan

suggested

CQQR5

CPHMDe

Crrina

Coordinated

Universal Time

opring

Western Australia Time

Dawli,

aht

Vaylight

Gawuinn

saving

Timatakia

limetabie
0700z to 1300z

UTC

+ 8 Hours

1500 to 2100

Australia

Central Australian Time

UTC

+ 10.5 Hours

1730 to 2330

Eastern Australian Time

UTC

+ 11 Hours

1800 to 2400

Queensland Time

UTC + 10 Hours

1700 to 2300

NZ Time

UTC + 13 Hours

2000 to 0200

New Zealand

Time

0700z to 0900z

40m

7020kKHz - 7040kHz

40m

7020kHz

- 7040kHz

80m

3540kHz

- 3570kHz

80m

3540kHz

- 3570kHz

Wednesday (VK/ZL)

2200z - 2300z

0900z to 1100z
0900z to 1300z

Post Morsum

Frequency

WA FM AllStar Network (direct or via Echolink)

QRL?
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

(or send slower to their comfort level).

And if you are already having a QSO and someone

sends “QRL?”, respond

with “R”, “C”, “Y”, “YES” or QRL to let the caller know that the frequency is
in use.
If we’re on 40m

and you can hear that the band

is open outside

Australasia, perhaps consider calling 500HzZ 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?

Rhythm?

If you’re proficient at CW and can race along at 20 or 30wpm - terrific, but
please remember, the Group’s aim is to encourage

participation and

learning, not show how fast you can hammer the key.

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
perfect CW;
how many

it sound

the longer we go with our Group, the more | understand just
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’
reward you one day by coming
good

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

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”

PSE

or “AGN?

QRS”

will make

life easier for everyone....

and

might

just encourage other listeners to have a go themselves.
The other thing to remember - most operators are writing down what they
hear... so when you put it back to them, expect a delay while they read
your words of wisdom,

Whose

frequency

before replying.

is this anyway?

The aim is to give everyone a go at
contacting others - no-one owns
their calling frequency in this Group.
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 in this Group.... 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 7032KkHz (7028kHz
secondary) or 3555kHz.
enjoy the frequency.

If you catch someone, there’s no need to QSY -

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.
And of course, put the frequencies in a memory so outside of the Group,
you’re not tuning around, leave your receiver on one of the primary
frequencies - you never know who you'll hear (7032

is used in VK and ZL

for SOTA/ PARKS during the day so you'll often hear activity there).

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.

VK2KI / VK6QI

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