Past

Issues

Translate

View this email

CQQRS

Early Tuesday

morning

in your browser

RagChew

Edition 47/2024

UK time at the start of this week’s

First snow of the season - Simon

Nigel

Doubles

George’s
Cute

net.

the Power

Use for a Microphone

Small

David
The

CQQRS

MOKBJ at Wolverhampton

Furry Animals

Gets a New

Dreaded

Red

Callsign
Car

Snowing!
BKIN

Woes

Tuning

1/4 Wave

That’s

Perfectly Normal

RASigs

Centenary

CQQRS
Three

Crossword
CW

Verticals

Puzzle

Pet Hates

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

Group

So many stations on air.... so much fun had!
Tuesday’s net was great fun, with lots of stations on 40m.

Conditions were

good on 80m,

The same

but only a few brave souls were on this time.

RSS

couldn't be said about 20m,

15m and 10m

used by our four intrepid Europe

/ UK operators who braved the early morning
long-path just wasn’t cooperating;

rather brisk conditions;

there were some QSOs

the

into VK, but

conditions weren't great.
Thanks for all the reports this week;

| really enjoy reading your thoughts

about each week’s net - and | know others also look forward to the good
read.

And this week I’ve introduced a new training aid.... cunningly disguised as
a crossword

puzzle.

Last Tuesday’s

Look out for more in future editions.

Group

Here’s this week’s

CQQRS Team

Member

list of the 61 stations

cQ
Worked 20m
Heard 80m
Worked 20m
Tried 20m
Worked 20m

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

Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

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

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

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

Worked 80m

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

Qsoi

Qso2

Qso 3

heard:

Qso 4

Qso5

QsoO 6

Qso7

Qso8s

VK6QI

Heard 80m

VKSLA | VK6KD/2

Heard 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air

Masthead

Image

And thanks this week to Simon
early for the CQQRS
the season.

MOKB}J at Wolverhampton

for getting up

net and taking this terrific photo of the first snow of

Wonder why he wasn’t out portable this week?

Reports
After next Tuesday’s Group, 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

report area and annotate which bit applies to which band.

And when you enter the list of callsigns worked,
append

please

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;

| still 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

The

ewan

Aled

nw ne

ALR

FIRAR

Len

reports.

RRR

LR Rb OT

ele
DR

Phe

SVPredUsflee€ls

Comments

GVNOUVE

SHOW

LITE

KIPIOWT

StdaLIOTIS

Of]

IdStl

TUeCSUdY

Ss UTOUDP.

distilled from the reports I’ve received follow:

Comments:

From

Martin VK3FG

at Melbourne

[40m]
¢ Great for Rx practice - Slowly getting my ear in hihi.

From Nigel G4RWI

near Axminster,

Devon

e First attempt to join the fun from the UK.

e First attempt to join the fun from
the

UK.

e We are house sitting on the Sth
Coast

of Devon

ona small

for a few weeks

farm owned

by my

COUSIN.

e The motorhome

is now a full-time

Shack with my trusty EFHW for 40m
semi-permanently

installed.

t
af

mee

as (a

SWR 1.2
14.040

MHz

epee

As you can see, in both cases the radiating element ended up somewhat
shorter than the theory would suggest. The elevated

radials are, indeed, a

bit longer than the radiator - quite close to its theoretical length, in fact.
For the nerds amongst you, here is the Smith chart for the 20m version:

Resistance and Impedance are both
50 ohms at 14.040 MHz.
No doubt some Antenna Wizard out
there will know that those figures
suggest that | still haven’t got the
tuning right. But (and this is where
“enthusiasm” triumphs over

¥ Max

“knowledge”).

| then connected the

antenna

new

to my

QCX-mini

QRP

Sanit

radio and had a contact into
Germany from the south of England,

Impedance t

so it can’t be that imperfect.

Mine
Frequencies: MHz
Chart format Satceh)

™

Returning to the whole purpose of this article, the Pearl of Wisdom
discovered and which
Elevated

I’ve

| want to share with you Is...

Radials are not some vague arbitrary length - their length directly

affects the resonant frequency of the antenna as a whole. So, both the
radiating element and the radials need to be trimmed

in order to adjust the

resonant frequency.
Sorry if that’s all a bit technical. We learn by experimenting

and | enjoy

experimenting.

Other

Other things

News

I’ve received from

our 200-odd

readers.

That’s Perfectly Normal...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Dx6HojLBsnw

014/:46

Royal Australian

Corps of Signals Centenary

from Rob VK2COS

Next year the Royal Australian Corps of Signals will celebrate its Centenary
Year.

One of the activities will be the activation of a special callsign

VI100SIG which will be active from 14 Feb - 31 Dec 2025.

I’m planning to operate with that special event callsign for members
CQQRS

net - perhaps on Monday or Wednesday

from the group.

More details to follow.

Regards,

Rob
VK2COS

CQORS

Crossword

Puzzle

47/2024
Instructions:

Fill in each answer using the clues below.

nen
|

Across Clues
1)

CHRIS

5)
6)

ROY
GEORGE

2) PHIL

of the

evenings if there’s interest

Down
1)

PETER

4)
2)

STUART
DEREK

3) NIGEL

Clues

9)
10)
15)
16)
17)
19)
20)
22)
23)
26)
27)
29)
31)
33)
34)
35)
36)
37)

KEikKAN

WARREN
RON
GEORG
GREG
LIN
ALLEN
LANCE
MAX
MIKE
ARTHUR
JAMES
DONALD
DAVID
PHIL
MARK
SHAUN
NIC
PAUL

11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
21)
22)
24)
25)
26)
28)
28)
30)
31)
32)

MAIREVW

PETE
KEES
WIMAL
ROSS
SAVA
MANNY
DAVID
CLAUDE
GRANT
LANCE
NYOMAN
TIM
RICHARD
KEVIN
PATRICK
SIMON
DANIEL
STAN

Round of applause goes to Rush Software’s Martin Fitzgibbons the
Australian creator of the Crossword Wizard

puzzle generation application,

focussed primarily on creation of crossword

puzzles for education.

Martin

has stepped up and provided help to me to create puzzles that can be
brought into MailChimp; he has even made changes to the software as a
result, with two new version updates created in response.
considering

Amazing,

Martin created the original software 29 years ago!

Thank you

Martin!
Please let me know if you like or dislike the puzzles.
If you'd like a printable version of this crossword and future crossword
puzzles to do later with a cup of coffee, please let me know:
cqgrsnet@gmail.com

From

Noel

Whittaker’s

Noel

News

Investment

Newsletter

What disease did cured ham actually have?

Three

Pet

Hates

from

Ross

MONNK

This is a follow-up to my article “Three Portable Pet Hates”. Who

knows,

this could be an ongoing series!
1.

Operators who don’t know anything about Prosigns. A Prosign is morse

code shorthand and each one has its own distinctive sound. To avoid
having to write out the Dits and Dahs, these are usually abbreviated

using

two uppercase letters underlined or in angle brackets. For example,

"_. _

_." means “over to you and nobody else” and is often written as KN or
. But it is NOT sounded as the letter K followed by the letter N. Its
sound

is the equivalent of those two letters run together without a space

between them. It could just as correctly be written NG or
convention always shows it as KN or .

but

On the other hand, “CQ” is not

a Prosign - it is the letters C and Q with a normal space between them.
2.

Operators who don’t leave adequate spaces between words.

Technically, the quantum

unit of Morse Code is the Dit. However long your

Dits are, your Dahs should be three times as long. Between

each Dit or

Dah, there should be a space which is one Dit long. Between

each

character, there should be a space three Dits long. And here we come to
my bugbear.

Between

long. Seven

Dits is over twice the length of the gap between

each word, there should be a space of seven Dits
characters.

This is not a Rule for its own sake - the inter-word space has to be that
length so that the guy listening at the other end knows when

one word

ends and the other begins. If the sending operator doesn’t use this interword spacing, his message

is just heard as a stream of letters, which is

terribly difficult to understand.

Some guys get carried away with their

sending and forget to empathise with the guy on the other end. But your
Sending

is pointless if it can’t be Copied.

Operators who send a stream of

Dits after they’ve made an error.
This is probably necessary if you’re
sending encrypted code but it has
no place in normal

messages - if

you make a mistake, just send that
word again. This is particularly a
problem with beginners because
they make a lot of mistakes (no
problem - that’s part of the learning
process), and have read that ditstreams are the way to indicate an

ra RACEN

error (which is technically correct).
But listening to lots of

dit-dit-dit-dit-

aya

dit-dit-dit-dits is very hard on the

MAKES A MISTAKE IS THE MAN

ears and on the brain. It drives me

aay

crackers. Guys, | can hear that

DOES AMER

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

you've made a mistake so Just Send
That Word Again.

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 on that net.
Many of our team

learned Morse code with the support of Nic, and the

weekly training session comes

highly recommended

for anyone who wants

to learn the Code, or simply brush up.

Everyone’s welcome - 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.

Brain
How
lilac

Parrin

IP VKR2IFP

hac

created

Teaser
did you go?
a

terrific

racniirce

heln

aide

laarnina

JMIwev

rwriiin

Winwyrt

PEA

for all levels of amateur

radio

licenses:

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

Jules Workshop site is upgraded to provide easier and direct access to
training material. The Practical assessment

material is updated to reflect

the 20 sections in the ACMA assessment questionnaire. Several areas in
the Advanced

licence learning material is updated to address some

questions from past exams.
If you find errors or omissions,

please let me know so | can fix them and

keep the site current.
Jules Perrin JP
0457585974
VK3JFP
www.julesworkshop.net
Support our veterans.

Exam

Questions

- Foundation-level

Only:

Why does sunspot activity impact HF radio communications?
The distance a VHF or UHF signal can travel under normal circumstances is
defined by four factors. What are these?
What is Tropospheric ducting?
What

is the MUF?

What is the radio squelch?
What does RIT stand for and how does this help the operator?
Can a Foundation

licence holder modify their radio internals?

Answers

next week.

Answers

from

last week’s

Quiz:

What are the four layers in the ionosphere that impact HF
communications?
Answer:

F2, F1 E and D layers.

Voltage variable capacitor (varicap or varactor) diodes behave as

capacitors when:
e

biased in the forward direction

un-biased

e saturated
biased in the reverse direction
Answer:

biased in the reverse direction

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

bipolar transistor

MOSFET
Answer:

MOSFET

| had to look up the answer to the last one.

How did you go?

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 (22002) 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@gqmail.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 28 contributors:
MONNK, VK2AOE,
VK3ACU,

VK2ASB, VK2DLF, VK2GAS,

VK3BWN,

VK5LA, VK6HRC,

VK3DRQ,

DL3YZ, G4RWI,

VK2NNW,

MOKB],

VK2RU, VK2WP,

VK3FG, VK3JFP, VK3KEV, VK5CZ, VK5KFG,

VK6IS, VK6KD/2, VKENW,

ad Martin Fitzgibbons of Rush Software.

VK6RR, VKOWE, VK7KPC, VK7TA
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,

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,
Words were passed by pounding brass,

Py wae

ves

——
a

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:
httos://www.parg.org.au/
files/ugd/ebe236_ 3ca5ca08bb38429db4eee524b
da2f97a.pdf.

VK2KI / VK6QI

The

opinions expressed

The

opinions

Send

in the

RagChew

do not necessarily

comments

newsletter are those

of the individual contributors.

reflect that of the editor or of the CQ

about the RagChew

QRS

Group

Newsletter.

Our mailing address is:

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You

can

update

your preferences

—{

INTUIT

mailchimp

members.

or unsubscribe