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CQQRS

RagChew
Edition

Smiling

e CW

in the face of disaster
side of the vineyard

e When

it fades,

10 minute

e Jordan

fence

it really fades

antennas

and ZZ Top

e Operation
e

17/2025

in the genes?

e Wrong
e

in your browser

Manna

Maintaining

Commemoration

your Class license callsign - not as easy as you

might think
e Auroral
e Watch

Buzz - Roger
where you

e The Victorian
e There’s

Harrison’s thoughts

step

Internet

no such thing...

| hear tell...

Right place - just 26,000

miles out

e Of CW operators,
e Di-dah-di-dah-dit

cats, dogs, tea, tuna

e About the CQ QRS

Group

& coffee

Well well well.... wasn’t Tuesday’s net interesting?

The Bureau of

Meteorology’s Space Weather Services predicted difficult conditions
following two solar flares - and the prediction was right.

We all had fun,

but things were challenging.
Our DXperiment stations in the UK (Chris G7BED
of London

and

Simon

F/MOKB}

near Avignon

struggled this week - Chris managed

in the East Midlands North

in the South

a single 20m

of France)

long-path QSO with

Kevin VK3KEV at Seymour (both were using simple wire antennas)

before

the band dropped out, but Simon just wasn’t being heard down this way.
~

norn

RSS

Uur operators on 4Uum struggled with QSB and 8UM wasn't pertorming as
well as expected either - there was even a Sudden

lonospheric Disturbance

experienced.
However, there were still smiles all around - what a great net!

However,
team

| was

mate

sad to hear of our

Max VK6FN
.

-‘Beamed-Power’ ANTENNAS, “BALUNS”

1. V. KITS and ROTATOR SYSTEMS!

Manjimup who lost his beautiful

Telrex Christmas Tree array
(sta
a

C ked
U

2 O ,
.

1 5

a Nn d
'

1 O | } )
ro

g | S)

tek

nas,

‘favorite

essories!

Rey

Expanded
hand,

MAT

ERIAL DIFFERENCE!
Hib aa MATERIAL
DIED?

— with

‘SSTENS 4

data

also

(

testimonials of endorsement, and Telrex
products are in use in 139 Lands

Finest

rater

Results

You, too—can enjoy World renown TELREX
Ser tOcERANice and value!
eles
PL67 tech
ata
¢
‘icing Catalog,
describing the

Max was remarkably positive

iealg oi

“TOP-MAN-ON-THE-FREQUENCY”

rorld’s. west DOpeiae spinice ded aotane

}

acral

“and “Balun” Fed fr "Balanced Patter” to assur

during this week’s net.
o,

| Nn

happened d

CK\

AAI\
HANNS
:

rty

;

See

Availanic,

nan

iL,

Enxheaten

/ FOX istercicres‘
ASBURY

PARK,

NEW

JERSEY

07712,

U.S.A.

about the situation during
Wednesday’s
Morsum,

post-

and was already looking forward to something

bigger and better!

I’m pretty proud that our team can bring such pleasure that even in the
face of such a disaster, our mate could keep smiling;
tough 12 months.

he’s had a pretty

And | know Max isn’t the only one who gets such

Satisfaction out of Morse code and our team.
Thanks to all our contributors this week - as usual we had lots and lots of
contributors - 30 this time.

And a special thank you to Warren VK3BYD,

one of our keen SOTA and Parks operators from Wangaratta who
responded to last week’s article by Ross MONNK and my question about
rapid antenna set-up.
This week, we’ve continued our series about interesting reads relating to
CW and we have also started a section on answers to questions you might
have relating to CW, amateur radio and the like.

| hope you can make the

time to enjoy the read.

Last Tuesday’s

Group

Here’s this week’s list of the 60 stations heard or worked

by our 39 family

members:
CQQRS Team
Member

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

Heard 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 80m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

QSO 1

QSO 2

QSO 3

QSO 4

QsO 5

QSO 6

acest

QSO 7

QSO 8

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

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

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

Masthead

Image

And thanks this week to Simon

F/MOKB] for the early morning

portable set-up next to a vineyard
France.

near Avignon

photo of his

in the Provence region of

Nice place to be - pity that propagation wasn’t playing the game

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/CQQORSNET

Please help attract new and old team
your report each week.

members to have a go by submitting

Submissions close 1300 (Eastern Australian time) on

Thursday.
Website

If you'd like to find out a bit about our net, or would like to pass information
to others about our Tuesday get-togethers, here’s the link to our website.
bit.ly/COORSWebsite

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.

So the spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s
Group;

the comments

distilled from the team

Comments:

From Nic VK7WW

at Legana, TAS

[40m]
¢ Severely limited over Easter
with family socials...but son
Marcus seems very interested in
AR and especially CW

!! “Knock

me over with a feather” He’s now
talking of getting his licence!.
[80m]
¢ Heard 3 ZLs going for it on high
speed CW training on 3580!
Great!.

[Wow!

Interesting question

follows that - what is it about CW
that seems to be attracting
~

members’

reports follow:

younger memobersr

Certainly

wouldn't happen in my day!]

The Don Edwards Memorial Slow Morse Contest 202aam

From Donald

VK6JDM

at 20 km west of Esperance WA
[40m]
¢ Lots and lots of good signals on
40 tonight. | had not been on air
for over
a month due to work and family
matters getting in the way. Found
myself struggling to decode

Morse

tonight despite a lot of people
sending very clear sounding code.
On sending

| seemed

to be using

left foot instead of
fist, so after one QSO with Peter
who |

accused of being Mark (the one who is leading me down the path of Morse
depravity), | decided to just listen and try to get the Morse cogs In my brain
to function again; they clearly need oiling and the backlash adjusted before
| try sending again..

[®]

From Jim Semmens

VK7JZ at Hobart

[40m]
e Really enjoyed tonight, two
Stations worked
make a QSO

and each time |

| am getting better.

Was really pleased to hear
VK3ECH/MM,

and to hear his MM

QTH was Lakes Entrance as this Is
my home town where | grew up.
QTH

Unfortunately after getting call sign and

it started to fade in and out for me.

| will be listening next week and

in a couple of weeks Operating QRP from Lakes Entrance myself..

From

Armin

VK2GAS

at Norwest

[40m]
¢ ZI3TK, sorry Stan, conditions
were not good enough...

¢ | am Sure we can nave a good
contact one day. Working ZL
cannot be that hard..
¢ Regards from "Gruyere"
VK2GAS.

[Ok - I'll bite Armin... Gruyere?]

From John VKS5ET at Hope Valley

[40m]
e Listened in to few stations
enjoying long QSO's... good
receiving practice :-)

Not many

others heard or worked tonight
though.
[80m]
¢ Only 3 stations heard, 2 QSO's,
very quiet. Noisy on 20m..

From David VK6KD/P

at Esperance (Pink Lake CV Park)

[40m]
¢ Caravan

parks are no place for

working 40m. S8 to s9 noise floor.
But still workable..
[80m]
The air canditiert

¢ Working 80m

ee
Yeah. I LOVE camping!

From Simon

F/MOKB]

near Avignon,

not good due to high noise levels.
Played a lot with filters and made
it work..

France

[80m]
¢ A disappointing day and | can't
quite fathom why. | heard at least
one VK station and RBN showed
my signals getting out well but
after a lot of work, only one in the
log..
¢ | was on 20m

pushing out 20W

into a vertical antenna on the
edge of a vineyard in Provence..

1 Simon MOKBJ

inside a caravan

1 Simon MOKBJ

LDitticult conditions today, not helped by rocky soll
that didnt let my ground spike get a qood earth.
Still there's lots to enjoy. Last evening, Jo and |
visited the incredible feat of Roman engineering
which is the Pont du Gard aqueduct.
Ge

Bonjour et bonsoir mes amis. I'm calling CQ DE F/
MIOKB! from the edge of a vineyard near Pont du
Gard, near Avignon on 14046KHz. Not very fast
and | can go as slow as you like.

255 pp

[Bad luck Simon - but thank you
for trying.

The double solar flare

may have caused trouble
somewhere along the long path.
In a RagChew last year, Ross
MONNK and Mike DL3YZ did an
interesting bit of analysis on the
hops associated with propagation
around the world - amazing that
anything ever gets through!
Where-to for you both now?]

From Roy VKO6RR at Geraldton
NNN

| | KNW\\\
|

[40m]

N \
\

¢ Had good QSO with Phil and
Rich. Not many readable sigs and
had to leave QRS early..

From Jordan VK3ACU

at Elaine
[40m]
¢ Headed

out for an overnight

camp at a friend's property in
Elaine, Victoria. | brought along
my QRP rig and a 20-meter endafed half-wave antenna. The
location was wonderfully quiet,
Made afew contacts out camping last night 5-6 something like that but felt a
bit antisocial keying away while everyone else was by the fire €2

3) 2

works

well

cockatoos made concentrating a
bit of a challenge at times, it was

| Jordan VESACU

| Jordan VKAACU

5 Watts into an inverted-

Snag 5 contacts. While the noisy

1 Mark VK2ZK!I Bosma

Love the Blu Tack mod!

Running

L configuration, | managed

~James Semmens

Fab setup....

le) Image

with fantastic signal reports.

still a great night out, and
portable operating remains one of
my favourite aspects of the
Nobby..
[It’s a hobby?

Why wasn't | told?]

From

Lance

VK7TO

at Hobart

[40m]
e What a great evening.

| got on

early hoping someone would be
about, and
was greeted by Brian, ZL3XD]..
e That was followed by Skip,
VK2ALR who was a new call for
my log.

It was

nice to hear an accomplished
Station join the net for the first
time with the goal of supporting
learners..
¢ | found myself inadvertently
going a little faster than would be
helpful
for new ops with those first two
QSOs, so aS a way of penance,
put out my

next CQ call with a very slow
pace. It

was answered

by Jordan, VK3ACU.

Of course, at those speeds only a brief

QSO takes a while, but we got to say hi to each other..
e It was then time for dinner and some family time before calling again
later
in the evening, to be answered

by Tony, VK3CTM,

also a new contact for

me,
who was operating on his veranda.

He was either brave or very thick

Skinned, as it was far to chilly here to even think about being outdoors..
[80m]
e Later, with no new stations on
40 m that | could copy, | moved
down to 80m.

After calling fora

while, | was answered
VK3ECH.

by Rob,

It was not

the easiest copy, but assuming

It got later tne band would open
further,
so pushed on.

Rob was at anchor

in his yacht near Lake's Entrance;
the first MM stations I've worked.
| was really

enjoying our chat about boats when the band simply died for me.
only

receiving intermittent dits and dahs and thought it more

polite to interrupt him and
void.

| was

sign off, than let him keep sending into the

In hindsight, | should have

Suggested we QSY to 40 m.

Sorry Rob, | hope it didn't come across as rude.

look forward to

continuing the conversation another time..
e All in all, another thoroughly enjoyable evening on the key..
[Fabulous report, thanks Lance;

| appreciate how much time and effort it

takes to write such a comprehensive report - thank you.

Interesting to

speculate on the cause of such Sudden lonospheric Disturbances especially when mixed in with the predicted impact of the double solar
flare on Tuesday.

Had you in fact been able to try 40m,

given us some further guide about what happened.
more folks we get on our CQQRS

that would have

And of course, the

WhatsApp groups, the better our chances

of being able to use it as a back channel for liaison in case of such things
happening.

Well done Lance.]

From Manny

VK3DRQ

at Blackburn

[20m]
¢ On 20m

G7BED

332 and very QSB,

was only RSN
| called but

didn't receive any answer. Waited
for about half an hour but no
luck..
e F/MOKB] was not here to be
seen..
From Richard VK6HRC

at Padbury
[20m]
e The local RBN

heard G7BED

calling, but | forgot to take note of
the signal report ( sri ).
e But | listened to the DX activity
on a local Kiwi SDR - hoping for
better conditions next time.
[40m]
e In spite of average conditions |
managed

to get two contacts in

the log using my FT817 @5W.

From Kevin VK3KEV

[20m]

at Seymour

¢ Chris G7BED
here.

was a firm signal

| think | got lucky as he had

QSB during the QSO.
e | have an 80m
10m

half wave dipole

up between trees. It is

aligned NE/SW -good for DX into
Europe.

| was using approx 60W

via an Icom IC-706 Mk2G
purchased

back in 2008.73

Kevin

From your editor Mark VK2KI

at Beautiful South Bowning

NSW

[20m]

e At the start of the net, | could
hear Kevin VK3KEV down at
Seymour working our newest
team

member,

Chris G7BED

Northamptonshire who was using
his dipole up 12m.
coming through
NSW

Chris was

into Southern

RSN 421, but of course, |

was struggling to copy Kevin in
the 20m skip zone.

When

they

finished, it was
on for young an old... Sava VK4PN
Melbourne

near Brisbane, Manny VK3DRQ

and | (near nowhere

(we're all gentlemen

after all) at calling Chris.

near

in particular) all took turns
Chris and | were liaising via

our WhatsApp Alerts group so | could tell him who was transmitting when but unfortunately, Chris wasn't able to copy any of us, despite our best
efforts at keying nicely;

the signals were going down

hill as well, so it

looked like Kevin won the Easter egg this week..
¢ We all also listened out for Simon
Avignon

F/MOKB] portable at a vineyard near

in the Provence region of France;

we could hear who he was

working in Europe, but there was no sign of our travelling duo down this
way in either VK2 or VK6..
[40m]
¢ On 40m

| hooked

up with Jordan VK3ACU

pedition... must be all of 1Okm

at a spot called Elaine (DX-

away from is place) for quick chat;

John VK5ET and | had a nice little rag chew.

frequency and sent a few test calls to see if | was making
Reverse Beacon
webpage

Network receivers;

then

| then slid up to the K-Marker

nothing popped

it into any of the

up on the RBN

(perhaps transmitting on the K-Marker

frequency wasn't

such a clever idea!) but Skip VK2ALR did - so we had a chat..
¢ | heard Donald VK6JDM from near Esperance coming through

into NSW,

but by
the time | got my TS-120S netted to his frequency,
him.

Peter VK6IS had hooked

| then came across Jim VK7JZ in Hobart chatting to Tim VK3TBR

Horsham.

Such a dilemma

- who to call?

Jim was the unlucky winner this

time, and we had a nice chat..
[80m]
e After a late dinner, | slipped down to 80m
number of people on.

and was very pleased to hear a

| tried to catch David VK6KD/P

portable in

Esperance,

but Peter VK6IS hooked
en

him instead;

signals were pretty marginal from

Vavid..
¢ | noticed that all signals were down somewhat on 80m from normal even the
East coast stations were noticeably weaker than usual;

there was a Space

Weather Services warning about a double flare affecting conditions - so
we'll go with that as the explanation.

Either the D-layer didn't quite

dissipate as expected, or the F-layer wasn't strong enough to support
propagation... but there were signals on 40m

(which would require a

stronger F-layer for refraction) - so who knows?.

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI
VK6SR

Remote

at via the Southern

Electronics Group

near Perth and KiwiSDR near Northam

[20m]
e This week when
Southern

| listened on the

Electronics Group

KiwiSDR
near Northam, there was no sign
of our DXperimenters

in the UK or

Europe..
[80m]
¢ This week | played a trick on the
Southern

Electronics Group

Remote station at Bedfordale
South of Perth.
Once again, it coupled nicely into the big Marconi-Tee antenna antenna
above and
the SWR

below our little segment of the band, but refused to bring

below 2.7:1

somewhere

where | wanted to operate.

along the line, the

Some odd LC mixes in its memory
doesn't work.

| suspect that

automatic coupler had got
and defaulted to

something that

So instead, | did a tune below our segment

(3539kKHz - just one KHz lower than our bit), and the remote returned a
Nappy 1:1

SWR

report.

operate in our bit of the
database: stored

caitlin

AOD

| left the coupler set like that and was able to
band..

dicts ics

¢ Again, signals werent strong,

but workable.
moved

As the evening

on, |

again saw on the Northam
KiwiSDR the auroral buzz creeping
up the band.

| moved

up a

bit

higher to where the band was
clear and was Nappy to chat
to both Sava VK4PN

near Brisbane and David VK6KD/P at Esperance.

Toward the
end, the buzz had got to where | was working..
¢ So overall, a terrific night for me once again.
was on air - very much

From

Peter VK6IS

[40m]

appreciated..

at Wundowie

Thank you to everyone who

¢ the band is still fairly quiet, until

after 1700 local.

Soe rial, We See
a

555.000 _ cS e-|

ee a

[80m]
e this band is fairly quiet, as well,
as

most stations are heard an bit

later on..

From

Stan

ZL3TK

at Waitarere

Beach

[40m]
e Learned

| should have taken

more notice of valuable signal
report RSN 598 before embarking
on a non-contextual data string.
Despite S9,

N8 proved a killer.

Apologies to OM Clive ZL1C)B,
thank you for trying so hard..
[Slowly, slowly folks are starting
to appreciate the value of the RSN
reports Stan;

thank you for

introducing RSN to the CQQRS
net.]

From

Paul

VK3KLE

at Stawell

[40m]
e VK3ACU Jordan was camping
and operating QRP.

So the copy

took some concentration

but was

also quite a bit of fun too. Most
stations had QSB
SO Signal fade was strong . The
operators

were

smart

enough

stay with standard format QSO
these conditions making

it easy to

compensate for a few missed
letters
here and there.
e Avery enjoyable evening
e Regards,

in any case..

Paul.

From Phil VK6GX

at Gidgegannup
[40m]
e Very few VK6 stations during
the afternoon, but quite a few
East coast and ZL stations heard
on the East Beverage, which is
still on the ground, but too weak
to work on my just repaired 80m
Flat Top Delta Loop. The session

Was CUT Snort by approacning
thunderstorms, which also
prevented evening 80m

operation

and only cleared inland
Wednesday arvo..

[80m]
¢ Local thunderstorms

prevented operation during the evening..

And finally...
Missing in action this week was Andy VK5LA;
his mum

- away camping

Post Morsum

somewhere

but we did get a note from

nice in Victoria.

Report

From Richard VK6HRC
Six on the AllStar/ Echolink and linked SW repeater hub this morning.
VK6KD/P

David

VK5ET

John

VK6QI

Mark

VK6FN

Max

VK6HRC
VK6MRB

swil and others

David and Pauline now in an electrically noisy caravan

park Esperance WA

They even had a chance meetup with a local celebrity VK6JDM
coffee shop in town.

David managed

at the local

to work on 40Mx and 80 Mx in spite

of the 8/9 noise but is planning on moving further East along the coast and
to a quieter

spot hopefully.

John had fun on 40Mx and observed that when the band got busy you had
to queue up and jump in when

a QSO ended otherwise no contact ! He is

also planning on being on the net next Tuesday.
Mark had a go listening out and trying to work the DX stations on 20 Mx as
well as a fair few locals.
woth Chris G7BED

Mark reported that Kevin VK3KEV

in spite of the average conditions.

made contact

Mark worked five on

40 Mx, heard seven and on 80 Mx worked two and heard another four
while also multitasking monitoring

multiple Kiwi SDR receivers and spotting

on WhatsApp - great job thank you.
Max had just got going chatting to Phil VkK6GX on Tuesday arvo but had to
sign off quickly when

he received a phone call letting him know that a

bushfire was approaching

his boundary!

The local fire brigade managed

get the blaze under control, but the end result was the loss of his Telrex
Christmas Tree HF array, his Northern fence-line lost and multiple gates
left open - so hopefully the cattle made
of

oon

it to safety.

Max was having to
eu

wall Tor daylignt beTtore neading OUT to get a better idea or tne damage
sustained.

Max reported later that the cattle were all ok;

your property back in order ASAP young
| had hooked

hope you get

Max.

up my FT817 early on made a couple of contacts on 40 Mx

and listened out on various SDRs for my signal and was amazed
results.

Spent most of the evening tuning around

the

listening to wall to wall

great Morse code.
Thanks

to all,

73
Richard VK6HRC

This Week’s

Topic

Interest
Portable Operations
by Warren

VK3BYD

from

Wangaratta

Last week Ross MONNK discussed the question of what’s the bare
minimum

of gear to take portable?

head was...
on air?

But the question buzzing around my

why does it sti// take me an hour to set up an antenna and get

| invited our portable ops gurus to comment....

that Warren stepped up.

and I’m pleased

Warren is one of our frequent SOTA and VKFF

Parks operators - and here’s his secrets to getting on aur quickly in the
field.
| have always kept my gear simple, light and easy to set up in the field and
generally it takes around

10 minutes for me to have the antenna system

ready to go.
The

Bundle

While | carry a small 6m squid pole, if there is a tree convenient to my
operating location | will use it instead of the pole.
| carry a 15m throw-line with a small bag on the end that is filled with small
rocks or sand to make

it heavy. The bag was repurposed from a bear bag

kit used by hikers in the USA where bears will steal hikers food so things
need to be out of reach;

for me its small and light to carry.

For antennas 90% of the time | use an end-fed wire and external ATU.
the other 10%

| have a doublet fed with open wire feeder.

principles are the same,
go;

both antennas have 3mm

rope attached

ready to

for the end-fed its 7m on the far end and 3m at the radio end. The

doublet is 4m at each end and there’s a loop in the centre to attach the
centre point to the throw line or squid pole.

For

Regardless the

The strap then the doublet are on the left,
throw line in the centre
and the end-fed is on the right.
All three of these

and wound

in a

items

are stored

on winders

made

out of corflute

figure-8 method.

For the end-fed, the far end goes on the winder first;
start at one end and wind the entire antenna
winder.

board

with the centre-fed, |

including feeder onto one

| have found the centre-fed unwinds with no tangles using this

method.
Setting up the squid pole takes around the same effort, | have found they
will stay up with little support.

| use a short strap from the local hardware

to hold the bottom against a tree and on the very rare occasions it needs
guying the antenna and the throw line make

up the guys.

Wire

For the doublet, | used a pair of wires from a 15m Cat5 patch cable.
top is 13.8m end-to-end with a feeder length of 4.9m.

The

There was some

mathematics around these sizes but it was also about keeping size of the
footprint down.

For matching

As for the end-fed,

| use an EmTech

ZM2

auto-tuner.

| have three different ones:

e Two are simple wires, one of 22m and the other is 14m - and for
matching

| use an L-Match tuner.

e The third is an end-fed half wave which | have trapped to get 40, 30,
20, put a link in for 17m

& a high impedance coil for 15m.

antenna,

external

| use a simple

half wave

matching

For this

unit from

QRP

Kits
My 6m counterpoised
Wire

is used for all three end-feds.

size, is mostly what | could get my hands on.

| have some very light-

weight and thin wire with about 6 steel strands and a synthetic fibre core.
My other favourite is figure-8 speaker wire generally a light to medium
type.

Over the years | have
experimented

with various

antenna types.
sor

unt

The above are the
1

oat

VK3BYD
\

fhe

Matar

atta

ones

| Tall-OaCcK to aS | TINa Them

Dor

the easiest to use in the field.
Cheers,
Warren

[Thanks Warren - something for me to aspire to - on air in less than 10
minutes! ]

If you have an article or two that you think might be of interest to our
readers, please let me know so we can share more thoughts and ideas;
email to

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

GM all! I'm looking for a ART-13 Long shot but if you have
one laying around please let me know pic for reference

1 Gavid

Saw your advert and thought good luck finding one in that condition. | have a few wartime
recervers all working in my collection

be
lcurr
2

Gee &

Liars

“4|

Sia

| might add it doesn't have to be in that condition, looking for a restoration project.

Jordan VWK3ACL

A quick teaser of someone to come

coz pay

The Journey Begins: Restoring a 1955 Military...
a

https://youtu.be/QEES&kY9eTM ?si=bOVIKRSSNUHWm
/RE

C-OF PA!

ue
1 Mark VK2KI Bosma
1 Jondan VKIACU
https://youtu.be/QEESkKY9eTM?si=bOviKRS8NUHWm /RK

Love the music!

Eos PA

Click on the block above

to start the short video...

Other
Other things

In case you

turn

up the volume

News

I’ve received from

missed

and

our 200-plus

readers.

the memo...

From Jens VK4PE:

Good morning Mark
The weather forecast is good for ANZAC

day.

| am planning to operate a slow Morse code station in an
old quarry near my home in Townsville on 20, 30 and 40m.
The centre of my activity will be on 7028 kHz. | will send
the frequency on the CQ QRS in real time tomorrow.
Please find the suggested frequencies attached.
73 Jens vk4pe

7:36AM

= ey

Keep an ear out this weekend for other Operation

Manna

and ANZAC

Day

stations (see my Thursday email for the Army Radio Operators’ website
link), including the VK8OMAN

What

you

special callsign.

must do to retain your Class license callsign.

From Richard VK6HRC
Important

if we want to maintain our Callsign / Licence.

https://youtu.be/UGgtkUj6fxg?si=kungPaww-f_9cNgV
Cheers
Richard
[Thanks Richard - another excellent YouTube
fof

video from Hayden
one

VK7HH -

tnis time about tne steps you must take to renew your new Ciass licensea
callsign.
The new Class amateur radio license expires after five years - and
following the modern doctrine of making the customer do the routine work,
the ACMA

has now left it up to licensees to renew their callsign allocation

every five years - according to Hayden,
that our licenses are about to expire!

we will no longer receive reminders
We are somehow expected to keep

track of this ourselves.
Easy enough for those among us who use computer/ophone reminders... as
long as we are confident that the reminders will still work in four years
time.... software updates, applications no-longer available, replacement
computers or phones... and how will your computer skills be by then?
But what about the significant proportion of amateurs who are no-longer
able to sort through the mire of computer applications,
instance, do you have a “digital
ACMA

websites etc?

For

ID” - necessary to establish a log-in on the

website?

Hayden’s video will helo - but | reckon a significant proportion of us will
struggle, and unfortunately, give up!

Clubs and groups like ours can help

of course.... but from what I’ve seen, lots of our older amateurs drift away
from such clubs.... and unless they have a teenage computer supporter....
who knows how they will cope?
By the way, I’m always happy to help any of our team with this sort of
thing (while | can anyway!) - and | reckon we have others who can also do
the same.

So if you’re worried about whether or not your license Is still

current, please send me an email, and I'll see if | (or someone near you)
can help: cggrsnet@gmail.com /

Morse Training
Our team

Net

member

Nic VK7WW

every Wednesday

at 7pm

runs an on-air Slow Morse training net

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

Jordan

VK3ACU

Clarke

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
Eastern time every Wednesday;
you'll hear lots of the CQQRS
team on that net.

Jordan VK3ACU

is recording this round of training
lessons - you'll find the link to the
YouTube

SLOW

MORSE

CODE

COURSE

recordings on our

website here:
bit.ly/COORSWebsite then navigate to: useful-resources-and-links
Contact Nic VK7WW

for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com

including

how to join the NTARC

DISCORD

group to follow the action, or just come

along and join in on Wednesdays.

After

Starlink?

From

David

Pauline and
home

VK6KD

back

| are now

in WA.

back

in our

state of WA.

While walking around

Esperance |

think | found the next ARISS
tracking antenna for my back
yard, hihi. The old wind-tracking
antenna was located at the
Esperance

Auroral
from

museum.

Buzz

the editor Mark VK2KI

In the RagChew

/ VK6QI

newsletter last week and the week before, | talked about

auroral scintillation, and | posed a question about what I've called "auroral
buzz", and in particular, why it appears as 'blobs' of noise in the frequency
/ time domain on a waterfall display.
database: stored

| can visualise the effects of scintillation (discussed last week - rapid
fluctuation of radio-frequency signal phase and/or amplitude, generated as
a signal passes through the ionosphere), but not what appears to be either
generated

noise or selective propagation of noise from another source (eg
!

sun noise, galactic noise, etc) In auroral activity.

| also wondered

wny tne

noise appears to usually move slowly from lower frequency to higher
frequency?

Why not just appear across the whole band?

| didn’t get any comment from our reader so | thought I’d check in with
Roger Harrison VK2ZTB, who has had professional experience with
ionospheric propagation;

Roger is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Wireless

Institute of Australia’s Amateur Radio magazine..

Here’s what Roger

thought:
Howdy all.
The "auroral buzz" heard on RF signals traversing the polar ionosphere
(with or without an auroral display being present) is a form of ionospheric
scintillation (as BoM's SWS website explains so eloquently). The
scintillation is a form of modulation of the RF signal by small perturbations
in the ionospheric electron content in the path of the signal. Both
amplitutude and phase changes of the RF signal result.
Electrons from solar CMEs are captured

by the Earth's magnetic field,

which gets bent out of shape by the passing CME

rather like a spring,

which consequently oscillates like a loose spring. Those captured electrons
spiral down the magnetic field lines, and are accelerated (think - surfing)
by low frequency,
are known

long wavelength waves in the spring oscillations. These

as Alfven waves. The accelerated electrons plunge down

the

magnetic field lines in the polar regions, colliding with molecules in the
ionosphere, causing light to be emitted that we see as aurora. All the
while, the Alfven waves are modulating the plunging electrons. As |
understand

it, the Alfven waves

range in frequency from around one-tenth

Hertz to a a few tens of Hertz, hence the "auroral buzz." Don't mistake the
ripples you see in the aurora for Alfven waves, they result from other solargeomagnetic

interactions.

The Alfven waves

might be likened to a self-excited free-running LF

oscillator (even multiple ones), that drifts. Hence, the nature of the
scintillation drifts. All this may well account for your observations on HF
signals set out below.
The distinct lower edge you see on auroral curtains occurs at an altitude of
about 100 km. This is where the plunging electrons spiralling down the
magnetic field lines are pulled-up by the strength of the field, then turn
around to spiral back up the field lines. As you can appreciate, many,
electrons are compressed

many

into a small space in the vicinity of 100 km,

moving at considerable speed. This current - ranging up to 5 million amps
or more - forms a strong magnetic field of its own, which readily induces
currents in conductors on the ground
transmissions lines.
That's the simple explanation.
Disclosure:

| am

below; conductors like power

| trust it will be enough for now.

not an auroral physicist, or even a physicist. In 1969, |

worked as a technical assistant for the AAD Auroral Physicist, Major Fred
Bond

PhD. | was encouraged to learn a lot about auroral physics, auroral

phenomena

and maintained this interest in following decades.

| worked as

a geophysics technical officer at Casey Station over 1970-71, doing
geophysical traverses on the Law Ice Dome.

During spare time there, | was

fortunate to learn of and discuss lots of ionospheric physics (plus quantum
physics and beer brewing) with the station's ionospheric physicist, Dr Gerry
Walter.
Cheers for now, Roger VK2ZRH
Thanks Roger;

| followed up with more questions (of course):

“From your

description, | can visualise the arriving 0.1 to 10s of Hertz Elfven waves
contributing to buzzing component of the ionospheric scintillations.
wonder though what such scintillations are modulating at the low HF
c

Trequencies¢

UVoes tne arriving solar radiation Itselt carry tne noise (ie sun-

noise) that gets modulated

perhaps?

If the Elfven waves vary in

frequency, would that perhaps only vary the shape of the blobs on the
waterfall display rather than the often upward

drift of the signals on 80m?

Interesting!”
Hopefully Roger will come

back to me with more thoughts.

Isn’t it interesting how the web-based
accessible to us mere mortals?

lice

Who

wal

eae

knows their snakes

KiwiSDRs make this sort of thing

ibe

1 Mark VK2KI Bosma

stomping to gently send it on its way?

41-40.AM

| Jordan VEZACU

Yep after both dogs jumped

right over it

11-44 AM

1 Mark VK2KI Bosma

Yes, unfortunately pets are the usual victims of snake bites in Australia. &2)

11:47 AM

1 Jordan VK3SACU

Yep lost a good dog once before that way suckS

54-45 ay)

1 VKIHF
1 Jordan VE34CU

(4 Image
The famous Australian ‘bad snake" |

1205 PM

I've heard the same thing from three separate sources. A stockman

up in Qld whose dog was bitten by a snake was told by a vet too
far away to save the dog was to dose the dog up with vitamin C.

The dog survived. Talking to some very knowledgeable horse
people over in WA and they said the same thing. And some
paramedics in outback Qld said it did more good than harm. So we

carry the strongest vitamin powder we

can find. Obviously orange

juice, oranges, kiwi fruit etc are good too. We never go in the bush
without our snake bandages, especially when out detecting for

gold in some of the remote spots we seem to find ourselves in.
12382M

1 Mark VK2KI Bosma
You
've heard the same thing from three separate sources. A
stockman up in Qld whose dog was bitten by a snake w...

1 Jordan VK3ACU
*-

How To Treat A Snake Bite - Australian...
Australia is home to the most venomous snakes on

ihe cinnice yer voc Nota

144 came yea hari

https://youtu.be/SJuclFnpXyQ?si=nMPlh2Dxsp-YUV3C

| make a point of watching this every year some good info

Very good advice from Jordan - click on the
image above.

[didn’t know that John. Not sure if our cat will be
able to peel an orange... but you never know?

oY:

The things you find when searching through your email Spam / Junk folders
- | found this from Peter VK6IS - President of FISTS:
Hi Mark,

The things that you find, when there is No CW Activity....
http://vkcw.wikidot.com/qgtt
which was replaced by this. .
http://30cw.wikidot.com/gtt
which then leads to here. .
https://www.no5nn.org/att/
- - These are the TOP 5 kHz of each exclusive CW

band section. - -

"Over the years there have been many calls for “HF CW Calling
Frequencies”.
Indeed the founder of FISTS intended the FISTS frequencies to be calling
frequencies, with QSY after establishing QSO. This did not however
materialise, although

it was successful some years ago in VK with 7050.

- back then, by LOU VK5EEE 73
Peter
vk6is
aka - still promoting CW

The

in the Wild Western

Code

Frontiers.

Shelf

What have you been reading lately?
Compiled on the track somewhere by John VK2RU
The Victorian Internet by Tom
Standage is a surprisingly fun and
eye-opening

read, especially if

you like history with a twist of
tech.

It draws this fascinating parallel
between the invention of the

1 \/ICTORIAN

telegraph in the 19th century and

the rise of the internet in the

\NTERNET

20th. Standage takes what could
be a pretty dry topic and turns it
into a fast-paced story full of
quirky inventors, unexpected
rivalries, and even some early
forms of online dating (yes,
really).

What’s great about the book is how it makes you realise that a lot of the
excitement,

hype, and even anxiety we associate with the internet today

actually happened

over 150 years ago—just with wires and Morse code

instead of fibre optics and Wi-Fi. It’s not super technical, so even if you're
not a history buff or a techie, it's still really accessible. All in all, it’s a fun,
thoughtful read that gives you a fresh perspective on how history kind of
repeats itself—just in slightly updated

packaging.

But one moming he made him a slender wire,
As an artist's vision took life and form,
While

drew

from

That reddens the
And

carried

heaven

the

strange,

edge of the midnight
it over

the

Mountain's

fierce

fire

storm;
crest,

And dropped it into the Ocean's breast;
And Science proclaimed, from shore to shore,
That Time and Space ruled man no more,
—from "The Victory," a poem written
in tribute to Samuel Morse, 1672

Although the practical working of it had been demonstrated on a
small scale, the invention seemed altogether too chimerical to be
likely ever to prove of any worth. Again and again he was
pronounced a visionary, and his scheme stigmatized as ridiculous,
—from the NEW YORK
of Samuel Morse, 1873

TIMES

obituary

Free book download

Morse's original telegraph. Winding the handle (L) forced the
toothed rack through the transmitting apparatus (P), making and
breaking the circuit. At the receiving end, the intermittent current
was recorded as a zigzag line on a moving tape (A) by deflecting a
pencil (G) with an electromagnet.

here - https://archive.org/details/vdoc.pub_the-

victorian-internet-the-remarkable-story-of-the-telegraph-and-the-ni

If you've read something that you think might be of interest to our readers,
please let me know so we can share more thoughts and ideas;

email to

cqarsnet@gqmail.com

There’s

Such

Thing...
This week’s questions.
| think the first lesson in Teachering

101 is to always tell students “There’s

no such thing as...” (you know the rest) and “...the only dumb questions
are the ones

not asked”.

John VK2RU

reckons that there’s lots of questions out there among

both

our new and our experienced operators - about CW, amateur radio
operating and about theory.
So John didn’t step backwards quickly enough when
compile readers’ questions;

asked to volunteer to

thanks mate.

So here we go...
Question:

Please explain what this means -

1 Mark VE2KI Bosma

[12-04-25 1:53:43] VK2DI

on AU-G8 7? - 14.032 CW. *Mark [iPnP]

Okay, | can work out that VK2DI
if | make

what

information

From

your editor - VK2KI

/ VK6QI

Well

as it turns out - | can

answer this one!

When

contact,

what

is CW on 14.032,

And

will VK2DI

information
send

but what is AU-9877?

does VK2DI

want from

me,

and

me?

an Australian or New Zealand operator is on a Summits On The Air

(SOTA), VKFF (VK Flora and Fauna)

Parks, POTA (Parks on the Air) or similar

activation, they can use one of a number of smart-phone type tools to
advertise that they are on air looking for contacts (eg | use our team
member VK6AYL’s

iParksnpeaks iPhone app, a lot of others use VK Port-a-

log).
Now another of our team

members, Allen VK3ARH

at Lal Lal runs a server

that receives such posts and consolidates them onto a single webpage
www.parksnpeaks.org - this is also where many users post Alerts advising
of forthcoming SOTA or PARKS activations, or Spots - which is when they
are actually on air - and they (if they have phone coverage) or others
advise that the station is on air on such-and-such a frequency.
Now here’s the especially good bit for us CW fans.... if there’s a Spot on
Allen’s website from an VK or ZL where the mode is shown as CW - the
server sends out an SMS to those who have asked for it - so what you see
above is a copy of the SMS that | received about one of our team members
(Mark VK2DI in this case), which I’d copy/pasted to our CQQRS

Alerts group.
So in the alert above, AU-9877

refers to the POTA park reference number -

which happens to be Whiting State Park Beach.

See below for more about

this.

Question

from

lan VK1HF:

Question to the engineering minded out there... lets say you have a few
options for a given day for transmission of your ORP signal, which one do you
choose..;

1. TX from
2. IX from
high
3. TX from
4. TX from

the top of a rocky mountain
the top of a ‘wet’ hill - grassed etc. Not as high at Opt 1 but still
a valley - high water table
a valley - VERY dry ground - like a desert etc

5. From beside a beach (salt water)
6. From beside a lake

lets assume you can chop and change all at exactly the same time, same radio,
same antenna, same power, same mode, same HF WX, same Freq etc.
Assume : 40/20 Mitrs

which would result in the best signal form an RX (skip) perspective ?
| had always thought a valley with a high water table, .e. wet ground (opt 3)

Weird question | know.. but just something | would like to understand a bit
better. | get the feeling when | am motorbike QRP | often make bad choices in
this regard - impacting my TX signal efficacy etc
if you ACTUALLY do know (at an engineering level) that's great but practical
experience responses welcome also.. feel free to just rate the options in order
also.
Poll to follow - but free form also welcomed

Which TX option do you think is best for QRP as ber question

above

a3 AM

—-

spor

ccre

cere

Select one or more

1. TX from the top of a rocky
mountain
¢. 1X from the top of a ‘wet hill grassed etc. Not as high at Opt 1 but

still high

3. TX from a valley - high water table
4, TX from a valley - VERY dry
ground - like a desert etc

5. From

beside a beach (salt water)

6. From

beside a lake

I Jordan VK3ACU

Great question 2 and Streckon

= ip-25 ans
al

1 VKIHF

nearby where | go (2

at
hte

| Dean

Missed 7. getting the radio out of the box €5

Question:

| often hear operators calling CQ WWFF,

10:28. AM

CQ POTA, CQ SOTA

etc. Who does the caller want to hear a reply from? What information do
they want to receive? What information will they send?

From

your editor - VK2KI

/ VK6QI

Well - perhaps | can answer this one too!

multiple selections allowed (:). | typically don't have a beahc
beLiha
ary

Many SOTA and Parks activators are trying to work as many stations as
they can (to qualify for an ‘activation’ of that particular location);
QSOs are bare minimum

so most

- callsigns, RST exchange, and possibly names -

that’s it.
Although this might sound unfriendly, from the activator’s perspective they’re very happy to work as many as they can... but they’re usually
limited by battery capacity, activation time, wanting to give as many
‘chasers’ as possible an opportunity, the incoming weather, etc - so it’s
wham-bam,

next?

However, there’s an upside.... for new operators, it’s a terrific opportunity very basic QSOs with a bare minimum

information exchanged.

The other side is that many SOTA and Parks activators are themselves CW
novices.... so they'll usually go slow if you call at a QRS speed.

Question:

What

is RBN

and

how

do |

use

it?

[Over to our readers - please send me your thoughts for next week’s
RagChew (including some images from the website if possible please?)
cqgrsnet@gmail.com

Do you have a question or two that are worth sharing?
discussion-starter?

How about a

Please let me know cqgrsnet@gmail.com

and I/’// pass

them to John VK2RU for compilation each week. ]

| Hear
You

never know

Tell...
who’s

listening!

Why were a couple of our team discussing a Texas house of ill repute this
week | wonder?

Which one of our team went away camping for Easter.... but just happened
to loop back via a different destination to pick up a new boat anchor?
sure his wife would

Blame

I’m

have been overjoyed with his new acquisition.

the internet?

Which one of our team sent an email from a rural location... but bumped
into the recipient in a café before it got there?

| hear tell that our sometime carpenter and apprentice Croweater Peter

VK7KPC

has been making great progress building his new shack on the

South coast of SA.

The good news for Peter is that he now has a Bunnings only 6km away luxury!

| Nigel G4RWI!

Gs00d evening. In the Chiltern Hills. Bletchley Park tomorrow and then off to
lreland for a month
BB PM

ee
1 Mark VK2ZKI Bosma
7

-Gangrey
J
=

——
sehen
Vin sanmandah
sBaorhmorth

G:07 Phe

I Nigel G4RWI

Exactly, other than it's in the wrong place by 26,000 miles

4-35 py,

1 Mark VK2KI Bosma

Interesting how the UK, Italy, Germany and neighbours have used so many
Aussie place names.
794 OM

1 VKIHF

Haha...when | started driving when | became an adult and then when | first
went to the UK | was amazed how they named so many of their places after
towns in Victoria!
750 4

Bit of fun in the West on Tuesday evening....
Richard VKGPZT & Shelley Ayre

No QRS for me tonight sorry
@ 2

9:31PM

Chris - G7BED Rayner
Holy moly!
9:32PM

Richard VK6PZT & Shelley Ayre

yup ive disconected all my antennas

1 Jens VK4PE

Please forgive me but | have a question.

Screenshot
9:32PM

All my life | think CW operators are for many years connected to cats. %q This
is true since Doug DeMaw developed the legendary Tuna Tin 2. It goes
without saying that we also drink English Breakfast tea with plenty milk.-—
Last weekend | met a CW operator with a dog 9 and he likes coffee. =
What do you think about it?

8-55 PAN

Jaslene
Ro

Huila

Lal

eee

ert

autor

able

Cre

bela

1 Chris G7BED Rayner

Lol, that's how tea should be drunk in my opinion. | am a CWOp, hate cats
(allergic), love dogs, not keen on coffee.
5:02 PM

uf
1 Mark VK2ZKI Bosma
1 Jens VE4PE

Please forgive me but| have a question.

Hmmm. I'm also allergic to cats... and as a rural land-owner who likes birds
(except the ones that attack the fruit trees of course!). Then one day a
beautiful hungry little cat arrived here which we caught in a rabbit trap with
pumpkin and bacon soup as the bait (twice... she got away the first time); but
unlike every other strays (that never lett the property) this one tugged the
heart-strings... and we now like this cat that adopted us. Parallel story... | had
to do the CW test in the early 70s for my AOCP - and hated it so much that |
vowed to never use it again. Well - 50 years later.... [nen again, lve always
liked both coffee and tea... and wine.... and beer... and dogs.... and tuna!

Edited S70 PM

2
Yesterday

1 Jordan VK3ACU
We have two farm cats but "madogCWop

a7 ap,

VK2KI - second operator - keeps watch on Tuesday nights.

[lf you have some intel about other team members...

or even yourself...

that’s worth sharing, please let me Know cgqqrsnet@gmail.com

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here we go.

So back to the CQQRS
Next Tuesday’s

Slow CW QSO

practice net.

Net

Our CQQRS

Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0700z until

about 1300z;

see https://bit.ly/COQQORSWebsite and navigate to the Net

Details page 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

We'll

fun.

There's usually people around until after 1300z - so keep calling in the
segment of the band designated
someone.
77

in the table below until you catch

| should be on as usual from home
I

TATA

aril

in NSW or via the Remote
I

nis

at
re

bearoraale WA, and I'll alsO De watcning tne proceeaings using tne VKo\s
and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW

respectively.

Hope to hear you there.

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 (Eastern

Australian time) 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).

See https://bit.ly/COORSWebsite and

navigate to the Net Details page for details of how you can connect via
Echolink or even possibly via your local FM repeater.

Teamwork

Thank you so much to our team of 35 contributors this week:

F/MOKB],

G4RWI,

G7BED, VK1HF, VK2ALR, VK2EBN, VK2GAS, VK2RU, VK2WP,

VK2ZRH,

VK3ACU,

VK3AFH, VK3BYD,

VK3CTM,

VK3DRQ,

VK3ECH,

VK3KEV,

VK3KLE, VK4PE, VK5AO, VK5ET, VK6DSL, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6JDM,
VK6KD/P, VK6PZT, VK6RR, VK7HH, VK7JZ, VK7KPC, VK7TO, VK7WW

and

ZL3TK.

for the

And a special thank you to Warren VK3BYD

articles, and to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI
development), John VK2RU
VK6HRC

and John VK2RU

(head of software

(WhatsApp spy and research) and Richard

(Post Morsition and spy).

Thank you all.

€U CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

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

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LCD

BOT

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SAMUEL MORSE DICTATES A LETTER
TO HIS SECRETARY.

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