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RagNibble

Micro-Newsletter
Edition

e What’s

in a Name?

e The Walrus
e

27/2025

Said

Post Morsum

Report

e Of Curry and Tacos
e

Pair Ranked

Scones

on the Workbench

Analysis

Remote

SDR

QRS

Morse

Mania

Head

Copy

Control

International

Flight

Exercise

- Winter 2025

Exercise - Winnie the Pooh

and The

Heffalump

e The Origin of
e

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

e About the CQ QRS

Group

I'm not sure that | like the title either - but it's all | could think of at the time.
please?

Your thoughts

cggrsnet@gmail.com

This is the first light edition of the weekly CQQRS RagChew newsletters - aiming for

RSS

something that keeps you in touch with the CQQRS

Slow CW

Practice QSO net, but that's

still practical to hand over to a team of once-per month editors.
Did you have some fun on Tuesday?

| hope so.

Conditions on 40m were somewhat flakey

and the high-speed DX stations that started coming through as
the net progressed drove some down to 80m (a good thing) and
even drove some further down to 160m (a very good thing).

And our sole DXperimenter Simon MOKBJ on Crowley Beach
didn't make the long-path distance this week.

At least he

worked some closer DX this time.

Masthead

Image

Thanks this week to Morgan VK6MTF for showing

us his portable set up for

his current Tasmania visit.

The

Walrus

Said

Last week | advised that the time had come for me to reluctantly step aside as the full-time
editor of the RagChew newsletter.

Thank you to those who took the time to share your

thoughts.

I've taken up the suggestion of John VK2RU of the editorial

WishatacwateTaadl

team to try several light versions of the newsletter each

Opti “na ch
is —

month, perhaps with a longer edition from time to time. In
this edition, I've continued experimenting with ways of
inserting material edited outside of our production and
distribution systemMailChimp - opening the way to having
our new editors each able to produce material using the

hot :
aahAtudopwhether
coospigs haveMg, wings.’

simple, flexible and free word processing software now

available.
I think I'm on track to finding a way for editors to produce a
worthwhile and attractive catalyst for our net participants,
with only a few hours work each week - rather than the
existing days and days of effort.

Fingers crossed.

Please let me know if you'd like to help.

Oh and by the way - you'll notice that some of the usual sections of the newsletter are

missing in this light edition. That doesn't mean that they'll be excluded from future editions
- so please send me your QRZ?, | hear Tell, On my Workbench, Other News, Prosigns and
Characters of the Month, etc articles for inclusion in future editions - they're what make it an

interesting read - and also can be things to have a rag chew about during our net.

Net Frequencies
CQQRS

and Times

is an uncontrolled

following times.

practice QSO

net that runs on Tuesdays at the

In addition, when weather and long-path conditions allow,

we have a team of stations in the UK and Germany who also operate on
20m;

details of the 20m

activities are advised closer to the day via email.

Also, of late a number of our team

have tried 160m

frequencies coordinated via our CQQRS

Coordinated

as well - with

WhatsApp Alerts group.

Universal Time

Western Australia Time

0700z to 1300z
UTC + 8 Hours

1500 to 2100

:
ustralia

Central Australian Time
Eastern Australian Time

Queensland Time
New Zealand

NZ Time

Time

UTC + 9.5 Hours
UTC + 10 Hours

1700 to 2300
1700 to 2300

UTC

1900 to 0100

+ 12 Hours

Frequency

40m

7020kHz - 7040kHz

80m

3540kKHz - 3570kKHz

Wednesday (VK/ZL)
Post Morsum
Callback

1630 to 2230

UTC + 10 Hours

Band

0700z to 1300z

2200z - 2300z

WA FM AllStar Network

(direct to Node 42482 or via Echolink to VK2KI-L)

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/COORSNET

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

lf you'd like to find out a bit about our net, or would
to others about our Tuesday get-togethers,

like to pass information

here’s the link to our website.

bit. ly/CQQRSWebsite

Cheers,
mb
Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning

mark.bosma@icloud.com

NSW

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

Here’s the 51 stations heard by 33 members

of our team on Tuesday:

CQQRS Team
Member

Qsoil

Qso 2

QsO 3

Qso 4

Qso5

QSO 6

QsO7

Qso 8

Heard on air
Worked 40m
Worked 20m
Heard 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Tried 40m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m
Heard on air
Heard on air
Heard on air
Worked 20m
Heard 20m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m
Worked 40m
Worked 80m
Worked 160m
Heard on air
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m
Worked 160m
Heard 160m

Heard on air
Worked 40m

Worked 80m
Heard on air
Worked 40m

Heard 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 40m
Worked 80m
Worked 40m

Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Worked

160m

Heard 160m
Heard on air
Heard on air

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 40m

Heard 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 80m

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

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

Heard 40m
Heard 80m
Worked 40m

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

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

in the team

bit.ly/CQOORSNET ) follow:
Comments:

members’

reports (submitted via our webform

From Peter VK6IS at Wundowie
[40m]

It is getting quite noisy on 40m any time after 1800 WST makes those CW contacts more tricky - the east coast
was quite strong into WA this week.

From Wayne VK6NW

at Bridgetown

[80m]
Lovely to work Donald but the signals suffered from QSB

From John VK5ET at Hope Valley
[40m]
Listening mode only tonight from inside warm qth.
Kiwi SDR _ of Paul, VA5PH.
listed.

Listened to

Noisy but managed to hear stations

Bit quieter than usual.

From Roy VK6RR at Geraldton
[80m]
Couldn't stay long, good to hear so many on the air.

From

Stan ZL3TK

at Waitarere Beach

[40m]
All four quadrants of the 'sending-quality' spectrum were evident again last night,

from

small-but-perfectly-formed 2 wpm due to the useful but over-exploited concept unleashed
by Don Farnsworth W6TTB,

all the way to 20 wpm with the same very poor spacing.

Despite having been remarked on repeatedly, lousy
spacing is still heard from one particular station. Seems
some are incapable of performing self analysis or
quality control.

However, the general trend shown by those brought up

on the QRS FFAis one of very acceptable quality, the
test being whether it can be read by intolerant electronic
decoders?

After a range of trials, despite weak signals,

the answer is yes, the majority can be decoded.

Ergo, by avoiding the extreme ends of the

straight key-sending spectrum, a central strategy will always result in a better CW

experience for everyone.

From Richard VK6HRC at Padbury
[40m]

Enjoyed the soft shell Taco banter !
[80m]
Put some calls out on 80 Mx

but very quiet at that time.

From Stuart VK6MK at Australind
[40m]

Conditions on 40m were poor.

Even local stations were

significantly down.

From lan VK7TA at Latrobe
[40m]
As always, | am not sure which stations heard were participating in the net.
VK6 stations were very weak early on but had good signals later in the
evening.

From Patrick VK2IOW at Between Bathurst and Orange

[40m]
Strong winds and rain this evening, however

the antenna (large horizontal loop) held up OK.

The 450 ohm window line feeder gets whipped
around in the wind however it has survived
several years without breaking, touch wood.
First QSO with Otto, VK4OLB, only 15 years
old. His signal was very low but we managed
to exchange some basic information. Very
poor propagation between Mark, VK2KI, and

myself, probably because we are too close.
Currently conditions on 40 metres after
sundown don't seem to support QSOs between
close stations. Yesterday | plugged an old Dell computer monitor into my relatively new
Yaesu FTDX10.

| can't say that an external monitor is essential, since the small built-in

screen is adequate.

However the huge monitor does look dramatic and | have a choice of

which screen to look at, hi.

From Donald VK6JDM

at 20 km west of Esperance
Propagation was poor on 40 and 80 and there was a lot

of QSB that was over 20 dB making contacts dip into the
noise.

| see the man who led me down the path of CW is trying
to retreat into retirement with piloting of an experimental
helicopter on the list of to dos.
It is useful to have a few dangerous things to do in retirement. | recently built a shed and
had fussing colleagues tell me that | should not climb ladders at my age. This seemed to
partly satisfy their need to control the lives of others and at the same time to remind me of
my age and therefore their relative youth. My response was to post on the notice board a
photo of myself screwing down the ridge on the roof, taken from an angle that exaggerated
the height, with a caption that read "Elderly chap undergoing nursing home bypass surgery

(NHBS) - surgery was unsuccessful and will have to be repeated".
[Heh heh, | thought that was your job to tell your patients to not climb ladders Donald.]

From Andy VK5LA at Winkie

[40m]
Conditions seemed a bit down, but worked and heard

stations no issue, gave my usual "What's for dinner?"
report to our illustrious leader Hi Hi.
Soft shell tacos

--->

[80m]
Took a look at 80m and heard 4PN and 3ACU about to
QSY to 160m, followed them down but | don't think
they could hear each other, | had Jordan 599 and Sava
559. Ended up with an easy contact with 50 watts and a VERY compromised antenna with

Jordan on 160 after he started calling CQ. Tried 80m again after the SSB Boatanchor net
and worked VK4PN with good sigs. We tried 160 and Sava was good copy for me still 559
but his high noise level had him struggling to hear me. We will keep plugging away! Then

3DRQ Manny called me and we had a

lovely catch-up. Great night!

From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn
[80m]
Try to catch OM Simon straight after 0700Z, he was
only RSN 222 and was working N4TTU. When they

finished QSO | try several times but couldn't get any
answer. Just before 0730Z, OM Mark VK2KI called me
to let me know that Simon was abt 1 down, by then it

was too late for me. With the XYL Estela we were
ready to go out for dinner with friends, so | have to CL.
At abt 1230Z we arrived home, went straight to the radio and in 80m | managed to have a
QSO with OM

Mark VK2KI and another with OM Andy VK5LA.

From David VK6KD

at Ballajura WA

[80m]
| had a short session on 80m this week due to 1st day return to work
after 13months leave. | found the Ironstone SDR was experiencing
high QRM

on 80m band so | tried calling on freq where QRM was least. 100w was being

heard from my QTH to Ironstone but no QSOs tonight. 73s
Sa

tet ee tee tale ae aoe

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW
Simon & Jo MOKBJ Harvey

[20m]

| could hear some of the stations working Simon

MOKBy, but nothing at all was heard from our beach-

comber this week.

Sorry mate, and | hope that the

early morning 160km drive and beach set-up was nice.

Setting up on Crosby Beach, Lancashire
UK. The bricks and debris —-s [teresting photo of the brick debris from the bombed
I'll be calling CQ DE MOKBJ on 14045kHz from O7O0UTC
¥
«sow
Liverpool streets above the foreshore.
are from the clearances of bombed

streets after the Liverpool Blitz.

[40m]

| slipped down to 40m when Simon advised that he was off looking for less exotic DX on
20m and heard a bit of activity. | came across a faint signal from VK4OLB, a fairly new CW
operator operating on low power from Brisbane. QSB got the better of us after exchanging
reports; | tried again later in the evening, but the result was the same - QSB.
Next | hooked up with Andy VK5LA for an update on the dinner menu.

A few weeks ago

Andy and | chatted about what he was going to make for dinner - and his green chicken
curry took on an elevated status - apparently a number of stations heard the conversation.

Anyway, this week we discussed Andy's wife's recipe for soft-shell tacos;

Mal VK8MT was

listening-in from Central Desert NT, on his first trial of his new QRP-Labs QMX transceiver,

and picked up the discussion about soft shell tacos. The next morning on the Post Morsum
call-back on AllStar, others reported hearing the same words! Andy's getting a bit of a
reputation for food-related QSOs - HI.
| overheard a QSO between one of our founders,

Richard VK6PZT in Bunbury and Patrick VK2IOW up
at Millthorpe. Signals weren't great with either
station, but when | was chatting to Patrick, Richard

advised via WhatsApp that he could hear me ok; boy
times have changed over the years - a few years ago
Richard's noise level was so high, he had zero
chance when conditions were tough... looks like that neighbour might have finally ditched
that noisy TV.
As the evening moved on, 40m became pretty noisy and full of DX stations here (I know,

nice problem to have!) - and the number of CQQRS stations dropped off. Hopefully if this
is a recurrent problem, we might have more giving 80m a go later in the evening.

[80m]

On 80m, | had a nice chat with Greg VK5KFG at Willunga who reported that at last the rain
had

atartad

falling

arava

tants

aftariuinnen

deniimlt

| tannin

con

tan

mieaht

unith

Hau

SLaIlCU

Iai)

UUW

Ullal

Way

alco!

yoars

UlUUYITL.

TLIC

WUOUTIUTUP

LIS

PIUrit

Will

another chat with Manny VK3DRQ who had a nice signal to me.
So 80m wasn't Bourke Street this week, but still there were QSOs to be had.

And terrific to

see a bit of interest in extending the net to 160m as well - well done guys.

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW via the VK6CRO
Remote, the VK6SEG

KiwiSDR and the VK5PH

KiwiSDR.

[40m]
| heard Ron VK6KHZ,

Max VK6FN and Richard VK6HRC

weakly through the high noise at the Southern Electronics
Group VK6CRO

Remote at the Carnarvon Space and

Technology Museum.

However, every time | keyed up the

transmitter, the remote control software disconnected
itself from the internet connection to the server.

Further testing demonstrated that this was

a problem on 40m only. Carnarvon is such a long way from anywhere that | expect it'll be
some time before Rob VK6LD and the SEG team can get up there to do some troubleshooting.
[20m]
No luck hearing Simon MOKB\ this week, but | could hear some of the stations he was

working including N4TTU and DL4FQ.

Their signals were better into the VK5PH KiwiSDR

system at lronstone Range.

From Peter Dann VK3WOW

at Blackburn, Victoria

[160m]
First time I've worked 160 metres. Bit of a 'who'd have guessed there's

actually life on Mars' moment for me.
[Outstanding.]

From Greg VK5KFG at Willunga
hundreds of metres Of WITS

A better week this week than last week when | could
470 ohm
seats

not hear a thing.
band

| put this down to extremely poor

conditions at the time.

It had

been verv windv

ahh
——
=
50 ohm

beverage antenna

iia
ie

aininine i

inlined

aL en

aca

i namin
Ta

and wet. Things became clearer the following
morning when | saw the tuner end of the antenna
floating in the breeze, making no connection with the

tuner at all. The odd thing was that the tuner had been happily tuning 100w into thin air the

night before.

Perhaps it had been tuning up the counterpoise running along the ground

beside the shed.

If it was, it made a lousy antenna.
SERNA

From Peter VK5KDO

FOS aE

NRL PIE

at Encounter Bay SA

[40m]
Could not really hear Stan well enough to copy. Only knew it was him
from other stations replies. Shows that my 40m antenna has potential.

Post Morsum

Report

From Richard VAK6HRC
Four on VK6RLM

repeater and AllStar / Echolink hub this morning.

VK6NW

Wayne

VK6QI
Mark
VK6FN
Max
VK6HRC
VK6MRB Mulligan swl and others
Wayne started on 20 Mx but got swamped by QRQ traffic
so went into swl mode on 40 Mx for a while and then on to

80 Mx where he worked Donald VK6JDM and heard
others.

Wayne let us know he will be up in Perth for a few weeks
salt mining to boost the levels in the wine cellar and will be
back on the QRS net after that.
Mark had a fun night as usual, heard the traffic on 20 Mx but could not hear Simon

unfortunately. On 40 Mx worked VK4OLB a new one for the net and then on to Andy VK5LA
where the evenings menu was discussed creating some interest amongst the swl’s.
The VK6CRO remote would not cooperate on 40 Mx so Mark only listened from there and
the VK6SERG Kiwi sdr as well as others, also did a fine job of spotting on WhatsApp.
Max put in a big effort working the locals to start with and
then onto the Eastern states. He worked a ZL station at
one point ZL2AGY Tony probably not aware of the QRS
net. Max went QRT at about 20:00 WST and headed off get
something to eat !

; | worked three on 40 Mx ( locals ) before the band opened
to the East where it got busy with DX stations calling over
the top making life rather difficult.
Thank you to all on last night and this morning.
Stay safe
73 Richard

This Week’s

Topics of

Interest
This week I’ve reproduced what| think Is a very interesting article on clear
thinking from Dr Hank Prunckun
Magazine in December 2013.

VK5XB.

The article appeared in AR

Thank you to both Hank and Roger Harrison

the editor of AR for permission to re-print this article.

Pair ranked analysis
Or Hank Proackun VASA

It waa the end of a scorching hot
day and | was pleased
to be about
to finish a long drive from Leigh
Creek to Marrea in the far north of
South Australia. Earlier that day my
wife and | had carried out some
repairs to a solar-operated HF
repester on one of the mountains
outside of Leigh Craak. it was a
rough drive up and back down a
Mountain track a6 parts had bean
washed away by the winter rains.
So! was looking forward to a
‘cold one’ as | turned our 4VD into
the last vacant car park in front of
the Marre hotel- seemed it was
a popular place to be on a hot day.
After ordering, my wife and | took
up & position at the curved bar and |
allowed the amber liquid ta coat my
throst. As | sipped, | could overhear
two young blokes opposite us at the
bar debating which UHIF-CB radio
wae the ‘beat’ for four-wheel driving
in tha bush. From appearances,
they looked like it was their first
venture beyond the inner suburbia.
‘No you're wrong,’ one of them
said, ‘it has a 3.5 mm jack at the
back for extension speakers so thet
has to be better.”
The other bloke replied, “Yes. but
the screen on it ig a bit too small for
ry fing.
And so the conversation went
with them comparing this fasture
with that and thas model transceiver
with Bone other model. Thay were
getting nowhere despite their best
efforts to inject a bit of lubrication
into the thinking procesa by way of
a few alas. Their quest for the beat
transcelver was grinding to a slow
halt.
lasked my wite if she'd excuse
me - | said this would only take me
five minutes. She booked at me with
a doubtful expression that only a
wife could muster But then, we had
worked together all day repairing
20

Amateur Radio

Figure 7: The pair ranked analysis beer
epaster tally seal,
the repeater, 50 perhaps she wes
glad to have e braak from my
chatier about laaky capacitors and
diodes with incorrect values...
| carried my beer over to the
tro blokes and introduced myself.
| explained that | couldn't help
but overhear their discussion amd
offered to assist them arrive at an
anawer. | told them that | could
sofve their problam in leas than five
minutes.
They laughed ard told me that
they were at the bar last night
tossing around thair thoughts and
had been at it again thet evening for
8 few hours—they were no closer
to deciding. Roy, the begger of the
tero with his AM Williams boots and
hat that looked like he just boughta
few daya ago, said “Hf you can solve
this, the beers are on mie. Your time
Starts now.’ end ine laid his watch
on the bar
Ob boy, | thought. | had toe come
good with my promise - to them as
well as my wife - ao | flipped over
B spare drink coaster laying on the

nowhere.

them for the names of the radios
they were interested in - there were
four. | wrote the names
on the
cogaster in a column down the lat.

‘And the third reason you
weren't gible to decide,’ |
emphasised, ‘is beacause you were
not comparing each radio against
every other radio - this is essential.'
‘Okey,’ blurted out Fooy, ‘so how
do we do it? The clock’s ticking."
His face had a smirk to suggest his
disbelief that I'd be able to sort out
‘the issue.
By this time, the bartender had
positioned himeet in front of us
Bnd was pretending to claan a faw
glasses, but he had overheard the
conversation and was interested in
‘the answer too - which WHF CB waa
the best tor 4WDing? There wera a
faw others atarting to mill around at
the back of us. One of tham, a greyhaired bloke with ill-fitting dentures.
sald, ‘I'd lke to know too - | heave
that turbo diesal/caravan combo

highlights that radio O was the
favourite choice with a tally of three
‘ticks.’ This waa followed by radio B
with two, and than radio 6 with one.

syatem, a holiday destination, a
choice of differant cruise liners, a
schoo to send the Kids to, which
car or house to buy, and so forth.

Dar and took out & pencil. | asked

December 2015

out front and | want to geta good
two-way radio for tt - | don't wart
any rubbish."
‘Alright, alright, | exclaimed,
Snara's thes ariwer

Radio rt
Radia
B ||
Fads@ |
Radia
D || |

Tappang my pancil on the cin
ogster | sald, “The first problem you
heve is that you have been trying
tO COMpare Various transceivers
using differant criteria - rear speaker
jacks, Beminated display screena,
fix channels or programmable, and
a0 on."
They both nodded and Aldo, a
tall skinny bloke with one of those
andy cloge-cut beards, said, “Yap.
that's true,” and elbowed Roy in the
ribs. “Seal told you,’ he added.
"The second issue that has
stopped you from arriving at a
concuelon,' | explained, “is that you
heave given each fasture on thease
different radios equal importance,
when the features do not have the
same importance.’
They regarded me with the
suspicion attorded a fortune-teller.
Then in unison they took& long
slow pull of their ales. But reflecting
on my adviog. | could see that they
were starting to realise where thear
faulty reasoning had taken tham -

hart ura mere

Radic A had nn tikes mrninet it

Tha mai ranked anahrmis forcas

cee ee ee eee ey eee pe ee
to make a few decisions first. Ba
honest and answer straight away.’
They agreed.
| asked, ‘if you had to buy one
of these radios, which one would
it be, radio A or radio B?* (For the
purposes of this article, | have
substituted letters for the brand
names of the radios).
‘Roy started to explain
something about radio A, but | cut
hirn off, “Mo, fust tall me - A or B. It's
as simple ag that - if | had these two
radios hare right now and you hac
to buy ona, which one would it ba?’
Together they both said, ‘Radio
B."
So | placed a “tick” mark to the
right of radio 8 to indicate the start
of a tally.
"Otay, now if you had to buy
one, which would It be, radio A or
radio G?"
They agreed on radio © this
tine.
| continued through all the
remaining combinations - A or D,
then Bor, Bor BD, and finally
or D.
Having compared each
radio against every other radio.

to Be."

“Give me one of those drink
coasters.’ demanded the greyhaired bloke. As he adjusted his
dentures, he stated, ‘I'm going to do
my Est now. When | hit Adelaide I'm
going to get my radio installac.'
| amilad at him and aise to the
group of happy wanderers who hed
collected around us. Turning to the
bartendar | raised my empty glass
and said, “Roy's buying: I'll have a
Cooper's Sparkling Ale.’
Pal ranked analysis is a simple
but etfactive method for helping
people make decisions. ina world
where we often have numerous
choices, itis difficult to dacide on
just one - whatever that may be - a
new radio tranacelver, an antenna

| prasanted the tally that | had

recorded on the back of the drink
coaster to the now sizable collection
of outback personalitias who had
gathered around us.
A re-creation of those results
is sieown in Figure 1. This figure
cron

The

PVA

epftee

will

Header
f

fae ther

cee pre ees She Re OF cee ar eae
you to make a decision about aach
and avery combination on the basis
of a holistic comparifon; that is. you
compare one item with another in its
entiraty. It prevents you engaging in
the microanalysis that Roy and Aldo
dic. That's a road to mowhera.
Some may find the forced
Comparisons a bit unsetiling
because it is a structured way of
thinking. But if you use it a faw
times you'll sae the clarity it delivers.
for dacisions that had multiple
choices. It is ideally sulted for
amateur radio operators who face
decisions about what equipment
to buy for their radio shack. Until |
came across this method. | bought
and sold a dozen radios because
| used the dishevelled reasoning
process that Roy and Aldo used.
| commend it to anyone with a
number of options to weigh-up.
Try it when you go to buy your next
place of gear for the radio shack.
Having halped solve the UHF CB
radio iseue for those who gathered
at the pub that evening, | returned
to my wife, who was waiting
patiently at the other and of the bar.
| think she was surprised that it only
took the five minutes | had said. We
ordered a counter meal and had
an enjoyable evening watching the
last rays of the sun set over the old
rel yard across the road - the world
was Fight

Returning the smirk Roy gave
me 8 few minutes before, | said,
‘Pretty claar which radio is best for
you two béokes," and painted to the
watch sitting on the bar - | had a
minute to spare.
Roy's jaw waa sagging 28 he
Stared at the results. Lass than five
manute amd he now knew which
transceiver
he needed to buy for his
4wO.
Aldo rubbed his manicured
beard and asked, “Hay, do you
reckon that that mathod would wark
for a bonger list of radios."
‘Sure,’ | axplained, “in fact with
a longer list, the more pronounced
the differance between them tends

eae

AOE

falta

Fee Ages

her

lege,

Ghe

it lowers.

Frigtte.

Panears,

fecember

we oer wrkiite waw: wie. ote

keene

é Aestratea getenadls o ate

jor tie.

wil

tre,

enacted

nitaiie amatbenr rere

festive. season.

Amateur Radio

December 2015

Tune a Remote SDR using your transceiver's controls

From Phil VK6GX
Hi Mark,
Users of web SDRs will be interested in this software, it enables you to tune a remote SDR

with your own rig, as long as it can be connected to the internet.

14226.00
a

| LSB

lke

AJB | | A=5|

$3
|S) am

| eM

| Ce)

et ow

au la

Filter. 2.40 KHz|

AMsync

narrower || widar

squeich — autonotch

noise reduction
O90

Visit https://catsyncsdr.wordpress.com/ for more

nanan

GFF

ADe

information.

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

cqaqrsnet@gmail.com

My Workbench
Soft-Shell Tacos?

Nope

- Scones!

You may have read this week and previous weeks about the culinary discussions with Andy
VK5LA, and how so many of our net listeners overheard bits of those conversations.

parallel, you may have seen the work each week by John VK2RU to generate the headcopy practice audio segments based on the A.A. Milne books,

Winnie the Pooh.

This

week, John has generated the chapter about Winnie and Piglet and the heffalump;

when |

received the text, naturally | had to read the chapter to Ms Elizabeth while we had a cup of
tea and some scones.

So continuing the previous weeks' themes of green chicken curry,

and soft-shell tacos, John VK2RU has shared his secret Country Womens' Association
scone recipe.
| still do a bit of baking in the caravan here;

focaccia and scones turn out better than most.

The scone recipe | use is one from the CWA girls.
A taste of the country

Gloria Hyatt’s scone recipe
Makes 12-18 (depending in the size of your scone cutter)
1 egg

4 tablespoons of oil (she uses vegetable oil)

2 cups of milk (or 1’4 cups milk and half a cup of sour cream or thickened cream)

4 cups of self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Beat the egg, oil and milk until combined. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add the

egg mixture to the flour. Knead until just combined and then turn the dough out onto a

floured surface. Pat into a flat shape of the thickness you'd like your scones. Hyatt prefers *4

inch. Cut with a floured scone cutter and then place on a greased tray. Cook at 220 degrees

for 12 to 15 minutes.

Hyatt’s recipe was the last recipe I tried and the most complex of the three I tested, although
still very easy to make. To say that the dough was sticky is an understatement. It’s so

adhesive that just rinsing your fingers under the tap alone wasn’t enough - you have to scrape

it off. Don’t forget to flour your kitchen bench, otherwise you’ll spend ages scraping the

mixture off that too.

It was all worth it though, the end result was light and fluffy with a lovely golden sheen on

top. My guests described them as “tasting country” and devoured the lot. These scones were

delicious eaten with butter as well as jam and cream and well worth the few extra steps.

For more info: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/homestyle/blogs/tried-and-tasted/howto-bake- the-perfect-scone-20110504-1e7xn.html#ixzz2cw1BmiPw

| put a bit of baking powder in with it, if it's too wet then in goes some more flour, just mix it
enough to combine ingredients, and make sure | rest the flattened out dough at least 10
minutes before cutting. | also use less oil, and then sometimes substitute some butter for
oil. | rub-in the butter or freeze the butter and just grate it into the mix. Changing some of

the milk to cream or sour cream is also good. | also make it a bit drier than appears to be

recommended.

Having said all of that, there is no such thing as a bad scone, unless you include the
rubbish served up to us at the Stockman's Hall of Fame some years ago. Tea and scones
consisted of a styrene cup with teabag and warm water, scones came in plastic container mass produced rubbish.

Other
Other things

News

I’ve received from

our 200-plus

readers.

Too late - but interesting
From Simon

MOKB}

Simon & Jo MOKBJ
—

Harvey

The Alexander association — Grimeton

SAQ

frienc

association
Sov
E

.
= '
a

1 q

hall

SAQ Grimeton celebrates it's 100th anniversary tomorrow
with a special CW transmission on 17.2 kHz and on
YouTube. It's magnificent! https://alexander.n.se/en/
o:59

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 VK/7TAZ on that net.
Many of our team

learned Morse code with the

Support of Nic, and the weekly training session
comes

highly recommended

for anyone who

wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up.
Everyone’s welcome - 3580kKHz at 7pm
time every Wednesday;

Eastern

you'll hear lots of the

CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has

a aahi
cop. ania

recorded the complete set of lessons which you
can

now

find here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLHSOmZz6fBXO/7swAfbTmutrbbEL1
7fUQL
Contact Nic VK7WW

for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com

how to join the NTARC

DISCORD

along and join in on Wednesdays.

including

group to follow the action, or just come

QRS

International

Flight

Contest

It’s not too late to join this interesting Morse Code exercise.
The third flight in this learning exercise
(cleverly disguised as a contest),

has

taken off to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.

Early contest entries have been

In your own time
160 points potential

Award Certificate
QRM and stress-free

interesting and enabled a couple of

Great CW experience

misunderstandings to be ironed out.
Yes, a few points were lost,

QRS

but now

ional

Flight Contest 2025

everybody seems to be on the rails to

earn full points for the next eight flights.
Be aware,

there's still time;

across the Pacific are down

It really does pay to get in early!

those who missed the first flight south-west
only 10 % on potential points, and at even less

of a disadvantage when you count NR 11, which may still be solvable to
give a final bonus 20 points.

Also to consider,

last the course thus raising the stakes?
73

who knows how many won't

Instructions at

bit.ly/arsifc

Stan

ZL3TK

Morse Mania - Winter 2025
ea

Objectives: This eight-week event has the following objectives:

to promote regular on-air QSOs primarily between VK and ZL
operators. Other DX operators and contacts are welcome.

for CW operators to have as many QSOs as possible whilst
meeting the minimum criteria for a QSO.

toprovide an event that meets the needs of different types of
CW operators.

touse these sessions to build on existing skills and satisfy your
own goals.
o

Foraperson who normally operates POTA/SOTA, this might
mean extending QSO vocabulary to include a few new
words or phrases.

Foran operator comfortable at 12WPM and basic QSOs, this
might mean aiming to increase speeds by 2-3 WPM oncea
week.

Foracontester this might mean exchanging station details
they don't normally exchange.

Participants are encouraged to notify the Event Administrator of
their personal goals prior to the event.
When: Start date: Tuesday 17 June 2025
End date: Sunday 10 August 2025
This is an eight-week event with one-hour sessions commencing 17
June 2025, and taking place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays
at 0930-1030Z.

https://morsecodesessions.wordpress.com/morse-mania-winter-2025/

Home

ClubIinformation

Courses

The Radio Bulletin

YouTube

Groups

Monthly Meeting July - Two-tone audio
generator

Links

THE

MemberLogin

RADIO

# ana windows11

21/04/2024
- 7:57 PM

Richard VK3ZCL - Presentation on how to use a two-tone audio generator for transmitter testing.

Subaru

member?

Not getting your monthly news?
Not getting any updates?

Coax

Install

15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM

Portable

you

BULLETIN

USB Rig programming cables

4 July - Friday 8:00pm - Club Rooms Burwood & Zoom

Are

Power

10/11/2023- 10:56 AM

of,

Antenna Launcher Exemption

03/06/2023
- 3:53 PM

Perhaps log in and check that your email address is current. We still have a few whose emails are

Readable

Five

What have you been reading lately?
Compiled on the track somewhere by John VK2RU
Head-Copy Practice
From John VK2RU

In RagChew editions 23, 24, 25 and 26, John VK2RU provided

CW audio files from the out-of-copyright Winnie the Pooh books
by A.A. Milne. The audio files are recorded at a reasonable Pace,

Seam mrreccncem
vicvcsomsmuarsinmens

ddhn VAAL

Poh Sag

er het cy oie

hee. new

but can be slowed down using your phone. The aim being to play 9 ==

orperhaps

= gam mmue

[Suggestion - put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for
Tuesday.

Tell us how you went!]

The Origin of the Prosign
From Roy VK6RR

Hi Mark. Not sure if this prosign has been mentioned before, just in case it hasn't | thought

this was interesting.

The Origin of the Prosign By James Wades (WB8SIW)
The prosign KN (DAH-DI-DAH-DAH-DIT) is still occasionally used by CW operators.
Undoubtedly, some believe it is an official procedure of some type, perhaps promulgated at
an International conference or an import from military or commercial practice.
The prosign was intended to indicate that a reply was only wanted from the specific station

called. For example, if one sends W6RRI de W1MK KN, this means that W1MK only wants

to communicate with W6RRI.

In fact, the prosign KN was entirely a creation of the ARRL, having been first announced in

the April, 1947 issue of QST magazine. The QST article describes it as follows: A new
signal, KN, has been introduced to clarify the actual intent of an operator when concluding
certain transmissions....To avoid calls from other stations when in contact with a specific

station, and to avoid being called by another station upon completion of a call to a specific
station., a new signal, KN, has been added.

While it was definitely intended to be sent as a prosign, and while it is perfectly legal to use
it on-air today, it is only rarely heard.
Assigning it the birthdate of April 1, 1947 was perhaps a happy accident, as it appears most
hams, at least today, see it as a bit of an “April fools joke” despite it having been

promulgated in numerous Amateur Radio publications over many years.

73
Roy VK6RR
[Thanks Roy - interesting find.]

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here

So back to the CQQRS

Slow CW QSO

go.

practice net.

Next Tuesday’s

Net

Our CQQRS

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

about 1300z;

see hitps://bit.ly/COORSWebsite 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.

We'll

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

in the table below until you catch

| 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.

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 28 contributors:
VK2RU, VK3DRQ,

VK3ECH,

VK3KEV, VK3WOW,

MOKBJ, VK2IOW,

VK2KI,

VK5AO, VK5ET, VK5KDO,

VK5KFG, VK5LA, VK5XB, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ,
VK6MK, VK6MTF,

VKENW,

VK6PZT, VK6QI, VK6RR, VK7TA and ZL3TK.

a special thank you to our editorial team,
development), John VK2RU
and Richard VK6HRC

(Post Morsition and spy).

€U CW on Tuesday,

Nigel G4RWI

(Pooh-wrangler, WhatsApp

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

And

(head of software
spy and researcher)

Great work all!

About

the CQ

QRS

Net

Here’s where you’ll find the details.
For the current schedule

and

information

about the CQORS

net,

please go the the Net Details page on our website:

https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite

The opinions expressed in the RagChew newsletter are those of the individual contributors.
The opinions do not necessarily reflect that of the editor or of the CQ QRS Group members.
Any material and images received by the editor or published on the CQQRS WhatsApp groups may
be published in this newsletter unless specifically requested otherwise.

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