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RagChew

Edition 30/2025

e
e
p
e
e

Reports from Tuesday’s

Post Morsum

¢ Collaboration
EMDRC

Net

Report

on Portable

Directional Antennas

e A Satellite Ground
e

CQQRS

Station

Design

with CWops

Support

e The Walrus

Project

Bailed,

Morse Training

No Parachute

QRS

Morse

Mania

Head

Copy

Prosign

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

Net

International

Flight

Contest

- Winter 2025

Practice - The

Expotition

of the Month

e About the CQ QRS

Group

What a great week we've had!

The band conditions gods were smiling on

Tuesday and so many people had just so much fun on air, or just listening.
We had reports of 46 of our team on air, and 77 stations were reported as
being worked

(and by the way, this doesn’t even include duplicate QSOs on

different bands)!

Wow!

So this week we have what!

hope is another interesting read - | really hope

you can make time to kick-back, relax and enjoy the newsletter - thanks
mostly to the 31 members

who contributed to this edition.

And by the

way, to make things easier for me, please check-out the information
toward the end of the newsletter about formatting articles for RagChew.
And even though

I’ve been rabbiting-on about giving the newsletter

editing away to earn myself a life again (see The Walrus Project below), |
think it’s obvious how much
hemisphere’s
So ahead

| enjoy contributing to what’s become this

best CW activity.

this week,

Ross

MONNK

has followed-on

from

last week’s

article

RSS

about portable directional antennas, and his fellow countryman
G7BED

Chris

has provided us with an outline of his new satellite ground station

for the fabulous QO-100

geostationary high-altitude satellite with its

coverage of nearly half of the Earth’s surface.

The satellite’s broadband

linear transponder is being even being used for perfect digital amateur
television!

We have also started exploring a new level of collaboration

between CQQRS

and the international CWops

organisation, information

about the two QRS contests under-way in our region, and we have this
week’s instalment of our head-copy practice segments - which double as a
café amusement

should you decide to read the chapter out-loud to your

loved one as | did recently.
So - on, on... will | hear you on air on Tuesday, or if not, will you have a
listen anyway?

Masthead

| really hope so.

Image

How nice Is that shot?

Thanks to James VK/7/JZ for the image of Lakes

Entrance Victoria when

he was out portable at night last week.

Feels

pretty cold though

New Team

Members

And welcome this week to Chris VK3QB,
for the CWops

organisation.

who is the Oceania Ambassador

Having recently retired as the editor of QTC

Magazine, Chris now has a moment to spare to check out our offerings.
Welcome

Chris and | hope we hear you on a Tuesday evening soon.

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/COQRSNET

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,

here’s the link to our website.

bit. ly/CQQRSWebsite

Cheers,

like to pass information

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW
mark.bosma@icloud.com

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

Here’s the 77 stations heard by 46 members
CQQRS Team
Member

Qso1

Qso 2

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

Worked 40m
Worked 80m

VK3ACU

Worked 160m |

VK3KLE

Heard 40m
Heard 80m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m
Heard 40m
Heard 80m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Heard 80m
Heard on air
Worked 20m
VK3DRQ

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

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

FSNZY

VK6RR

Qso 3

qso 4

of our team on Tuesday:

Qso5

Qso 6

Qso7

Qso8

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

Worked 80m

VK5CZ

VK3ACU

VK6GX

VK4SEC

VK4DRK

Worked 160m
Heard on air

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

Worked 80m
Tried 160m
Heard on air

Worked 80m |

VK6PZT

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

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

The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group;
the comments in the team members’ reports (submitted via our webform
bit.ly/CQOORSNET ) follow:
Comments:

This week’s comments from our webform
us by Patrick VK2IOW;

From

Stan ZL3TK

reports have been compiled for

thanks Patrick.

at Waitarere Beach

[40m]
AN

m@m

ivarnant

ushat

ana

uanAiilAa

aall

lnenahs

AanA

hae

tharn

LIT

WadIITL

Wildl

UIIC

VWUUIU

Lal

livoly

Wali,

IWUWOVE!

were plenty of stations to work, evidenced by VKGHRC
mix.

LIC

in the

From Richard VK6PZT at Bunbury WA

sem
ia

[80m]
Great code from VK6KD
from VK2KI

low down

and VK3DRQ.

Good

results

in the noise on 80m.

From David VK6KD at Ballajura WA
[80m]
Very quiet this evening with regards to hearing other stations.

From Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart / Germany
WV

[80m]
Today | planned to do just an propagation test on my usual
QRG on 20 m and see how my signal is getting to the Ironstone
SDR. When sending my ? to see if the frequency is clear, Mark
- VK3MJ was suddenly answering. We had a nice QSO, thanks
for the fun :-)

From Rob VK3ECH/VK2 at Bogan River near Nyngan
[40m]
Aftar

AwaArswrat

rain

daw

wWiA

OAT

AAmn

ARN

tha

Bannan

ALS

VOly

WoLlaily

Uday

oul

Vallip

vil

WVYyall

river near Nyngan and ran out an end fed 40m half wave
antenna.
| tried to work Paul VK3KLE but had trouble sending with
strange sounding side tone and intermittent keying so |
cleaned the key contacts with a piece of paper but still no
good. After much head scratching finally found a loose contact on the key base
probably caused from rattling round on corrugated backroads on our travels. After
fixing the problem | managed to make some enjoyable 40m contacts for the evening.
| hope to work some more on the QRS Net on our travels from further north next
week.

From Jordan VK3ACU

at Meredith

" My dabbling with 160 meters
proved to be an interesting experiment. My
antenna is an 80-meter double extended Zepp,
consisting of approximately 105 meters of wire
elevated about 25 meters high, fed with

homemade 600-ohm ladder line. My matching
unit is a homemade,

balanced

L-match with

two motorized roller inductors and one variable
capacitor
Interestingly, | can load the antenna for 160 meters using the L-match in its standard
Zepp configuration. However taking one leg of the L match to ground and bridging

the ladder line where it enters the shack. This created a kind of Marconi T-type
configuration, with the ladder line acting as a vertical element and the horizontal wire
becoming a capacity hat. | believe this setup improved my outgoing signal on 160
a

MElers.

For reception, though, | found the antenna provided stronger incoming signals and
significantly less noise when left in the Zepp configuration and loaded. More testing is
needed to fully understand the optimal setup for 160 meters.

From

David VK3RU

at Burwood VIC

[40m]
As always | called my friend and mentor Manny
VK3DRQ

and we chatted for almost 45 minutes and as

my fire was calling for some

more wood, we ended.

Almost made it to the fire, heard Mait VK4A0

calling.

Now Mait is my first VK4 on CW and do you think |
could send a complete and correct 4? Funny isn’t it?
You become comfortable with the words and callsigns
used regularly, but something different coming along
presents complete confusion.
calls.

Heaven help me if a VK6

Thanks for putting up with the Hs, 3s, etc and

wrong stuff Mait and as Manny says: practice, practice
is the only way.

From

lan VK5CZ

at Clare

[80m]
Really great to rag chew with Peter, he has no issues
running a sentence together with some big fancy words to
mix.

From Andy VK5LA at Winkie
[40m]
Rerant

anndaw

ANm

Mlrant

(ACN

with

Deri

MVAIGal

GUIIUA

UIT

SUIT,

GAICal

Wow

WILT

Witcw,

VK3XU who patiently waited after my battery went
flat to come back on air. People hearing me with 5

watts from my QMX, consistently amazed by the
performance of this little rig!

[80m]

80m just like 40m good condx, lots of stations heard after coming up after the SSB
boat anchor net. Worked our illustrious leader with good sigs when he checked in for
an update on tonight's dinner!

From Roy VK6RR at Geraldton
[80m]
=.

Managed

to QSO

with Chris, G7BED.

“4

needing to QSO with him!

Made

it short as so many

eS
SS

From Manny VK3DR@Q at Blackburn
[40m]
After a quiet start it seems condition were improving
like the good wine. Had a call from VK2GR,

exchanged callsigns and suddenly he went QNP. |
don't know what happened to his good signal!

[We had to look that one up Manny; the Google
Gemini said "In amateur radio, the Q-code QNP means ‘Unable to copy you' or
‘Unable to copy (callsign)'. It's used when a station cannot receive the
transmission of another station. It can also be used in response to a QNJ (Can
you copy me?) question".]

From Daniel VK6WE

at Cottesloe

[40m]

Reception was particularly poor today, weak signals with QSB.

| only

managed a brief contact with VK6KHZ; no other signals were
readable to me.

From Peter VK5KDO at Enounter Bay SA
[80m]
Mast was only about half height because of the winds so operation

was a bit marginal. Fortunately no damage here. Used Xiegu 108
with 20W for 40m contact with Andy VK5LA. | didn't get to try my
Racal transceiver from my new location though.

From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney near Brisbane

vee [20M]
Last Tuesday was | fairly successful evening with all
bands working reasonably well. | started on 20m
calling in the EU window on 14.045 MHz. After about

15 min | was about to give up but ON7PQ called me
SLE

See ee

fora chat, we had QSOs before. He was barely

readable at 445 but he gave me 569. | know that he runs 800 W and a 3 el Yagi so
he should have been at least 6dB better than me

or one S point!? So | concluded

that most likely | had no chance of copying QRP signals of our EU friends. Out of
curiosity and before dropping to 40 m | had a look at the FT8 window on 20m to see
what was around. To my surprise there were quite a few EU signals at reasonable
levels between -10dB and 0 dB so | may have given up on our EU friends a bit too
soon.

[40m]
40 m was lively with few regulars, ZLs and VK6s were coming through with good
signals as well. Managed to hook up VK6KHZ who emailed me later delighted with

his first VK4 on 40m.

[80m]
Had to break at 19:00 for ZLCW net on 80m so after that net finished | stayed on
80m as KiwiSDR in NSW was full of traces. After a few QSOs with regulars | picked
up a week trace looking interesting and after tuning on the trace frequency | could
copy VK6GX quite well.
We had a long chat and | mentioned to Phil | would be dropping to 160m if he wanted
to listen on 1855 KHz. He said he would but it will be between the overs on the VK6
SSB net which runs on that frequency. So | told Phil to listen on 1850 instead.

It was getting late when | returned to 80m but | decided for another CQ on 80m and
to my surprise | got a call from VK4DRK, first VK4 | have heard on QRS net since |
joined. He is up on Toowoomba range some 120 km west of my QTH so the signal
was big. A nice surprise.
During our chat | noticed another week trace on the NSW Kiwi SDR. | thought it could
be another VK6 so | tuned to the trace frequency and send a QRZ. A booming signal
came back VK4SEC,

two VK4s on the QRS

net! Must be a record. Johnathan

is a

ham for whom the QRS network exists, he is trying to improve his CW skills. He
emailed me too after the QSO to tell me how proud he was to copy everything
without the decoder. We went slow with repeats but he copied everything and | am
sure he will be getting better and more confident if he sticks with the QRS net. Listen
for VK4SEC.
[160m]
| called CQ on 160m for about 10 min hoping for VKSACU to pop up but nothing only
noise. | have to say | did not pay due attention, because there was something in that
noise.

Phil VK6GX was responding to my CQ and he was readable at the peaks of

QSB. After few overs we manages to exchange all elements of a legitimate QSO.
| know that propagation on Tuesday was not good since during our QSO | was
monitoring Reverse Beacon Net and couldn't see my signal being picked up
anywhere, usually | am picked up in NSW and Victoria. So when conditions are good
VK4 to VK6 should be certain.

What was surprising to me is that my antenna although sufficient in length and tuned
to no reflected power is very low and the main lobe of 9 dB gain is straight up so
most of my power is doing nothing but warming the ionosphere. In fact the QSO with
PAL

wn eb

Lee

PPS

Ieee

eee

ee el

eee

Pil

would

Nave

Deen

dla

WHF

I€Vvel

since

ragiauon

UNGE!

GEQIees

negligible.
For those who can operate on 160 m please listen on 1850 KHz after 10:00 UTC if |
am not on 80m | will be on top band.

From Ketut VK3BWN

at Keilor near Melbourne

[80m]
During the QSO, my antenna VSWR suddenly goes up. |
had to throttle back and re-tune but thankfully Jim was
patiently waiting. It was a pretty dicey situation but | was

able to bring the QSO to a decent ending at very low
power. Not sure what the cause of the temporary VSWR
increase. Condx was rainy and windy. Could be water
coming into the right place at the right time (I doubt the
creepy crawlers can get near). Thanks guys, see you next
time.

From Peter VK6NQL at Wundowie (formerly VK6IS)
[40m]
Lots of local noise, lotsa cold in shack, too.

[80m]
Not much

local action, until much

later.

Nothing from the DX experiment, either.

From Phil VK6GX at Gidgegannup
[80m & 160m]]
At

tha

and

anf arin

QNm

MOM

Cain

VIADNAI

raruinctad

win

———

AUIS GHW UI UU OUT WOU, Vava, VINE IN IoyUusoIcU wo
QSY to 1855kHz, but | advised him there is a VK6 SSB
sked on that frequency at 1930 WST, so we tried
1850kHz and managed to exchange reports before the
SSB sked started, then splatter from one SSB station on
1855kHz made further contact impossible, as our signals

were borderline. Suggest 1835kHz would be better, it's
between the DX segment and the digital segment and hardly ever used.

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW

Lots of fun on 20m - in fact there was a

pile-up of VKs,

gs ZLs and even one of our team in France calling our
flag-waving Europe-area representative, Chris G7BED
at Northamptonshire just North of London.
| tried Chris as well, and caused

lots of confusion with

calls from Kevin with his similar-sounding VASKEV
callsign (1 couldn't hear Kevin here).

Our previous VK & ZL motorhome-touring mate
Nigel G4RWI could hear Chris ok from his rather
pleasant location on the River Lot, just east of

Cahors in France. At one stage | heard Nigel's 10
Watts to a bit of wet string coming through to the
VK5PH Ironstone Range KiwiSDR network.
[40m]
Nice to hook up with Clive ZL1CJB

in Auckland

again before having what's become a regular weekly

Siete

chat about the Chef's Special on the Williss dinner
menu with Andy VKS5LA at Berrie. This week we had the interesting question about
how to send ‘spaghetti bolognese' on the fly without having written the words down

first! Trust it was superb Andy, and I'm looking forward to next week's food
adventure.
[80m]

Well 80m bounced back into action this week.

So many stations on again - woohoo!

| hooked up with James VK7JZ portable in a park at Lakes Entrance Victoria. James
was putting in a nice signal, before he headed off to the nearest pub to warm up....

only to find it had closed two minutes before he go there; so near yet so far!
| rounded out the evening with a QSO with one of the net's founders, Richard
VK6PZT in Bunbury.

Richard used to be plagued with switch mode power supply

hash, so it was great to see that with the help of a 300Hz filter on his IC-7200, he
was able to pick out my weak signal and exchange reports. Similarly, Richard wasn't
strong here, but we got there.

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning via VK5PH and
VK6SEG KiwiSDRs.
[20m]
Check out the number of stations heard on 20m on either the VK5PH Ironstone
Range KiwiSDRs or the Southern Electronics Group VK6SEG one at Hoddys Well eight stations in total. Great to hear so much activity. Chris was coming through
nicely this week - RSN 431 into WA and RSN 451 into SA. And as | said above, even
Nigel G4RWI's 10 Watts to a bit of wire tangled up in a Faraday tree was heard in

South Aussie.
[40m]
| wasn't using the VK5PH or VK6SEG KiwiSDRs much while | was on 40m this week,
but did notice our European desk manager, Mike DL3YZ logged on to one of the
Ironstone Range receivers at one stage; just checking to make sure we were all
behaving ourselves and having fun | guess.
[80m]

Eight stations heard on 80m this week via the KiwiSDR receivers at Ironstone Range
(established by our CQQRS family member Paul VK5PH) and Hoddys Well near

Northam (established by the Southern Electronics Group). Good to hear Lance
VK7TO back on solid ground in Tasmania after spending time in Europe.
| noticed a strong auroral presence on the South Australian KiwiSDRs from around

1115z.
OD) ee a et
PO PPRT
—-

a Bare teers Py feel tomy en) ey mea amt Peet Pecat me)
-

t Cem

met fomer eee ee Peet Sect eect bot eet Bt Peet eet fee

Peety Fem

eet

| wonder why the auroral buzz seems to hang around the bottom of the band before
slowly creeping upwards.

See previous RagChews for more discussion about the

theories about the causes of auroral noise - but the creeping up the band
phenomenon through the evening might be another thing to postulate.
All in all - a terrific night on the CQQRS

net;

great to see an end to the geomagnetic

disturbances of recent weeks.

[Well done folks - thank your for your reports - and a huge vote of thanks
to Patrick VK2IOW for compiling the report for us - excellent result!]

VIMIIVIVIIVIVIVIVIVIVIVIV

Post Morsum - July 23"

2025

From Richard VK6HRC
Pee

eee

LILO

See

Ow.

tL.

VAT

nd.

ATO

Four

VANORLIVE

APIA

and

SOUL

VVESIECIOIINK

/ AllOlar

MUD.

VK6KD David
VK6QI_ Mark
VK6HRC
VK6MRB Mulligan swl and others.
Slightly more organised this morning got moving once the alarm went off! Caught up
with Mulligan before the net and then again when he gave David a call at 06:00 after
that we got on with the net.

David had a fairly quiet night but had good contact with Richard VK6PZT on 80m.
Mark monitored the 20m activity on various Kiwi SDR nodes hearing five, eight on
40m working two and on 80m heard six worked three. He also tried the Carnarvon
remote but it was not behaving so no joy from there. Mark also did a fine job spotting
on WhatsApp

with some subtle stirring here and there.

For me it was fairly quiet on 40m to start with, working the locals until East West
propagation kicked in. | had a look at the VKGANC reverse beacon to see that Stan
ZL3TK had been spotted so went to that frequency and gave a few calls and VK2GR
Allan came up and had a chat and signed off, fortunately Stan came back up and we
had a brief contact as conditions were not great at that time. Tried 80m probably a bit
early so no contacts but followed along when it got busy later.
Two of our regulars Max VK6FN and Wayne VK6NW are taking a break for now so
looking forward to their return.
A reminder for anyone wanting join the get together to compare notes on how the
evening went for you :

Post Morsum Callback
Wednesday (VK/ZL)

2200z- 2300z VK6RLM / WA FM AllStar Network.

Connect direct to AllStar Node 42482 or use Echolink to connect to VK2KI-L.
(-

Thanks to all, stay safe

ALL
ARE CREATED EOUML.
‘SOME KNOW CW.

Richard.

[Thanks for getting up so early to run the net every week Richard - and for
assembling the report again. ]

This Week’s

Topic of

Interest
More

Portable

| thought

I was

Directional

mistaken,
by Ross

Antennas

but | was

wrong!

MONNK

There are many ways to learn. Learning from your mistakes is just one of
them,

but one in which | specialise. For example...

As discussed

in last week’s

RagChew

newsletter,

Mike

DL3YZ

and

| are

working on directional antennas for low power portable DX, specifically
Yagis at the moment.

My last experiment saw me placing the Reflector 5

metres behind the Driven Element.
(naturally,

other mistakes

were

But | now realise that’s too far away

made

which

| won’t

mention

here). The

Wisdom

is that the Parasitic

wavelength

Reflector should

be 0.12 to 0.15 times the

away, which for the 20 m band ts about 3 metres.

On the subject of directional antennas
for portable, I’ve also come to realise
that, whilst the directional gain obtained
by focussing most of your radiated
power into one tight beam

is a benefit, If

you don’t have that beam

pointing in

exactly the right direction, your target
station is probably not going to hear you
because the radiated power off-beam will be less than that of an omnidirectional antenna. Think of a searchlight (or a laser beam) - it can
illuminate objects far away but it has a very narrow field of view. This is not
a problem for the people fortunate enough to have steerable Yagis - they
just rotate the antenna to maximise the received (and thus, the
transmitted) signal. But portable, the direction is fixed so you'd better be
confident it’s pointing in the right direction.
| think the answer is to have a modest amount of directional gain whilst
still retaining enough

beam

spread for the direction to not be critical. So

that probably means a 2-element Yagi (3-elements if you’re an inveterate
tinkerer). As with many things in life, restraint is a virtue.
The weather ts looking better for the week ahead so more experiments will
be undertaken. Watch this space!

lf 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;
guidance on writing for RagChew,

see Articles below.

material to Mark VK2KI:

for

Please email

cqarsnet@gmail.com

On
Satellite
From

Ground

My Workbench
Station

- Continued

Chris G7BED

Update on the project bench

... probably not a

topic of interest as such to the Oceanic
community,

as unfortunately you don’t get

visibility of the OQO-100 satellite. But, here’s the

latest anyway - still may make an interesting

read.

arated

ew:

away

Attached

my basic system design and link

budget ....

Es'hail-2 /QQ-100 Satellite Transceiver Design
Ben Otfset Gish
Dual Band 2.490 GHz
DIP GP ve Ariberana

with (single) LNB

Radi

28/144/492'
206 MHz

1-34 (rma Guy)

ote

Convertor

(DX Patrol Mk 4)
12-16V
SOOTAL

UPLINK:

TER22V (rman)
a

SOE panne

2.4 GHz (S-Band),

AF+DC

NB: V Polarization, WB:

739 MHz (out of LNB)

Bossi

AG-6 cable (THD?)

BT4G

Es‘hail-2 /QQ-100 Satellite Context
«
»

»
«

Launched 15% November 2018
From my home QTH (Lat 52.2158°, Long -0.9303°, Loc. IOS2MF)
» AZIMUTH: 147.5° (146.8° Magnetic)
» ELEVATION: 25.3° (my assumed antenna offset: 20°)
Lower Beacon (CW): 10,489.500 MHz
Main Middlé Telemetry Beacon (BPSK): 10,489,750 MHz

Coverage from orbital position of 26 deg East
t

«s Upper Beacon (CW): 10,490,000 MHz

AMSAT QO-100/P4A
NB Transponder Bandplan
2
*
7
=

=
Ll

=
*
=

i
=

&
*
=

&
&

oi
Sr

—

E-

—_

&
+

@
=

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Receive or downlink is operational
with a simple bias-T providing
power to the LNB (Low-Noise
Block 10GHz down-converter) for
vertical polarisation. This is fed
Straight into the RTL-SDR receiver
at about 739 MHz and controlled
by SDR Control v3.3. Really
Simple to set-up. The next stage is
to get the up-convertor and power
amps

I’ve ordered. This will be

driven by an old ICOM
IF on the 2m

706 with an

band driving 3W into

the up-converter. The uplink to
the satellite’s linear transponder
runs at 2.4GHz.
Whilst I’m awaiting the delivery, | shall be taking another holiday :-) ... this
time to Provence.

| hope to still be able to make some of the QRS nets, but

will be running on a portable set-up ... an old FT818.
50W power amp

RACP

DOWNLINK: 10 GHz (X-Band),

Seeery Kraay

However,

| have a

up my sleeve, and will be using a fairly decent inverted V

up on a 6m mast - so, I’m hoping | will be just as strong into VK conditions
permitting. However,

I’m probably going to miss Tuesday but will post

Alerts on the CQQRS

Wishing you good

group.

DX and hope to catch-up with some of you from France.

Best Regards
73, de Chris, G7BED

What’s going on on your workbench?

If you have an article or two that you

think might be of interest to our readers, please let Mark VK2KI
email to

cggrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

Other
Other things

Collaboration

I’ve received

see Articles below.

News
from our 220-plus

readers.

with CWops

Readers may recall that the Oceania area CWops
eight-week Morse Mania Winter 2025 contest.
included one segment for an hour on 40m
coincide with the CQQRS

has been running the

This year, the team

has

and 80m on Tuesday nights to

net - aiming to encourage our family members to

have a go as part of the normal CQQRS
Winter 2025

know;

net.

See CWops

Morse Mania -

below for more info - this year’s event finishes in a couple of

weeks, so it’s not too late to have a go just for fun - you never know.
Chris VK3QB the CWops Ambassador for the Oceania area and | are keen
to forge closer ties between

CWops

and the CQQRS

Net.

organisations’ approaches are different, our fundamental
promote CW and encourage
rewarding

Although the two
aims align - to

newcomers to have a go at this very

mode.

Chris has been a member

of many clubs over the years and genuinely

believes that CW Ops is, on balance, the best all-round club with its
culture, activities, and support programs.

See https://cwops.org/ for more

information.
CQQRS

already works closely with Nick VK7WW

to take advantage of his

excellent Northern Tasmanian Amateur Radio Club’s weekly on-air (or
YouTube

recordings thanks to Jordan VK3ACU)

Morse Training Net below for more details);

Morse code training (see

and Nick promotes our net as

a great way for learners to have a go on air when they’re ready and for old
timers like me to just re-discover the joy of QRS contacts or rag chews.
But for those who are perhaps ready to go further and accelerate their CW
ability, which of the many options should they choose to get over the
dreaded speed

plateau?

CWops and the associated CW Academy

provides

opportunities to help.
Chris says that whilst not for everyone, CW Academy

is world class. And it

has the runs on the board with well over 12,000 successful students and
over 60 Advisors now - all working to the same system.

See

https://cwops.org/cw-academy/ for more information.
Meanwhile, don't forget the Morse Mania contest currently under-way.

(ew

And in future editions, Chris will be
providing more information about the

ops

Celebrating the unique

art form

organisation and how our QRS family can

of Morse

Code

benefit.

EMDRC

Support
Our net is strongly supported
members,

Monthly Meeting July - Two-tone audio
generator
liih

THE RADIO BULLETIN

Subaru Coax Install

Portable

Power

i,
g

Antenna

Launcher

Easter and Mountain

District Radio Club, a very

Exemption

serving the wider amateur community

behind

the scenes.

for offers

Thank you to the EMDRC

of support to the CQQRS

The Walrus

by our VK3 family

are involved in the

successful and active club with a long history of

Fanm
yp

many of whom

net.

Project

Also known as Mark Needs to Get a Life
From your editor Mark VK2KI
A Future RagChew Option?

In recent RagChews there’s been discussion

Would a groups.io account work?
by Peter Dann

(mainly self-centred on my part!) about future

newsletter;

myer

options for management of the RagChew

in summary, | need to find a better

way of supporting and building the CQQRS

net

that doesn’t involve days and days every week
to produce the newsletter (which | believe is

VKSWOW

ay reper

teteratin

neue ernst evn mpm

on sal
a on ol wep Te

past 24 hours,

and

hov

many

ifor

groups.to

groups,

ea ch

post. If | click on

the third item (say) in this table of contents, my mail reader takes me immediately
down the page to the relevant
ele
posts,
posts, which
wh
are grouped together.

key to the growth and enjoyment of our
beloved CQQRS

This

net).

a digest

for

main

morsering,groupa.ic,

ORS

I'd been trying to find another RagChew

editor,

View-all

your

Re Bue cmb RRL

and

edit

your

CUI

subscriptions,

here

ts im

MESSAGES:
ia.

Morgerino
From:

Steve

For

Sale

Sarkes

and one of our team suggested a roster -a
different editor

each

week

- which

would

be a brilliant idea.

What my rants have achieved
members
much

Is an increase in the support Im getting from

of our community - thank you my friends - your help is very

appreciated

by me, and by our readers.

In last week's RagChew,

Peter VK3WOW

supported

previous suggestions

from others about the use of the groups.io system - allowing individual
members to post material without needing any editorial input, and using
weekly summaries

instead of a weekly newsletter.

My comment

at the

time was that although | liked the idea, found the look and feel of the other
groups.io groups I’m in to be pretty uninspiring - lots of text with only links
to downloadable

images.

Peter’s article indicated that embedded

images

are possible - but | haven't followed-up to see if that’s only via the paidsubscription versions of groups.io.
Anyway,

I’ve had another member's

input - this time anonymous:

One of my suggestions in that first note | wrote regarding the future of the
Newsletter was to go to Groups IO. | really think that is the way to go. I'm
in a number of the groups. For three of those, each morning around 8am,
receive an email with a daily summary

of new topics and new replies from

the previous day. It works well.
A combination of Groups IO, and the WhatsApp

groups would work well.

There may be a way to feed the weekly reports and comments

directly into

Groups IO.
The comment

by Peter re finding previous articles is probably the most

pertinent.
You've managed

to get some

that's going to be enough.
entirely to someone

help with the newsletter, but | don't believe

If the newsletter were to be handed over

else, there's a real possibility it would become

something quite different. Its current success Is a direct result of your
ability to consistently produce a high quality, engaging, and accessible
publication. It is one that stands out precisely because it's free from
personal bias or opinion. Not many

have the skill set to achieve this.

Thank you to our contributor for your positive thoughts.

Do you have thoughts on the future of the RagChew
newsletter or other ways of Supporting and
encouraging our CQQRS family members?
me know:
cqqrsnet@gmail

Bailed,
From

Parachute

Peter VK3WOW

Come

into my parlour,

Said the spider to the fly,
And we'll play a game together.
| hope you'll have a try.
The rules are very simple,
All laid out nice and clear,
And if you make a booboo,
I'll whisper in your ear.
| won't exactly help you,
But I'll have enormous fun
While you struggle to remember
Why this game you first begun.
And when you are exhausted,
Demoralised and flat,
I'll raise my little fly swat.
Are you ready for the “Splatt”?

Please let

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 - 3580kHz at 7pm

Eastern

Sea

time every Wednesday; you'll hear lots of the
CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has

Course —_<—
Oe

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

including

group to follow the action, or just come

along and join in on Wednesdays.

Progress

report on the QRS

International

Flight Contest

Flight NR 06 took off from a tropical pseudo-democracy on Wednesday
OO00Z,

heading for a cold, unrepentant kleptocracy.

The contest is passed

half way now,

so what have entrants been learning

from participating in the IFC and have they enjoyed their experience?

answer that question, reviews are invited, even from those who decided to
bail out prematurely.

Please email reviews to

Why are we seeking reviews now?
prepared

zl3tk@qsl.net

Because the next contest Is being

ready for release in circa seven weeks. Any suggestions for

improvement or novelty features will be considered.
As if any demonstration

of proof for 100 % accuracy was needed,

sound file for Flight NR 06 had one letter wrong, mea maxima

the

culpa.

Fortunately an observant competitor noticed all was not well and pulled
the emergency cord.
made

Thanks to his eagle-eye, a quick correction was

before any real damage.
.

All IFC information is still available
.

at bit.ly/arsife

Seats are

unlimited, anyone

is welcome to

C rave
fi

It h

IQ hts

C h e

remalinin

BS
:

CE
hoe BES:

Gene

REA

CWops

AM
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Stan

Morse

ale

SV
eo
de

“ah

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Qos

VA
Sie

ae |
tweens

in your own time

160 points potential
Award Certificate

- Winter 2025

ae
J

Oe.

ee ae @
ORM and stress-free
[ ‘\@ ~~ Great CWexperience
Li,
fi
‘

QRS International Flight Contest 2025

Mania

| Ref

10 flights

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Morse Mania - Winter 2025
Objectives: This eight-week event has the following objectives:
o
o
o
o

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.

To provide an event that meets the needs of different
types of CW operators.
To use these sessions to build on existing skills and satisfy your own goals.
o
Foraperson who normally operates POTA/SOTA, this might mean
extending their QSO vocabulary to include a few new words or phrases.
o

Foran operator comfortable at 12WPM

and basic QSOs,

this might

mean aiming to increase speeds by 2-3 WPM once a 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 aimed at our CQQRS family, with one-hour sessions
commencing 17 June 2025 and taking place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays
at 0930-1030z. And there's a bonus for QRS operators as well.
How about having a go?