Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email CQQRS in your browser RagChew Edition 41/2025 A 2-1/2 Hour Climb to Submit our Report Another First Ever CW Anne Donald Nearly Breaks The K-Beacon VKFF Team Making The Copy Maritime Championship on Saturday Station of Choice Practice Chris G7BED Radio Group Chris Jones Award Using the Reverse Daylight Saving Ops Beacon Network and the Morse Training News Whitsunday CW a Rule CW Your Easy Listening Update from CW on the net? DX That Did Not and the JPC-12 Antenna Head WIA QSO the 2KW Jammer Islands on the Air Settle to Carlisle Challenge Net v RSS Whatchable e Prosign Channels of the Month Di-dah-di-dah-dit About the CQ QRS Group The propagation gods sure were smiling on Tuesday’s CQQRS week. SO many people having so much fun! and to those who managed Net this Thank you all for being there, to submit a log - an extra dit-dit. This week’s edition is yet another bumper job! Rob VK3ECH at up at the Whitsundays tells us about his 2-1/2 hour climb to get signal coverage to Submit his CQQRS report this week, and we find out that we may have had yet another first-ever CW QSO on our net this week; the hallowed First CW QSO Award at the ready. I’m standing by with Donald VK6JDM’s report is a crack-up once again, and he even addresses Jon’s question about the Kand M- beacons we can hear on 40m. This week, Lance VK7TO takes us on another journey into the bowels of our CW receivers and discusses the resolved tone frequencies, and also from the far South, James VK7/JX gives us the good-guts on his new JPC-12 portable antenna. These outstanding articles, the terrific reports from our Tuesday net reporters and a whole lot more await your reading leisure. Masthead Image Thanks this week to Rob VK3ECH yacht up in the Whitsunday nice photos - see below. who's continuing his adventures on his Islands Queensland. Rob has sent us some Tough going from the looks of things Rob. 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 To make your report more interesting, please consider sending a photo to be attached. If you have a photo that you'd be happy to include, please email it to: cqqrsnet@gmail.com To make it even easier for Patrick and Mark, see if you can compress or reduce the size of the image (preferably to less than 1OOKB file size). problems if your computer or phone can’t do that - just send it through anyway please. So, please help attract new and old team Submitting your report each week. members to have a go by Submissions close 1300 (Eastern Australian Summer time) on Thursdays. No 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 cagrsnet@gmail.com NSW non impediti ratione cogitationis Reports & Comments Here’s this week’s Last Tuesday’s Group Here’s the 66 stations heard by 42 members CQORS Team Member ca Worked 20m Heard 20m Worked 20m Heard on air Heard on air Worked 40m Heard on air Heard on air Worked 20m Heard 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Heard 80m Heard on air Heard on air Heard on air Heard 20m Worked 40m Worked 40m Heard on air Heard on air Heard on air Heard on air Worked 20m Heard 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 40m Heard 80m reports. Qso 1 Qso 2 Qso 3 of our team on Tuesday: Qso 4 Qso 5 Qso6 QsO7 Qso 8 VK3ECH/MM | Worked40m | VK3DRQ VK3DBD VK3JFR Heard 80m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Heard 80m Heard on air Heard on air Worked 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Tried 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 80m Tried 80m Heard on air Heard 40m Heard 40m Heard 80m Worked 40m Tried 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Worked 80m Heard 80m Worked 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 40m Tried 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/COORSNET ) follow. Thank you one and all for making the effort to submit a report this week. Comments: This week’s comments from our webform us by Patrick VK2IOW; reports have been compiled for thanks Patrick. From Ross DL/MONNK at Exeter UK via Stuttgart Germany — [80m] lawan uARKs nlanana ta uinarl Adal VILIZORA TL Woot ¥ Iwas VOly PICaocU WY WUIRK IVIAIN VINGIVIU, YUL the signals on 20m today were all strong and clear. Thanks, chaps - you make it feel easy. From Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart [80m] i» Hello and greetings from Germany. Today condx were fine, the DX window opened a bit later than usual. Ross and | were sharing my radio here in Stuttgart. It’s always nice to have a guest on my radio. After taking over the key, | was constantly busy, so | decided to work a little overtime. Thanks to all the stations calling me, it was a great pleasure. When Sava VK4PN called me at about 8:00 UTC, the DX window was already closing, and a lot of noise kicked in on my side. So | wasn't able to copy all of Sava’s great fist. But enough to call ita proper QSO. Have a great week! 73 de DL3YZ OANRsLe Semen cet From Stan ZL3TK ag te mgt Tacs cam at Waitarere Beach [40m] Fantastic noise-free conditions with no QSB, truly a gift from benevolent HF gods. Two contacts were stations with Settle to Carlisle traffic excellent work. From Greg VK5KFG at Willunga [40m] , Dleinn tha fhrilliant imha\ MDD I ahe OAAV 1 anain havinn WOU LPI LETTUCE IW) WAI RCW MIVIZNT CAUCUTT, PICiVil iy — spent much time exploring its menus and many different § settings. Managed to reach Wayne in Bridgetown, Manny in Blackburn but not 7N2XZB in Kawasaki City. From Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown [40m] Due to the east coast doing a Morris Dance with Father Time, the eastern stations came up a bit later but when they did, conditions were good. Had another great chat with Greg who was using 5W. [80m] 80m conditions were OK, with very little QSB. Had a very nice chat with Mark with references to how much better the CW gets when fortified with a nice shiraz. Sava gave a call and we had a wonderful QSO. Thanks guys. From Rob VK3ECH/MM =~ at Cid Harbor, Whitsunday Island, Qld [40m] ) Was a fun night working, Manny VK3DRQ, David VK3DBD & James VK3JFR though signals not all that strong up here but _# good copy even amongst the bumps and clangs onboard the § yacht with a bit of swell coming through the anchorage in Cid SI Harbor on Whitsunday Island. It all makes receiving all that . ¥ little bit more challenging. [80m] Fura tniet ansalad \Alhiterindaw leland Daal 1 9 Bhre tral ta ant nhann cansinan ta ooihmit PVG JUol OLAICU VWVINOUTIUGy bold Troan da a. LON LY YO VIIVIIG OUIVIVGS LY OUMITIIL my log. The views are quite stunning and definitely worth the effort. [OK Rob - you've qualified for the inaugural Log Submission Effort of the Week award!] From Ron VK6KHZ at Yangebup [40m] Better conditions this week. i (ei Roc kinghaiv : Ai From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW [20m] = = Wasn't it terrific on 20m on Tuesday? So much | for Ross and Mike doing just 30 minutes each = on Mike's Remote station.... so many people to | have a chat to! The band was open well enough on the longpath for me to enjoy a comfortable QSO with both people... and gently discourage the other European operators who tried to nuzzle in to the frequency we were using. | guess Mike and Ross are pretty good at sending our prosign of the month(ie 'wait') when locals come up on the frequency, when a weak Oceania station is transmitting. Conditions were so good, that when | disappeared into the kitchen to start making dinner, | disconnected the headphones (which | always use on CW) and | could comfortably read the conversation in the other room, even while chatting to Ms Elizabeth (yeah | know.... living on the edge a bit there!). Great fun was had by so many. [40m] When | came back after dinner, 40m was jumping. | heard Donald VK6JDM hearing our Doctor. calling Calvin VK3CAL, So much DX! but it sounded like Calvin wasn't | ended up having a chat to Calvin, who was having fun learning to use his brand new TNFEEON paddle. | had to ask him to repeat the name.... and I'm hoping he'll send us a photo so we can learn a bit more about this new one. Manny VK3DRQ took over after me - great to hear our new CQQRS family member Calvin having fun on the net. | also came across a beaut rolling rag-chew between Greg VK5KFG at Willunga and Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown. More people enjoying the art of QRS! Before slipping down to 80m, | heard a big signal from a Californian station, N6TI. From what | could see of his QRZ.com page, judging by the scale of a couple of images of him on a tower, | think he may have been using a six element Yagi on 40m! Have a look, and see why you think - compare his body size to the tri-bander above him, then compare that to the huge Yagi on the other tower! He probably wasn't QRP either. No wonder he was romping in while chatting to a Japanese station. [80m] At around 1130z | had a listen on 80m; it was pretty quiet. The VK5PH KiwiSDR network at Ironstone Range was chock-a-block, and | couldn't get in to any of the three receivers for the rest of the night. However | called CQ on 3555kHz and was rewarded by a response from Ketut, VKS3BWN at Keilor East. | couldn't remember working Ketut on 80m and did a check back through my log... it turned out that | hadn't worked him at all - despite his being a regular on our net for years! Just shows to go eh? | also hooked up with Peter VKGNQL at El Caballo Blanco land (you have to be a Sandgroper older than a certain age to know about that WA icon) Chidlow. After that, Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown and | enjoyed a nearly QSB-free chat before | changed callsigns and reverted to the VK6SR Remote. Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW via the VK6SR Remote at Jandakot [20m] —— Unfortunately the Southern Electronics Group VK6SR Remote at Jandakot wasn't playing the game when | tried to check for long path signals this week. Like last week, | could twiddle some of the controls, side-tone worked.... but | couldn't actually switch the FT-991a transceiver on (I'd found that it works better when switched on). ee -_ oh ie i [80m] | sent a quick SMS to Rob VK6LD about the Remote station and after he did a re- boot, all was well. | hooked up with James VK7JZ in Hobart who was hearing me ok despite the noise level. However, the propagation gods then stopped smiling, and James reported via WhatsApp that I'd faded into the noise suddenly. Instead | rounded out the night with a late QSO with Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney before padding quietly off to bed, trying not to step on our mobile speedbump cat. A fun night for me, that's for sure; thank you all. From Patrick VK2IOW between Bathurst and Orange [20m] | had two nice QSOs — with Ross, MONNK and Mike, DL3YZ. Conditions were good and | used the QSOs to compare my large horizontal loop (160 metres long), with the 3 element yagi. On receive the | signals seemed a similar strength. However on transmit Ross and Mike said the signals were about 1 or perhaps 2 S-points stronger on the yagi. From Peter Dann VK3WOW [40m] at Blackburn Seemed to be quite a few DX stations audible on "our" part of the band, and some of them decidedly QRQ. How dare they! :} From Jim Semmens VK7JZ at Hobart a "| [40m] Really enjoyed the CQ QRS net this week. Sava VK4PN | could hear on 20 meters, then moving to 40 meters a QSO with Stan ZL3TK who was also kind enough to follow f= with an email to fill in the gaps | missed and offer some tips. | was thrilled to get call from Ron VK7ME, * but very sweet. it was short Ron is undertaking the beginner class and we had been chatting for a few weeks about when we were going to have a CW QSO, was a good first run and so unexpected. | will let the hint out, Ron lives about 400 meters from my QTH so we could probably do CW on a fraction of a sneeze. | then had a good long QSO with Jared VK2LDJ. Might have been long because my sending and copy was slow but we chatted about antennas, radios, noise situation and of course the weather, it was cold and blowing a gale here in Hobart apparently warm for Jared in Queenbeyan. | then managed to score a QSO on 80 meters with Mark using VK6QI listening to the dah-dit-dah against lots of background noise. It was hard work for me but probably a exercise in real life conditions. Its a bit harder than listening to clean recordings, or clean files on a training program | am taking a ‘glass half full’ approach to that one, a couple of weeks ago | could not do 80 meters from home, now | can. more drilling and practice to do, hear you all next week... From Peter VKGNQL at Wundowie [40m] Thie winal vusrae nff tan an elas otart and ithe atill nniews: aftar 4QNN Right then, 11S WST, WOON Wao Vil lw al OIVVY OLAIL QIU INO OLIN TIMIoy anor rou but the signals are in there. [80m] it's a quiet band these days :( - SO up for the odd week-day contact? From Roy VK6RR at Geraldton [40m] , Managed to have a quick QSO with Ron and Mait then had to QRT regretfully. From Donald VK6JDM at 20 km west of Esperance on south coast of VK6 [40m] 40 was jam-packed, | could hear a great signal from ZL1HJ and was just about to reply when the local jamming service started up. Now this device puts out an S9++ signal across all HF bands. It is a 2 kW device supposedly designed to vacuum the floor under the control of Anne who keeps forgetting that it wipes out the HF band at just the moments | wish it would not. The label on the side says it is a 2 kW vacuum cleaner, but | suspect 1.5 kW at least is consumed in the creation of RF white noise. By the time the jamming service went QRT there was no ZL1Hu to be heard. | had hoped to have a brief gloat session with him about the Bledisloe cup which of course has remained in the hands of the superior islanders to the ease for 23 years now. Pn ke ee a Lk Bk eee ed de RR 2 Ae ee 2 bk ek bb I i FPemaps IL lS DESL INdt We G10 NOL ena up apie lO GlsCuss SUCI] ad WING, aS WIETE Is, | gather, some unwritten rule about no politics, no sex and no religion on the bands; Bledisloe Cup for us Kiwis is at least 2 of these. Now talking of unwanted signals on the band, a contributor a couple of weeks ago asked about the slow morse single letter station he heard on 7.039MHz. There are actually a cluster of these single letter stations spaced 100 Hz apart. The signals originate in Russia and are felt to be low power naval propagation beacons. They have been there for many decades. There are, surprisingly, folk who are more nerdy than those who communicate with CW, who have spent a great deal of time locating these beacons and trying to determine their full purpose. Perhaps they are there to make us think they serve a purpose, in which case Putin's mates may actually have a sense of humour. Finally Mark, your award is well deserved. | cannot conceive of anyone else who could have marshalled so many to use a slow antiquated means of communication on a regular basis and to convince them they are having fun (which they are). If someone had asked me if | would build a dedicated 40/80 CW transmitter a year ago | would have told then they were mad. Now | am working on a 20 metre Tx to try to chat with our European members and | am fearful that folk are muttering behind my back that maybe | am finally going loopy. 73 From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney Brisbane [20m] Got on air around 16:30 after collecting grandkids from school. As usual called few CQs to see where | was being picked up by the reverse beacon network. By the look of the report CONDX seemed excellent but | couldn't hear anything around 14.045 MHz. Tuned couple of KHz lower and kept calling CQ hoping that one of our EU friends may come back. Yes Europeans were coming back but the wrong ones. Every now and again | would tune around 14.045 MHz just to check and finally | could hear VK2KI working DL3YZ but both elie were ae De dh Le EE I BR ee She ee Managed a QSO with DL3YZ | eee ee ee 2 DUL DOY Was It GINNICUIL IN€re Was MOre NOISe Ian SIQnal. NNOWING WhO Was al Ine other end | could manage to copy enough snippets of the QSO for a log entry. Just after 18:00 | moved to 40m for NZCW net check in on 7030 MHz. Managed to catch up with Kiwis just as net was to shut down. [40m] Had only a short window for 40m after spending too much time on 20m. Heard a number of stations all engaged in QSOs and with no time to wait | managed just one contact with ZL2GD a mate from NZCW net which | join as often as | can. Had to quit at 18:30 to look after my grandkids. [80m] Got home at 21:15 (grandkids duties ) and went straight to 80m my favorite band. There was just a single trace on Araluen SDR at 3550. | guessed that would be VK2KI chatting with somebody and | was right. Again rather than waiting | tuned few KHz lower and called CQ while observing traffic on 3550. Just to clarify | never use SDR to copy only to monitor. If | cannot copy using my home RX then QSO is not legitimate. For the entire period | spent on 80m band | heard only 3 @ ws stations (that is after 21:15), VKSCAL who was putting a huge signal into Brisbane, VK6NW and VK6QI. Signals from WA were also strong but _iisesstaieWolstisruatten wet nna Don plenty of noise 115815 -13 so was the noise, so S9 signals had power and copy was cescsa reese careee cust ner ccs 0.3 1365 ~ ai JASSNEF JALMUN +14 not armchair either. | keep harping about lack of activity on 80m and this = Tats A: n.4 tiem = gmeirey Seinen 8 iiss30 -1s -a,1 ize¢ - vasuR wots a will be the last time. Just to prove the = .1ise5 -1s point that 80m is good at night have a 5,3 is71 ~ RFSUS W7CT “1 iiss 17 013 1sez = SaesNF onion Bars look at the 60 Sec snippet of FT8 traffic at around 22:00. DX galore! PM Peeveemenenmncnnner nnn From Lance VK7TO at Hobart [20m] We had winds in excess of 80 kph last weekend which my 20 m vertical, after impersonating a yoga instructor for many hours, finally gave up and lay down. | I'm hoping for the wind to ease before the weekend so that | can climb onto my roof and repair it before the weekend's Oceania CW contest [40m] The 40 m band sounded busy and was pleased to hear several very slow ops. | worked Wimal, VK1WA with a great signal from the ACT, followed by Mait, VK5AO, also a great signal. Unfortunately, my final contact with VA6KHZ, whose CQ was plenty strong, dropped by the time he tried giving me my report and we were unable to make the contact. been a struggle. Evening This is the second time we've worked, and both times have Let's hope for better conditions in the future. Mark, hope all is well on your end? Just sending you a quick e-mail regarding my QSO on Tuesday night with Jim - VK7JZ on 40m. Looks like the submission form has already closed. So thought I’d e-mail you directly for next week’s update. Btw, I'll be part of the VKFF Team Championships this Saturday. Will be the first time I'll be activating using CW, so that will be an experience for sure! Chat soon. Cheers, Jared - VK2LD}. [G’day Jared. Thanks for the note; yes, the form closes at 1300 local time on Thursdays, so we can process it into the reports for the newsletter that afternoon. | wasn’t aware of the VKFF Team Championship https://www.wwifaustralia.com/2025. html ! hope you have lots of fun. lf the parksnpeaks.org SMS reflector is working ok, I'll try to copy/paste your Spots to the CQQRS WhatsApp, WhatsApp Alerts. If you don’t see them on it may mean that the reflector system is down - and if you have time, you might post an Alert yourself so our mob know where you're on alr.] TA AV AV AV AV AV AV AVAVAYAYAVAY AY, Post Morsum 8th October 2025 by Richard VK6HRC. Six on the South West repeater and AllStar/Echolink hub this morning. Two checked in before the net VA6MRB Mulligan and Stan ZL38TK VK6FN Max VK6KD David VKENW Wayne VK6QI Mark VK1JT John VK6HRC and our short wave listeners. Max was busy on his property and got on later than planned, worked Peter VK6NQL and Ron VK6KHZ on 40m and then went into listening mode enjoying some good code. David also got on later called on 80m for a while and with no response then tuned across 40m but all had gone quiet by then. On the upside David had a visitor that had been in the Military as a signal intercept operator skilled in CW receiving but not able to send, a common story. Wayne worked five on 40m and two on 80m and let us know he will be away camping in the Northern Wheatbelt next week. He will be active on SSB whatever that is ! Mark managed to work Ross MONNK and Mike DL3YZ on 20m Ross was using Mike’s remote set up. Apparently they stayed on longer than planned, enjoying themselves no doubt. On 40m worked VK3CAL Calvin who was taming his new paddle and then on to 80m to work Ketut VASBWN Peter VK6NQL and Wayne VK6NW. After that Mark logged on to the remote at Jandakot to operate from WA which needed a reboot by Rob VK6LD to get it to behave and worked Sava VK4PN and James VK7JZ to round the evening off. John was given a brief description of what we were up to so we might hear from him in the future. He let us know of the SDR Hack RF node with CW ident that he has running, one of his many other projects. | worked four on 40m and got a bonus Maritime Mobile CW contact with Morgan VK6MTF and on 80m heard Mark VK2KI calling tried getting back to him unfortunately he was not hearing me. Thank you to all on last night and this morning. Have a great week Sounds crazy, but if yer get yerself a cheap shopping cart, it's amazing how much bluddy time ya'can save when you shop only once a year! = 73 Richard. Using one of these last night, not as nice though. From Max Faulkner's famous self-help radio serial, 'How | Spend more Time Pounding Brass" This Week’s Topic of Interest Making CW your Easy Listening Choice Ice Picks and Sloppy by Lance VK7TO Mud Station of Making CW your easy listening station of choice. By Lance - VK7TO Following on from the previous exploration of how receivers convert a CW signal into an audable tone, we will take the next step in our journey to understand why pre-DSP receivers have a fixed pitch CW tone, and the oft overlooked feature there to ease your ears. Ice picks and sloppy mud. Some operators love a CW tone around 1,000 Hz, which to me feels like the little people who live in my head are climbing my ear drums with ice picks. Others prefer something closer to 300 Hz. Between aging, sensitivity, operating conditions and a range of other factors, it's not just that we're a pampered lot that we each have a preferred CW pitch. So why can't older radios change their tone? Recall that by changing the frequency we mix against an RF signal, we can alter the tone we hear. The issue is that in more performant designs the Variable Frequency Oscillator (VFO) is used to convert the RF to an intermediate frequency and not setting the BFO frequency. The BFO uses a fixed offset, often around 700 to 800 Hz. Modern radios don't have this limitation as the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) extracts the CW signal and generates a synthetic tone at whichever pitch the operator chooses. HF/SOMHz TRANSCEIVER TS-590 RIT SEL AGC/T LEV LEV A.NOTCH WIDE NB NR BC nt Can't any receiver adjust the VFO knob for a different tone. Certainly, but in the context of a CW exchange, consider what would happen if two stations, each wanting to listen on their preferred, different pitch were having a conversation. Every time they changed their VFO to their preference they would be changing their transmit frequency too, inadvertently changing their partner's receive tone. The partner would then adjust their VFO ...; they'd be chasing each other around the band. If only there were a way to change our receive frequency without affecting our transmit frequency. 1 . + rh | im \) oat U jsB = | Receiver Incremental Tuning (RIT) to the rescue. The RIT control allows us to shift the VFO frequency by +2 kHz, but the magic is that this only effects the receive frequency. As such, we can tune the RIT as much as we want to achieve our pitch of choice. And if you were wondering, it's also the means by which we operate split with a single VFO rig. "Huh, | have a modern rig, no RIT for me." you say. Well, "Huh" right back at you! Those of us with older radios enjoy poor frequency stability. We may not notice it, but our QSO partners certainly will. The next time you're working a Station, and their signal starts drifting, don't be a lid and change your VFO, hit that RIT button and join in the fun 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; guidance on writing for RagChew, material to Mark VK2KI: see Articles below. Please email cqqrsnet@gmail.com for On My Workbench The OPS DX That Did Not with a portable vertical antenna From James VK7JZ The DX that wasn’t. On Tuesday 30 October | cut early from work with a plan to attempt my first proper DX CW QSO. and Mike DL3YZ weeks back. It was a suggestion made by Ross MONNK some Both quickly jumped TX: DL Frankfurt Vv orset Grid: s040he or Latitude: 50.1000 RX: VK7 Hobart Vv orset Grid: QE37pc or Latitude: -42.9001 on board offering encouragement and some suggestions about how to find a good spot with chances of success. My helpers from the EU even sent me picture of the expected advice propagation ‘find somewhere path with that you have a view of the horizon to the south east Jim’. A few emails back and forwards and we settled that | would operate portable from the Queens Domain in Hobart. nei LAAlaskcmey Goro! Sieg, An Antenna to Suit the Royal Occasion | have a vertical antenna at home plagued with QRM. however living in the suburbs my QTH | like my bushwalking antennas to date had been home is and SOTA, so all my portable made dipoles or end fed half waves as they work well on summits when you don’t know how much room you will have to work with. In this case | wanted to try out a new antenna | had just received being a JPC-12 multiband vertical available online from the sites. | had seen some reviews on ( uoisseA YouTube and eac of the reviewers ha rated the antenna . Ca a for a quick setup, dite—_ CL DULL ajqeyod ZT-Id£ pua-y6IH) euuaIuy usual shopping = met apparently just pus the stake into the ground, put the Ue rater Hy IEMA 4 ae es oe eas i ii Qe | i re9 6 fe oo UU ‘arpa Ia I CL rs 3 a al co 6 ee A a ens pivipatty ve Ui} pei fuged Vet fa BK ai | BL or aa 15) 16! kone ard 13! 19! ak pt 2 a) v4 pl 2) 2a i pe eto ye) rah 2. ee: i | 7 ; set the position of your coil and the length of whip, run out a ground plane, connect to your radio and you're done, now start calling CQ... But wait, there’s more... So we did that, Ross and | coordinated via email taking it in turns to call each other on 20, 15, and 10 meters. | could not hear Ross on any band, he could not hear me on any band, it became the DX that did not. Mark was listening on the side and assured me | was getting out and could be heard in VK2 and VK6. | was operating from the bonnet of my vehicle and at one point | bumped my key and! promptly got a message from Mark ‘Did you just bump your key Jim?’, so | think we established the antenna was working fine and conditions were not in our favour for DX. During setup | had sent Ross/Mike some photos of my antenna arrangement, this led to some after action (or after no action) discussion on my setup with Mark cc into the thread. Mark then asked | repeat same for a contribution to the CQ QRS newsletter (as he has been known to do). The JPC-12 antenna and what I did to it Version ) factory supplied kit aN nts ae comes with an ay eRe aluminium stake, a 31 length of ribbon = Se C es . FS te hey thy, end with a ring TTT) We mp 14] i CLE cable fixed at one terminal, then a base for the feed point, then 4 sections of aluminium tube, a loading coil used on the 20 and 40 matar nrannce than UT LUTTTT WN (ADI Preerrrre yr The JPC-12 in the van talaccrnanic varhin PIC lel MAIS, LIC! A LCUEIMCOOCUPIL VWITIP. The deal is you adjust the loading coil when bands, remove used on the 40 and 20 meter it for higher bands, and on all bands extend or retract sections of the whip to be resonant on the band you are operating on. ribbon cable is supposed to be used as the ground individual wires and splaying them out on the ground. mention the downside of this ground tangled. The plane by separating the Online reviews plane arrangement Is that it gets | have had to sort a few tangles on summits and it’s not much fun So went looking for a better approach set out, and packed In the attached photos you will see the original kit which included an aluminium spike and the ribbon cable. shopping sites) in so far as how to get a radial plane up, real easy and no tangles. What! found online (Same usual was an alternate arrangement of buying a stainless steel spike with a longer threaded section at the top, this spike comes with a machined disc with 12 radial holes in the disk suitable for inserting banana plugs, which also come with the spike and disc. The extended thread is longer than the factory example by just the right amount to thread the disc on, then add the antenna | kind of like the stainless spike as perhaps base. a bit less likely than the aluminium original to be damaged if | had to knock a] 9 t) & is a | © FE & aZz 2 2 Watche Phone 1300 139 138 Into hard ground with a mallet. In the photo attached of my set up for the DX attempt with Ross / Mike you can see the 12 ground plane radials set out, and it truly is easy to eal with them uickly, one ata ime. Researching online articles Suggested a 4 wire ground plane is OK (2 iS apparently OK if you are near water), 6 is better, 8 more better, and then the law of diminishing returns Starts to Kick. Seeing as | hada disc with 12 holes in it, and 12 banana olugs, | made up 12 radials. In the photo example my radials are a few different colours, it’s just what | had left over from making dipole antennas, cheap wire marked O.12mm up as 13 strands x from Jaycar. Online research told me that the radials for a ground plane should be ™% of the length of the lowest band you are working, then just get them out there, so given the lowest band this antenna tunes for is 40 meters, | ended up with 12 lengths of 10m radial wire. | read quite a few articles espousing the importance of the right radial length for the band you are operating on so | built accordingly and cut my radials in half at 5 meters (being %4 of 20 meters) and inserted a 2mm RC connector then protected the outside with some heat shrink. Tha FAinlina varac if lvusrac CAANANINA Fram AN matarc tn DI matarc | raniila His LIMIKIIY WS 1 Wad CHanmyiiy Wun +U miceers LWW 2u mice, 1 CuUTU quickly walk around the antenna, open the connectors and not waste time trying to wind up 5 meters x how ever many radials | put out. working theory but when That was my | set up the antenna for testing purposes | found that on the 20m band, having out the full length 10m than 5m radials. What led me to this observation was there were some CW radials was better operators keying away a bit too quick for me (not VK’s) and they were low to the noise and | would argue only workable to someone with a good ear. Then | reconnected the radials to get the full length ground Signals came plane, the up about 2 S points to make them quite workable, but the Static floor did not come with them - | suppose | am saying they lifted above the floor a bit with longer radials. | can’t explain the science of why, but | am aware that location, ground conductivity, and other factors play a part, so | just accepted it. So, it ‘looks’ complicated, it looks like more work than getting a squid pole up in the air and hang a single wire from it, yet that was not my experience. | accept if one can find a tree stump, or a post in the ground then it is possible to tie the squid pole to it and you are up. a squid pole on open ground can be a pain. But setting up This was not the case with the JPC-12, | pushed the spike into the ground, two light taps with a mallet, on went the radial disc, the base, four sections of aluminium tube/mast, loading coil, whip - done tn about 1 minute. The radials | had pre-packaged in litthe sandwich in bags and wound figure of 8, so | could toss them and they mostly unravelled in flight, no tangles, and a little stretch to lay them out where | wanted on the ground, antenna up in under 4 minutes. Packing up took a moment longer but was still easy because | could wind my radials up one at a time (no tangles), put them in their bag, do the next one, pack down the antenna sections and it all (including 12 bags of radials) fitted back into the JPC-12 bag. When | undertook my first test setup prior to the DX attempt | did make use of a NanoVNaA to help me adjust the whip length to get the antenna band. | made resonant on each myself a handy table and the thinking was | did not want to rely upon memory, or want to need to bring the NanoVNaA every time | went portable. | thought if | was ‘close’ then the antenna tuner would take care of any changes in resonance / ground etc. The fact Is if one wanted a perfectly resonant antenna, then take the NanoVNA or antenna analyser with you and leave the antenna tuner at home. So after all that there was no DX, | spent more time fluffing about getting the radio set up on the bonnet my paddle set up, and having my cheat Sheets close at hand in the event of CW brain fade.. Getting the antenna up was the easy bit, easy to set up and easy to pack down, and | need not put out all 12 radials every time. The JPC-12 is rated for 100w and | think it just became my open ground / parks / paddock/ portable antenna of choice. 73 Jim Semmens VK7JZ Hobart, Tasmania (or a mountain somewhere) Email: hobartjim@gmail.com QRZ: https://www.arz.com/db/VK7JZ 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 know; email to cqqrsnet@gmail.com For guidance on writing for RagChew, Head Compiled Copy see Articles below. Practice on the track somewhere by John VK2RU We are nearing the halfway mark of this epic tale and start the first half of Chapter 5 of Wind in the Willows - Dulce Domum the comforts of his little home. warmth in which Mole rediscovers It’s a simple, homely chapter that highlights in everyday surroundings. Like the last two weeks, this is recorded at 16 wpm. Speed, you can find 12 wom create your own If you want a slower audio files in previous Newsletters. Or you can MP3 files from the Chapter 4 txt file at any speed as noted below. Because of MailChimp’s size limits, I’ve split Chapter 5 into 4 parts. Each part is over 1 hour playing time @ 16 wpm. below. Parts 1 and 2 are attached If you’d like the full chapter in a single file, you can use the complete text of Chapter 5, and convert it yourself with the Ebook2CW app - https://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html. I’ve made a few small adjustments to the text to keep it “Morse friendly”. Uncommon punctuation has been removed (the Ditto CW app doesn’t recognise some of it), and contractions have been simplified (for example, we'// becomes This week’s we wil). attachments include: e Two MP3 files (first section of Chapter 5) e Two text files matching the MP3 segments e One text file of Chapter 5 You can either play the MP3 files in any media into the Ditto CW: player, or load the text files Morse Player app - https://dittocw.andro.io/. Both work well, but Ditto CW gives you complete control over all Morse settings, while a normal media player only allows changes to playback speed, and does that in steps (e.g. +1.25x, Other Other things we’ve 1.5x, 1.75x). News received from our 230-plus readers. Update from Chris G7BED Hi Mark, Thanks, an interesting read as always. mn Ait Hhavw naad tiinina nak UV, YVUL LUIVYy CCU Unfortunately, LUTTITTY. I'm now out of time as I'm away now until end of October. Some portable ops may be possible, but | can't commit on that just yet. Attached also a few photos of the Ongoing antenna repair. In the meantime, | did some WWII SOE ops from Bletchley Park last weekend. Photo attached. Great fun on the HRO and a Straight key. Welcome ©=) =} \=/ \-/ National Radio Centre Hope to be back with you soon. Thanks Chris G7BED [Thanks for the update on your antenna repairs after the storm Chris terrific. | really like that fold-down mast; please post it to me when you get tired of it! The SOE ops at the RSGB National Radio Centre Bletchley Park looks like fun; and / imagine the HRO receiver would have also been a fun challenge drifting among the QRM! Maritime From Love the high-tech feed-line installation. ] Radio Group on Facebook Roy VKORR: Welcome tothe Maritime But -the Radio rnow the timehas come-ours is satellites are calling, our morse Marconiif you canhearus / Final tranmermisaasion Maritime Radio Group notto reason transmitters we salute frm Landaseend ta; Join @ Public group - 16.7K members grou why die. you!” Radio/GLD A Share | v WIA Chris Jones Award Congratulations to our team member Rob VK6LD from Albany, who was awarded the WIA Chris Jones 2025 Award for Exceptional Contribution to Amateur Radio recently. Rob is the main mover and shaker ™ hahind = . . tha Cariitharn Elactranicce A a Hx | l. ij Sime __ Group, has built and managed the group’s two HF and one VHF/UHF remote stations and the recent VK6SEG KiwiSDR, as well as much of the famous WA AllStar and repeater network in conjunction with that net’s founder (and fellow CQQRS family member) Mal VK8MT and John VK6RX. Rob has also built many amateurs’ AllStar hotspot nodes in use around WA and is always generous with his time for people like your editor who call on him regularly for assistance with AllStar building and trouble-shooting. Congratulations Rob. Using the Reverse From Beacon Network Peter VK3 WOW There’s been quite a bit of discussion on the CQQRS group about the Reverse Beacon WhatsApp Rag Chew Network as a tool for checking how well you're getting out and propagation. Normal use ts for you to call ‘CQ DE ’ at a non-QRS speed, which Is detected by the network of individuals’ receivers around the world and the path and Signal-to-noise ratio is published on the RBN website within seconds. Official documentation on how to get the RBN to notice (“spot”) you is here: https://www.reversebeacon.net/pages/How+to+get+spotted+by+the+RB N+44 Morse Training Our team member every Wednesday Net Nic VK7WW 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; CQQRS team on that net. Eastern you'll hear lots of the Jordan VK3ACU has recorded the complete set of lessons which you Can find NOW SLOW MORSE CODE COURSE here: Learn Morse Code - Slow Morse Course https://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PLHSQmZz6fBXO/swAfbTmutrbbELl 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. And from one of the non-daylight-saving team: Darn daylight saving - missed Nic’s CW session! CW Ops News for 9 October 2025 From Chris VK3QB There are many methods we use to develop our CW skills and gain further enjoyment from the code. Recently | was discussing the topic of “getting better at CW” with a couple of mates and two topics were the focus of discussion. How fast should | be sending (and receiving)? This question fraught, and the answer is “it depends”. If you’re in a contest or chasing DX, then you'll almost certainly be going faster than your normal ragchew speed. In fact, if you’re chasing a DXpedition, chances are you're copying code at least at 25WPM. And contesting is often faster. What you'll inevitably find is that after a short contest effort, or chasing some DX, your brain will set a new (faster) baseline for copying CW. And most of us know our callsigns like - well - our names. Hearing our callsign in Morse Code is (or should be) automatic recognition. The same goes for sending. But back to the loaded question: “How fast should | be sending?”. Well, if you want to improve your morse code, then like any other endeavour, you need to stretch yourself - even just a little. That means listening to good quality morse code which Is just a little faster than your comfort zone, and setting aside 5-10 minutes every couple of days to practice your sending. Like any skill, soort, musical instrument, or craft, you will only improve with practice and by setting the bar a little higher each day (or week, or month). Applying proven methods also improves your chances of success and ameliorates frustration. So, the next time you’re in front of the radio, have a listen to stations sending just a little faster than your comfort zone. Line up a QSO with a friend and ask them to increase their soeed a few WPM - maybe suggest they increase word spacing whilst you adjust your “ears” to the new normal. What everyone I’ve spoken to agrees, is that when it comes to skills development you must set your targets just a little higher, never lower. If you set your operating speed lower than your level of competence, it’s almost a certainty that your level of competence will drop also. Check out this free resource by Kurt Zoglmann, ADOWE. It’s a great way to improve your copying skills and is a proven success for many operators. httos://morsecode.ninja/practice Next time I'll talk a bit about the other topic on my list... muscle memory and why it matters to Morse Code operators. CW Ops CW Academy is a great learning environment, and CW Ops runs these classes three times per year. If you're at all interested, the next intake is in January 2026. If you have any questions, are eight weeks please drop me an email. Courses long and no matter your level, you'll come out the other side with better skills and more enjoyment from the code. httos://cwops.org/cw-academy/ Support After two weeks on Norfolk Island as VKQNT it’s nice to be home.... As they Say, it’s nice to travel, but it’s always nice to get home! Luke VK3HJ and | were unable to make Zoom Unfortunately, work properly with the limited 4G internet on the island. So, apologies to anyone who tried to join us last month for the Zoom session. We'll try again this month and talk about what it was like on the other side of the pileup, as well as our station and “island life”. As always, 3'™ Monday of the month, 20* October at O830UTC. https://morsecodesessions.wordpress.com/zoom-details/ If you're free, please join us. We'll also run a Q&A session. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please drop me an email. 73, Chris VK3QB & VKICWO CW Ops OC Ambassador vk3qb@hotmail.com or vklcwo@outlook.com W Home | , be s F i Clubinformation Courses The Radio Bulletin ‘ | i | YouTube Groups i | Links Member 7 J Login | Monthly Meeting - Experiments with Quadrature mixers and DSP microcontrollers THE RADIO «<<. 3 October - Friday 8:00pm - Club Rooms Burwood & Zoom a! Spectrum + Waterfall Disp.. — oO x BULLETIN 21/04/2024 - 7:57 PM ~¢ Subaru a 15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM Coax ¥ Portable Power 10/11/2023 Install - 10:56 AM Antenna Launcher Exemption bk, or 144.000 MHz | 144.075MHz | 144.150 MHz The Journey Continues - Whitsunday - 3:53 PM EMDRC - IMPORTANT DATES pre Experiments with Quadrature mixers and DSP microcontrollers: Birth of the PAQH SDR 2m transceiver. 03/06/2023 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM - JOIN NOW Paul VK3PA CLUB’S INTERNET SPONSER Islands On Air From Rob VK3ECH Hi Mark, I’ve had very limited phone service out on the Islands here. For this week's CQQRS | was anchored in Cid Harbor, Whitsunday Island. | had to scale Whitsunday Peak \ to get service to send in my Log! Here's my yacht in Hamilton Island marina. Here's where I’m anchored in Cid Hbr, and the other two are Whitehaven Beach/Hill Inlet where | was anchored for last week’s CQQRS but not able to send in my log. I'll try to put a bit of an article together for the RagChew at some stage too. 73 from the sunny Whitsundays. Rob, VK3ECH. [Wow! Thanks for the tour Rob. well together eh? CW Somehow CW and /MM just seem to go Bit like red wine and cheese!] Settle to Carlisle Railway Challenge, Week 4 Report From Stan ZL3TK Last Sunday, QNC NRO3 from the 'Morse with a Purpose Society' took us to Dentdale, the second stop on the up-line after leaving Settle. Even here on the moors, Who would modern technology has become commonplace. have thought it would be so obvious, even along roadsides in these ancient dales. What would the Romans and Norse of old make of such strange structures? Next Sunday's QNC Pennines. NR0O4 introduces us to Garsdale in the lonely western Garsdale is reminiscent of the bleak shanty towns and tough spirit exhibited by the navvies who lived and died building the Settle to Carlisle line. Last week it was suggested there are no short-cuts to becoming and competent in Wireless Telegraphy. testing the mettle of entrants, all of whom job. by HF propagation, and a revised QTC protocol is being implemented for QTC beyond. STC is incidentally are doing a sterling To make STC less vulnerable to errors caused hold at bay the effects of cumulative tiredness when sending text, confident That's proving true again, It is not applicable to sound files. long blocks of NRO4 and An example showing five notional answers is available in the instructions.pdf and also at https://gs|.net/zl3tk/stc/odf/upgraded-qtc-protocol.pdf. version is shown below. With the upgraded A shortened QTC protocol, despite the vulnerability to confusion being lessened, it is more important than ever to be conversant with using the extremely useful repeat request protocol, for without it much time can be wasted trying to understand what to resend should all five answers somehow VVVVVV STC QTC CT need only one or two words repeated. NRI2Z 1f/DEC24= AVS BLEAMOOR TUNNEL, ROAD B6255. THE NEXT VILLAGE AT 30 MILES PER HOUR 21 MINUTES TO AR BK #L3TK replies with either QSLA1 QRY A? BK. or sends a repeat request using the standard protocol shown in the instuctons.paf VWhen Ad has been resolved, 2L3TK sends Q@5LA1 GRY Az2 BK and nonnal protocol resumes. AZ JOHN ADAMS DESIGNED THE VIADUCT IN 1669. BATTY MOSS IS UNSUITABLE FOR AN EMBANKMENT AR BK #L3TK replies with either OQSLA2 QRY AS BE. or sends a repeat request using the standard protocol shown in the instructions pdf VWwhen A2 has been resolved, 2L3TK sends QSL A2 QRVA3 BK and nonnal protocol resumes. CW Settle to Carlisle Railway Challenge @ @ @ @ @® @ @ @ @ 73 es 77 len weeks duration starting 21 September 25 73-miles through England's scenic countyside Enhance your CW skills and general knowledge Choose your own CW speed up to 25 wpm ORM and stress-free sound files both ways Other QTC sending options: live online or HF Basic 250 points, with bonus points for live QTCs Printable certificate issued to every participant infomation at bit.ly/cwstc deStan ZL3TK The Morse with a Purpose Society says Labor Omnia Vincit If you've read something that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let me know. below. For guidance on writing for RagChew, Please email material to Mark VK2KI: Watchable cqagrsnet@gmail.com Channels What have you been watching Compiled see Articles on the track somewhere lately? by John VK2RU The Morse Ninja website - https://morsecode.ninja/# , and the YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@KurtZogImann Zoglmann (ADOWE), - created by Kurt is one of the most complete and approachable resources out there for learning Morse code. At the heart of the site is Kurt’s free Morse code course, which is carefully structured to help learners of all levels. It starts with simple characters and builds up to full words and sentences, with a strong emphasis on listening and recognising rhythm rather than rote memorisation. Top 100 Words Speed Racing 10 to 15 wpm For each word: 1. Sent in Morse code 2. Spoken 3. Repeated in Morse code @ 4. Courtesy tone ia i 2I CE) Beyond the course, the site hosts an impressive library of practice resources: MP3 drills, random code groups, word and call sign practice, and even files at different soeeds so you can steadily build up your copying ability. The material is all free and very well organised, making dip in and out depending it easy to on your schedule. Kurt is also closely associated with the Long Island CW Club (LICW), which adds a valuable community aspect to the learning process. Through LICW, learners get access to live classes, practice sessions, and encouragement from a supportive group of fellow Morse enthusiasts. Altogether, Morse Ninja is both practical and motivating — a one-stop hub for anyone wanting to make real progress in CW. John VK2RU If you've read something that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let me know so John and | can share more thoughts and ideas. guidance on writing for RagChew, see Articles below. material to Mark VK2KI: Please email cgqqrsnet@gmail.com Prosign/Character/Sig nal of the Month See if you can use this one on Tuesday! Prosign: Meaning: Stand nm EH by [Suggestion - put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for Tuesday. Tell us how you went!] Di-dah-di-dah-dit Here we So back to the CQQRS Riawt Tusa eleaisl = Slow CW QSO AlAb go. practice net. For INCAL PucsSUay Ss NCL Our CQQRS Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0600z until about 1200z; see hitps://bit.ly/COORSWebsite and navigate to the Net Details page for details. (Note - 20m Coordinated Universal Time ; ; ; DXperiments will start at a different time if required) Western Australia Time UTC Central Australian Time Australia +8 UTC 06007 to 12007 Hours 1400 to 2000 + 10.5 Hours 1630 to 2230 Eastern Australian Time UTG +11 Hours 1700 to 2300 Queensland Time UTC + 10 Hours 1600 to 2200 Nz Time UTC + 13 Hours 1900 to 0100 New Zealand requency 0600z to O800z 20m 14039-14051 kHz Note - 20m times and frequencies will be allocated by Mike DL3YZ prior to the net. 0600z to 1200z ws __TO20KHz - 7040KHZ - __ 160m 1855kHz (-5kHz for QRM) 7To00 40 mis 7o20 | ) | | )_ ORO | ] | 3500 160 m Sle 7O40 | | | l ] CO ORS Net | | 3535 80 m= 1800 8835KHz - 3560kHzZ ORO | | CO ORS Net | Thanks to Lance VA7TO for the GOQAS ee 3560 l= | | 1655 | a | = 1875 band-plan e 2200z - 2300z (Tuesday UTC) Wednesday (VK/ZL) salvar WA FM AllStar Network (Use AllStar to connect to Node 42482 or use Echolink to connect to VK2KI-L) 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 1200z - 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 us know via our Reports form bit.ly/COORSNET who you work or hear on Tuesday’s Group. The report form closes at lunchtime (Eastern Australian time) on Thursday. And how about helping to make the reports even more interestingby sending a photo? If you have a photo that you’d be happy to include, please email it to: cqagrsnet@gqmail.com To make it even easier for our Reports editor Patrick VK2IOW, see if you can reduce the size of the image (to less than 100KB file size by preference). No problems if your computer or phone can’t do that - just send it through anyway please. And of course, I’m always on the lookout for more photos for the newsletter, so if you have something that might be of interest aside from the reports, please send it through as well - | always enjoy the photos that our readers send - and I’m sure our readers do too. cggrsnet@gmail.com Email them to please (reduced size if possible - but whatever you send will be great). Oh and by the way, | recommend website open that you don’t keep the Reports Form between submission of reports from one week to the next. you’re unlucky, there’s an undocumented If feature in the software that could cause your current week’s report to be combined with your previous report - it’s happened to your editor several times - much to the chagrin of our Reports editor 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. Articles The newsletter is interesting to readers because of the material contributed by so many people - be it the reports each week or the various articles. Could you write a short article or articles for RagChew? Writing not your strong point? much You bet! Don’t worry, I’m very happy to help as or as little as needed. Here’s a thought - although our readers will much perhaps have a go at using a Large Language tool such as ChatGPT, prefer your own writing, Model Artificial Intelligence Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini to check your writing or even to actually draft the whole article in a relaxed easy-to-read manner! You can find out more about how to do that on the Newsletter page on our website bit.lv/COORSWebsite. Our website also includes a suitable prompt (the command you feed to the Al to make it do what you want). Please remember though - you must fact-check anything that an Al tool drafts for you because Als ‘hallucinate’ - ie if an Al can’t find what you’re looking for, it will make up an answer and present it as a fact! This is one of the dangers of using Als - it’s quite probable that the tool will create a very readable and convincing draft that is 100% wrong! submitter are responsible for fact-checking. You as the But it’s a learning experience - please let us know how you went if you had a go with this new generation of tool. And by the way - | am very concerned about our future in a world of Al - but I’m pleased to see that school and university curriculums now focus on understanding the risks - for instance, kids are now learning critical thinking something that used to be taught mostly at post-graduate level. When the typewriter was invented, handwriting; when the word people predicted the downfall of processor was invented, the art of writing was thought to be on the way out - ditto for the spreadsheet and arithmetic, AM, SSB and FT-8 for amateur radio etc. We can ignore Al and hope that it just goes away... or we can learn to handle it through experimentation and use. For more guidance on writing for the RagChew newsletter (including help with using an Al), head to our website bit.ly/COORSWebsite then click the menu on the top right and then click RagChew Newsletter. Material A reminder; if you send me any information by email, our report form or WhatsApp - unless you specifically state that material is not to be published, I'll assume that you're happy to see your thoughts in the RagChew newsletter. Teamwork Thank you so much to our team of 27 contributors: MONNK, VK2DLF, VK2LDJ, VK2RU, VK3ACU, DL3YZ, G7BED, VK3ALC, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3KEV, VK3QB, VK3WOW, VK4PN, VK5AO, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK5KFG, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6KHZ, VK6NQL, VKENW, ZL3TK. of software development), VK2RU VKO6RR, VK7JZ, VK7TO, And a special thank you to our editorial team, Patrick VK2IOW (researcher), Richard VK6HRC (technical editor). Nigel G4RWI (head (reports coordinator), John (Post Morsition) and Lance VK7TO Great work all! €U CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW cagrsnet@gmail.com non impediti ratione cogitationis Darn daylight saving - missed Nic’s CW session! About Here’s the CQ ORS where the you'll find details. Net For the current schedule and more 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 from members by the editor or published on the CQQRS WhatsApp groups may be published in this newsletter unless specifically requested otherwise. The values, doctrine and guidelines for the Group and for the newsletter are published on the Principles page of the group’s website https://bit.ly/COORSWebsite Copyright (C) 2025 CQ QRS. All rights reserved. Our mailing address Is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences elena elas mailichimp or unsubscribe