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RagChew

Edition 46/2025

So why does James VK7JZ have a look of consternation?

Reports from Tuesday’s
Wednesday’s

Net

Post Morsum

Encouragement

Award

Electronic Audio

Fasnet Carnivals

See the newsletter for details.

Report

- Why

Filters

the Consternation?

RSS

Eee-Dye

e
e

Head Copy Practice
Five Watts - VK3 to Italy

¢ 6m
e

CW Trans-Equatorial

Morse Training

Propagation

from Tasmania

Net

Never the Right Time to Update

a Callsign

Settle to Carlisle Railway - Week

9 Report

2025

Enigma

Reloaded

SKCC

Oceania

QRS

Handling

Prosign

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

Directory

Saunter - This Weekend

a Straight Key
of the Month

e About the CQ QRS

Group

Well just goes to show.... what would

| Know?

The arrival of the solar

radiation from the Coronal Mass Ejection on Tuesday happened
predicted... the consequent geomagnetic
Aurora Australis was visible to some
mainland...
QSO

storm activity happened.... and

lucky ones on the Australian

but the reports from our team on Tuesday’s CQQRS

Net showed that not all was lost.

very high QRN
time.

Practice

Yes lots of people suffered from

levels, but lots of people also reported that they had a great

Fantastic!

So once again, thank you to everyone who had a go despite the
predictions, and to those who took the time to submit a report.
we had at least 67 stations reported by our 47 team
marvellous!

This week

members;

You'll be able to see the list in the spreadsheet below and

read the comments

below that.

I'd like to make special mention of the team that help assemble our little
RagChew

newsletter each week.

Patrick VK2IOW takes the reports you've submitted and pushes them
around using Microsoft Word to include the photos that make the reports
interesting to read - hours spent every Thursday when there’s a farm to
look after - thanks Patrick.
Similarly, Richard VK6HRC

gets up before six am and then takes the

coherent, sleepy or otherwise strange ramblings from every Wednesday's
Post Morsum

call-back on the AllStar/ Echolink network, then turns them

into something
John VK2RU

interesting for us.

Likewise, every week our Grey Nomad

manipulates the text of our current Head Copy practice

material and then converts them to CW;

this also takes some

hours each

week.
And it’s all made

possible because of the work by Nigel G4RWI to build the

Google Forms database originally suggested
the slick Python

by Stuart VK6MK,

as well as

language processing software that converts the data to

Word and Excel format, and produces other reports that | use to assemble
the newsletter each week.

We’ll be hearing more from Nigel very soon.

Then there’s our other regular contributors who fill in the gaps to produce
a bumper read for our members.

This week, there were 39 contributors

beside myself;

Not too many amateur radio newsletters

how good

(or even magazines)
makes

is that?

could boast such terrific support - thank you all -

my job so much easier that the old days, that’s for sure.

So in this issue we feature both the founder and the recipient of our CW

Operator Encouragement Award, Jens VK4PE
VK7JZ down

in Hobart.

in Townsville and James

Thank you for the initiative and award donation

Jens, and to James for being such a keen CW addict and good sport at what
is actually a challenging time for his family.
So.... please make yourself a cuppa, dive in and enjoy the read.

| hope to

hear you on Tuesday if you can get on air - or if not, to read your report
about what you heard.

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

like to pass information

here’s the link to our website.

bit. ly/CQQRSWebsite

Dit-dit,
mb
Mark Bosma

VK2KI

/ VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning
cgarsnet@gmail.com

NSW

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports
Here’s

& Comments
this week’s

reports.

Last Tuesday’s

Group

Here’s the 67 stations heard by 47 members

of our team on Tuesday -

lookatemgo!

CQQRS Team
Member

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

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

Worked 40m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 15m
Worked 17m
Worked 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Tried 30m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Worked 80m
Heard on air
Worked 20m
Heard 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 80m
Heard 20m
Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard on air
Heard on air
Heard on air
Worked 40m
Worked 80m

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

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 80m

Heard on air
Heard 40m
Heard 40m

qQso1

Qso 2

QSsO 3

Qso 4

Qso5

QsO 6

QSO 7

Qso 8

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

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

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:
Comments:
This week’s comments from our webform

reports have again been

compiled formatted and illustrated for us by Patrick VK2IOW;
again Patrick.

From Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart
[20m]
Canady

tadavwwiars

littl,

urnsalar

than

anarann

lanl

tha

thanks once

VULIUA UUay WoIG a mlUG Wwoanc! Ula avcrays. M 1wUN at uIG

NOAA dashboard didn’t predict anything good. But it turned out
better than feared, and | was able to work 4 stations. | think |
have heard another one, but just couldn't copy the call. Sorry
for that. Thanks to all the stations that joined in the fun today.
May the spirit of the German carnival spread to the other side of
the world and sip on a cold drink with me :-) Have a great
week! Narri-Narro and 73 from foolish Germany.

From Chris Shaw ZL4CTS at Te Anau

__Ghris Shaw™
Msi es ieee sa eels
Ud Oech

From

Ketut VK3BWN

Le Lees)
New Zealand

[40m]
Lots

of fading

around

at Keilor

[80m]

| heard Jordan calling CQ at 3555, and | replied at ===
12 WPM just because of his impeccable keying
a
and strong signal. Wow, that was great fun.
Moreover, | did not screw up the paddle during

QSO. So, that was great all in all. Pardon me, any
station can call QRS

at any time, and | will slow

down to match the speed (any night, not just
Tuesday). See you guys again next week, if not
sooner.

From Nic VK7WW

at Legana

0800Z.

[40m]

iets

Great to catch up with Tony VK2VIC ue

From Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith
[40m]
Another fun QRS Tuesday night, great to make a contact with Tony on 40m.
The conditions on 80m and 160m were very difficult;

no luck on 160m,

but

| did get

a QSO with Ketut on 80m.
Also made a few DX contacts on 20m and 17m.

Keeping busy (and resting my foot!). I've been playing with a
SOTA Beams

DSP

audio filter kit and a VK5TM

QRM

Eliminator

kit.
I'm also working on a home brew 4-stage LM741

audio filter

circuit as well as playing with some great passive speaker filter
designs. Check out VK2WF, Adrian's great CW speaker design!

From Tony VK2VIC at Wamboin,

NSW

2620

[40m]

First participation with CQ QRS.

From David VK6KD at Ballajura WA

9ONmM

cinnoale

winara

nan_avictant

Tita

ninht

think

wily

DIA

oly!

aio

Wort

MIViITCAISLCIIL

DIIQgrit.

TUtimn

found at least one reason other than the solar flare (see
photo). To be repaired before next CW QRS night.
[40m]

40m was so quiet | thought | had an antenna issue. |
started to log into some KIWI SDRs to check I was
getting out and hear other stations. | then worked out |
had an internet speed issue which was resolved by rebooting my Starlink equipment.
Lot of static crashes heard locally and on the remote SDRs. Probably summer
storms causing havoc.
[80m]
As the night drew on 80m started to open up but still lots of QSB and static crashes.

Sorry Sava VK4PN, | didn't get to exchange sig reports but gave it a good try.

From Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup Beach WA
[40m]
Big thanks to Mait for slowing down for me tonight. |

only had time for a single QSO before being called to
other duties.

From Wal VK2WP at Bathurst NSW
[40m]

Ole
=

‘

A32-—

eal

Again used my xtal locked valve transmitter. Almighty 4
my waits and surprised at the number of contacts made. There

¥B Ene

was a lot of static more so in the later evening.

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach
[20m]
Al

Q8V7

wine

wanrisnaoal

| rannrtond

DCA

444

Rays

WLU le was voly wean, PIGMUGU MON

rit.

oily

report from Mike was RST 559, the only part of his
much longer transmission that | was able to copy.
Afterwards VK4PN Sava reported Mike weak also,
RST 355, however confirmed my report was indeed
RST 559. Ended rather well.
[40m]

Extremely frustrating 40 m this week.

Had to QSY up 1 kHz to 7.0267 MHz for STC

traffic sked because, same as last week, digital voice stations were blotting out entire
2.4 kHz below 7.0261 MHz.

With filters, CW can be copied through SSB,

impossible through the dense, continuous hash from DV.

but it's

Then came lots of tropical

QRN which rendered traffic QNP, so ended up rescheduling to Thursday or Saturday.
I'm looking for help please. My CQ sequence for STC traffic has been made very
specific to discourage replies from stations without any traffic, yet still some ignore
instructions and call anyway. No matter how helpful they think they are, signal
reports from stations without traffic are of no interest and waste the time of operators
who do want to send traffic.

It's no wonder DXpedition operators get frustrated.

Here is my calling sequence for the STC traffic sked:
CQ CQ
STC STC
DE ZL8TK ZL8TK STC
crystal clear, but to some it is only nacht und nebel.

QRL?

QRU? _
Tome thatis
Please will somebody tell me

how it can be improved to once-and-for-all eliminate waste-of-time calls from
operators who are not QRS STC participants and have no traffic, in other words, how
do | get to keep my remaining hair before it has all been torn out?

From lan VK7TA at Latrobe
[40m]

From Mark VK2DI at Green Point Reserve, Sydney Harbour NP
TANm!1

prunity

Located at AU-10598 Green Point Historical Reserve near Watsons
Bay. Lots of banging and crashing on 40m. Higher bands were
quieter but not a lot of activity - managed a JAon 15m. Heard Mike
DL3YZ on 20m - he was about S3. But by then the wind was
gusting over 30 knots and | was worried my squid pole was going to
get blown away! Time to pack up.

From Donald VK6JDM

at 20 km west of Esperance

aif

OO!

| was working on the rig and just listened. Heard

17 stations on 40 metres that | jotted down.
Many more were out there but they identified at
moments when the soldering iron was at work
and the mind was focused on not letting too
much smoke out of components.

From

Ron VK7ME

at Hobart

[40m]
Didn't get the opportunity to work any
stations on Tuesday night but managed to
hear VK7GG (I think) and VK2KI around
7pm on 7036 kHz. | was looking after my
three-year-old granddaughter Heidi, who
wanted to keep pressing buttons on the
radio and was fascinated with the paddle.
I've managed

to teach her letters H, E & I.

She struggles with the letter D. Gotta teach them young eh?

From Peter VK6GNQL at Wundowie
ees

[40m]
Tha

hand

wine

anita

winsal

thie

winal

and

etoatinne

warn

Aiffiniilt

haar

VOI

Wao

YUL

VWOCN

LIND

WOON

CLAWS

WOU

UNIIWUIL

HIG

or work.

[80m]

MS The higher bands are working well, so far, this season, and there are
m= some JAs that can be found using the CW mode.

From Roy VK6RR at Geraldton
[40m]
Lots of noise and QSB but managed to chat with
Richard, Peter and Daniel; then had to QRT due to
thunderstorm.

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW
[20m]

| listened in to Sava VK4PN and Stan ZL3TK working Mike DL3YZ for this week's
20m DXperiment.

At the start Mike was very weak - Q1 with the occasional 2.

However as the afternoon moved on, Mike's signal started building in strength and
was Q3 with QSB

when | called him.

We had a nice exchange, and Mike was mostly

Q4, and we exchanged the Narri-Narro greetings per the Southern German carnival
tradition of telling each-other that we are fools!
| was keeping an eye out for Chris G7BED who was returning after fixing his
damaged antennas; Chris was visible all over Europe on the Reverse Beacon
Network, but not a sausage was heard here nor on the Snowline, VK5PH and
VK6SEG

KiwiSDRs this week.

[40m]

rman

| started early on 40m this week;

the

predicted geomagnetic disturbances

* from the current Coronal Mass
Ejection seemed to be in full swing
further South of me;

the VK1HF

Snowline and VK5PH

Ironstone

- Range KiwiSDRs showed huge
| levels of noise.

| | heard Lance VK7TO calling and we
scraped together a quick QSO;
Lance reported RSN 419 but he was
RSN 541; so not unexpectedly with

—

————— ee
Le

{---foK
3

auroral-type QRN, the noise
appeared to be much worse in the
higher latitudes.
Mark VK2DI called Lance, but
=

rer

couldn't make himself heard above

the racket, so we had a quick QSO

Ironstone Range KiwiSDR

instead.

After returning from this week's 20m DXperiment, | was pleased to hear our latest exNavy light-signaller Tony VK2VIC from Wamboin having a go at this audio CW stuff.
Tony worked Jordan VK3ACU

at Meredith, Nic VAK7WW

at Legana and then me.

Well-done mate - good preparation for your up-coming Parks activation odyssey to
Western Tasmania.
After dinner, | had a listen around on

40m but the QRN was really bad, and |
think most people had buried their

heads in the blanket.

Interesting to look

at the KiwiSDRs at Dinner Plain
(VK1HF), Ironstone Range (VK5PH)
and Northam (VK6SEG);

the static

crashes from the line of thunderstorms

bite lee us

off the East coast came in bursts of half
a dozen or so one after the other, and

after many of the crashes, the noise on the waterfall displays continued for several
seconds. It was almost as if the atmospheric discharge was causing the strongly
disturbed ionosphere (from the geomagnetic storm) to 'ring' - for a period after each
ed ee

Ee ede eee

we ek

the RD

aiscnarge.

UNIOMmunately

three waterfall displays.

| QIGMl

Nave

ine

Wherewillladl

MaKe

SCreen

SMOls

OF ne

Something to keep an eye on in future TS events during

geomagnetic storms.
[80m]
After enjoying watching the atmospherics on 40m, | had a listen down on 80m.

The

static crashes were up to S9Q, but | still saw a trace on the KiwiSDRs down on
3541kHz. | was lucky to hook Peter VK3WOW at Blackburn before he tottled off to
bed. Our reports said it all; Peter reported RSN 477 and | reported RSN 489.
for an early night.

From Peter Dann VK3WOW

Time

at Blackburn

[80m]
Was most amused when Mark VK3MJ shared with me
what | assume is some ancient CW folklore: "the faster
they send, the less they have to say". An intriguing
application of the Law of Diminishing Returns!

From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney Brisbane
[20m]
Late again to join the party, got on air

close to 17:30 and called a few CQs to
see where | was picked up by the RBN
net. Got almost instant report from two
spotters in central EU so conditions

were promising. Scanned EU QRS

not in a QSO. | tuned a couple kHz

lower and called a CQ in case EU friends were monitoring. OK1CS came back with a
solid signal and we had a quick exchange. During the overs | thought | could hear
another station on the frequency but almost zero beat.

After finishing with the OK station | adjusted RX RIT and could copy Mike, DL3YZ.
Signal was strong, about S5, but the noise was the same.

Noise never seemed

fade but Mike did, so we struggled through a QSO. Stan ZL3TK got onto Mike as
soon as | finished but signal at his place was even fainter except for his noise level
which he later told me was S17. All up | had only about 30 minutes on 20m before
moving to 40m.
[40m]

My evening on 40 m

started at 18:00 hrs for a short check-in to ZLCW net.

Proceedings were over within 15 minutes so | scanned the QRS segment and heard
VK2WP calling CQ. My QRP rig was not ready (| use QRO for ZLCW net) so | called
Wal using QRO. He came back and gave me a fairly meagre RST, | gave him a solid
589 by the S meter. On the return over Wal informed me he was running crystal
locked QRP of 4W only. So there you go with propagation oddities again! After
finishing QSO with Wal | got my QRP up and running, checked the CW offset against
my main rig and tried unsuccessfully for the rest of the evening for another QSO; no
luck this time. NIL! Called a number of stations but missed every time to the QRO
competition. No one came to my CQs either.

[80]
After a frustrating QRP experience | moved to 80m quite late to be greeted with a
wall of noise. Boy was it bad; must be something to do with the coronal magnetic
disturbance a day before, never heard that type of noise almost white with occasional
periodic fades. Ironside SDR waterfall was almost yellow with red sticks throughout

indicating shocking noise there as well. Regardless | called CQ and could see my
carrier at Ironside pretty decent red most of the time. For a while nothing was
happening, then a trace appeared and | tuned in to copy with a great difficulty
VK6WN in a QSO. Did not get the other call sign. We hooked up after he finished his
QSO and honestly | could copy him only during the quieter periods when white noise

faded a bit. Wayne's signal was S7 but the noise was S9+ most of the time. Quite a
bit of time spent on air for just few QSOs but still an enjoyable frustration.

From Richard VK6HRC at Padbury

Fninvad

tha

ORS

nat

intarriintinne

thie waak

| Tha

SrA

eR NE

variable conditions, QRN and QSB made for difficult
copy at times.

From Patrick VK2IOW between Bathurst and Orange
[40m]

4 | had two enjoyable ragchew QSOs; with Rob, VK3ECH
and Mait, VK5AO. Conditions were good, though a little
) noisy. Used a mix of straight key, paddle and Vibroplex
Original bug.

POST MORSUM
From

12th November

Richard VK6HRC.

Six on the VAGRLM

VK6QI

Mark

VK6KD_

David

VK6FN

Max

VK6NW

Wayne

repeater and AllStar/ Echolink combination this morning.

VK6HRC
VK6MRB Mulligan swl and others ?
Got off to a fairly quiet start, eventually got going with a regular burst of noise
from the DMR link ("blocked") which almost sounded like an expletive!
Mark worked Mike DL3YZ on 20m heard three and then on to 40m to work three
heard two and on 80m worked Peter VKSWOW. Mark also commented on the

QRN from the solar storm and electrical storm off the East coast making life
difficult at times.
David worked Wayne VK6NW on 80m tried working Sava VK4PN but no contact
unfortunately, internet problems also hampered checking the KiwSDR nodes for
a while.
Max was kept busy with a big clean up during the day and with energy levels low

was in SWL mode.

Hoping all clear for next week.

Wayne checked in after a night shift stint and let us know that he heard Mike
DL3YZ on the Ironstone Ridge SDR, worked VK6NT, VK6KD and VK4PN on
80m.
With no interruptions this week | had a good session, worked three on 40m
listened to the 20m activity on the Northam KiwSDR and tuned around catching
some fairly lengthy ragchews going on.
Thanks to all on the net last night and this morning.

73 Richard VK6HRC
ps Thank you to the lively crew on WhatsApp as
well.

This Week’s

Topic of

Interest
Encouragement
Why

the Consternation?

by Mark VK2KI
A month

Award

/ VK6QI

and Jens VK4PE

or two ago, | received this message from Jens VK4PE

up at

Townsville:
| have collected many Morse keys over the years. | like
to send one to a member starting CW. Please let me
know if you know a good candidate.

Now

there’s a dilemma.

I’m well aware of W. Edwards

Deming’s teachings about the risks of

giving awards, and notwithstanding
e with so many candidates out there among
who

our CQQRS

community,

to choose?

Anyway after much

searching of the sole, | decided to nominate James

VK7JZ who:
had relatively recently started on the CW journey;
had been on just about every week, at home or portable, come

rain-

hail or shine;

takes the Jordan VK3ACU

award for rapidly going from zero to

absolutely addicted to CW;
seemed

to have exactly the right attitude to CW and reflecting the

team’s commitment to encouraging

others;

and

did not already use a straight key.
Jens

responded:
! originally planned to send an Ameco K1, but decided
to give James a better key, an Ameco K4 with ball
bearings.
In WW2

when Morse code was used extensively,

the

/37 key was the workhorse and in Australia the Clipsal
key or the British WT 8Amp key.
This is the reason I selected the K4 Ameco key for you.
It is a time proven good design based on the j37 style.
In my opinion it is more important to get the message
through the first time.
radio operator.

This ts how | learned it as a ship

This ts also the reason | like the Slow

CW group a lot, because it makes sense.

The speed

CW operation is popular with amateur operators but
professional operators prefer slow good code.
Ameco

was an enterprise supporting radio amateurs.

They had Morse keys, training books and radio gear.
The Ameco ACI transmitter kit is well known.

They

aimed their strategy mostly to new radio amateurs
with affordable good product's but also to more
experienced radio operators.
Anyway coming back to the Morse keys.
K1 key Is a Japanese made

The Ameco

very simple key. | got this

key as a first key in the 1970th in a local electronic
shop.

Very often a dealer would through in a KI key as

a bonus for a new transmitter.

This keys are very

common.
The Ameco K4 was the luxury more expensive Morse
key. In my opinion this all metal key has a nice feel,
ball bearings, it was a big upgrade against the basic
K1. The K1 has simple metal contacts and the K4 has
silver plated contacts.
The K4 is still affordable (if you can find them) and it
was my favourite key for many years. | have tried

much more expensive keys but there was no big
difference or improvement.

It is a keeper.

Needless to say, James was somewhat taken aback with Jens’ offer, but
was very pleased to receive his new gadget last week.
Thank you Jens.
| have attached two photos, one
with a smile as |!am very pleased,
and one with some consternation
as /!am not so pleased with the
quality of my straight-key CW.
Other than some dit-dits to make
sure | had the IC-7300 keyer set
to straight key and my
connections were good, |
otherwise did not key the thing till
| was recording and | keyed my
call sign.

A fairer assessment was

| keyed something a little bit like
my call sign, perhaps we will say
on a good day with some
Imagination it could be my
sign.

call

OK lets be honest it was

terrible.

/ sent the video to Jens and received instant feedback.

|am saving my

first QSO with it to be with Jens, everyone else can listen to me on the
paddle..... that straight key is going to take some getting used to;

entirely

different brain required to the paddle brain.
So ! am super-keen to get my first QSO underway and | think it would be
rather special if it was with Jens and | was doing it with his key.
Part of the engineer in me | guess, | stripped the key down to its individual
components,

gave it a good clean, then rebuilt it.

Mostly sol know how all

the parts go back together.
| have aligned the contacts perfectly but the gap Is not right.

On first go it

feels like there is no gap at all, worked fine to key but the was no ‘click
click’ to tell me | was operating, only the ‘dit dit' from the radio.

Then!

opened the contact gap up a little and now have a definite ‘thunk thunk’
sound, clearly too much.
Jens sent me some

YouTube links to old US army

have been watching this morning,
lesson was about set up of the key.

training videos which |

these are really helpful and the first
| need to close that gap to be 4 sheets

of paper, no more, no less, !am guessing about the same as 1 business
card.

The explanation on gaps in dit and dahs, and how to hold the key

was also helpful.

[See Readable Five below]
| think with some dedicated practice and tutoring from Jens and Stan | will
eventually become competent.

For an oscillator - | simply used my ICOM IC-705 and turned break in OFF
and volume up so that it would make some dits and dahs for me but was
not transmitting.

[have got all clever now and set up the IC-705 on my

desk with the straight key connected (on the right), and over on the /eft|
have the IC-7300 with a paddle connected.

My head copy is not so great

but | look the part. ©

mewn re

a\t

Mes

RL Og
AGCM

792000
:

24028088 446500

Jordan VK3ACU

Clarke

That's the one

6:55pm

Great for rigs with no filters, the crystal filter for the ft817/ 818 is
crazy expensive now...
6:56pm

Simon & Jo MOKBJ Harvey
Blog of the Log
Simon Harvey MOKBJ accounts for his adventures in amateur radio
sjharvey.org.uk

| get great results with the Kanga LPSCAF kit https://

sjharvey.org.uk/MOKBJ/2025_blog.html#2025-10-09

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

QRZ?
calling

me?

Ok - not quite.... but here’s some
our team

member

know;

cqgrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

Who’s

7:59pm

Who’s

see Articles below.

on the other end?

insight into life in Southern Germany for

(and herder of the EU / UK DXperiment cats) Mike

DL3YZ.
You may have seen Mike’s
‘I’m a Fool, You're a Fool’ Fasnet
(carnival) season segment and my
foolish responses in this week’s
reminder email.
Here in germany, the traditional carnival season ofiicially starts this tuesday.
So my own QSOs will end with "Narri-Narro", a traditional carnival greeting
of our region. :-)
And here was | in my usual ignorant way, thinking that German carnivals involved:

Have fun on your radios and "good luck DX"

or the UK equivalent:

Mike

has continued

the cultural

education segment:
Hi Mark,

Just goes to show how ignorant we are of our more cultured colleagues; as they say, "I'm a fool"!.
make for some interesting comments during the QRS exchanges anyway!
Then again:
a
ES

Should

Great to see you have gathered some

, OK...

lets just

see what happens then
Screenshot

information of silly alcoholic habits of lost foreign cultures.

There are some

subtle ritual nuances you may also find of interest.
These lovely german

maidens and the lads with the chamois bearded

hats

are typical Oktoberfest ( trade fair ) people. So thats drinking for
thanksgiving

the ancient traditional everyday Bavarian clothes of the common

people.

It’s not exactly a proper costume.
[Apparently that means no lederhosen for Mike then!]
Carnival is drinking in scary costumes and committing adultery is for the
Catholic part of the Germans.

So some of the costumes and wooden

masks

are
hundreds of years old.

Its based on a pre-Christian tradition to scare away

the bad ghosts of the old year. The Catholic folks can proudly confess their
sins on
" Aschermittwoch

" ( ash Wednesday

) afterwards, whereas the evangelical

are supposed to carry the sins with them, having a bad conscience till next
year.
Thats the cause why Carnival is not really popular in evangelical villages,
but are a real big issue on the Catholic ones;

they shut down the whole

village for days!
We still have these differences since the confession wars of 1648.
Now the garden dwarfs stand for everyday drinking around the year, in our
own
little gardens, while weeding.

A dwarf belongs to every proper German

garden,
as a good

luck charm to summon

Freya - the Nordic goddess of love,

fertility,
spring and good luck.

Its legal now to grow three hemp

plants for home

use these days!
Unfortunately | am evangelical, have an inherited alcohol intolerance and
even
no time to "weed" the garden

in any way.

So! have to stand on the side,

watching the scenes jealously... and drive the consiousless protagonists
back home
it - HI )

late in the night;

BTW:

its really wise to use their own cars for

And Mark, re your 20m
NARRO”

response “NEIN BIST DU NICHT” to my “NARRI-

sign-off on Tuesday, there is no need to cancel any admission of

my foolishness - I am a proud fool :-)
Its good to remember that we are a fool and a king, sometimes all at the
Same time.
And,

being on the philosophical trail, I also like this one:

“Sometimes we are the pigeon and sometimes the monument."
Thats a quote of a German philosophical comedian.
to think a little till we get the point.
something useful in English.

I like when we have

Don’t know if it translates to

Monument here is for example a statue of

Goethe.
[Yup - translates perfectly Mike]
I find it really funny to see that
different languages come with
different ways of thinking.

And

how imprecise language is,
especially in translations.
So please take my writings not
too serious, I like joking around.
Cheers

and

Mike.

Eee-dye
From your editor Mark VK2KI
Nice to catch up with Warren VK3BYD

another of our CW team, when we

were holidaying in the King Valley Victoria a week or so ago.

Warren

lives at Wangaratta

and

Elizabeth and | were lucky to be
able to meet him for afternoon
tea at the neat little village of
Moyhu

as he passed through.

Warren

is a keen

bush

walker and

enjoys combining that with
amateur

radio;

he is one of Australia’s top SOTA/ PARKS CW activators (he’s forth

in the SOTA CW

ranking.... Surrounded

by our team

mates Andrew VK1DA

and lan VK5CZ).
When

quizzed about pronunciation of some of the local area names,

confirmed that our guesses were wrong;
we were camping

the locals call Edi Cutting where

“Ee-dye”, and indeed, near-by Greta isn’t pronounced

like the girl’s name - it’s “Greet-a”.

Where

local pronunciations as well - when

| started out as a presenter on the local

community

| live there’s a whole raft of

radio station | enjoyed the phone calls when

I’d mis-pronounce

one of the many.
Thanks for making to time to share afternoon tea with us Warren.
So it was really nice to catch up with two of our team

members

VK3DBD

before) on our

at Yackandandah

was met a couple of weeks

caravan journey through Southern

NSW, the Upper Murray, down the

beautiful Keiwa Valley, up the Omeo
and into the lovely King Valley.

QRZ?
From

Who’s

the

other

your editor Mark VK2KI

(David

Highway, down the Great Alpine Road

Where to next, and who to meet | wonder?

end?
/ VK6QI

Key to the success of our net is helping to make
people enjoy returning to each week.

it a get-together that

But when you're on the key, it’s

really hard to find out a bit more about the person you're chatting to.
I’m really keen to share the backgrounds of some of our team
it’s really nice to Know who’s on the other end of the QSO.

members

How did they

come to amateur radio and when, and what on earth was the motivator
that got them
planned?

interested in CW?

How’s the journey been so far, and what’s

Perhaps, what they get out of the net and the newsletter, and

how it can be made

better?

So, would you be willing to share some thoughts about yourself?
Mark VK2KI know:
RagChew,

cggrsnet@gmail.com

Please let

For guidance on writing for

see Articles below.

Head
Compiled

Copy

Practice

on the track somewhere

by John VK2RU

Anyone who is just starting out with head copy should look at edition 23 2025 where

we first started with Winnie the Pooh recorded at 12 wom.

edition 23, and for a few following Newsletters, there are instructions on
how to use these files, and edition 25 - 2025
CW

has information on the Ditto

: Morse Player app.

This week we have Wind

in the Willows Chapter 8 - Toads Adventures.

It is suggested that you read the text file before listening to the audio file.
That will make

it easier to follow the audio file and prepare you for any

unusual words.
The MP3 files have been recorded at 16 wom

and 650 Hz tone. If you

prefer a slower speed or different tone, you can create your own MP3 files
by converting the text file with the Ebook2CW

app -

httos://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html.
Because of MailChimp’s size limits, I’ve split Chapter 8 into 4 parts. Each
part is over 1 hour playing time @ 16 wpm.
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

wif).

attachments

are:

e Chapter 8 split into four MP3 files
e Chapter 8 in one text file

You can either play the MP3 files in any media
into the Ditto CW:

player, or load the text file

Morse Player app - https://dittocw.andro.io/.

Both options work well, however 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

News

received

readers.

Peter VK3WOW

Dann

1.5x, 1.75x).

from

our 230-plus

A
7 Lenaflat | 0 Ofspr
fs petites comttlpaders

830m

160m

80m

Gen

40m

30m

Zor

Tim

thm

tem

tom

Cormier siugipectingy stun

Maxtowe

ABAIT

[ip

r
fad1

Bee

Reh

co Cl) ox CO sey

—

CW Spent

® apotied

|/Hours

Mowe egal:

Maja

-4

Histnace er
etry
Ginedte
} tng

Mas
te Cliptoard

oie

wre

® Spotted (dx)

spotior-callaign

Copy URL

Cs CO neo
® Spotter (de)

callsign

Manage:

:
Srow Spopuny | Advanced Mode

pak

|VKaWOWIP
Histance mil

freq

]

muna

ype

sped

limo

aier

061i 00 Mow

10 minutes ago

veser

BB veswoww

859 rw

14045

Ziwom =

at measr

Bi vawowr

024 mi

140046

10.68

2twem = O10 Gt ow

1? minutes ago

i vKect
Version: 22.5

68% mi

140248

‘1 48

Ziwom

24 minutes age

vaowowr

ttle Ol Mow

I'm still very much a learner at this. Pretty amazed to see 5 watts from
my little QMX into a tripod-mounted vertical whip on a beach house
balcony made it to Italy. Sadly, a wind gust then toppled over whip and
tripod.
5:36 pm

GY.

Lance VK7TO/VK7ZA

Conry

| feel like | hit a milestone of sorts yesterday. With the 6m
opening, | heard SSB dx, but couldn't find my mic to work them.
12:04pm

Fortunately my key is always ready to go and worked several JAs

on CW.
am

12:04 pm

Jordan VK3ACU

Clarke

Great work

12:05pm

Lance VK7TO/VK7ZA

Conry

| feel like | hit a milestone of sorts yesterday.
heard SSB dx, but couldn't find my

With the 6m

opening,

mic to work them.

TEP from Japan to Tasmania - bloody amazing! And CW to boot!
1:16pm

Lance VK7TO/VK7ZA

Conry

Mark Bosma
TEP from Japan to Tasmania

- bloody amazing!

And

Yep, my distance record on 6m.

to boot!

1:17 pm

Ron - VK7ME Cullen
Is TEP more likely during grey line? Asking for a friend @&
©

1:35 pm

Trans Equatorial Propagation (TEP) is an unusual
that allows long-distance communication
on frequencies higher than expected.
an afternoon

radio propagation

mode

across the Earth's equator, often

It is characterised

by two main types:

mode that uses reflections from the equatorial anomaly

crests for stronger, lower-distortion signals, and an evening
relies on spread F

mode that

irregularities for scattering, resulting in higher frequency

capabilities but with more fading and distortion. TEP is most effective on
paths that run roughly north-south and is influenced by solar activity.
Afternoon Trans Equatorial Propagation (aTEP)
Occurs: Late afternoon and early evening.

Mechanism: A "Super F" mode where signals are reflected from the highdensity ionization at the equatorial anomaly crests in one hemisphere to
the crests in the other, before being returned to Earth.
Characteristics:
Distance: Typically up to 6,000 km.
Frequency:

Low VHF band (under 60 MHz).

Signal Quality: High signal strength but can experience moderate distortion
due to multipath effects.
Modulation: Single Sideband

(SSB) is often usable.

Evening Trans Equatorial Propagation
Occurs: Around

(eTEP)

19:00 to 23:00 local time.

Mechanism:

Signal scattering from irregularities in the nighttime equatorial

ionosphere,

related to spread F.

Characteristics:
Distance:

Longer distances are possible.

Frequency: Capable of reaching higher frequencies,

including 144 MHz and

even 432 MHz in some cases.
Signal Quality: Moderately high signal strength but subject to intense,
rapid fading, giving a "flutter" sound.
Modulation:

Narrow-band

modes

like Morse code (CW) are the only

practical options due to the distortion.
General
e

Factors

Path alignment: TEP is most effective on paths that are aligned close
to north or south along the magnetic equator.

e Solar activity: The occurrence and intensity of TEP are positively
correlated with solar activity, meaning

it is more common

during

periods of high solar activity.
e Season: TEP is more prominent during the equinoctial seasons (spring
and autumn).

Morse Training
Our team

Net

member

Nic VK7WW

every Wednesday

at 7pm

runs an on-air Slow Morse training net

EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign

of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club VK/7TAZ on that net.
Many of our team

learned Morse code with the

Support of Nic, and the weekly training session
comes

highly recommended

for anyone who

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

Eastern

you'll hear lots of the

CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has

cae
a

lial ——

a...

recorded the complete set of lessons which you
can

now

find here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLHSQmZz6fBXO/swAfbTmutrbbELl
7fUQL
Contact Nic VK7WW

for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com

how to join the NTARC

DISCORD

along and join in on Wednesdays.

tncluding

group to follow the action, or just come

It’s Never the Right Time to Issue a Call Sign

Directory.

From Stan ZL3TK
No sooner had the 140CT25 directory been released than a bunch of new
QRS members were announced in RagChew. That's a good thing of
course!
Those

and

others

have

been

added

to this latest release

dated

O7NOV25.

Download A4 PDF from:
https://qs|.net/zl3tk/arsffa_callsign-directoryO7nov25.pdf

What better opportunity could there be to apply the principles of ‘Morse
with a Purpose’?
CW.

Alert ZL3TK to any errors, modifications or additions by

Use the sked frequency 7.0257

MHz after STC traffic which starts at

0830Z during FFA on Tuesdays.
If anyone

knows VK5WB’s

name,

starting with L, please let me know.

73 de Stan ZL3TK

Home

Clubinformation

Courses

The Radio Bulletin

YouTube

Groups

Links

THE RADIO

SHE Le
¢

Oo Tel fot pip

oid tpl tg eg oe)

rr
be

144.150MHz

144

Coax

Install

Portable Power

10/11/2023

Antenna Launcher Exemption

bM)

03/06/2023

EMDRC

ra.

s is

om J

144.075MHz

Subaru

15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM.

x
[es seesses sauce
88)
10,4)6 5) 40)4)6)4/00]99/09)

—

BULLETIN

‘<<.

3 October - Friday 8:00pm - Club Rooms Burwood & Zoom

a! Spectrum + Waterfall Disp..

‘

Monthly Meeting - Experiments with Quadrature
mixers and DSP microcontrollers

MemberLlogin

- 10:56 AM

- 3:53 PM

- IMPORTANT

DATES

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
FORM - JOIN NOW

Experiments with Quadrature mixers and DSP microcontrollers:

Birth of the PAQH SDR 2m transceiver.

Settle to Carlisle Railway,

Week

CLUB'S INTERNET

Paul VK3PA

SPONSER

9 Report

From Stan ZL3TK
As suggested

in earlier editions of QRS RagChew,

veracity of Al-generated

information.

it wise to check the

From last week's STC we have two

examples of why this should be taken as a serious precaution.

Firstly,

last week's NRO7 Q3/5 asks for the number of Long Meg's

daughters.
Al tells us between 66 and 69, though there could be more. Al
draws on numerous sources all sufficiently vague to avoid Al having to take

responsibility for anything

it prints . How about we take a more objective

approach?
Plan of Long Meg and her Daughters
Based on Dymond 1881 and Burl 1994

Google map's satellite view is rendered
ambiguous due to deep shadows cast by
trees, however a chart derived from two
on-the-ground archaeological counts
provide the real answer.

Armed

plan, you too can count them!

with this
The

28
aa

twenty-six rocks with a red number

ia*

’
18"

allegedly have the best preserved
carvings.

| suggest,

Result of two
scientific analyses
made 113 years apart
show 68 daughters

sd s

because of it's later

validation by British archaeologist

€

15
« *

oo” *

ear,
144g

* ~—— Long Meg
Scala: matres
o
10 vo 30

Aubrey Burl, it can be considered the

100

benchmark.

Secondly,

last week's NRO7 Q5/5

asks the purpose of the smaller

UK Rail Platform
Historic Luminaire

building on the opposite side of
the tracks to Langwathby's main
station building.

A simple two-

word answer is all that was
required.

Should one choose to

enlarge upon the basic fact
requested, one can end up losing
points for believing what superclever Al claims to be the case,
often with different wording at
different times.

Which

is what

happened for one participant.
Visual evidence using Google maps shows the smaller building clearly on
the eastern

side of the tracks,

beside the northbound

beside the southbound

line to Carlisle.

line to Settle,

it is not

Proof that it's definitely worth

checking Al's credibility.
This week we stop at Lazonby station whi ch also serves Kirkoswald village.
Within easy reach, two public houses are available in which to quench
one's thirst and we examine the structure of the still-common

19th century

railway station luminaires, still being used to light the way for night-time
travellers.

Albeit rather late in the day, those with more than average curiosity who
want to join in STC, can still go to https://bit.ly/cwstc to get the full
treatment.

es 77

2025

deStan

Enigma

ZL3TK

Reloaded

From Chris G7BED

The 2025

Enigma

Reloaded event at the RSGB

Bletchley Park was a great success!

National Radio Centre

The amateur radio team from the Italian Naval College transmitted an
Enigma-encrypted

Morse code message to participating museums

around

the world, and the proficient CW operators at The National Radio Centre
(NRC) at Bletchley Park successfully copied the encrypted
transmission and made acknowledgement

morse

back to the Italian control

station.

Br
a

oscel!MUIIL
fe cee

NAGAY

Chris on the left (the one with hair) keeping the men in blue honest.

The transmission was made
The encrypted

in real time on the 40m

band.

message was passed across to the NRC Theatre Zone where

visitors learnt about why encrypted

radio transmissions were important

during the war years. The Bletchley Park Learning Team

then

demonstrated

Enigma

003
o RT
eats

lid

Dt)

ae
goo

rib

goa

ry rg

tid

002

real-time decryption using a genuine WWII

machine.

A brilliant experience for all the visitors - and | got my hands on a genuine
working

Enigma

machine too.

Best Regards,
Chris
G7BED

SKCC

Oceania

QRS

Saunter

From Garry VK2GAZ
The SKCC Oceania QRS

Saunter will take place this Saturday,

15th November,

2025 from 00:00 UTC until 11:59 UTC a 12 hour event.
All are welcome

to join in!!

All the details for the Oceania

QRS

Saunter

(OQS)

can be viewed

on the SKCC

website at:
https://www.skccgroup.com/operating activities/oqgs/
Please make use of the SKCC

Sked Page and the CW

Club RBN

Spotter.

https://sked.skccgroup.com/
https://rbn.telegraphy.de/

I look forward to contacting you during the event.
Best regards,

Garry VK2GAZ/VK2ZP

#5460C

Manager

*CC

SKCC

Straight Key Century Cfub

- SKCC

Oceania

QRS

Saunter

Straight

_iooas

Key Century

Oceania

QRS

Club

Saunter

Saturday, 15th November, 2025 @ 00:00 UTC
12 Hours

00:00

- 11:59

UTC

Looking South from the Meredith home of Jordan VK3ACU

during the geomagnetic Storm

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:

Readable
What
Handling

have you

been

see Articles

cgqgqrsnet@gmail.com

Five
reading

lately?

a Straight Key

There are a bunch of variations on how to hold and operate a straight key.
With a couple of variations, this is a good place to start:

https://k3wwp.com/cw_ss_
straight key.ht
ml

Recommended

variations to K3WWP’s

article:

- three dits per dah
- five dits between

words

- five paper-thickness gap seems way too high
- American

method

has elbow on table, European

method

has elbow raised

- try both.
Used to be that when

people did their advanced

license test, the testing

officer (in those days, a post office telegraphist) would often show
candidates how to handle the key if it looked like they were willing to
learn.And here’s some

more YouTube

and published information on

handling straight keys from Jens VK4PE:
| like the Navy clip the most.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YOyP/VJqvgE
httos://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8Hiwbc664
httos://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fNLIaE56l60

And here is an oldy but goldy. It
came first out as a public
donation on floppy disks from
NOHHF.

| got one at a hamfest

from a friend in the 1990s.

It is

not so bad for a free ebook:
https://www.n9bor.us/index.php/m

orse-code/the-art-skill-of-radio-

i le

telegraph

73 Jens

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:

For

Please email

cgqqrsnet@gmail.com

Prosign/Character/Sig
nal of the Month
See if you can use this one on Tuesday!

Prosign:

Meaning:

Stand

[Suggestion - put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for
Tuesday.!’ve found this to be very useful on our net - much quicker than
QRX - especially in response to someone coming up with “QRL?” on the
frequency you're using.]

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here we

So back to the CQQRS

Next Tuesday’s

Slow CW QSO

go.

practice net.

Net

Our CQQRS

Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0600z until

about 1200z;

see https://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

UTG

0600z to 1200z

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

0600z to O800z

20m

14039-14051 kHz

Note - 20m times and frequencies will be allocated by Mike DL3YZ prior to the net.

7020kHz
- 7040kHZ

3535kHz - 3560kHz

160m

1855kHz (-SkHz for QRM)

0600z to 1200z

7To00

7o20
|

40 mis

)

ORO

]

3500

]

CO ORS Net

3535

80 m 1800

Sle

7O40
|

ORO

CO ORS Net
1655.

Thanks to Lance VA7TO for the GOQAS

&
3560

=
1875

band-plan

2200z - 2300z
(Tuesday
UTC)

Wednesday (VK/ZL)
a

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

Reports

respectively.

Hope to hear you there.

& Photos

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 interesting by
sending a photo?

If you have a photo that you’d be happy to include,

please email it to:
caarsnet@gmail.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

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.
suitable prompt (the command

Our website also includes a

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, people predicted the downfall of
handwriting;

when the word 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/COQORSWebsite 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 39 contributors: DL3YZ, G7BED,
K3WWP,

MOKB], NOHHF, VK2DI, VK2GAZ, VK2IOW, VK2RU, VK2VIC, VK2WP,

VK3ACU, VK3ALC, VK3BWN,

VK3BYD, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3 WOW,

VK4PE,

VK4PN, VK5A0O, VK5ET, VK5KFG, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ,
VK6NQL, VK6PZT, VK6RR, VKOWE, VK7JZ, VK7ME, VK7TA, VK7TO, VK7WW,
ZL3TK, ZL3TK, ZL4CTS.
Nigel G4RWI

And a special thank you to our editorial team of

(mobile software wrangler), Patrick VK2IOW

reported words), John VK2RU

(audio recordings manager),

(chief cat-herder) and Lance VK7TO
trouble-shooter).

(curator of the
Richard VK6HRC

(one hand in pocket classic transceiver

Great work all!

€U CW on Tuesday,

mb
Mark

Bosma

VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South Bowning NSW
cqgqrsnet@gmail.com
non impediti ratione cogitationis

But Grandmother, yc 9
have not uploaded any of

your radio contacts to
bit.ly/CQQRSNET

CG:

About

the CQ

Here’s where
For the current schedule

and

QRS

Net

you'll find the details.

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 hitps://bit.ly/COQORSWebsite

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