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CQQRS

Ron VK7ME

Edition 48/2025

using the Morse Mania App with his shiny new
paddle.
Ron - they warned you that CW could be habit-forming!

Reports from Tuesday’s

Post

e
e
e
e
e

RagChew

caught en-route to Bundaberg
Careful

in your browser

BaMaKey

Net

Morsum

Exploring the Grey line in Radio Propagation
Introducing Ron VK4EV
Head Copy Practice
Morse Code, Ageing and Cognitive Health/Recovery
RagChew’s Long Established but Flawed Editorial Policy is
Putting Every Member at Risk
e Tasmanian Portable Adventure

RSS

Morse Training

Ops

Normal

Net

Check

- VK8MT

e DXperiment Bands
e Settle to Carlisle Railway - Week 11 Report
e DXperiment Station Status Display
e There’s No Such Thing...
°o Long Path?
o Rag Chew Index?
© CQRS WhatsApp Callsigns
e Prosign of the Month
e | hear tell....
e Di-dah-di-dah-dit
e About the CQ QRS Group

I’m used to reading reports from some contributors who had tough
conditions during our CQQRS Slow CW Practice QSO net on Tuesdays static crashes, switch mode power supply hash, poor propagation, failed
antenna feeds, incorrect settings on the transmitter, incorrectly set GMT
clock, dog ate my Morse key, etc. Well, this week it was my turn to have a
whinge - QRN up the gazoo from static crashes made things less than
pleasant. So | was pleased to read the positive reports from our team who
reported that there was at least 63 stations heard - excellent work folks!
As it turned

out, | had

failure, and

| spent the first hour of Tuesday’s

mis-set my GMT

clock in the shack after a power
net listening to the noise on

20m, hoping to hear this week’s DXperiment participants. | checked the
Reverse Beacon Network to see if others in Oceania were having any luck
and noticed possible grey line propagation from New Zealand to Europe.
So | thought it would be a good time to write something about the
phenomenon in our There’s No Such Thing section... but luckily, | saw a
Wagga Amateur Radio Club member’s comments about a grey line article
in the Club’s latest QRM

newsletter.

Perfect timing!

Thanks

again to John

Shutte VK2EMF for permission to re-print the article as this week’s

7opic of

Interest.
And

this week,

we’re

introducing

one of our new team

members,

Ron

VK4EV who’s very kindly let has have a look around the mouth-watering
home-brewed projects in his shack - thanks Ron and welcome again.
In Other News, Mike DL3YZ discusses the new Runners Point status display
and

he’s invited the team

to have

a look at the system

under test.

Also this week, we’ve received three questions for our 7here’s No Such
Thing section - excellent! Which reminds me, | still haven’t answered lan
VK1HF’s

last question!

I now

use his Snowline

KiwiSDR

every week

during

the net - so the least | could do is give him the courtesy of an answer to his
current-limit question!
Finally - thank you to the 31 contributors and our editorial team who made
this newsletter so interesting - very much appreciated folks.
Alors.... bon appétit!

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 100KB file size). No
problems if your computer or phone can’t do that - just send it through
anyway please.
So, please help attract new and old team members to have a go by
submitting your report each week. Submissions close 1300 (Eastern
Australian Summer time) on Thursdays.
Website
lf 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/COQQRSWebsite

Cheers,
mb
Mark Bosma

VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning
cgaqrsnet@qmail.com

NSW

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

Here’s the 63 stations reported by 42 members

of our team on Tuesday:

CQQRS

Team

Member

qQsoi1

Qso2

Qso3

Qso4

qso5

QsoO6

Qso7

Qso8s

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

Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Heard on air
Worked 20m
Heard 20m

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

Heard on air
Worked 40m
Heard 40m

Heard 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m

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

Worked 40m
Heard 40m
Heard 40m

Worked 40m
Heard 40m

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

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

Worked 40m
Heard 40m

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

Heard on air
Heard on air

Heard 20m
Heard 40m
Worked 40m

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

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

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

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

From

Ross MONNK

thanks

reports have been compiled for

Patrick.

at Exeter UK

[20m]
My car portable setup is not the most
efficient but it's too cold and damp now to sit
outside. So thank you to those operators
who tried to contact me but were
unsuccessful. Conditions were strange - |
could hear VK4PN

weak but clear, yet he

couldn't hear me. And | only caught the "3" in ZL3TK despite hearing him in the noise
trying hard, yet he heard himself clearly on an SDR not far from me. DX is a strange
business.

From

Peter Henderson

ZL1PX at Waiuku, Auckland, New Zealand
[40m]

VKS3CLE (Charles) and | weren't really sure we were in
a QSO. Condx were poor to very bad. | gave him a
479 and he gave me a 229. There were quiet pauses
after each of my overs, so | think he was doing his

best to read my sending and figure out a reply. Nicely
done Charles!

From John VK5ET at Hope Valley
[20m]

Only lots of noise heard on 20 mts.
[40m]

Very noisy + QSB.

From Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown

[40m]

Forty meters was quite civil tonight with little QRN and
the east/west Faraday curtain missing for once. Had a
lovely chat with Donald. Jordan was very strong here
considering he was using 100W.

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach
[20m]

Ss Sona 2d

The original of this report was fully compliant with the
rules for SI metric nomenclature.

mandated

weak Mike DL3YZ.
.

MONNK direct,

Achieved

a successful exchange of signal reports with a very

Carlisle

Could not hear any sign of Ross.)

f
|

“~

hematite

cw sTC

onl Sit

eno NROB

419 Oct

ha,
05

irkby

Stephen

however although | could hear both

Ross and myself well enough for a QSO via the
G8JNJ SDR near Dorchester, ~ 50 km mostly across

water from Budleigh Salterton, it wasn't to be.

Sovcreme 7 foe NROS
Af
~
48 Sep NROZ
may
> Los

Setile
To Care
Challenge

)

is
ibblehead
Quorton

TOS

[40m]
The original of this report was fully compliant with the mandated rules for SI metric
nomenclature. The 40 m band sounded quite dead until about 0745Z after which it
got better and better. But alas, suddenly at ~ 1050Z wide band noise sounding like
OTHR swept from bottom-to-top. This has been happening more often on 40 m in
the past six months. It makes copy very difficult and renders some stations QNP,
not only due to the noise but also by reducing receiver gain from AGC action; it lasts
between 10 and 30 minutes.
One station took advantage of our notified STC sked
and passed NR10, his final QTC in the STC challenge. See STC Report 11
elsewhere.

From Nigel ZL/G4RWI at Nelson, NZ
[40m]

First time operating at this NZ QTH. Band
seemed quiet with deep QSB, with only 5 watts

didn’t manage to work outside of NZ. Using a
SK after 40 years was bordering on hysterical
to anyone unfortunate enough to hear me!
Rescued from the Titanic

From Ron Everingham VK4EV at Brisbane

[40m]
Conditions were not good here with constant QRN from
approaching storms.
[80m]

QRN from approaching storms

From lan VK7TA at Latrobe
[40m]

| didn't hear much activity when | first got on air at 1815,
but | did Rx a good signal from Paul VK3KLE. There
were, as usual, more stations heard after dinner (about
1950). | had a couple of nice long chats, and hope that
wine with dinner hadn't made me too loquacious.

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW

[20m]
Well 20m seemed very very quiet!

| listening from my home station, the Snowline

and Ironstone Range KiwiSDRs and the Reverse Beacon Network - not a sausage
from our team this week apparently! Funny, | couldn't help thinking that Mike DL3YZ
had made a comment about "starting the shift a little later, when the DX window has
finally opened up completely". Should have twigged that something was amiss.
An hour of listening to noise later... | started hearing a very weak and fluttery signal
on 14048kHz; the flutter was so deep that | couldn't actually make out any
characters. The Reverse Beacon Network showed that Mike was on 14048kHz - so |
think it was his signal | was hearing. The penny then dropped.... | re-checked my
GMT clock.... it was an hour fast! The power here had gone off yesterday during a
storm, and the battery back-up in my clock hasn't worked for years (| keep replacing
the battery - living in hope!).... but when | re-set it earlier in the arvo, I'd set it an hour
ahead. No wonder things were quiet! So as the correct hour continued signals
started emerging from people working Mike, but Mike remained pretty weak here.
Interesting to look at the RBN for signals from NZ vs Australia at grey-line time.

-RBN from VK
Sounds like an interesting There's No Such Thing column topic - what is grey-line

propagation, and why does it happen?
Down on 14045, Ross MONNK/P was calling according to the Reverse Beacon
Network, and | think | could hear Stan ZL3TK working him.

An email confirmed that

he was hearing someone (Stan ZL3TK | think) very weakly.
So the propagation gods didn't smile on us non-gain-antenna types this week!
well... next week will be much better.

[40m]

40m was just horrible when | finally got
my times sorted out. Static crashes
galore. | think the crashes and bangs had
driven others of our team under the
covers too - there was a few times when |
could see on the KiwiSDRs six or eight
QSOs going on in our segment, but there
were other times when there was only
one or two.

| was pleased to hook up with Chris
VK2NAP at Marrickville and lan VK7TA at
Latrobe again. Chris was in and out of
the noise a bit, but lan was stronger.

Later | tried calling Lin VK6NT operating
the Northern Corridor Radio Group's three

element Ultrabeam UB-04EL-640 Yagi
(on the middle in the image) from VK6NC
but he couldn't hear me.
[80m]
Nothing on the SDRs on 80m when

| listened, and the band seemed a bit less

affected by the static crashes than 40m. So | started calling CQ on 3555kHz however, | was just talking to myself apparently. | did discover that it's hard to send
with a straight key with one hand while sneezing with the other.
| did notice a trace on the VK6SEG

KiwiSDR from Richard VAK6HRC and Wayne

VK6NW on 3560kHz - but there was no sign of them here in NSW. | think! saw a
very weak signal from Sava VK4PN but | couldn't hear him well enough to work. So
by 11pm | gave it away, hoping for better conditions next week.

From Patrick VK2IOW between Bathurst and Orange

[20m]
| [managed to have QSOs with Mike, DL3YZ and Ross,

4 MONNK, though conditions were not as good as last

week. The QSO with Ross in particular was an
' interesting challenge. Initially | gave him an RST of 229.
We were sending each word twice to improve
intelligibility. However signals did improve during the

QSO, Ross said that my signal became clear but faint;

his signal improved to about 339. | was using 100 watts.
| think Ross’ power from his car setup is about 20 watts.
| could have switched my amp on. However, that would not have helped me to hear
Ross any better — the limitations of amplifiers, hi.

[40m]
Conditions were noisy;

lots of static crashes.

Had QSOs with ZL, VK3 and VK5.

From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn
[40m]
My biggest surprise, was to copy OM Lin VK6NC all the
way from WA and readings 592+20.

It was no wonder,

he was using a FOUR ELEMENTS YAGI!

From Jim Semmens

VK7JZ

at Hobart

[20m]
Was working from my home QTH and paid a QRM penalty for that. One of these
days | will score a trifecta of; (1) being available a little earlier in the afternoon; (2)

plate
|= —

being at a park and away from the QRM and lastly; not forget to
connect essential items to the antenna.

~~ Still a pleasant evening of casual listening while paying some
y | attention to other things; | followed the spots for the DX operators
3 and pleased | could hear VK2IOW

}

and VK4PN

on 20m and | could

hear but not discern from the noise their contacts - | am guessing it

was the other side of that mythical DX.

[40m]

Then, on 40m | could hear VK7TO, VK3MJ, VK5ET and VK5AO. Was nice not
feeling the pressure of deep concentration as | did not TX and just picked up what |
could. This does get easier right?
Thanks to Mark and Ketut for the weekend CW rag chews when | had a day to kill in
Melbourne, | enjoyed the chatting till a helo overhead interrupted my mojo x 30
seconds. Every time | do this | think, that was hard, yet every time | get more words
down and ask for less repeats so all is good.
| will be back next week.

From

Paul

VK3KLE

at Stawell

[40m]

Very good evening on 40m . For those | worked but
didn't get to say, | was using my vintage FT101E .
It's quite a good rig for CW. Spent a few days this
week sorting out replacing old Yaesu mica caps
which are prone to failure. Rebuilding the driver
stage eventually with mostly new caps. One of the
fixed chanel Xtals | have; a fixed Xtal for 7.0250000 or there abouts and it holds

tightly on that frequency . The VFO is fairly stable as luck has it in any case. Despite
close adjacent strong signals the filters and AGC performance was quite good. I've
modified the first RF mixer with a pair of J310 FETs, and replaced a FET on the NB
board with a J310 using a green LED for its fixed bias. | think many of the CW
operators were smiling at an old grey FT101 in CW mode.

For anyone interested you can expect to salvage some caps on some boards only on
these vintage sets. New generation 1 kV ceramic caps from Taiwan seem to work
well in RF applications.

Regards

Paul, VK3KLE

From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney Brisbane
peggy

[20m]

Again late to get on air but managed a
quick QSO with Mike, DL3YZ. Conditions
were pretty poor at my QTH, a lot of
noise, | could barely read Mike. He gave
me RSN of 541. | would love to
experience noise at that level on air just
once. | called a few more CQs to get RBN report and did not get any calls from EU
stations which is unusual and inconsistent with the RBN report. Somebody was
calling me though way down in the noise | thought it could be someone from our G
contingent, but despite all the effort | couldn't copy enough to confirm my guess.
[40m]

After a customary ZLCW net check in | turned off my QRO rig and reverted to QRP.A
number of stations were having extended QSOs so | would select one randomly and

listen to see whether the QSO was close to finish. Had to wait a long time for a

chance to make a call, but as usual lost to a QRO station every time.
So | called few CQs in-between and no takers. After a while | was wondering if | was

getting out at all and logged on to Araluen VK2-based Kiwi SDR. Called a CQ and
guess what | could see my trace on the waterfall. Kept calling CQs and competing

with QRO stations; still no luck.
VK6NC was booming into Qld so | thought there is my chance

but too many QRO

stations were queuing up. Out of curiosity | logged onto Ironside (VK5) Kiwi SDR and
you guessed it, | could see my trace there as well. So | was making it halfway to VK6
at least. By this time of the evening a massive storm was moving in from the west
and the lightning strikes were hitting too close for comfort, so | switched the gear off
and disconnected the antennas. Storm season up here started very early and some
storms were just horrendous. Orange-sized hail in some beach suburbs!

From Wal VK2WP

at Bathurst NSW

[40m]

“*

)
?
of

—«

—

indy
Wwy

a {

|
.

————

—

A few of my home-brewed QRP bits and pieces.
is made

™
as:

an
ne
E

;

The low pass filter box is for QRSS transmitters and

from filters out of a IC735 transceiver that called

ita day.

| am

on the air on QRSS

on 30M

with 200mW. I’m going to make a couple more transmitters for QRSS, and instead of having to
make filters for them | can just put the output through the appropriate filter. My QRSS stuff is
upstairs as | run it for a number

of hours.

| no longer go out bush as age has crept up but | use CW at home using a
key. Lately | have been practicing using a paddle. | have had a few on-air
QSOs but I’m not real confident as yet; | hope to be on the air for some of
the nets and hopefully build my confidence again.
Thanks again.
Ron Everingham VK4EV.
[Welcome Ron - fantastic.

| think you'll get a few questions and hopefully

some comments from the team about your mouth-watering home-brew
and classic gear.

| look forward to hearing you on air on Tuesdays when

you can make

it.]

QRZ?

on the

Who’s

From

other

end?

your editor Mark VK2KI / VK6QI

When you're on the key, it’s really hard to find out a bit more about the
person

you're chatting to;

it’s really nice to know

who’s on the other end

of the QSO. So, would you be willing to share some thoughts about
yourself? Please let Mark VK2KI know: cqqrsnet@gmail.com For guidance
on writing for RagChew, 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 wpm. In
edition

23, and for a few following

Newsletters,

there are instructions on

how to use these files, and edition 25 - 2025 has information on the Ditto
CW : Morse Player app.
This week

have the second

half of Wind

in the Willows Chapter 9 -

Wayfarers All.

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 wpm and 650 Hz tone. If you
prefer a slower speed or different tone, you can create your own MP3 files
by converting

Ebook2CW

the text file included

in last week’s

Newsletter with the

app - https://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html.

Because of MailChimp’s size limits, I’ve split Chapter 9 into 5 parts. Each
part is over 1 hour playing time @ 16 wpm. Parts 3, 4 and 5 are attached
below.
Uncommon punctuation has been removed (the Ditto CW app doesn’t
recognise some of it), and contractions have been simplified (for example,
we‘// becomes

we wilh.

This week’s attachments

are Chapter 9 parts 3, 4 and

5 MP3

files.

You can either play the MP3 files in any media player, or load the text file
in last week’s

Newsletter

into the Ditto CW:

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, 1.5x, 1.75x).

Other
Other things we’ve

News

received from

our 230-plus

readers.

CW Ops News for 28 November 2025

Morse Code, ageing, and cognitive health/recovery
Many of us (well, most of us) will hopefully have the privilege of growing old.
However, as we can all attest, as we age things begin to ache. Getting out of a chair
is sometime accompanied by a groan, and, if we’re honest, our mental capacity and
cognitive health begin to decline as well.
But just like taking care of our bodies with exercise and a good diet, we can do things
to maintain good brain health. This also applies to recovering from brain trauma,
such as a

stroke.

A friend of mine (and my mathematics teacher at high school) is also an amateur.
Steve, VKSCAX wrote to me recently with the news that he was recovering from two

strokes last year. He asked me to share this story with other amateurs as a bit of a
“good news story”.
“I think | told you I had 2 strokes last year while | was in Germany.
Lost use of my right hand and the ability to walk. After intense physio
etc, I'm virtually back to normal.

However,

one thing | learned was

that to recover lost abilities, | needed to practice the skill intensely
until it returned. | was advised that | had about 6 months to do this.
Of course, you don't always know what you've lost. | got back to
Melbourne about 2 months after the strokes, able to walk and write

again. Then | discovered | couldn't send CW! After about 10 days and 30
mins practice per day, it was back. Your discussion of muscle memory
resonated with me.
In an ageing amateur population, my experience of losing my Morse must
be happening quite frequently. My advice is to immediately get on the
key and start re-learning .... not the intellectual component, but the
muscular one!” Maybe you could pass on this advice via QTC’.

In a related story, Terry Jackson, WBOJRH

revealed in an interview with Bruce Pea

on the podcast, Dit Dit FM, that he was suffering from dementia. Terry was quite
candid about his condition and relayed the story that his daily Morse code practice

was almost certainly delaying some of the symptoms and progression of his disease.
Discussions with a neuropsychologist confirmed that activities like Morse code can
aid in building and retaining mental acuity.
| wrote to Terry asking him for an update and received the following:
“Thanks for your email and wonderful info on muscle memory. | believe sending and
copying CW has slowed down my memory impairment. The major impact for me is
very short memory loss.

| can copy words at 40 WPM,

although | usually forget the

first word by the time another passes. | am working on improving this. | am
optimistic that this will get better. The real upside is that working with CW has
improved my expected memory loss.”

It's great to read both these stories and have confidence that even if we think we are
too old, or simply not able to learn the code, there is still hope. Regular practice
coupled with a proven technique will greatly enhance your chances of success.

And of course, it’s great to hear two positive experiences from Steve and Terry and |
really appreciate their willingness to share their personal stories.

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. I’m
running a survey until the end of November to register your interest in classes here in
VK and ZL at VK/ZL friendly times. If you are at all interested in a class in January/
February 2026, please complete the survey.
https://forms.gle/j6YCUcgdDARDFxnZ9
Courses are eight weeks long and no matter your level, you’ll come out the other side
with better skills and more enjoyment from the code. CW Academy is immersive,

engaging and fun.
https://cwops.org/cw-academy/

| can confirm that there will be a Beginners Class —
commencing 5th January and running for 8 weeks. I'll almost certainly be running an
Intermediate Class as well. Email me if you’d like more information.
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please drop me an email.
73, Chris VK3QB
CW Ops OC Ambassador
vk3qb @hotmail.com

RagChew’s

Long

Established

but Flawed

Editorial

Policy is

Putting

Every Member

at Risk

From Stan ZL3TK
Mark,
Thank you for providing
| wasn't

imagining

my original QRS

it, skulduggery

FFA script from

has been

tampered and the evidence is presented below
unacceptable behaviour in anyone's language

going

on,

last weeks
my

edition.

report was

- shameful and

In future, if there is a future for me in QRS Group, | shall retain a screen
shot of my contributions.
Right now I'm seeing that my contributions are
deemed to have such little value that they can be downgraded, edited
willy-nilly, have the meaning changed, and/or be used to portray me asa
common law-breaker.
Yes, believe it or not, the correct use of SI metric
nomenclature has been enshrined into Australian legislation through the
National Measurement Act 1960.
Time to admit: who is the actual law
breaker(s)?
Here

is an annotated

copy of my original contribution

to prove

it was fully

compliant, except of course for the sub-headings where the editor
deliberately flouts the legislation week-after-week:
mStan

ZL31TK at Waitarere Beach

<«ai—— Non-compliant
ightfully devoid of noise but trans-Tasman propagation was rather narrow geographically speaking.
is likely why I

ortable QRP VK3

deserves the bonus 10 points for doing

[80m] )

Meaning:

Stand

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

Tell us how you

went!]

| Hear
You

never know

Tell...
who’s

listening!

Last week we reported on the amateur who travelled half way around the
world with his gear.... but left the key and antenna behind for the last hop!

Well this week,

another of our team

reported:

Ah, just thinking, I've brought my radios, but left the key behind . That was
careless; the net’s definitely not happening for me this week!

Today
Not a sausage from Mike DL3YZ on 20m - including on the
Reverse Beacon Network.
5:19pm /
Wal VK2WP calling CQ on 7027.6kHz.

5:39pm /

You

Not a sausage from Mike DL3YZ on 20m - including on the Reverse
Beacon Network.

The VK6RBN beacon on 14100kHz has just been heard in Italy on
the Reverse Beacon Network - so perhaps the band is opening or may be open from WA? Still nothing from Mike DL3YZ or Ross
MONNK.

Anyone hearing anything on 20m?

5:49pm /

Mike DL3YZ is now on the Reverse Beacon Network on
14048kHz. Very weak fluttery signal - the flutter is making it
unreadable. Auroral flutter perhaps?
6:02pm /
You
Mike DL3YZ is now on the Reverse Beacon Network on 14048kHz.
Very weak fluttery signal - the flutter is making it unreadable. Auroral
flutter perhaps?
And I know why | couldn't hear them.... the power had gone off
yesterday, and | mis-set my GMT clock! | was an hour early blame daylight saving?
6:08pm /
1 unread message

Richard VKGHRC Campbell-Morrison

[lf you have some intel about other team members... or even yourself...
that’s worth sharing, please let me know cggrsnet@gmail.com /

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here

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/CQQORSWebsite and navigate to the Net
Details page for details.

Coordinated
(Note - 20m

Universal Time

0600z to 1200z

DXperiments will start at a different time if required)
Western Australia Time

Australia

UTC

Hours

1400 to 2000

Central Australian Time

UTC

+ 10.5 Hours

1630 to 2230

Eastern Australian Time

UTC

+ 11 Hours

1700 to 2300

Queensland Time

UTG

+ 10 Hours

1600 to 2200

Nz Time

UTC

+ 13 Hours

1900 to 0100

New Zealand

0600z to 09002

20m

14039-14051 KHz

Note - 20m times and frequencies will be allocated by Mike DL3Y7Z prior to the net.

663
0600z to 1200z

7O20KHz - 7040KHZ

160m

1855kHz (-5kHz for QRM)

7TOO0o0

7o20
|

40 m=

ORO

)

]

3500

80m

8535kHz - 3560kHZ

Sle

7Oo40
yl

ORO

160 m

COORSNet

3535

ie
1800

3560

|e __ CO ORS Net

1655

Thanks to Lance VKFTO for the COOAS

—

1875

band-plan

Wednesday (VK/ZL)
Post Morsum

eetee «eae

(Tuesday UTC)

WA FM AllStar Network

Callback

(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.
have fun.

We'll

There's usually people around until after 1200z - so keep calling in the
segment of the band designated in the table below until you catch
someone. | 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 & Photos
Please let us know via our Reports form bit.ly/CQORSNET 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

sending a photo?

the reports even

interesting

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

please email

it to:
cqarsnet@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. Email them to
cggrsnet@gmail.com please (reduced size if possible - but whatever you
send will be great).
Oh and by the way, | recommend that you don’t keep the Reports Form
website open between submission of reports from one week to the next. If
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/CQQRSWebsite 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? You bet!
Writing

not your strong

point?

Don’t worry,

I’m very happy to help as

much or as little as needed.
Here’s a thought - although our readers will much prefer your own writing,
perhaps have a go at using a Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence
tool such as ChatGPT, 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.ly/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! You as the
submitter are responsible for fact-checking. 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/CQQRSWebsite then click the
menu on the top right and then click RagChew News/etter.

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 31 contributors this week: DL3YZ,
G/7BED, K8MSH, MOKB], MONNK, VK2EMF, VK2IOW, VK2RU, VK2VIC, VK2WP,
VK3CTM, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3KLE, VK3QB, VK3WOW, VK4EV, VK4PN,
VK5ET, VK5FD, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6KHZ, VKENW, VK7JZ, VK7ME, VK7TA,
VK8MT, ZL/G4RWI, ZLIPX, ZL3TK. And a special thank you to our editorial
team, Nigel G4RWI (Nigel is on holiday this week - software development
on hold while he re-learns the gentle art of straight key use), Patrick
VK2IOW (one man went to mow...), Jonn VK2RU (fencer, cattle yard and
electric fence fixer, lumberjack, water tank and fridge installer, and
caravan demolisher), Richard VK6HRC (Post Morsition extraordinaire) and
Lance VK7TO (indexing researcher). Great work all!

€Y CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South Bowning NSW

cqaqrsnet@gmail.com

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Morse Tips & Quips

aLODy ea Na

RRS

DICK SYLVAN, Wacet

=
WOCBT Dick”

2 © blo

STAR
IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO
LEARNING MORSE CODE!

About

the CQ

QRS

Net

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

and

information

about the CQORS

net,

please go the the Net Details page on our website:

https://bit.ly/COQQRSWebsite

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

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