Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email CQQRS in your browser RagChew Edition 49/2025 Last week our team-mate Lin VKGNT operated from the Northern Corridor Radio Group’s station VK6NC at Whiteman Park... using this four-element 40m Yagi! Yowza! Thanks to Richard VKGHRC for the image and correction to my report; turns out that the NCRG now has two 40m Yagis; apparently you can’t have too many! e Reports from e Another Last Tuesday First Ever CW e Australian CW e Head Practice e DXperiment Bands for WA e New & Australian Amateur Copy Zealand Power QSO e Morse Training e Some e Sava’s Popular e Noise Floor & RSN Limits - You May be Surprised Radio Magazine Net Mothers e Critical Thinking e The Missing Middle Stage of the CW Journey e DXperiment Status Monitor e 160m e WIA Inconsistency Band Plan Consultation e WI1TP Collectors’ e There’s Website No Such Thing o Spaces © Where Do |! send the Invoice e Prosign e Di-dah-di-dah-dit of the Month e About the CQ QRS Group v RSS This week we had at least 47 CQQRS team stations on air for our Tuesday night net, and at least another 13 others worked. Some reported static crashes, for others there was a bit of auroral buzz and some one-way propagation. And our DXperiment team success as well. A fun session for most people | think. And especially fun for Mal VK8MT on our net on Tuesday. before when in Europe and the UK had a bit of in Darwin who had his first-ever CW QSO | was confused of course - | thought I’d worked he was camping somewhere him in the Territory, but it turns out, he’d reported hearing stations on his portable gear, but hadn’t actually been transmitting. So well done Mal and Sava VK4PN pleasure of working him on 20m who had the during the DXperiment. Also this week, we had an Short Wave Listener report - my next door neighbour who reported that he could hear me on an old short wave receiver he’d bought recently - DX - our antennas would apart! However, when be about 500m | listened to his iPhone recording on our daily walk - it wasn’t me at all - Jack was actually listening to Jordan VK3ACU away at Meredith Victoria. 600km The recording is attached to Jack’s report below - the distance explains the QSB. Interesting to learn about the Lafayette receiver - it has a regenerative detector - but in the IF stage, rather than the usual front-end. hear the detector squegging in the recording. You can Good thing for me that the detector was in the IF... for those not familiar with regenerative receivers, the detector is actually an oscillator that falls in and out of oscillation at the received frequency; very high gain (because of the positive feedback) but they radiate a rushing noise on the received frequency. | recall the excitement caused near the tower at in my high school days when Jandakot airport using a home-brewed parked regenerative air-band receiver! Around the same time, there was an SWL named Doug Kalgoorlie who would using his regen receiver listen to the locals on 80m Maley who lived in (carefully adjusted regenerative detectors can decipher SSB, CW and even FM in addition to AM); generated they called him “QR Maley” because of the noise by his receiver that they could all hear! Appropriately, Doug went on to become VK6QR. address, If any of our team know of Doug’s email please pass our newsletter on to him - I’m sure he’ll smile at the memory. Anyway, on to this week’s newsletter. As always, you'll find reports from the participants below, but this week | noticed a glitch in one of the reports reported stations worked and heard - but when | processed the web-form’s data, the spreadsheet was missing his reports. - Ross MONNK We've had odd behaviour from the Google Forms system in the past, but as far as | can tell, this is the first time that our you-beaut bespoke Python software created by team-member Nigel and Jo’s Nigel G4RWI has mis-behaved. nice holiday in New Zealand will be punctuated request from me shortly! by a GitHub service Sorry mate! As usual this week, there’s lots and lots of contributions from team members - thank you again one and all. Australian CW There’s also an article about power limits... you may be surprised! Thank you to Patrick VK2IOW for assembling the written reports from members, especially thank John VK2RU and I'd like to who puts together the head copy training audio segments every week - lots of work needed to break the chapters down into small chunks to suit the MailChimp file size limitations. So... ON, ON... New Member This week, Mal VK3MAL / VK3PP joined our team, on the invitation of Jordan VK3ACU. Mal has dabbled with CW for a long time, but has recently had a real crack and reports that he’s loving it; welcome Mal - warning, it’s addictive! 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). 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 Submitting your report each week. members to have a go by Submissions close 1300 (Eastern Australian Summer time) on Thursdays. Website lf you'd like to find out a bit about our net, or would to others about our Tuesday get-togethers, here’s the link to our website. bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite Dit-dit... catch you on Tuesday mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning cgarsnet@gmail.com non impediti ratione cogitationis NSW | hope. like to pass information Keports & Comments Here’s this week’s Last Tuesday’s Group Here’s the 60 stations heard by 47 members CQQRS Team cQ Member DL3YZ reports. Qsoil QsSO 2 Qso3 of our team on Tuesday: Qso 4 qso5 QSO 6 QsSO7 VK5AO VK7TO Heard on air G7BED Heard on air MONNK Worked 20m | VK2IOW MONNK Heard 20m VK2ASB Heard on air VK2DI Heard on air VK2DLF Heard on air VK2EBN ZL3TK VK4PN VK2KJJ Heard on air Worked 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Heard 20m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Heard 40m Worked 20m Heard 20m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard on air Heard on air Heard on air Worked 40m Tried 40m Tried 40m Worked 20m Worked 40m Worked 20m Heard 20m Heard 40m Worked 40m | | VKSFD Heard 40m VK1CT VKSKFG Heard 40m VK3KLE | VK3KEV | VK3ECH cere VK6GX | Heard on air a ee | VK3ECH | ey VK3RU | VK3DRQ | | | | VK7TA | Worked 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Tried 80m Heard 40m Tried 40m Heard 40m Worked 80m Heard 80m Worked 40m Worked 80m | VK6KD Worked 20m | VK3DBD Heard 20m VK4PN Heard 20m | VKZIOW Heard 40m VK2KI Heard 80m | VK3ECH VK2GR ZL1C) VK2KI VK4PN | VK6HRC Heard on air Worked 40m | VK3DRQ Heard 40m Heard 40m VK3XU VKSAO |VK3WOW| VKSFD | VK2ASB | VKLICT VK6JZ VK3RU | VK3ECH | VK3KEV, Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Worked 40m Heard 40m Heard on air Worked 20m Heard 20m Tried 20m Worked 40m Heard40m | VK3ACU Heard 20m ZL3TK Heard40m | VK3ACG | VK2DLF As discussed above, for reasons apparent only to Nigel our Executive Software Manager, at least one of the reporter’s callsign data was omitted from the generated spreadsheet this week; omissions, | attempted to correct any but please let me know via cggrsnet@gqmail.com if you find more errors. Notwithstanding, the spreadsheets above should show the known on last Tuesday’s Group; (submitted the comments via our webform in the team bit.ly/COORSNET ) members’ stations reports follow: Comments: This week’s comments from our webform us by Patrick VK2IOW; thanks Patrick. reports have been compiled for From HOSs al Exerer UN [20m] After a fine QSO with Pat VK2IOW, | heard some Morse, but it was too weak | for me to pick anything out. | subsequently found out that it was Stan ZL3TK. Later | almost missed Sava VK4PN - (| have now set my CW filter a little wider) but, once I'd gone up 0.2 kHz, he was fairly readable. Unfortunately QRM at his end prevented us from having a meaningful exchange, but it was good to hear his beeps. From Mal VK8MT at Darwin NT =~ [20m] ' Worked VK4PN on 20m. My first CW QSO! [Outstanding - congratulations Mal!] From David VK6KD at Ballajura WA [40m] While the noise floor was low, Rx sig levels were also very low in the noise. [80m] Noise floor was quite low but not many stations to ee A ee ee ee J ed ce DL De Ba geting tnrougn tomy WI. | logged onto tne ironstone OVA to near activity 1rom SA. There were stations lower than our landing frequency but Tx speeds were too fast for me to copy call signs. Good to have some CW practice with Wayne VK6NW. | started off at 100w but dropped to 50w. My testing earlier to a SDR in the SW proved | was getting there on 1W so 100W might have been overkill. Till next week 73s to all. From Paul VK2IK at Moss Vale [40m] : From Nigel ZL/G4RWI Thank you again for a great net, something to look forward to when life gets busy. at Nelson, NZ [40m] “eT Much better conditions than last SE etin week, the band seemed quiet around 8:30pm (NZ) but got ich much livelier around 10pm. Really pleased to work into VK J a uaa #Nelson achiral re = Blenheim AR f eed roy lure cl with my measly 5W anda compromised antenna. Thanks to all who persevered with sometimes erratic sending with an unfamiliar straight key from the 18th century. of the adjusters, which has tamed the beast a little. I’ve managed to free-up some From Donald VK6JDM at 20 km west of Esperance [40m] Did not hear any VK6 stations on 40m. Among the east coast stations one was using 10 watts in a park in im Melbourne, this station's signal was readability 5. Put out a few CQs but no reply. From Ron Everingham VK4EV at Everton Park [40m] Called CQ but no replies. From Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup WA = [20m] peek : # Rockingham Seem My focus was on 20m this week. Started with listening to our European stations via a VK5 and one ZL SDR, whist shopping with the XYL. Later | managed one contact with VK3DBD who blew me away when he turned his beam in my direction. His signal went from S3 to S9+, as he turned the beam and transmitted at the same time. « Busselton a ere | swear, | could hear the gears of the rotator working as it turned. Unfortunately, | could not hear the DX team here in WA on my rig or the local SDR. However, | left the antenna up and tried calling CQ again after the family had gone to bed, around 15:00Z | appear to be heard in Europe quite well with RBN reporting and SNR of 10-17 db. And sure enough within half an hour, | had made 3 contacts to Ingonesia, vermany and italy. | suspect this was all short path, as Europe was heading into darkness at this time. Back in Bunbury this week SSS hence got to have a go a the DX team yesterday. Meaning: Stand = ee 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 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 0600z to 1200z + 8 Hours UTC 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 (-5kHz for QRM) 0600z to 1200z 7To00 7o20 l 40 m/s } | l ORO | ] l l 3500 | ] l l CO ORS Net l l 3535 some ORO 1800 ole 7O40 | | I | CQOORSNet 1655. | Thanks to Lance VA7TO for the GOQAS ee 3560 Sle | ! | | & 1875 band-plan e 22002 - 23002 (Tuesday UTC) Wednesday (VK/ZL) ee 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: 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. 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. 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, 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.lvy/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 33 contributors: Jack, VK2GAS, VK2IK, VK2IOW, VK3ECH, VK3KEV, VK3 WOW, VK5KFG, VK6HRC, VK7TO, VK7WW, SWL VK2KJJ, VK2RU, VK2TIG, VK3AFH, VK3DRQ, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6ENW, VK6PZT, VK8MT, ZL/G4RWI, ZL3TK, ZL4CTS. VK7TA, And a special thank (software development executive), (reports coordinator and hay baler), John VK2RU copy manipulator and Murray explorer), Richard VK6HRC and used of strange gear) and Lance VK7TO editor). MONNK, VK4EV, VK4PN, VK5A0O, VK5DC, VK5FD, you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI Patrick VK2IOW DL3YZ, (head- (post morsition (CQWWer and technical Great work all! €U CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning cagrsnet@gmail.com NSW non impediti ratione cogitationis aU ost is by First accurate means "Manual of way of an orderly of Instruction transmitting carrying in adie SQ a Army intelligence written message." Signalling", 1880, About the Here’s where For the current schedule and CY QRS Net you'll find the details. 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 hitps://bit.ly/COQORSWebsite 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 een las mailchimp or unsubscribe