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RagChew

Edition 50/2025

Thanks this week to Jordan VK3ACU for the image of his latest project
- restoration of a Heathkit DX-100B transmitter. See Jordan’s report for more.

RagChew

Indexing

New Team

Members

Reports from

e Anne’s

Last Tuesday’s

Lists

¢ QRM

and

e When

is a Silver Mica

e To

Brain

Fade
Not a Capacitor?

or To Not ?

Post Morsum

Richard

e CW

Net

Report

Calls for Chickens

Mean

Output

e QRZ?

WB2GDZ

Head

Copy

Drifty Delight

DXperiment

Power

Limits

Resolved!

Practice
Status

Monitor

Dit-Dit?

Settle to Carlisle Railway Challenge

Prosign

| hear tell....

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

- Results

of the Month

e About the CQ QRS

Group

| really like some of the photos we get of our team’s restoration projects Jordan’s photo of the Heathkit DX-100B transmitter shown
instance.

Unfortunately,

above for

Heathkit the company doesn’t exist any more, but

in its day, it was just marvellous.... the average numpty

like me could buy

an affordable kit - complete right down to the solder - and assemble
something that worked well;

so satisfying!

RSS

One of my early transceivers was a Heathkit
HW-29A;

better known

IN KIT FORM TOPS IN TRANSMITTING POWER

as a Benton Harbor

Lunch Box, this 6m AM unit had an external 12V
vibrator power supply and a regenerative
receiver that with careful adjustment could
receive SSB, CW and FM - and

being broad, you could listen to much

of the 6m

band all at once.

Looks

like Jordan’s transmitter was from around the same era.
Later in life | found myself living in
Dayton Ohio for a couple of years, and
once went to the amazing
Hamvention,

Dayton

where | bought a new

Heathkit SB-1000

linear amplifier kit;

perfect project for the once-a-week
enforced

break from study - Sunday

nights became

build the amplifier night.

I’ve still got it wrapped
ready to be pressed

in plastic wrap,

back into service

one day.
Mean

Output

Power

And speaking of amplifiers and in particular, power limits in Australia - in
last week’s RagChew

| reminded the team about Australia’s power output

limits for CW - 120W and 30W

mean for Advanced

and 10W

| pondered the question about what exactly

PEP for Foundation.

was meant by mean;

mean

completely different to mean

power measured

and Standard

licenses,

over 100ms was

over 1 second, one minute

or 1 hour - our regulator doesn’t specify.
Well luckily lan VK7TA has come to our rescue with ITU guidance on
measuring

pY for CW;

lan’s article is in this week’s

J7opic of Interest below.

Thank you lan - at last one of my many questions has been answered!
RagChew

Indexing

This year, there’s been several requests to find specific articles that
readers recall reading in the RagChew.
using MailChimp - an email marketing

| create the newsletter each week
(Spam) generation system,

combination of html text and text embedded

in images;

using a

the latter allows

contributions from other writers without the long process of manipulating
photographs - which unlike word processed document
and slow in MailChimp.

is very complicated

To-date, we’ve had a number of suggestions about

indexing, but | haven’t had the time to think about the problem.
Well, there’s movement

at the station and several of our team

volunteered to help with the challenge in different ways.
to come on the indexing problem,
e there’s so much

have

There’ll be more

but it’s outstanding that:

interest in our little newsletter that there’s demand

for a way to search for published articles, and
e we have some volunteers who have agreed to help sort through the
challenge of searching the newsletters produced

in MailChimp.

Thank you one and all.
And let me know if you’d like to join the happy band in the likely event that

there’s some

manual

processing of past issues required.

Back to the Net
Well I’ve rabbited-on about who knows what, and haven't even mentioned
the reason we're all here... the Tuesday CQQRS
back on Tuesday evening
having some fun.

(morning

net!

Fear not - we'll all be

in Europe, and sparrow’s in the US)

The schedule is down the end of the newsletter - like a

Supermarket, you need to walk all the way past the impulse-buy things to
complete your purchase.

New

Team

Members

Welcome this week to Steve VK2EEL who lives in Plumpton,
VK3CMV

at Chiltern, Jon VK4QJ at Murrumba

Michael

Downs and Jeff WB2GDZ

Seminole Florida.
Both Steve and Michael have been subscribers to our newsletters for a
while, but | only recently came across them among

our 230+

subscribers.

I’m pleased to welcome Jon as well who’s among the small group of
Queenslanders who have joined the team.
Jeff WB2GDZ

lives in Tampa

on the West side of the Florida pan-handle.

One of Jeff’s main radio interests is CW
becoming

rag chewing which he says is

a dying art (ha - have we got news for you mate!).

user of Remote stations in the US and has joined the Southern

Jeff is a keen
Electronics

Group in WA, aiming to get to Know some of the local CW folks here.
already made

himself known on the net with a nice QRQ

He’s

rag-chew with Phil

VK6GX which several of our team enjoyed attempting to copy on Tuesday.
Jeff has written us a nice article for our QRZ? segment this week.
Welcome Jeff - and you'll have to see if you can drag our mate Gary
W4GAL

out early on Tuesdays as well - after all, the sun comes

Melbourne

up in

FL before Tampa!

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 like to pass information
to others about our Tuesday get-togethers,

here’s the link to our website.

bit.ly/COORSWebsite
So, on, on.... here we go with this week’s newsletter.
Cheers,
mb
Mark

Bosma

VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South Bowning
cagrsnet@gmail.com

NSW

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

Here’s the 57 stations heard by 40 members
CQQRS Team
Member

ca
Worked

Qso 1
20m

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

Worked 40m
Heard on air
Heard on air
Worked 20m
Heard 20m
Tried 20m
VAlaelen dan fox

Qso 2

Qso 3

of our team on Tuesday:

Qso 4

Qso 5

QSO 6

QsSO7

Qso 8

Vnovnw

workea 4um

VNOJrN

VRIAU

LLIN

VALLI

VAZANL

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

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

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

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

The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group;
the comments

in the team

members’

reports (submitted via our webform

bit.ly/COORSNET ) follow:
Comments:
This week’s comments from our webform
us once again by Patrick VK2IOW.

reports have been compiled for

Don’t the reports look great?

Thanks

mate - | really appreciate the effort you make for us all each week.

From Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart
[20m]
L

etartad

aarhs

tha

windaws

mis

cinnal

wurde

etill

wiaals

ee
i

]

I OlanGU Gany WhwiG WA WwiUUW, OU Ty o1yial was oun woan m1
lronstone. First QSO with Manny - VK3DRQ was easy to copy.
Then heavy fog was coming up the Neckar Valley, vision
below 30 m. So my QSO with OM Sava,VK4PN was hard to

copy for both sides. But Sava has a great fist, so we got the
important parts exchanged. Our new Real Time Status
Monitor worked fine, so we had a great overview of all stations. Let’s hope for better

condx next time. Have a great week - 73 de DL3YZ

From Donald VK6JDM

at 20km west of Esperance
[40m]
Had a QRS with Phil VK6GX who kindly went
__

slowly enough that | could actually copy 90%.
| then spent an hour mainly listening and
managing to copy a lot more than | would have a

few months ago. | know | could do a lot of
===

practice and get there a lot quicker, but there are

so many things to do AND Anne has lists. Nurses have a nasty habit of making lists
and it is better | find to tick a few items off Anne's lists. | find if | avoid doing a few of
the simpler chores on the list, it leaves something simple to do at moments when one

is accused of not having done enough list jobs. Unfortunately | have not seen "do
more Morse practice" on any of her lists!
| will just go on slowly getting a bit faster with my hour or two of listening to you all
shaking the ether on Tuesday nights.

From

Stan ZL3TK

at Waitarere Beach

[20m]
Heard both DX stations RSN 211 while working others but
no time this week to wait for a clear spot.

From Joe VK2KJJ at Wagga Wagga
[40m

Good signal strength
[80m]

Not QRV

From Ross DL/MONNK at Exeter UK via Stuttgart Germany
[20m]
Due to foul winter weather
here, | was using Mike's radio
in Germany over an internet
connection from the UK
(Google "RCForb Client"),
hence my callsign DL/MONNK.
Sava VK4PN was struggling with his S4 noise - DX signals are often weak, so
moderate QRM must be frustrating. Pat VK2ZIOW with his Yagi was a strong (for DX)

signal and easy copy. Strangely, some brief but strong QRM in Germany caused my
brain to forget how to copy for an entire over! Then | heard some very faint morse.
Was someone calling me?

From Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup
[15m & 40m]
| got started too late to catch our DX team, but set up my
antena for 40m and 15m anyway.
=

Two good contacts on 40m,

but less luck on 15m within VK. | suspect my signal was
skipping over the top of vk3 and vk2.
RBN was picking up

= my cq in Europe via short path!

From Jordan VK3ACU

at Meredith

[40m]
fey
[Pa

‘

i —

—

CAUCIITIIL

DIYNAIS

WHIYIIL.

| USUIUGU

ING

up the old Heathkit DX-100B after chasing
a few gremlins earlier in the week. What |

initially thought was a VFO issue turned
into a bit of detective work because the
40m xtal also wouldn’t peak up. During a
QSO, the VFO just decided to wander off and that was that.
On inspection of the schematic, | discovered a previous owner had fitted a 4.7 kO
resistor instead of the correct 27 kQ on the screen of one of the valves and the
crystal. Because of this, the crystal itself also needed attention. | pulled it apart and
gave it a proper clean, which brought it back to life. In the end, the real culprit turned
out to be a leaky mica capacitor in the VFO — but it did leave me stumped having a
dodgy xtal and VFO!
All sorted now, and the DX-100B is sounding great. Click
the image to the left for a short video showing testing the
leaky mica capacitor with high voltage.
After a few 100 W QSOs with the old Heathkit, | turned
to the little Penntek TR-45 QRP rig and made another
five or so contacts. Something old, something new,

something QRO, and something QRP.

From David VK6KD at Ballajura WA
[40m]
| found the 40m band the most active this Tuesday night. My
noise floor was close to zero at times. Quite a bit of fading.
Some stations must have been on the same frequency even

‘=
-

though they weren't in a QSO with each other.
in the middle somewhere, hihi.

| guess | was

[80m]
Appeared to be a big blank wall on 80m.
LSB.

Only a couple of local stations up on 3.645

At least there was some activity in the band even if it wasn't CW,

hihi.

73s

VK6KD.

From John VK5ET at Hope Valley
[40m]
VERY NOISY, signals fading out completely then back up
at S5.

From Jim Semmens VK7JZ at VK7 Portable on Mount Wellington
[40m]
| finally found a good spot with zero or close to zero noise. Over
a

previous weeks | have been looking for places to set up that
offer less noise compared to my QTH... which is pretty much
anywhere. Been checking out places close to the water, and
this time up on Mount Wellington which sits over the top of
Hobart.
| set myself up at 'The Springs' which is about 2/3 of the way to
the top, | had big sky facing north, but was in the lee of the
mountain facing west, sorry Morgan never even heard you.

had the pleasure of very clear crisp QSOs with Mark VK2kKI,
Peter VKSAGX,

and then Jordan VK3ACU.

It was a short session for me, | had to pack up and make it home to then set up again
for the CW Academy class, but have to say | really enjoyed CW where | could hear
clear tones and was not struggling to lift it out of the noise, it was like 'what noise'
Mark VK2KI was only competing against the chirping of the birds in the trees behind

me.
The mountain is looking positive, next week

| will go further up, the summit is no

good with all the towers but there is another spot known as 'Big Bend' that might do
the trick for more big sky from more of the compass points.
Hear you all next week. 73 Jim.

From Greg VK5KFG at Willunga
[40m]
After putting in a brief appearance on the Boat
anchor Net (3.620 MHz

8.00 pm central time

Tuesday), as the sun was sinking QRS on 40m was
quite busy. Jordan was S9 on 5w with his Penntek
(yes, | had to confirm that it was a Penntek and not
a TenTec, not having heard of the Penntek before.

Looking up the Penntek later, it looks very
tempting, but do | really NEED another QRP rig?).

James was S9 from Ararat and, of

course, Graeme, ex-Navy signaler, was lightning fast. Mark was on 80m when | had
a look, back at his home QTH.

Thank you Mark for another year's brilliant effort.
LA
AT

From

Ron VK4EV

at Everton Park Q.
[40m]

Had a good listen around on 40M. The 40m band is always
very noisy at my suburban QTH with a level of around 7 to 8
S-points.

However made a couple of QSOs on 40 which was

good. | like the higher bands as the noise level is much better.

From Phil VK6GX at Gidgegannup
[40m]

| had a long ragchew with Jeff VK6/WB2GDZ, who is very eager to work VKs. Sorry
for tying up VK6SR remote for 1hr 21mins!

Then worked Morgan, VK6MTF/mm,

moored at Dunsborough, an excellent place to be in

hot WX. Sorry for missing the deadline for reports
over the last few weeks, | was here, just very QRL!
77

Fall

—_

pes

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW

Nothing heard of Edi DOZEMR on 15m via the
# VK1HF Snowline KiwiSDR (my ageing TS-120S
won't work above 20m - sometimes | know how it
feels!).
[20m]
Signals from Mike and Ross were very weak to me

this week;

conditions improved as we went along, but | could only hear the

occasional bits and pieces on QSB peaks - not enough to attempt a QSO.
the guys seemed to have no shortage of callers - good stuff team.

Anyway,

[40m]

| think | managed to sort out my GMT times for the second week in a row;

| cranked

up 40m at 0600z and had an interesting QSO with Lance VK7TO in Hobart. There
was a predicted geomagnetic disturbance which seemed to cause Lance to struggle
with my signal, yet he was Q 5 with me;

we often get one-way propagation between

NSW and WA on 40 and 80m around dusk (in WA) as the upper ionosphere is
illuminated but the lower areas aren't - but | can't recall such conditions on the NorthSouth path. | also noted that my signal into lan VK1HF's Snowline KiwiSDR at Dry
Plain (about 150km South of here) suddenly took a dive and almost disappeared.
After Lance | listened to some rare DX - VK2DA and VK3AGX.
better known to SOTA/PARKS

Andrew VK2DA is

chasers and to our net as VK1DA;

he has recently

had some success running his station at nearby Yass by remote control from
Canberra using wfview and his lcom Remote software.

Unlike the RCForb remote

software, Andrew's keying sidetone is affected by internet latency - try sending while
listening to a KiwiSDR (with your own sidetone turned down) and you'll know how

hard that is! So Andrew who prefers the paddle, is stuck with keyboard CW for the
time being. Andrew - | have your old keyer with the Galbraith paddle with a built-in
speaker if you want to give that a try mate;
eee

ee
ee
ee

LIZ

A ee

might be the quickest solution.
ee

ee et el

LIL

Anyway,
ome

PAS

seeing

indeed.

was

Uansmnlung

Ve,

ANQrew

reverted

And Andrew was chatting to Peter VK3AGX

Vive

CallsiQn

from Warrnambool;

- rare

| hadn't

heard from Peter for about a year - so it was great to hear hime and then work him as
well.
| also caught our trainee Eskimo - James VK7JZ who braved the slopes of Mount
Wellington before racking-off (in the colloquial, not vinification sense) for some

CWops training.
After the 15 and 20m DXperiment and dinner, | returned to listen to a few rag-chews
on 40m before sliding down to 80m to try my luck.
[80m]
Nice to hook up again with Greg VKSKFG on 80m;

despite the odd conditions on 40,

80m was doing nicely - RSN 593s both ways (and | got to try my new RSN doctrine
of reporting static crash levels rather than baseband noise levels). First time in living
memory, Greg reported that things at Willunga were green (| was lamenting my
broken tractor that dumped its coolant while | was doing anti-bushfire slashing last
week)!

Makes a nice change eh Greg?

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning via the VK6SEG
KiwiSDR near Northam WA
[15m]
Not a sausage heard from Edi DO2ZEMR on 15m on the VK6SEG

KiwiSDR;

| knew

he was on air from Mike's status indicator, but the ionisation force (yeah | know,

mixed metaphor) wasn't with us this time.

Let's see what happens next week?

From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn
NOTE: This applies to any band.

It is OK to give for an 'Over to you' without

the standard exchange of call signs. BUT it is of NO HELP, AND OF CONFUSION for

other operators waiting to find out the call

sign; in order to call and have a QSO when
conditions are poor.

PSE don't get me wrong. We are only
humans.
No other stations were heard on 20 or 15m.

Manny's home brew noise canceller - one of the
brilliant VK5TM kits

From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney Brisbane
[20m]

i, )

Managed to work Mike and Ross again but it was a

struggle. Most of signals from stations in that part of
EU using standard 100 W or less are at or just under

| the noise level at my QTH at this time of day. David

Balanced ler

VK3DBD who was listening to my struggling QSO

with Mike called me afterwards and we had an

extended and enjoyable chat. He told me he had no

trouble copying Mike and confirmed this is always the case. David is using a 3 el
beam while | use just a simple wire antenna, still | should be doing better unless
there is a null in that direction as my antenna is fairly long. Still puzzling, a few hours
later when | work FT8, usually around 13:00 UTC, getting into EU is not a problem.
Difference between short and long paths is not that big so distance shouldn't be an
issue.
[40m]
Much better results working QRP on this occasion. Two enjoyable QSOs in a quick
succession, first one with VK3JFR

and second one with VK3XU.

Despite the fact that

| was running QRP both QSOs were extended well beyond just exchanging RSN and
names.
Again | was late to get on 40m so there was hardly any activity after 11:00 UTC and
the few subsequent CQs | made did not attract anyone.

[80m]
The last 30 minutes of the QRS net | devoted to 80m. Ironside SDR showed just one
trace at 3555 kHz and a

lot of noise. | could see my trace quite well (red most of the

time) so | moved to 3550 kHz and called a number of CQs but nil success. A faint
trace popped up briefly much lower in frequency; | had to readjust the tuner to reduce

SWR to call QRZ. Chris VK1CT came back. We had a quick QSO but propagation
was marginal, Chris gave me RSN of 555 | could return only 556. By the time |
finished with Chris the trace at 3555 kHz had disappeared so | missed the chance to
work VK2KI or VK5KFG.

Hopefully next Tuesday.

POST MORSUM 10th December
From Richard VK6HRC.
Seven on the South West reneater and AllStar / Echolink hub this mornina.

VK6KD
VK6FN
VK6QI
ZLIGARWI

David
Max
Mark
Nigel

VK6HRC

VK6MRBB

nee

te
ee

Mulligan, VK6TDU

Blue and other SWLs.

Achaotic start again; | had to emphasise | was calling for check in’s not
chickens... can’t help it if | talk funny!
David had a contact with Richard VK6PZT on 80 m heard VK2ARZ

and then

tuned around only some SSB traffic in the landing zone.
Max manged to take part after hard day’s work at his shed in town, nearly ready
for the hand over now. One contact with Ron VK6KHXZ on 40 m and then into
listening mode and was given a master class at 18 wpm > by Phil VK6GX and

Jeff VK/WB2GDZ. Max manged to decode most of what was being sent and
really enjoyed following on.
Mark was multi tasking again, open heart surgery on his tractor and taking
breaks to call in. On 20 m the DX signals were weak from Ross MONNK and
Mike DL3YZ using Mike’s station, and another six locals were heard. Nothing
heard from Edi - DO2EMR on 15 m. On 40 m worked three heard seven and
worked Greg VK5KFG on 80 m.
Nigel was happy to report he was handing the barnacle encrusted Morse key

back to Neptune and is heading back to Brisbane to house sit and retrieve his
paddle plus other gear that was inadvertently left behind. Listen out for VK/

G4RWI next week.
| called on 40 m for a while but no takers so took a break and came back worked

Ron VK6KHZ and then into SW mode to listen in on Phil and Jeff. | was getting
Phil’s call sign fine but had to cheat and make use of a Kiwi sdr and decoding

function to get Jeff's, that dreaded VK/ was the problem.

Thank you to all on last night and this morning, stay safe

73 Richard

=e.

This Week’s

Topic of

Interest
CW

Power

Limits

May the power

in Australia

- continued

be with you - it’s all about time.
by lan VK7TA

Last week in RagChew

edition 49/2025,

Mark wrote about Australian

permitted power levels for CW. This has never been a practical issue for
me as | have never had a radio capable of more than 1OOW
once think about this. I've attached some

PEP, but | did

notes.

Mark recently reminded us that in Australia, Advanced license holders are restricted
to 120W mean power, and not 400W PEP when

using Morse Code.

VARA

seeds

aes

dha

This Week’s Topic of Interest

een

MUAD

aed

dha

Australian CW Power Limits
It ain't
400 Watts!

Wve

usualy

say

Ulal

ale

USINIY

VV,

alu

UNIS

what the knob on the radio says when sending
Morse code, but when discussing power | think it
important that we distinguish between a
continuous wave and a wave with on-off
modulation (the ITU differentiates between the
two).

by Mark VK2KI / VK6QI

‘Confused about the Australian amateur power limit for CW?
Watts for Advanced,

tcorsnen?

Do you think it's 400

100 Watts for Standard and 10 Watts for Foundation

Since starting our newsletter, I've edited a number of contributors’ comments where
they've stated what power they were running on CW;

| emailed to them after to

‘explain, and all have expressed surprise at our 120W mean output limit in Australia;

Mark ponders what interval the average is taken

over. Our licence conditions (as best | recall)
actually refer to pX and pY; PEP and mean power
respectively.
Ree. ITU-R SM.326-7

transmitter); the average power supplied
to the antenna transmission line by a
transmitter during an interval of time

RECOMMENDATION ITU-R SM.326-7"
RADIO

TRANSMITTERS.

(1951-1959- 1963-1 966-1974- 1978-1 982-1986- 1990-1998)

Scope

J
o
P
f an amplitude-modulated radio transmitters, as well as calculation using the conversion factory between the peak
envelope power, the mean power and the carrier power of a radio transmitter

sufficiently long compared with the
lowest frequency encountered in the
modulation taken under normal

Keywords
AM Radio Transmitters, measurement of the power of AM, Determination of the power af AM
The ITU

| wonderif the license training process used today doesn't emphasise the difference

for CW and other non-SSB modes? The other point is to wonder why bother with

These terms are defined by the ITU. |
quote: “Mean power (of a radio

DETERMINATION AND MEASUREMENT OF THE POWER
OF AMPLITUDE-MODULATED

‘they thought the Australian limit was 400W!

ication Assembly,

mg
that Article | of
de
»
that Article I, No. 1.156
of the RR lays down that, whenever the power of a radio transmitter is referred to, it
d
of the following
shall be
wlicated
peak envelope power (PX or pX)i
mean power
(PY or pY);
— carrier power (PZ or 2%;

operating conditions”.

Under normal operating conditions
Morse Code has a duty cycle of around
50% (or more like 42% if you use the standard word ‘PARIS’). So | would say that

the ITU definitions are pretty clear, and when pY = 120 then pX = 250.

So fora

continuous series of dits, pX = 120/0.5 = 240 W; for 'PARIS' pX = 120/0.42 =286 W.
One could argue that on a Tuesday night we might be using Farnsworth spacing, and

so the allowed pX could be a bit higher!

So | would unashamedly use 250 W at key-down, and announce that | was doing so,
if | had a radio capable of such power.

Now | wonder if any of you have come across the YouTube video of a Morse Code
QSO where the operator is whistling into his microphone rather than using a key?
Perhaps | usually send Morse by singing a

fixed pitch into the microphone;

could you

tell? The knob on my radio would say LSB/USB and | am using my voice, so am |
allowed 400W PEP?

| know that there are conflicting statements about the relation between
and pY for CW/telegraphy,

including some from the WIA and RSGB.

keen to hear of thoughts from readers.

Maybe

So I’m

| should show my

commitment to my interpretation and buy myself a 200W

radio for Xmas?

73 de lan VK7TA.
[Thanks lan.

At last, | now have some guidance about how to interpret our

license conditions;

thank you for filling in some of the blanks.

WIA

members may have seen the article in the latest AR Magazine by Dr
George Galanis VK3EIP about RF exposure limits (RF Exposure Limits - Is
this another Hall of Doom? Amateur Radio Vol 93 No 6) which notes the
lack of useful details in the ACMA

EMR Exposure Calculator;

| suspect the

same applies to our power limits - from my reading, there appears to be no
reference to the reason that the regulator specified the limits or how the
limits were to be measured (note, practical measurement of SSB Peak
Envelope Power using the two-tone method is covered in amateur radio
texts such as the ARRL Handbook,

but not-so mean power as far as 1

know).
For reference,

the International Telecommunication

Union

(now known

the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies) document
for radio frequency power measurement is RECOMMENDATION ITU-R
SM.326-7 Determination and Measurement of the Power of AmplitudeModulated Radio Transmitters (click on lan’s article above to open the
document).

lan refers to the mean power of a 50% duty cycle CW transmission, as well
as the mean for the standard ‘PARIS’ transmission.
challenged on air or when

the ACMA

For future reference if

visits (well you never know!),

the

relevant part of the Annex to the ITU reference document Is below.
ANNEX

Conversion factors between the peak envelope power, the mean
power and the carrier power of a radio transmitter

The conversion factors are calculated on the basis of certain assumptions; these assumptions are explained in the notes of
§ 3 of the Annex.

Conversion factors with respect to the peak envelope power

Table | gives the conversion factors applicable when the peak envelope power is taken as unity.

1.2
Column 5 gives the theoretical values of the mean power which would be obtained, with linear transmitters for
amplitude modulation. In practice, the imperfect linearity of the transmitter and other causes may increase the mean power
above the figures shown in Table 1.
1.3

As the conversion factors depend on the modulating signal, one or more examples described in column 2 have

been chosen to enable representative values for the factors in column 5 to be determined.

6
1.4

Rec, ITU-R SM.326-7
Similarly, column 4 gives the theoretical carrier power in the specific conditions of no-modulation described in

column 3, and chosen so as to make that carrier power easily measurable.

15
Unless otherwise specified, the expression “sinusoidal oscillation” in this Recommendation means an “audiofrequency periodic sinusoidal oscillation”.

TABLE

Conversion factor
Class of emission

Modulating signal

(1)

Condition of
no-modulation

Carrier power

Mean power

Peak envelope
power

(3)

(4)

(5)

Continuous emission

0.500
(3.0 dB)
(Note 1)

(2)

Amplitude-modulation
double-sideband

AIA, AIB

Telegraphy without
modulation by a periodic
oscillation

Series of rectangular dots;
equal alternating marks and
spaces; no emission during
space periods (Note 1)

And if you check the Note 1 to the Annex:

Explanatory notes

NOTE | — When the modulating signal, instead of consisting of a series of alternating marks and spaces, is coded with
the help of a telegraph alphabet, the conversion factors in column 5 should be multiplied by the following coefficients:
—

Morse alphabet: 0.49/0.50 = 0.98 (—0.1 dB).

—

International telegraph alphabet No. 2: 0.58/0.50 = 1.16 (+0.6 dB).

—

Seven-unit alphabet as in Recommendation ITU-R F.342: 0.5/0.5 = 1.

So that changes lan’s calculations slightly - the pX (PEP) to produced by a
pY (mean power) of 120W would | think be 120/(0.5x0.98) = 245 Watts
(rather than the ‘PARIS’ calculation of 286W).

For Standard licences, pX of

30/(0.5x0.98) = 61W is a pY of 30W, and for Foundation licenses, the limit
remains 10W PEP.

Of course, as lan also points out, for Farnsworth

transmissions that we commonly use on the CQQRS net, the equivalent
PEP would be higher still - but I’m not sure that the legendary RI knocking
on your door (or the person you're telling about your mean power) would
be convinced!
So as lan said, Australian Advanced license holders could probably use
245W PEP transmitters (Standard licensees could use 61W PEP and
Foundation members use 10W PEP transmitters) and would be justified in
reporting our pY or mean output power as 120W;

Standard licensees could

report 30W mean, and for Foundation,

Higher power amplifiers

10OW PEP.

could of course be used with their ALC wound back (or a simple battery
and potentiometer switched-in to apply a negative voltage to the ALC

input), and for Standard licensees, 1OOW PEP transmitters with the carrier
level wound back would be fine;

not sure how the correct outout power

setting would be determined for pY = 30W though... good thing I’m not a
Standard licensee... too hard for me - HI!

However,

the from last week, the

implication from the UK OFCOM RSGB suggests that
Of course, these are just my interpretation - license holders are responsible
for transmitting with no more than their allowed mean power (PEP for
Foundation).
Thank you Ian - terrific article that will 1 think lead to some interesting
discussions on air and at various club meetings - and hopefully some
comments from the team in future RagChews.

Yes please - an IC-7760

would be a nice Xmas present!

If you have an article or two that you think might be of interest to our
readers, please let me know so we can share more thoughts and ideas;
guidance on writing for RagChew,
material to Mark VK2KI:

What’s going on on your workbench?

see Articles below.

for

Please email

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

If you have an article or two that you

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

cgqaqrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

see Articles below.

QRZ?
Who’s

calling

me?

Who’s

on the other end?

Our latest American

team

member,

Jeff WB2GDZ

Seminole,

from

Florida.

Thanks for letting me join the CQQRS

group.

I’ve been licensed since 1969

and would love to help out any newbies on CW at a slow speed.
each morning about 4am
Tuesday.

| am

so would have the time to join the net each

Please add me to the CQQRS

group as well.

By the way, | do want to mention that there is more regular CW activity
over here in the USA compared
are seasoned

to Australia.

Yes, some of these regulars

operators but others are going at slow speeds as well.

would encourage

members

in your group to try out the KiwiSDRs and

WebSDRs just to listen even in Europe as well.
with a number of the regulars on CW.

| do it a lot and am familiar

would

also encourage

your

VK2SRC/80
Richmond Hill, NSW, Australia
VK3CNE
Briar Hill, VIC, Australia

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Greensborough, VIC, Australia
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seen

| believe that he has at least one of these remotes set up to allow

using a real Morse key/keyer in addition to keyboard sending.
your members

If one of

got on, | could chat on CW with them, say on 40 meters

during the day using my own IC-7300 while they are on the remote on the
other coast (distance about 120 miles);

my wife and | are both retired and

have plenty of free time.
There are also some

powerful RemoteHams

W8RJ

remote in Michigan;

some

bugs in the RemoteHams

corrected.

stations on the air.

| use the

Roger has appreciated that | have pointed out
software and he was able to get them

Roger has his station on the air in RemoteHams

meters - it puts out a great signal.

It is a K4 with KPA1500

for 160 to 10
amp

putting out

900 watts all of the time (except 30 meters).
Here’s some

useful SDR and RemoteHams

links that the team

might like to

explore:
http://rx.linkfanel.
net/
http://websdr.org/
httpos://www.arz.com/db/KF4LZA
httpos://www.arz.com/db/W8R]
By the way, Mark, | would

keep internet CW

‘real radio’ but on the other hand

and HF radio into separate categories.
and see nothing wrong with that.

in mind as well.

| do FI8 sometimes for the HF part

Anything that is fun in ham

can be a learning experience as well is ok in my book.
what ham

No, it is not

| see nothing wrong with separating CW
radio and

Rigid thinking as to

radio should be will contribute to its demise.

https://hs50.hamsphere.com/
| am glad to see that Australia has taken the lead in trying to regulate
social media with the kids.
hand.

| am embarrassed

I think that social media

has gotten out of

as an American that we have our tech companies

just do whatever they want to for the sake of profits even if it hurts our
kids and even all of us.

| think that it has also contributed to a lot of the

political/populist problems going on here and around the world.
when companies

| dislike it

profit off of people without regard to the damage they are

Causing;

our medical system

is out of control as well.

Anyway,

| will stop the rant lol.

Jeff Pohl (WB2GDZ)
[Thanks Jeff, and welcome.
thinking;

Yup -/ agree with your sentiments about rigid

when / passed my amateur license test in the early 70s, one of

the reasons that | hated CW (and vowed to never ever use it on air!) was
the attitude of many of the CW operators at the time;
discouraging toward newcomers,

had they been less

things may have been different.

However,

as | hope you'll discover, the CQQRS net isn’t like that (see our

website if you're interested in our principles and doctrine).
Terrific to hear that you were on air early on Tuesday morning for our net
last week using the VK6SR Southern Electronics Group RemoteHams
station at Jandakot (I use it often myself);

several WA listeners enjoyed

your QRQ QSO with Phil VK6GX.
And by the way, that Remote is set up for manual or paddle keying as well;
so with a simple USB to Serial adapter, you could really have some fun!

use a Straight key on the Remote - hoy if you need more information.]

QRZ?
From

Who’s

the

other

your editor Mark VK2KI

end?
/ VK6QI

Key (ha!) to the success of our net is helping to make

it a get-together that

people enjoy returning to each week. So I’m really keen to share the
backgrounds of some of our team

members, just as Jeff has - it’s really nice

to know who’s on the other end of the QSO.
share some thoughts about yourself?
cggrsnet@gmail.com

So, would you be willing to

Please let Mark VK2KI know:

For further 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 wom.

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

: Morse Player app.

This week we have Wind
Tempests Came

has information on the Ditto

See the website for the back-issues.
in the Willows Chapter 11 - Like Summer

His Tears.

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 included in last week’s Newsletter with the
Ebook2CW

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

Because of MailChimp’s size limits, I’ve split Chapter 11 into five parts, and
all five parts are attached

below. 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

we wilh.

This week’s

attachments

are:

e Chapter 11 parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 MP3 files
e Chapter 11 text file

Pabe

Cloyster tt

Fiereateey, Fengsesty

Come Hy Jessy’

You can either play the MP3 files in any media
in last week’s Newsletter 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

1.5x, 1.75x).

News

received

from

our 230-plus

readers.

Jordan VK3ACU's so-called “drifty delight” in action.
Click on the image to show the short video.

Tony - VK2VIC

Vickers

Morning from Tony VK2VIC
Very happy to say | had my very first CW contact overseas.
worked Phil ZL1PSH from my park activation this morning.

| have. Ow managed to work 7 stations one after the other too.

Just sitting on 7.036 till 2355z then back to some more SSB after
roll over.
10:46am
ue

DXperiment
From

Mike

Status

al’ Telstra Wi-Fi Call =

Monitor

5:18pm

eaiteBonteotntl@i

DL3YZ

a@31%0

Call:
Frequency ( MHz

Hi Mark,

Preparing

| have

revised

the remote

control for the

aula

status monitor, and also changed the
filename logic

—
hore Break

Call
Me - QRV

Somewhat to still save me from
programming

We could widen up the access for some
more runners on 40 m or 80 m, So we'd

Go to Status

have

Monitor
sandersinformatik.de

more testers to see if the idea is
appreciated and get some feedback,
before I put a lot of
time and work in it....

| think up to 30 should be easily possible in the

current beta version.

If some

members

would

call and name and | will send personalised
me directly).
73

like to test, send me their

links (or tell them they can mail

To register, send an email to cggrsnet@gmail.com

Mike.

Dit-dit
From

Andrew

VKIDA

VK2DA
H

Dit-dit (which translates roughly to ‘thank you and wishing you strong ionospheres and low
noise’); I'll listen out for you on Tuesday.

VI a rk,

Mark Bosma
VK?KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW

I’ve been thinking about

bit V/CQGASWebsit

the dit dit thing which

—____

mark.bosma@icloud.com

has

grown
during the time I’ve been using CW.
through to the 90s when

it became

even in text messages for some
sending

In the 60s, you never heard it,
used by a few ops, then today it is used

unknown

reason.

And some ops keep

EE as long as you do.

You said at the end of the recent newsletter “Dit-dit (which translates
roughly to ‘thank you and wishing you strong ionospheres and low noise')”.
Now this will be a shock but it never meant that when

it was first used.

was simply a final acknowledgment of the end of the contact and was sent
only by the other station after you sent 73 GL DX UT, he would reply dit dit
to acknowledge

receipt of those last words.

In fact it was probably a bit of code borrowed from cadence of the old
Song;
“Shave and a haircut

Two

bits”.

Which was often the ending of a dance number by some
not words.

bands, In music

The “two bits” correspond to the EE - obviously.

| have heard some operators actually send “dit didit dit dit” (op 1) to which
the reply is “dit dit” (from op2).
So when

| hear someone

They knew the song.

send at the end of an over “73 GL DX TU EE”

| ask myself why is he acknowledging
acknowledgement.

| now studiously avoid sending
acknowledge.
answered

himself.

He is acknowledging the

Or trying the end the contact more speedily.
EE unless there is something to

Hearing two stations ending a QSO with EE which is

by EE, which is acknowledged

with EE... etc.

just drives me nuts.

73
Andrew VK1DA

Morse Training
Our team

Net

member

Nic VK7WW

every Wednesday

at 7pm

runs an on-air Slow Morse training net

EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign

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

learned Morse code with the

Support of Nic, and the weekly training session
comes

highly recommended

for anyone who

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

Eastern

eae

you'll hear lots of the

_—

CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has
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

tncluding

group to follow the action, or just come

along and join in on Wednesdays.

Settle to Carlisle Railway Challenge — Results
From Stan ZL3TK

Who had heard of Armathwaite before STC?
f

pierre

ete

SoM

ee Girne

Bacon ee

tas

acer

ee cal lee

Re ea

oes

Visiting this north-western English
See

iss es ses econ

eee

Spa

Tua

eis

village attests 10 a Tunaamental alllerence between a stanaara most-contacts based

contest which so many shun, and an academic challenge with far wider implications

and real educational value.

And so we have the foundation premise of ‘Morse with a Purpose’.

Each week for ten weeks, one Morse sound file was released which carried five
compound questions about a particular region along Britain’s most scenic railway.

Research was required to find answers about villages, features and history of the
English countryside surrounding railway stations along the 73 mile route. The

consistency with which entrants tackled this Challenge was quite remarkable,
considering none of them were aware they’d let themselves in for researching 119
answers to 50, mostly-compound questions.
The responses from those who chose PF to send their QTCs added a

further

dimension; they weren't down-the-road QSOs, they were on average 2 600 km.

Usually taking 15 minutes to complete, one of the final QTCs took 45 minutes during
lightning storms in the Tasman Sea. What a wonderful learning experience though,
it’s not often that QSZ needs to be invoked, and still had to be followed up with repeat
requests - stolid determination won the day.
We may therefore conclude that the
validity of academic performance-oriented contests has been proven.

After receiving unsubstantiated criticism about potential bias in my marking of IFC

entries, the task for evaluating STC questions was delegated to Ruth ZL4KA. She
reported that depending on the website consulted, a range of answers to the same
question was possible, so she adopted a polling system to find the highest probability
for correctness, and allowed tolerance where figures were obtained from map
measurements. Arbitrary samples from her decisions were tested for accuracy, none
were found wanting. A vote of thanks goes to Ruth for the sterling work she

contributed.

The convenience of sound files in both directions was expected to attract both a lot of
interest and an increase in first-time entrants, yet it did neither. Only two of the five

options for sending answers were used. It seems 10 bonus points per on-air QTC
proved an attractive draw-card. Or could it be (said with tongue-in-cheek), that the
benefits accruing from operating in a quasi-military environment requiring the
discipline needed for [rudimentary] traffic handling was finally becoming understood,
~MAR

Ammen Aintalt

eVEI! aPpIeuiaieu £

And so to the final scores.
By the nature of the beast, scoring had to be somewhat
analogue. Fully correct answers to every five (simple or compound) weekly
questions had the potential to earn 25 points, making a total of 250 points, with
further potential for a grand total of 350 points by successfully passing all ten QTCs

on-air.

STC

Summary

of QTCs

and Final Scores

Call

Sign

Pots se Points| et

vearu | 22 |

| HF

VIQKEV | 22)

| Hi

22 |
24

HE
HF

veacaz | 24 a] | 20.—| §
Legend

HF = 7.0257 MHz

Points | nge| POIS] sese] PRIMES |

Patt

199)

bat

Total

Grand Total

oa Poitts oc Poltts | soe! POIs | 4) Points| ...,| “Ut 1250

| 2{

| HF

| 24

| 622

1 MF

j HF

i MF

12, 1s | 19

i§

| 25

HF
HF
$

25
25

HE
HF
5

24
23

228

—

328

226 | %% |)

326

208

| 1%)

HF
$

§ = Sound File

Remember that the entire STC journey was through unfamiliar territory and required

careful research to find answers.
range must be very satisfying,

To end up entirely with ‘A’ Grade marks in a small

just look at those percentage passes!

What sets these entrants apart from most other CW operators is the sheer quantity

and quality of the work they put in to making STC a success.

wn
w

Number of OTCs

Quality Analysis of 30 QTCs Received

22
20
19
Points earned out of potential 25

In BBC’s erstwhile show-host Bruce Forsythe’s famous words ... “Didn’t they do

well?”

Congratulations to all entrants for not only doing a magnificent job,

but setting an

enviable example of what can be achieved with the right attitude towards ‘Morse with
a purpose’.

Your ‘Certificates of Achievement’ are in the mail.

[Wow - congratulations Stan and Ruth for this superbly crafted and
executed challenge.

And well done to John, Kevin and Armin plus the six

other participants (and no-doubt,

those who participated but didn’t submit

reports) - I’m sure that the experience would have been great.]

Club Information

Courses The Radio Bulletin

YouTube

Groups

Links

Member

Shap

EMDRC

THE RADIO

Christmas BBQ

6 December - Saturday - 12 noon.

BULLETIN

Updating Articles
14/10/2025 - 3:01 PM

USBRig
programming cables

: Ye, Ce asd

ae
Whe ake,
Vy AES

ORLESTIICAS

LA
Vew

CF20

and Windows 11

21/04/2024 - 7:57 PM

ED
y A MOLES
Ye 0h

Subaru Coax Install

Portable Power

15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM

10/11/2023

- 10:56

It is that time of year, a time that seems to come around so quickly in some
respects, when we can hopefully pause and reflect upon the year just passed with
fellow members at the clubrooms.
This year, we will have the mandatory snags and drinks. We would be grateful if you

EMDRC - IMPORTANT
DATES

could bring a small plate to share eg a salad or something festive.
We also encourage members who wish to bring their own favourite BBQ treat and
to cook their own on one of our two BBQs that will be available. Obviously, we

MEMBERSHIP

cannot cater for food allergies or restrictions in such circurmstances so please

APPLICATION

exercise your discretion as you need to.

JOIN

FORM

NOW

We look forward to seeing as many as possible and if you are coming, drop us an
email at vider as usual with Christrnas BBQ in the subject line so we have a chance
to allow for snags and sundries.

CLUB'S INTERNET
SPONSER

(7. KernWi-Fi

Wireless Solutions

EMDRC - Foundation Course

Sunday 28 December 2025

KernWi-Fi - Refer a friend

The course is scheduled for Sunday 28 December to be held at the clubrooms in
Burwood.

$50 Credit Code:
VK3ER2024

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:

cqgrsnet@gmail.com

Or do you have a question or two that are worth sharing?
discussion-starter?

see Articles

How about a

Please let me know cgarsnet@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.

Tell us how you went!]

| Hear

Tell...

You

never

know

who’s

listening!

You may recall that our travelling Brit, Nigel G4RWI
Zealand

in November,

found himself in New

avec radio gear, mes sans antenna and key!

Well

the Nelson Amateur Radio Club came to the rescue (thanks to our team
member

Nev ZL2BNE

at Blenheim) with one member from Nelson

providing a loan of an end-fed antenna and another finding an ancient
straight key (which according to Nigel, may have been rescued from the
Titanic).
Asked whether he was enjoying LWOP

(life

without paddle), his reply was:
“That straight key was a malevolent sadist, that
Rescued from the Titanic

would drive even the most abstemious user to
hard drink. Put it another way - | didn’t really

take to It”.
| guess that’s no then!

[lf you have some intel about other team members...

or even yourself...

that’s worth sharing, please let me know cqgrsnet@gmail.com

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here we

So back to the CQQRS

Next Tuesday’s

go.

Slow CW QSO practice net.

Net

Our CQQRS

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

about 1200z;

see https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite and navigate to the Net

Details page for details.

HS
vaylignt

Coordinated
ce

le ee

Net - Australasian

Saving

Timetable

Spring

Universal Time
i cme

0600z to 1200z

(NOLE

- 2UM

VADEMIMeNLS

WII

Western
Australia

SLIT

al a OINTErenL UME

Australia Time

IT required)

UTC

Hours

1400 to 2000

Central Australian Time

UTG

+ 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
(jams

Time

Frequency

0600z to 0900z

20m

14039-14051 kHz

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

0600z to 1200z

40m

FO2ZO0KHz - 7O40KHzZ

3535kHz - 3560kHz

160m

1855kHz (-SkHz for QRM)

7To00

7o20
|

40 m/s

)

ORO

]

3500

]

CO ORS Net

3535

80 m =
1800

ole

7O40
|

ORO

CO ORS Net
1655.

Thanks to Lance VKTTO for the COQRS

@
3560

=
1875

band-plan

=
2200z - 2300z
(Tuesday UTC)

RRL)
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

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.ly/COORSWebsite then click the
menu

on the top right and then click RagChew Newsletter.

Material
A reminder;

if you send me any information by email, our report form or

WhatsApp - unless you specifically state that material is not to be
published, I'll assume that you're happy to see your thoughts in the
RagChew

newsletter.

Teamwork
Thank you so much to our team of 29 contributors:

DL3YZ, G4RWI,

MONNK, VK2DLF, VK1DA, VK2DA, VK2IOW, VK2KJJ, VK2RU, VK2WP,
VK3ACU,

VK3DRQ,

VK3ECH, VK4EV, VK4PN, VK5A0O, VK5ET, VK5FD,

VK5KFG, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6PZT, VK7JZ,
VK7TA, WB2GDZ,

ZL3TK and ZL4KA.

And a special thank you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI
fan and software untangler), Patrick VK2IOW
VK2RU

(quiet campground

Lance VK7TO

searcher), Richard VK6HRC

(algorithm architect).

(straight key

(image consultant), John
(chicken fan) and

Great work all!

€U CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

Beautiful South Bowning NSW
cagrsnet@gmail.com
non impediti ratione cogitationis

u
|

y
~

About

the CQ

dent

care
Hf divigian doses? seed O8L
Eolderp ... GET OM PRAT RABLOI"

ORS

cords,

Net

Here’s where
For the current schedule

and

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 https://bit.ly/COORSWebsite
The RagChew newsletter is considered to be exempt from the Australian
Government’s ban on social media for under 16 year olds because it is a service that
has the primary purpose of enabling users to share information about products or
services, engage in professional networking or professional development services or
of supporting the education of users per the Australian Government eSafety
Commissioner FAQ webpage

“Which platforms have been excluded from the age

restrictions” dated 10Dec25.

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