Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email CQQRS in your browser RagChew Edition 3/2026 Thanks this week to Nigel G4RWI for the shot from his current VK4 location. Note the patented frying pan paddle stabiliser. e Link to our Reporting Form e Reports & Comments from Tuesday’s e You Think You’re Getting Old Mike! e Taking a Brain for a Walk e Conscience EFHW e Just Where was 5ET? ¢ Post Morsum e e Decoder Dependency Daring to Dream - The CW Academy e Hy-Gain e CW e Report DX88 Course - Week 1 Rebuild Practice Update from e Victoria e John Net New Zealand Bushfires Moyle National Field Day Contest - 2026 e Morse Training e Shortwave e Keyers e Usability Issues with Rules Net Australia RagChew e T Index Map e KPH Cryptography e Update from Broadcast Beechworth e ZS6BKW Doublet vs End-Fed e There’s No Such Thing e Prosign of the Year e Di-dah-di-dah-dit e About the CQ QRS Wowee... Half-Wave Group | think another world record of 72 stations on our Tuesday v RSS CQQRS Slow CW Practice QSO Net! Bloody amazing! Even more surprising when we consider that the Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Service had predicted depressed geomagnetic conditions as a result of incoming radiation from a solar flare; weren’t we lucky ducks?! So this week, the new and improved editorial team while your editor has been swinging editorial team bit is true anyway; in a hammock... has been hard at it well the hard working planned and unplanned visitors and a large Rural Fire Service strike team deployment saw me somewhat behind the drag curve (working straight 25 hours on a fire response is good - but it kinda upsets the routine for a few days). And speaking of bushfires - our thoughts are with our members families impacted Some and their by the bushfires in Victoria and elsewhere this week. of our affected friends have made the time to keep us up-to-date with the goings-on in our newsletter. | haven’t heard of anyone affected by the floods up in Queensland - but if you’ve been affected by any of our recent emergencies, loop. please let me know so | can keep your friends in the And | think it should go without saying, if there’s anything any of the team can do to help, please flash me a note to cggrsnet@gmail.com send me a WhatsApp would message or SMS. be able to provide accommodation mention or I’m sure many of your friends or other welfare things, not to radio gear. And speaking of that... who packed their three favourite Morse keys in the car as a bushfire approached guess! | wonder? | reckon many readers could Last thing this week... just a reminder please - if you’re on 20m for the weekly DXperiment, please avoid using the lower frequency of each member’s segment for local chats. If someone calls you, please flash them an ‘UP2 UP2’ rather than chat over the top of our distant friends; down this way it’s usually easy to move - in Europe the bands are often chockablock and finding a quiet spot difficult; and stations down this way may not hear that the frequency is occupied (due to skip zones) and my be listening on the frequency hearing nothing. So - on-on..... please enjoy the fruits of our team’s labours with this week’s RagChew newsletter. 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 here we go - please enjoy the newsletter. Cheers, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning cgagrsnet@gmail.com non impediti ratione cogitationis NSW Reports & Comments Here’s this week’s Last Tuesday’s reports. Group With a huge vote of thanks to our spreadsheet guru John VK2RU, 72 stations heard by 43 members CQORS Team Member ca Qso 1 Qso 2 DL3YZ Worked 20m | VK3DBD | VK4PN DL3YZ Heard on 20m G7BED Heard on 20m VK2DLF Heard on air VK2GAZ Heard 40m VK3KLE VK5LI VK2IOW Worked 20m | G/BED DL3Y7 VK2Z2IOW Heard on 20m VK2IOW Worked 40m | VKS3 WOW Qso 3 Worked 20m DL3Y7Z Heard 20m G/BED | VK2IOW | VK3DRQ VK2KI Heard on 20m VK2KI Worked 40m VK2Kl Heard 40m | VK3AVA | VK2WP | VK2BNX| VK2Kl Heard 40m VK2KI Worked 80m | VK6NQL | VK6NW | VK5ET/P VK2KI Heard 80m VKAPN VK2RU Heard 40m VK3DA | VK3ACU) VK2TIG Heard 40m | VK3ACU | VK3XU | | VK3ECH | VKSET/P| VK5CZ aso 5 QsoO6 Qso 7 VK5FD | VK2DLF | VK3DRQ VKVJIZ VKSNE VKATJ VK5CZ | VK3EBN VK3GR | VK3DBD| VK3KLE | VK4EV VKSNE VK3JFR | VK3QRQ) VK3QRS | VK2GR VKSET VK3SKLE | VK3DGE| VK5FD VK4EV VK3IP VKAEV VK5A0 VK2WP Heard on air Worked 40m VK7EE VK3ACU Worked 40m VKS5SET | VK3DGE | VK3ADX Heard on air VK3BSE Heard 40m VK3KIH VK3JFR | VK3ACU VK3BSE Heard 40m VK5A0 VK3DA | VK4FN | VK3DGE VK3BWN Worked 40m | VK6PZT | VK2DLF VK3SBWN Heard 40m VK3ACU | VK5A0 | VK3DRQ VK3CLD Heard 40m VK3ACU | VK3CLD Heard 40m VK2DLF VK3DBD Heard on 20m VK3SDRQ Worked 20m DL3Y7 VK3DRQ Heard 20m VK4PN VK3DRQ Heard on 20m VK3DRQ Worked 40m | VK2DLF | VK3DA | VK3ECH | VKS5WB | VKS5SKFG VK3DRQ Heard 40m VK5CZ VK3DGE | VK6XC/3 | VK2IOW | VK3WOW | VK3DRQ Heard 40m VK6FN VK3DRQ Tried 40m VK6XC/3 VK3ECH Worked 40m VK2KI | VK3DRQ VK3ECH Heard 40m VK3JFR VK2GR VK3JFR Heard on air VK3KIH Heard on air VK3KLE VK3XU | VK3KIH VK5FD VK2GR | VK5ET/P| |VK2IOW| VK3DBD VK3KLE VK3MJ | VK3DGE VK2KI VK6EN | VK3DAB] VK5ET VK3DA VK2KI VKSNE Heard on air VK3 WOW Worked 40m | VK2IOW VK5U VK3 WOW Heard 40m VK5CT VK5A0 | VK4EV Worked 40m | VK5A0 VK2Kl VK4EV Heard 40m VK2DVA | VK2IOW | VK3DA | VK3WOW | VK3NRQ) VK3KLE VK4PN Worked 20m SXOW IK2FIL DL3YZ VK4PN Heard on 20m VK4PN Worked 40m | VK3XU VK4PN Heard 80m VK2KI VK5A0 Heard on air DJ6EA VKS5SAV Heard 40m VK5LI VK3ADX | VK5A0 | VKS5AV Worked 80m | VKAPN VK2KI VKSCT Heard on air VK2KI VK3ACU | VK5A0 VK5C7 Heard on air VKS5ET Worked 40m 8 VK4EV VK5AO | VK3ACU] VK3ACU | VK3DRQ| Qso VKICT | VK5KFG | VK3DRZ VK2Kl VKSNE aso 4 VK2KI | VK3DRQ | VK2IOW | CT7BPF VK2Kl VK3JFR here’s the of our team on Tuesday: LY130DS | G4RCU VKGPZT | VK2DLF | VK3MJ VKSET VK5CZ VKS5CT VKSIT VK5C7Z VKSET Heard 40m VK2GR | VK2EXN | VK3ARZ | VKSET Heard 40m VK3ECH | VK3DRQ| VKSET Worked 80m VK2KI VK3EBA | VK3AVA | VK3QORS| VK3IOW | VK3WOW] VK5ET/P Heard on air VK5FD Worked 40m | VK3ACU | VK5FD Heard 40m VK2DLF VKSKFG Worked 40m VK5LI VK3DRQ| VK6XC VKSKFG Heard 40m VK3RCH | VK5CZ% | VK5A0 VK5U Heard on air VK6FN Heard on air VK6KD Heard 40m | YHOONN VK3DGE | VK3DA VK4EV | VKSWD | VKSKFG VK7IZ VK5SNE | K3DRQ | VKSWB | VKSDGE | VKSET/P| VK5CZ VK7IZ VK6KD Heard 80m VK2KI VK6KHZ Worked 40m VK6FN VK6NAA | VK6NW VK6NQOL Worked 80m VK2KI VKENW Heard on air VK6PZT Heard on air VK6QI Heard 40m VK2KI VK4EV VK6QI Heard 80m VK2KI VK6NQL| VK6NW | VKSET/P | VK6XC/3 Heard on air VK6XC/3 Worked 40m | VKSKFG VK6XC/3 Heard 40m VK5KFG | VK3DRQ) VK5A0O | VKSWB VK7JZ Worked 40m VK5CZ VK5AU VKONW VK7IJZ Heard 40m VK3ADX VK7ME Worked 40m | VK73MJ VK7ME Heard 40m VK3ACU VK7ME Tried 40m VK3ADX VK7WW Heard 40m VK6FN ZL4CTS Heard 40m VK3ACU ZL4CTS Tried 40m VK3ACU | VK3SADX | VK4PN VK7JZ VK5C7 | VK4DA | VK3DRQ | KH6KB K7HV | VK2IOW The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group as submitted via our webform members’ reports follow: bit.ly/COORSNET; the comments in the team Comments: This week’s comments from our members’ reports have been compiled for us by the clever software built by Nigel G4RWI Patrick VK2IOW; thanks Nigel and Patrick. From Mike DL3YZ at Stuttgart and the layout perfected by [20m] The 20m hand was more noisv than teal and mv sianal DN ee a ey was very weak on the SDR A Rey Ry gn eae in Ironstone. But | am really happy that a lot of stations were calling me today, and we had great fun chatting around the globe. Still amazes we can hear each other and communicate me that over more than 15,000 miles distance, even with portable gear. Seems concentration on the last QSOs ‘ wy | fp | am getting old, my was somehow weak, so sorry for the dropouts :-) Thanks for the fun! Have a great week. 73 Mike. From Nic VK7WW at Legana, | Tasmania. [160m] Later in the evening | heard Jordan, VK3ACU MHz on AM 5/9! From Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith [40m] Worked 11 stations tonight started off very slow called for about 30mins and had nothing before it all kicked off. Really happy to be the 1000th contact for James VK3JFR! Well done mate, your CW has progressed so far in such a short time. Conditions were excellent | ran 20waitts all night. From Tim VKSAV we eg at Adelaide [40m] (away for work) testing on 1.870 Monitored activity from AREG Kiwi SDR from motel room. Didn't start till late. Still working on my head copy. From David VK6KD at Ballajura WA [40m] Experiencing a lot of QSB on 40m. Station from Indonesia was being received well. [80m] 80m opened up early then closed. experiencing 40m was more activity. Also QSB making conditions hard. From Jim Semmens VK7JZ at Hobart [40m] What a shambles ability. my brain was tonight. Lesson to not let hubris overtake This last couple of weeks | have been doing drills and code groups at home and listening to CW recordings on my daily walk. In the morning | was copying more than | had on previous test runs and my drills were improving. real, after CWA For a moment | thought things were going class the 40 meter band seemed to improve and responded and my brain went for a walk somewhere station. After that short QSO my way. Then it got | called CQ, VKS5SCZ and clearly not operating at my | gathered my skirts decided to pause a minute, think, then have another go, next a QSO with VKSAO, who was so kind as to slow right down for me, how painful for them, arghh, | was awful. Anyway, this is a great group and the other stations always prove to be patient - | have not yet had somone burn me just because | was not keeping up. my brain for some company. | will be back again next week, hopefully with From Ron Everingham VK4EV at Everton Park Brisbane [40m] Conditions were good at the beginning and had my first ever CW QSOs with Mait VKSAO and Mark VK2KI. | was hoping to make some more contacts but my noise floor went up to S9 so | decided that was it. From Greg VK5KFG at Willunga [40m] QRP on the QCX bill. Good copy with Lawrie and Manny. VK6XC, mini this week, saving on the power | heard Ben, calling but quite faint at my QTH. Pleasantly surprised that Ben picked up my reply. From Peter VAK6NQL at Wundowie [40m] The 40m band did not open until 1730 AWST, and then the signals were quite weak. [80m] The 80m band is still very quiet, even during the week, and overall, signals are down, across the HF band, with few stations being heard. From John VK5ET at Hope Valley | [40m] 4 GREAT ninht shaiuld an nortahle more oftan hi hi | acatinn Ne ee gy Humbug EFHW er ee pee ee ee ey Scrub, Adelaide hills & only 30km es mere ys North of my QTH. Ant, @ /7mts + c/poised, worked wonders on the night. [80m] Only heard VK2KI, sigs not the best but we got there. Hit sack shortly after. From Ron VK7ME at Hobart, Tasmania [40m] First of all, it is sad that | have had to remove my favourite 40m EFHW antenna because the neighbour removed a dangerous tree that was hiding it. To make things worse, the neighbour is now selling his house and the antenna and pole is a real eye sore. When | saw what it looked like from the other side of the fence, in good conscience, | could not leave it there. My replacement is a shorter EF long wire. One of those lengths that is not resonant on the amateur bands. | chose 58 feet as it lines up nicely with a 4m bushy spruce pine where pole. | can hide most of the 5m Of course, the EF long wire is fed with a 1:9 UNUN balun which | spent all Tuesday making. | now need to use my antenna tuner and a coax balun choke at the radio end to block those nasty common mode currents. Being unsure of the performance of the new shorter and lower and maybe compromised antenna, | risked giving it a go on Tuesday night with my 10W | was extremely happy to have a great QSO with Mark VK3MJ. Mark helped radio. me out with giving me more space between characters and | just about decoded everything he sent. me. This All of this with Mark using a straight key which really impressed has inspired me to have a go with a straight key once | get a bit better. Time will tell but maybe From Allen VK5FD my replacement EF long wire will be OK after all? at Blakeview [40m] When | started listening there were quite a few call signs | could not identify due to low strength and QSB into noise. Even with stronger stations some parts of conversation lost due to long QSB. From Ben VK6XC/3 at Yarraville [40m] We are on holidays to Melbourne. Rig is QRP KX1 a Buddipole trap dipole running about 3watts. From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn [20m] Again, nothing was heard from OM Edi or OM Carlos CT7BPF on their respective frequencies [40m] All went well, only a bit upset for not being able to hear properly the VK6X??? My apologies to the operator. From John VK3BSE at Beechworth [40m] Aqain | was listanina ta the Snowline and and SN eet cere ey eee ke eee ee Strathbogie SDRs which was good for CW but | was also playing with the sound of both together with the effects of latency and the beat of the beats when tuned a few Hz off. | have started to build an 80m EFHW 49:1 UNUN some HV capacitors for the UNUN. with a looking good from 80 to 10 and Thanks CQQRSs for keying on Tuesday nights. 73 John From Sava VK4PN at Mt Ommaney Brisbane [20m] Grandkids are with the other lot of grandparents in Tasmania so | had a relatively free afternoon. As usual | checked 20m first as lower bands at 17:30 were vacant, just noise here in QLD. Nothing heard between 14039 and 14051 - no QSOs in progress. Called numerous CQs next to suspect frequencies 14042 and luck with our EU contingent but other EU stations kept coming 14048; no back. Most were higher power and with directional antennas so | was losing faith, but finally | heard VK3DBD/ZL working with Mike. Waited patiently for them to finish and called Mike, we had a nice QSO with reasonable RSN both ways. A lot of fading mind you. In a QSO with G4RCU, fading was augmented with dual propagation, | was copying both paths, very unusual phasing distortion making copy difficult despite a very strong signal. [40m] After a long session on 20m and even longer break for a scheduled meeting | got back on air around 21:30. The band was deserted, no activity at all, still kept calling CQ, QRP as usual. RBN report showing | was heard in ZL but not in southern states. VK3XU saved the day 559 from Melbourne, booming into Brisbane. We mind you | am slowing down his home brew 100 W and dipole were had a nice chat as | am a home brewer as well (not beer) due to age and eyesight. So slim pickings on 40m just one QSO. [80m] No luck on 80m this time, | could see my trace at Ironstone and in Perth but no one came back to my CQs. Heard VK2KI in a QSO and watched his trace for a long time while calling a few kHz lower waiting for a chance to call him but that QSO abruptly so | missed him. Next Tuesday finished | will be in Mackay so want to be on air for the QRS Net. From John VK2RU at Munderoo [40m] No QSO's for me tonight. Just happy spinning the dial and doing a From your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South bit of listening. Bowning NSW via the VK6SEG KiwiSDR near Northam [15m] Unfortunately nothing heard from Edi DO2EMR on 15m this week, even thought Mike DL3YZ's DXperiment reporting system showed Edi calling CQ. [40m] 40m started opening across Australia at around 0900z this week; signals weren't strong. I kingh ncaa Nonnan [80m] When | came down to 80m at around Australia; 1015z, the band was starting to open across | could see there was some activity at the bottom end of the band, but didn't listen to see if there was anything coming through into WA from New Zealand. | decided to give the Southern Electronics Group VK6SR Remote at Jandakot a try. The remote decided to replicate an earlier strange antenna coupler problem; not tune on 3555kHz - SWR fina at 2ABANKHFZ than remained at 7:1. 2AANKHZ — en | So again, loft it at that it would | snuck up on it - it coupled PEP CAR Se TIN Fey But the Remote RP IN Pe Se eC LPC had another trick up its sleeve this week; side-tone and no carrier). no response to my key (no Switching from Break-In to manual keying activated the transmitter - with no carrier as expected - but key down resulted in no output power. | sent a note to Richard VKGHRC via WhatsApp | also tried zipping up to the VKGCRO to give it a try as well - same result. Remote at the Space Technology Museum at Carnarvon to see if it wanted to play, but | couldn't get it to load on the RCForb remote control software at all. Oh well.... back to my home station in VK2 instead. Also from your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW [15m] Nothing heard of Edi DO2EMR this week. [20m] | came to 20m a bit late this week - makes a change from being an hour early! Chris G7BED at Northamptonshire (we've agreed that it's fun to spell-out in CW!) was chatting to Patrick VK2IOW at Millthorpe. DL3YZ was just finishing with a VK3 whose callsign | missed. | had a go and was pleased to hear him respond. me RSN 3371 in return; Up the band, Mike When | reported RSN Mike sent a CQ 311 and Mike gave the 12 dB is likely to be related to the 50 year difference in the ages of our transceivers (and perhaps our own ages, who knows’). | then slipped down to Chris' frequency, but he'd pulled the plug when some of our team started chatting on his calling frequency again - so | missed the boat this time. [40m] James VK3JFR QRM/QRN switch mode at Ararat responded to my early net CQ. sliding in and out of the passband There was interesting of my RX - which looked like local power supply hash that was getting through my phasing noise canceller... but it was also visible on the Snowline KiwiSDR - so possibly auroral, even though it was only a few kHz wide? with SW to a dipole was good copy. When the noise stopped, James' FT-817 After a nice chat with James, Rob VK3ECH at Echuca called. There was some QSB but Rob reported that the band was very quiet there - SO - so he reported my signal as RSN 570 - excellent! My S-meter doesn't go down to zero (too much front end noise in my 50 year old Trio TS-120S - Hl).... but again this week there were the distinct sounds of an intermittent T/R relay - very quiet at times! Rob was trying a new paddle - he was having lots of fun and made very few mistakes that | heard - certainly less than | made. Rob also tried adjusting the power from SOW to 100W - | wasn't watching the S-meter and with the QSB and an effective AGC, | couldn't tell any difference by ear. When we signed, there was a little-little signal from John VKSET/P. John was RSN 211, but we made | disappeared for nose-bags With the QSB, it. and the DXperiment, but after returning at 0915z, 40m was becoming more active. My CQs were answered by Ron VK4EV and we had our first chat with nice signals. Ron was in my spreadsheet log in previous years where I'd tried to work him without luck from SOTA and VKFF PARKS; good to finally hook up. The band was starting to open to VK6, and both Ron and | were starting to squeak through on the VK6SEG Hoddys Well KiwiSDR... so | was game, and slipped down to 80m to try the VK6SR Remote (see my VK6QI report). [80m] After unsuccessfully trying to get the VK6SR Remote to work on CW (see the VK6QI report), | returned to my home station and after a few CQ calls at around hooked up with Peter VKGNQL; Next up, Wayne VKGNW and QSB. 1040z | | reported RSN 322 and Peter reported RST 229. called me and we had a nice chat despite the weak signals To round-out the night, John VKSET/P called in - much better signal RSN 562 from his campsite, 5 hours North of Adelaide. My keying had started to become even more ratty than normal - drawing comments from my QSO partners - so as we approached 1200z, it was time to hit the hay here. From Patrick VK2IOW between Bathurst and Orange [20m] Shortly after Mike, DL3YZ was scheduled to start calling, | listened on his frequency of 14.048 MHz and heard him chatting to Sava, VK4PN; so | went down to 14.042 and answered Chris, G7BED’s CQ. After our QSO | went back to 14.048 and listened while Mike chatted to Mark, VK2KI and then Manny, VK3DRQ. | finally called him and we had a very brief QSO, he was a little late for work. [40m] Had an enjoyable, long ragchew QSO with Peter, VASWOW. Conditions were good. Reporting After next Tuesday’s Group, please remember to send me a list of who you worked and / or who you heard using our web form here: el terLe bit. ly/CQORSNET Even if you didn’t hear anyone, we’d still like to Know that you had a go. And to make your report more interesting, please consider sending a photo to be attached. If you have a photo (compressed if possible) that you'd be happy to include, please email it to: cagrsnet@gmail.com 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. VAT AV AV AV AAV AV AV AVAYAYAY AY AY, Post Morsum 14 January 2026 From Richard VK6HRC. Five on the South West repeater and AllStar / Echolink hub this morning. VK6KD David VK6QI Mark VK6NW Wayne VK6HRC VK6MRB Mulligan swil and others. David had some repairs to be done on his Hex beam before getting into the shack, still going through all the filter options on the mighty IC7610 montored 40m. Signals poor to start with but improved later and callsigns without the familiar VK prefix started coming in catching him off guard for a while! On 80m listened in on Mark VK2KI and Wayne VK6NW chatting away. Mark checked in from the breakfast table with his report. Nothing heard from Edi DO2EMR on 15m and on 20m had a contact with Mike DL3YZ nothing from Chris G7BED unfortunately. A good haul on 40m working VKS3JFR VK3ECH VK5ET/P VK4EV. On 80m worked Peter VK6NQL, Wayne VK6NW and John VK5ET/P then tried the SEG remote at Jandakot managed to get it on line but could not get the key input to work, gremlins again! Wayne was also struggling with poor band conditions with very weak local signals on 40m _ but enjoyed the better conditions on 80m. He is also planning to get on air through the week when he has time. | was in SWL mode due to the conditions but managed to follow on as conditions varied also made use of the great Ironstone Range KiwiSDR at times. Thank you to all on last night and this morning. 73 Richard. This Week’s Topic of Interest Decoder Dependency From Ross MONNK | was on Vband (the internet Morse code chat Co website) the other day when a young person turned up. | didn’t know for certain that this person was young but I’ve learnt to recognise the tell-tale signs. For instance, | was hailed with EMO; ri) oi< = e < = | have no idea what the Morse for a semi-colon is, but we have a decoder, so “no worries”. Not that | was any the wiser, being a hopeless texter myself. | then invited this person to say “hello”. There was a long pause, then the letter “S”, another long pause then the letter “H’, another long pause and the letter “T” followed by “E”, then gibberish. At this stage, my suspicions were confirmed - here was someone having a first go at Morse by reading each letter off a crib sheet. They never did get to the end of “hello”, probably having realised that Morse is harder than it looks. On the plus side though, the decoder had just given that person a chance to dip their toe into the world of Morse code. They learned that Morse is not the same as text-messaging, and that they need more practice. All good so far. | wouldn't be surprised if, by the application of youthful energy, that person does that extra practice and re-appears. At that stage, the addictive nature of Morse code kicks in and they start chatting. “Sending Morse code” is the seductive partner of the awkward and taciturn “copying Morse code”, and decoders are the dating agency, facilitating those awkward early meetings. Decoders. CW Morse Code Practice Sania Senses | Decoders enable two operators of widely different skill levels to enjoy a conversation in a mode they both love. The technology is widely available. And if you feel any shame (and why should you?) no one need know your dirty secret. What's not to like about decoders then? The problem is that we’re inherently lazy (not you, dear reader, of course). That’s what makes us efficient - minimum effort for maximum reward. The dark side of decoders is that they remove any incentive to make the considerable extra effort required to learn to head-copy, and thereby deny us the real rewards of Morse code - the pleasure and satisfaction tn ha ant fram not anlv hainn ahle ta haad-econv franardiace af how claw that minht CN EEE PEN EE Ey OR Oe I yO gt re I Pg be) but also from knowing that you are using both halves of your beloved hobby. The asymmetry of being able to send fluently but not being able to copy a word, strikes most victims of Decoder Dependency sooner or later. Unfortunately, by then, they’re trapped and have to settle for half a hobby. That seems like a rather downbeat note on which to end a Ragchew article so |’m going to finish with A Ray of Hope, by offering a possible way out of Decoder Dependency. Abstain from any Morse sending whatsoever for the period of time it takes to copy at the speed you want to send at. Set whatever character speed and Farnsworth goal you feel is achievable. But it’s very important that your sending style matches your copying style. “Do as you would be done by’, as they taught me in Sunday School. So you may have to slow your sending down quite a bit. This is really a variation on the old theme of not learning to send until you've learnt to copy, so it’s a tried-and-tested technique. Don’t worry, you won’t forget how to send. Yes, it'll be uncomfortable, but “there’s no gain without pain” as the gym-goers say. Your incentive to continue this regime is the light at the end of the tunnel - you have set a definite and achievable target to aim for. When you come back to us, you'll be a complete (if slow) Morse operator and will get a well-deserved pat on the back from all the other operators who have, themselves, struggled over this obstacle. You will, quite rightly, have earned their respect. EMO; Daring to dream: The CW Academy Advanced Course — Week 1 From Peter VKSWOW Tobe honest, tm as surprised 25) i anyone I've ended up enrolled In tne eight week CW Academy Advanced Course Chris Chapman (VK3QB) started running last week for interested Australian and New Zealand amateur operators. You could possibly blame it all on this very newsletter. It was here, in Ragchew, that | first came across an invitation from Chris to email him with any questions | might have about improving my Morse code skills. | did write to Chris, and almost before | knew it, Chris had shifted my thinking from a rather vague, woolly notion that | somehow "wanted to get better at Morse", to acknowledging a much specific desire | had to be able to engage confidently in on-air Morse code conversations working entirely out of my head at, say — why the hell not? — 25 wpm. Having clarified to myself that | actually had this personal goal (a matter, as | say, that was not really clear to me previously), | told Chris, and indeed showed him on air, that | make plenty of mistakes in my sending, and don't feel at all strong sending or receiving numbers. However, on the strength of a splinter skill | happen to have developed over the past three years at head copying works of fiction at up to 35 wpm, Chris thought | would make a suitable candidate for the CW Academy Advanced Course he was contemplating running in early 2026. Flash forward then to the present moment when, as | write this, | and two other amateur operators find ourselves one week and a bit into that Advanced course. So, what's it like? Well, the first thing it's important to understand — and this is made very clear from the outset — is that students are expected to put in an hour of practice on courserelated material every day. Not only that, but they're expected to maintain an online spreadsheet in which they record details of every component of this practice (as in, | spent 10 minutes working on such and such an exercise at such and such speeds, and then fifteen minutes working on this other exercise at such and such speeds, and SO on). The course has a set curriculum, which is publicly available, as are the prescribed listening exercises, each of which is available in a range of speeds, spanning, for the first few weeks of the Advanced course, from 20 wpm up to 35 wpm. These listening exercises include brief QSOs, lists of short words, lists of words with similar prefixes or suffixes and an occasional ham-related short story. Students are asked to listen to maak hanaAn nttialhs At ON was thank alan at fantar ananada if thaws ann mann thin Gall WILE, INUAlYyY al CU WHIT, UWIVUYT! ais al lASlel SVeCUS Il UIGYy Call (Mlanlaye Ui, and not to write down what they hear, but rather to copy what they can in their heads. It is assumed the student's head copying will not always be perfect — or, indeed, even very good at all. Not a lot of time or attention appears to be devoted in the written curriculum to sending, beyond an expectation that students will daily run through a set of supplied warm up exercises that involve sending (at 25 wpm) all numbers and characters in different patterns. One of the more appealing of these involves sending "BEN'S BEST BENT WIRE/5". Try it, and you'll soon see (or rather, hear) the peculiar attraction of this little party piece. At the moment, at least, it's my impression that the course assumes that if one can head copy accurately at 25 wom, one will likely be able to send accurately at the same speed. | find this an odd assumption — but then | may well have the wrong end of the stick here. For what it's worth, Chris has certainly been encouraging me personally to give rather more weight in my homework to sending (for example, sending the text of an article) than to receiving, given that | already have the kind of "splinter skill" in Morse code listening | described above. As well as making a commitment to undertake, and log, at least an hour's homework every day, students are expected to attend two fifty-five minute group Zoom sessions with Chris each week. At the time | am writing this, | have now attended two of these sessions, and | have found them to be very friendly get-togethers. Chris generally goes around the group and asks each member how they have been faring with the homework. From there, the pattern seems to be that Chris conducts what you might call a ‘live firing exercise’ where each student is asked to send over Zoom, by audio, some text (or numbers) at 25 wpm, while the other students and Chris attempt to head copy what was sent. For our first session, the sent content was simply a sentence. For our second session it was a list of five made-up callsigns, each followed by a two-digit or three-digit number (in effect, the kind of information one might need to send in a contest). | found this last a pretty challenging exercise, never being quite as sure as | would like to be whether | had sent a B or a 6,aVora4. As yet, it's early days, but already my impression is that the combined effect of having a clear personal goal in mind, of working for an hour a day on some reasonably challenging sending and receiving exercises, and the sense of peer pressure, but also camaraderie engendered by the twice-weekly Zoom sessions together may well prove have a powerful shaping effect in improving my overall Morse sending and receiving skills. Will this CW Academy course turn out to be all it's cracked up to be? Well, in seven weeks from now (as long as | can stay the distance) I'm going to find out, one way or another. Stay tuned. — Peter VKSWOW 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: On My see Articles below. Please email cqqrsnet@gmail.com Workbench for Hy-Gain DX88 Rebuild From Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown My trusty DX88 multi band vertical started giving random SWR readings on various bands, which after 20 years of service in all weathers from plus 48c to minus 43c, sun, rain, hail, snow, freezing rain. No idea why...? The design consists of 6063 aluminium tubing, low loss, high-Q tunable piston capacitors and multiple coils. The tube sections are joined by tubes sleeved with each other and fastened by either bolts or hose clamps. All fastening hardware is stainless steel. It is designed to be free standing but a guy plate has been added to stabilise the antenna in high winds. Antenna mounted atop of several star pickets to wiatta «* sxcaracron = = This design gives numerous opportunities for corrosion to occur, given there are approximately 57 separate joints for water to ingress and cause corrosion issues. When last assembled after a QTH change, the main tube sections were assembled with tor — electrical corrosion prevention paste. The coils ie capactron | had never been inspected since new, so the ‘ini opportunity arose to do a complete disassembly, inspection and clean. i omen» Example of the 10m, 12m and 15m trap assembly Somewhat unsurprisingly corrosion was found in multiple locations, especially with the coil contacts onto the tubing sections. Also various critters were found to have taken residence inside some of the coil assemblies. 30m trap assembly Each section was completely disassembled, corrosion and critters cleaned out, anti corrosion paste applied and the sections reassembled. This took approximately four days to accomplish. Example of corrosion at corroded coil contact surfaces Coil internals with residents present | am happy to report the antenna is usable again on all bands from 80m through to 10m including the WARC bands. Above ground and buried radial system What’s going on on your workbench? If you have an article or two that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let Mark VK2KI email to For guidance on writing for RagChew, on the other know; cgqrsnet@gmail.com see Articles below. QRZ? Who’s When you’re on the key, it’s really hard to find out a bit more about the person you're chatting to. end? So, would you be willing to share some thoughts about yourself so the others can learn a bit about who they’re chatting with? Please let Mark VK2KI know: writing for RagChew, For guidance on see Articles below. CW Compiled cqgrsnet@gmail.com Practice on the Track Somewhere by John VK2RU. This year I’m using Aesop’s Fables. These are short moral stories, often using talking animals, that illustrate simple truths about human behaviour and character. Aesop’s Fables originated in ancient Greece, traditionally attributed to the storyteller Aesop who is thought to have lived around the 6th century BCE. The fables are generally smaller files of two to three hundred words that have been recorded at 15 wom and run for about 15 minutes. If 15 wpm is a bit quick for you, load it onto your phone and set the playback speed at 0.75 X or even 0.5 X - whatever works for you. 0.75 X will play the MP3 at a bit under 12 wom. It is suggested that you read the text file before listening to the audio file. That will make unusual it easier to follow the audio file and prepare you for any words. Any punctuation that is not usually used with CW This week’s fable is ‘The Dog and His Shadow’, are attached has been removed. and the MP3 and TXT files here - If you prefer a different speed or tone you can create your own converting the text file with the Eoook2CW MP3 files by app - httos://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html. You can either play the MP3 files in any media into the Ditto CW: player, or load the text file Morse Player app - https://dittocw.andro.io/. Both options work well, however Ditto CW gives you complete control over all Morse settings, while a normal media player only allows changes to playback speed, and does that in steps (e.g. 1.25x, Other 1.5x, 1.75x). News Other things we’ve received from our 230-plus readers. Update from New From David VK3DBD Zealand The temp setup here seems to be working quite well. dipole with traps in it for 17m and 30m It consists of a 80m (although 80 is virtually a dead band for CW | find, both here in ZL and in VK too). | also have an inverted- vee dipole for 20m, centre supported on a fishing pole lashed to a balcoare - it works very well. a 36ft bamboo The 40m Then there is a dedicated 40m dipole which is held by pole at each end and at right angles runs the 80m dipole. dipole which by dint of its relationship (nearly three quarter waves ) with 15m - also works on that band, though only one stn heard heard so far - a JA at 599 each way assured me it was putting out some RF. | will hopefully be QRV again for next Tuesday’s QRS session. Loc: RF64eu | made up a new LatfLlong 35°0.1645 173° 0.969E ZL-related ‘Operating from Kerikeri, QSL which depicts an old fellow and this interesting QTH a cedar house built on split levels on the outskirts of Kerikeri. Usual QTH ; Pibon 88 ee Be | * ‘sy r These days | Bay of Islands ZL BD V ee mas hibiee Wiehe tee 73 and HNY to all T, PMe ‘wee ji fe fedders of thea QORS [oanaes es oa & fet. Keap pounding ‘ges, | brass - faster! email QSLs as a .PDF file which ~ the recipient can print if desired. Note are these not the stereotype stock cards like many | have been flooded with lately. rae hee straight bey \Yourcalll sos pavid aa” viSdbd@gmallcom ‘EOE, Fists, G-QRP,RSGB, SKCC, RAOTA, RAOTC | still send out QSLs to those who supply the postage of course - sadly an international stamp is now over $4; they are killing off the nice tradition of the original amateur radio, but | feel it should be continued when asked . 73 to all and HNY David VK3DBD/ZL Victoria Bushfires Many Australian readers will be aware of the devastating bushfires in Victoria over the past week. A number of our team members were affected. Craig VK3CLD and Leonie found themselves evacuated from their new home at Alexandra on Friday morning and spent the night at a refuge of last resort where there were very high winds, no power and the temperature was up to 40 degrees. With the power out for an indeterminable period, they were lucky to have a camper fridge and a backup in the motorhome gas. The fire-front came directly on toward their home and then split in two and went past. The Country Fire Authority said that one house was lost but they were lucky that the town survived at all. On Saturday, the wind changed again and they were told to take CFA Volunteers assembled shelter again. at Alexander waiting for the fire-front Craig and Leonie returned home on Sunday. No damage, just a house full of ash/soot. Kevin VK3KEV and Meredith at Seymour had just arrived home from a 4 week holiday, to be evacuated the next day. T+ They are in process of moving Whittlesea 7 house after 26yrs - © and reckon things might be a bit quiet on CW-front for a few weeks. They were lucky to be able to spend two nights in the driveway of their new home closer-in to Seymour during the emergency. Jordan VK3ACU skirted at was also on his toes (left foot only though) as a fire his property at Meredith. There was an emergency warning with variable winds, dry lightning and embers from the fire at Bamgani State Forrest. Jordan reported on WhatsApp: “Don't laugh too hard but when throwing some items in the car ready to leave, | grabbed my three favourite keys @”. Jordan VK3ACU Clarke Its so windy here now our star link blew off the metal mount! Its coming from the west where the fires are so we are still on high alert today Jordan also recommended Jlnardan VK2AC1! 10:45am Clarka a! Stas 2 eee 7 a oushfire.io to monitor fires. [Thanks Jordan. Having been in a Rural fire Service strike team (navigating, logging and situational awareness monitoring in the Strike Team Lead vehicle) on Saturday and Sunday, the bushfire.io appears more comprehensive (eg spot wind, forecast, marked fireground, aircraft movement, WO beter ian etc) than the RFS mobile data terminal l was using. | still have more to learn about the supplied system, but next time | suspect I'll be using bushfire.io on my phone in parallel to the Command and Control system]. Ketut VKSBWN was camping a little further East at Fridays Cambground. On Friday morning, CFA people came and warned them to leave. : : EMERGENCY Jenny were camping as near Corryong and aware of the Nariel Valley, Cudgewa, WARNING Corryong, Towong, BASIS eects X a Thowgla # > fires at Walwa to the West, up-sticks and headed North on Thursday night. [Phew! John Glad everyone was alright. Moyle National Stay safe everyone! ] Field Day Contest - 2026 Rules March 21st and 22nd are the dates for this year’s John Moyle National Field Day Contest. You'll need remember the dates for the weekend leave pass application form For details, including the new logging requirements, head to: httpos://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/jiohnmoyle/ Here’s a summary of the rules if you'd like a quick look. Morse Training Net Our team member every Wednesday of the Northern Tasmania Many of our team ciinnnrt anf Alice Nic VK7WW at 7pm and runs an on-air Slow Morse training net EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign Amateur Radio Club VK/7TAZ on that net. learned Morse code with the FHha vraanlls Fraininn caccinn so SUPPUIL UL IVIL, Glu UIT WERT comes highly recommended Ualimiy scoo1ul for anyone who wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up. Everyone’s welcome - 3580kHz at 7pm Eastern time every Wednesday; let ie you'll hear lots of the Learn Morse Code - Slow Morse — 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=PLHSOmZz6fBXO/7swAfbTmutrbbEL1 7fUQL Contact Nic VK7WW for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com how to join the NTARC DISCORD including group to follow the action, or just come along and join in on Wednesdays. SHORTWAVE IN 2025 — THE AIRWAVES ARE ALIVE AGAIN From the Tecsun Radio Australia Website https ://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/shortwave-in-2025-the-airwaves-are-alive- again -+~ ON THE AIRWAVES 2029 yRONTE --- SHORTWAVE AUSTRALIA INCLUDING REPORTS FROM LISTENERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ABOUT A NEW STATION Shortwave is far from silent. From new transmitters humming to life in the Pacific, to hobbyists catching signals from the other side of the world, there’s been plenty happening lately on the bands. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting updates. New Voices on the Airwaves: Shortwave Australia Over the past few weeks, a station identifying itself as Shortwave Australia has been heard broadcasting on 2310 kHz and 4835 kHz. Reports from listeners across the country describe strong signals and a program of nostalgic, old-time music drifting across the dial — a refreshing discovery for anyone who enjoys exploring the lower shortwave bands. While official details are limited, a growing number of hobbyists have confirmed regular activity on these two frequencies. The station’s broadcasts have been logged during afternoons and evenings (local time), with 4835 kHz often producing the strongest results in daylight hours before fading around dusk. At night, 2310 kHz seems right. to take over, offering surprisingly consistent reception when conditions are Programming so far appears to focus on music and general entertainment, with minimal announcements or station IDs — a style that gives the broadcasts a distinctly nostalgic feel. Listeners have described the experience as “like tuning into a forgotten corner of the radio world.” Online, discussions about the station have started to ee i ee Lalbalbaas fav Dea anmnsl me es Ae hLaA A wok Ae anmths imIAAtA ea al AeA nAlA el appeal Vil MUyyy IVIUIIS aU TIUIINOUNNIY VIVYS, reports, audio clips, and reception logs. Some WIIEIG CIIIIUSIASLS all SIHalninly SIyiial have uploaded recordings to YouTube and SDR platforms, while others are tracking the station on sites like Shortwave.Live, which lists it as active transmission times vary). on both frequencies around the clock (though actual Want to Try Your Luck Tuning In? When to listen: Afternoon or early evening been logged. — that’s when most recent reports have Frequencies to check: Start with 4835 kHz, then try 2310 kHz later in the night. Reception tip: Use noise sources. Online option: a loop or long-wire Explore KiwiSDR propagates in different regions. antenna receivers around placed well away from household Australia to see how the signal We’d Love to Hear From You Have you caught Shortwave Australia on the dial? What times, signal strengths, or music have you logged? If you’ve captured a short audio clip or screenshot, share it with us — we may include listener reports in a future blog post to help map out the station’s reach and schedule. Shortwave lives on through discoveries like this, and with help from the listening community, we can keep these new voices heard far and wide. https://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/contact/ TECSUN RADIOS AUSTRALIA THE RADIO BULLETIN a Updating Articles # USBRig 14/10/2025 - 3:01 PM programming cables and Windows 11 ae, Subaru Coax Install ae 21/04/2024 - 7:57 PM Portable Power 15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM 10/11/2023 - 10:56 AM Keyers From David VK3DBD | feel | just have to comment on the mention of Ultimatic. The word writings about Keyers/paddles and the means nothing to me but the writer, and he is not alone, speaks of lambic which really does mean short and long (according to the dictionary), relating to the metre of syllables in poetry. So without any doubt in my mind, all Morse code is lambic! | suppose a twin paddle key if connected to a electronic keyer could be said to be lambic. But a twin paddle key or indeed a single paddle, connected to a straight key jack in a radio can send dots or dashes either side according to the operators choice. Keyers however are far from identical and different brands or origins work In slightly different ways. Two which should really be distinctive are the terminology which calls them type A or type B. cut and dried: compromise However that Is far from Elecraft have their own versions which seem to be a sort of between the two. | find it suits me well. My learning to use a paddle came fairly late within my own experiences. | started with a "pump Key" - as | think everyone should, Later | acquired a Bug from a SK sale, the classic Eddystone which | was told was not really a good model, and used ita little. Perhaps the code which went out may have left much to be desired but true to form within the Amateur fraternity, no one complained. Far too polite! Probably some 20 years later | was introduced to the paddle key. radio gear was mainly home My early brew, an electronic keyer (using valves) was a complex device and solid state ones were as futuristic as Star Wars. First efforts were using a borrowed Vibroplex Racer, (I think that was the name it was called). These were a simple key with magnetic tension and available on a brass square base ora triangular one. From the first try | took to Squeeze keying, it seemed natural. "CQ CQ CQ" just happened without thinking. Of course it took time and effort to install Muscular memory my right hand. into my hand- The one | used for the bug... mistake number one. | ought to have taught the left to use the paddle, as now the right only remembers the paddle action not the bug type! Muscular memory for paddle use seems to be indelibly installed now. My collection of keys has several bugs which | cannot effectively use, and probably never will now..... 73 David VK3DBD Usability Issues with RagChew From Peter VK3WOW View this email in your browse orators Mark, in your last issue of RagChew you MANEIAN AN Fhaat Datricl \VIICZDIIONAL rannrtadnd hainn HISMUUNTU LI@L FaUIEK viNKgruw 1SVUreecU vorly unable to view the whole of RagChew email browser. | have the same use GMail to read RagChew, OSX Mail. in his issue when but not when | | use A quick Google search shows that GMail clips emails over 102KB, hiding overflowing content behind a link that reads "View entire message". * Link to our Reporting * Noises * SKCC * Editing RagChew * Bottom of the Jar? * Reports and Comments * 360 Degree * Give Up Beer? * 1IC-7300 Knows Best * WifeNet Intel * Post Morsum * Home-Brewed Paddle * QRZ? Morgan VK6MTF/MM * Another QRZ? John VK3BSE * CW * My Own Vintage Gear Restoration * Morse Training Net * Prosign of the Week * * Form To view the whole newsletter, a GMail reader must either (a) click Straight Key Month the "View entire message" Null link that GMail places part way down the newsletter, or (b) click the "View this email in your browser" Report Double Paddle Modes link that appears at the top of the newsletter. Practice Either way, the reader is going to lose their Summerland ARC Remote place in what is often a very long newsletter. * Di-dah-di-dah-dit * About the CQ QRS Group As the originator of these MailChimp newsletters, you should be able to see an internal report showing how many people to have clicked the "View this email in your browser" link for each edition. One of the distinctive, and to me unfortunate, ‘features’ of RagChew that makes it difficult to find what I'm looking for (and a feature, which, incidentally, is likely in practice to cloud attempts to make archived issues of RagChew meaningfully searchable by Google) embedding textual information as images. To take but one example: OM is the practice of Ross MONNK wrote a very interesting article in the last edition about paddle modes. (to me, anyway) to defy common However, for reasons that appear sense, the entire content of his contribution is treated as a sequence of images, making it very difficult to find for anyone searching through the long newsletter using ordinary ‘find’ functions — and, of course, utterly impossible for Google ever to index. as if prettification is being treated as a higher goal than searchability. It's If prettification is so very important, could | suggest that after you have embedded significant chunks of text in RagChew as images, you follow each such image with a line of plain text that gives a searching user (ora search engine) some clue as to what the content of that effectively hidden article actually is? In the case of the article | have mentioned, that line might read "[Tags: double paddle, squeeze mode, iambic B, Ross MONNK]". ultimatic, iambic A, One way of helping readers quickly identify which items in any given edition of RagChew are likely to be most of interest to them would provide a Table of Contents where each entry gets a meaningful be to ‘by line’. In the last issue, for example, one Table of Contents entry read "Bottom of the Jar?"; as a way of helping readers identify what's in the newsletter, a Table of Contents entry like that (at least on it's own) is just not very useful. Imagine if, instead, that entry read: Bottom of the Jar? Are you able to see the whole of each RagChew It would appeared in your email client? be helpful, too, if items listed in the Table of Contents actually as headings somewhere following items all appeared in the newsletter. In the last issue, the in the Table of Contents, but did not feature again (at least, not under a heading) in the remainder of the newsletter: 360 Degree Null Give Up Beer? IC-7300 Knows WifeNet Intel Best This is not how a conventional Table of Contents operates. RagChew now has many readers, and many contributors. It has the potential to be a really valuable resource for the amateur radio community, and certainly for that part of the local community interested in CW. | find it frustrating and disappointing that it is not set up to be more easily navigated, searched and archived. — It could be so much more useful. Peter VK3WOW T Index Map From Mark VK2KI / VK6QI On Tuesday evening during our CQQRS VK6NW emailed Practice QSO The map depicted depressed conditions over WA at At 1100z he sent an updated map; the two maps are shown ; Aus/NZ Real Time lonospheric T index Map 13 January 2026 08:26 Regional Conditions relative to monthly T index of 89 >40 T units bebw monthly T index 20-40 T units below monthly UT | near T monthly T index (| a 220 - net, Wayne me a T Index map from the Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Service. 0830z. Slow CW Note:The map is updated every 5-minutes, using Space Weather Network data typically from last Regional >40 Colour legend Tu jonthly 4 4 . . WULC. Aus/NZ Real Time lonospheric T index Map 13 January 2026 10:56 UT 10-i5minutes. T units 20-40 T index Conditions below monthy T units below relative T index monthly T index to monthly >] near T monthly | above T units uni —| >20 T index of THE Hiap i Upuattu tvery s-iil Weather Network data typically from 89 Colour monthly below. legend T index engitude Eoat The T Index is forecast by Space Weather Service and is used in the prediction of point-to-point frequencies in HF communication. The T index IS an indicator of the highest frequencies able to be refracted from regions in the ionosphere. The higher the T index, the higher the frequencies able to be refracted from an ionospheric region. The index is based on the measurement of ionospheric foF2 obtained from ionograms. Following geomagnetic activity the typical ionospheric response at mid latitudes Is to become depressed, this will result in a drop in the value of the T index produced from ionospheric stations within the depressed ionospheric region. The T Index map shows the difference between the current ionospheric conditions and the monthly predicted conditions. geomagnetic activity can depress Southern degrees) Moderate level region (roughly below 30 ionospheric support levels, stronger geomagnetic activity can depress the entire region. The finger-like shape of the Normal and Mildly-Depressed areas on the maps was intriguing to my small mind. The SWS had predicted impact of a solar flare on the ionosphere, so a disturbance was likely - but | wondered why that wouldn't be felt across the whole region - why the finger of less disturbance? And why does moderate disturbance depress the Southern region, while stronger activity depresses the whole area? Anyone know? I’m aware that the earth’s magnetic field in combination with the earth's rotation causes non-uniform distribution of the effect of solar radiation (including the North-South waves and regions of auroral activity); | wonder if that has something to do with it? Thoughts? So thanks Wayne - so much to learn, so little time! After Action Report: KPH Cryptography Broadcast From the Maritime Radio Historical Society Newsletter 101 Once again cryptographers were huddled over their receivers (or, increasingly, computers connected to Software Defined Radios accessible via the Internet) copying an encoded CW message transmission broadcast by the “Wireless Giant of the Pacific,” historic maritime radio coast station KPH. On Saturday, August 30 2025 at 2000 GMT KPH encrypted message in the famous broadcast an ENIGMA format. Here is the imaginative scenario for the broadcast: The year is 1939. War looms over Europe like a gathering storm. And deep within the quiet halls of a remote country estate, a small, secretive group of the Allies’ brightest minds works tirelessly to pierce the veil of the German military’s most complex encryption device - the Enigma machine. In just three weeks, a critical radio transmission is expected to be sent in Morse code: a stream of meaningless five-letter groups, indecipherable to ordinary listeners but believed to contain plans of the highest importance. Intelligence believes the message may detail the movement of German forces in a way that could change the course of the war before it has even truly begun. In a daring operation that cost brave agents and precious resources, a codebook has been wrestled from enemy hands. It is stained, scarred by fire...and perhaps incomplete, but it is the best chance we have. You are now part of the small team entrusted with this task. The clock Is ticking; every day that passes brings the transmission closer, and once it arrives, you must work with speed and precision to decode its secrets. The fate of ships at sea, soldiers in the field, and perhaps the fate of nations rests in your hands. Time Is of the essence - crack the code before it’s too late! KPH Cryptography Manager Kevin McGrath/KM provided the following information concerning this latest event. Thanks, KM! Also, a word of thanks to Maintenance Supervisor Bill Ruck/RK, who once again handled the issuance of the coveted award certificates. This year a particular dose or realism was added to the exercise when a major solar flare erupted at the very beginning of the broadcast, interfering with efforts to copy the message by intercept stations around the world! Despite that significant handicap 160 decodes were submitted for verification. Of that number there were 141 successful decodes. Well done to all those who submitted entries and congratulations to all who were able to decode the message and were awarded a certificate! Entries were received from stations all across the USA, but also from Canada, Czech England, France, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Rep., Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. While 40% of listeners copied the message from their home stations another 60% used one of the many Software Defined Radios accessible via the Internet. A number of stations used vintage receivers such as the Collins R390A, RCA RBC-2, Mackey 3020a. Noteworthy is that one station used an original World War 2 era ENIGMA machine. Eleven other stations used replica ENIGMA particular interest in that for the 2022 two stations used replica machines. machines. This is of ENIGMA cryptography event only Most participants used one of the several simulators that are available on the Internet or as standalone apps. Once operators copied the CW message they then needed to begin the effort to decode the message using the codebook page provided. To add to the challenge this codebook page was stained and scarred by fire. In fact, The code book page was purposely designed such that the date is missing and one of the plugboard Here is the encrypted KAPT REINEKE 2312 pairs is ambiguous. ENIGMA FR GR ADM message as broadcast by KPH: RAEDER MAY 27 = 120 = JXY LYI BSTHH GMBOA WGOCL TIAUJ ILARX NKQWV FRCYT VQHDB HVTXM VJGCF ZYUGP ZBBZW VLQFR ODBBC PPBDK XBWTZ MXKGP JAFKA QKKFU UULYV WXUZK DUFXW FZOFT QXKFS And here is the decoded message: KAPITAN BEGIN REINEKE FROM GRAND PLANNING CROSS CHANNEL OBJECTIVE ENGLISH MAINLAND ADMIRAL RAEDER DETAIL NAVAL AND AIR SUPPORT CODE WORD SEALION OP X X REQS X X REPORT IN FIVE DAYS X As an historical note, “Operation Sea Lion” was the codename for German plans to invade Great Britain during World War 2. Here is a small sample of some of the comments received from participants of the event: e Thanks for arranging this interesting activity. My first time. e These challenges have been some of my all-time favorite on-air activities. e Got up at 5am in Australia! e Thank you all so much for putting on this event — it’s one of my very favorite events of the year e This was my first time interacting with KPH and it was a blast. Thank you to all the volunteers who put this event together! e Thank you for running this event. | always look forward to them. e |t's been a very long wait since 2023 but worth every minute, many thanks for another extraordinary opportunity. e Thank you for an excellent activity and keeping history vibrant e Sailed as RO on French tankers (Shell and BP). Used a McKay RX to listen to Enigma transmission. e Good experience for my eventual transfer to Hut 6 at Blechley to work with Flowers and Turing. e We are the Royal Canadian e My boys had a Sea Cadet Corps. Thanks! lot of fun pretending to be codebreakers. Nice history lesson too. e This rocked! Thank you so much. e Hope more is to come. Thanks to all at MRHS. This was a great exercise and really fun! e Thanks to all for organizing this neat and engaging event e QSA5 on 22 MHz in Puerto Rico Click Here to see the scene at the Point Reyes receive site as the broadcast begins. Randy Hall, K7AGE in Gold Beach OR created an excellent video of the broadcast. Click Here to copy the ENIGMA message (Including the audio of the Teletype format broadcast of the message)! And here is Randy's video documenting his efforts to decode the message. This video is a very helpful tutorial for those new to decrypting ENIGMA messages. By any measure this latest ENIGMA broadcast was a tremendous success. Stay tuned for our next cryptography event. We will keep you posted here In your MRHS Update Newsletter! from Beechworth From John VK3BSE Hi Mark and editors. This is my work in progress for getting back on air. So further to last week’s story, | have chosen an EFHW, as the house aka shack Is near the end of the block and the feedline can go Straight out of the Shack and up. Above: Test set-up. Left: Vano VNA display from the test. 73 John VK3BSE ZS6BKW Doublet vs End-Fed Half-Wave from Jonn VKSET/P G'day Mark, good night Tuesday for CW. The EFHW did a good job, how do you think It compares with the ZSOBKW? | have made portable ZS6OBKW up a (same dimension as my home base) but Nnaven’t tried it out yet in the bush. What method do you use for launching a line for pulling up the antenna, nave tried few ways but get more frustrated as line gets caught In a fork of the tree (happened on Tuesday at mates property at Humbug Scrub) or doesn’t get high enough. Hopefully catch you next week, maybe from my noisy home QTH. 73, Jonn VK5ET [Hey John. Yes, good to catch up on 80m, considering how poor 40M was. Re the ZS6BKW doublet compared to an End-Fed Half-Wave - good question! There’s a few Australian SOTA and VKFF PARKS operators who swear by the ZS6BKW in simple inverted-Vee configuration off a single squid-pole (one is Andrew VKIDA / VK2DA from our group). | have mainly used it as a flatish doublet rather than as an inverted-Vee - and as you know, | love it - amazing antenna. However, it is hard work to put up like that - usually takes me at least an hour, and reguires a /ot of space... whereas an EFHW could be up in minutes and fits most places easily. The ZSOBKW covers 80m of course, but If you're willing able to change the coupling from high tmpedance to low, add a decent ground system and put uo with an interesting radiation pattern, a 40m EFHW should work as an 80m leaning quarter wave. So.... the answer Is.... try them both, and let us know mate! On the other guestion.... getting them up In the air - ha! [used to use an & Ounce fishing sinker attached to that fluorescent builder’s twine. 8 ounce seemed a good compromise for me, and the twine was strong as anything.... but the builder’s twine sticks to bark like the proverbial! I’ve certainly lost too many 8 ounce sinkers, but luckily, I’ve always Managed to get them down from trees, despite the sticky bullder’s twine (I didn’t want to leave any dangling.... too dangerous when they finally decide to come down). So more recently I’ve bought a 150 foot arborist throw line from eBay (a 75 or 100 foot one would have been ok too). This has a nice soft weight full of lead-shot attached to a poly-something-carcinogenic rope ina carry bag; the rope is amazing - it’s slippery, doesn’t tangle, and doesn’t stick in tree/branch/twig/leaf forks (so far). At my age, I’m struggling to get much above 8-9m elevation on my portable antennas (I have height markings on the TV-ribbon feeder on the ZS6BKW doublet). | have aspirations for height... but both my strength and more often than not, embarrassing lack of aim, think otherwise.] If you’ve thought of something or read something that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let me Know. RagChew, see Articles below. For guidance on writing for Please email material to Mark VK2KI: cqgrsnet@qmail.com There’s no such thing... This week’s questions. In the WhatsApp Alerts last Tuesday night, ragchew on Vband was mentioned. What is this? How do | join? What additional programs or equipment do | need? What else do | need to know? 7 James VFJZ | think | need to send you all out in search of my brain. It looks like mush and Is clearly absent from my QTH. | was sooce bad tonight. Missing basic stuff and sending mistakes. The remedy |s keep practising and perhaps my brain will come back to me. Grrr. are 1 Janes VK7IZ ik | Red TS Send YOu allGut in: search of my Desir Try QTH. (Wes go000 bad tonight, ML icoks like rush and is cleany absent from Missing Dasic stuff and-sending mistakes, The reriedy ts keep if it’s any consolation, | can identify 100%! om 2 Today 1 Ga VC THF Ww 1 James VET UZ think| Feed tosend you all OUT In Search of my bre my OTH. | was so000 bad tonight. Mt looks like Mush and is Clearly abserd from Missing basic stuff and sending mistakes. The remedy is keep Happens to me all the time Jim. | often feel, 1 should be better by now. But then | think, learning and practicing is as much fun as anything else. | also often have situations when | ragchew where | lose the ability to co-ordinate my fingers to send. just get brain OSB_iand that's ok. I think ragchew on vband is good, it gets your skills up but must tum off the decode and not rely on it. Just like on here, good buch of regulars on vband also, very supportive, DE O23 Over to one of our VBanders to answer this question please. [Do you have a question or two that are worth sharing? discussion-starter? How about a Please let me know cqgrsnet@gmail.com and I/’// pass them to John VK2RU for compilation each week. ] Prosign/Character/Sig nal of the Year See if you can use this one on Tuesday! Prosign:Meaning: Stand = ee by [Suggestion - put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for Tuesday. Tell us how you went!] [lf you have some intel about other team members... or even yourself... that’s worth sharing, please let me know cgqqgrsnet@gmail.com / 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. nga timetable Spring Coordinated Universal Time ‘Rik AH Pea We ak ee a EE ta 0600z to 1200z (NOLE - 2UM VADEMIMeNLS WII Western Australia SLIT al a OINTErenL UME Australia Time IT required) UTC +8 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/: ) | | ORO )_ | ] | 3500 | | | ] CO ORS Net | | 3535 80 m = 1800 Sle 7O40 | ORO | | CO ORS Net 1655. | Thanks to Lance VKTTO for the COQRS @ 3560 le | | | = 1875 | band-plan e 2200z - 2300z (Tuesday UTC) RRL) WA FM AllStar Network ee (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.ly/COORSWebsite then click the menu on the top right and then click RagChew Newsletter. Material A reminder; WhatsApp tf you send me any information by email, our report form or - unless you specifically state that material is not to be published, I'll assume that you're happy to see your thougNhts in the RagChew newsletter. Teamwork Thank you so much to our team of 28 contributors: DL3YZ, G4RWI, VK2GAZ, VK2IOW, VK2RU, VK2TIG, VK3ACU, VK3BWN, VK3CLD, VK3DBD, MONNK, VK3BSE, VK3BWN, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3KEV, VK3WOW, VK4EV, VK4PN, VK5AV, VK5ET, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK6HRC, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6NQL, VKONW, VK6XC/3, VK7JZ, VK7ME, VK7WW, Newsletter. (head softie), Patrick VK2IOW (Mister Report Wrangler), John VK2RU (Spreadsheet wizard), Richard VK6HRC Lance VK7TO ZL4CTS and the MRHS And a special thank you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI (Post Morsum cat-herder) and (technical editor and search bit magician). Great work all! CU CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning cqqrsnet@gmail.com NSW non impediti ratione cogitationis An Ode to CW - thanks to David VK3RU: In days of old, when ops were bold, AR And fd About sideband was not invented, Words were passed by pounding brass, be) And all were quite contented. - Unknown the CQ Here’s where For the current schedule and author QRS Net you'll find the details. more information about the CQORS please go the the Net Details page on our website: net, 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 CQQRS 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 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. 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) 2026 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