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CQORS

RagChew

Edition 4/2026

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Thanks this week to Ross MONNK for the image; Ross has called this work of art
‘A Creepy Hand Sending CQ VK to No Effect’.
The blue pad on a non-slip mat is a wrist support to put Ross’ hand in the most comfortable position
relative to the key. See later in the RagChew for how the key looked six months ago.

Link to our Reporting
Slim

Form

Pickings

New Team

Members

Reports from Tuesday’s
Lots of No-Sausage
Starlink Does
If You

Have

UNUN

Poppins

Six Straight Keys...
Report

- The Guessing

for an End-Fed
Tube AM

Game

Half-Wave Antenna

Transmitter

Practice

Newsletter

Format

John

National

Moyle

Reading

Field Day

the RagChew

A Bit of Friday Afternoon
Morse Training
Weekly
CW

Net

My Workbench

A Vacuum
CW

Practice QSO

Reports

a Mary

Post Morsum
Wabi-sabi

CQQRS

Delight

Net

Reminder

Emails

Mates

BOM

Propagation

IPad

Remote

Wanted

Control

- Used

Videos

For Sale

Morserino-32
Aurora

of Transceivers

Paddle

Jules’ Workshop
Paddle

Forecasts

For Sale

Images from This Week’s

First Straight Key QSO
Update from

David VK3DBD/ZL

Positions Vacant
Arobrist

Throw

Line

Geomagnetic

Storm

RSS

Prosign

of the Week

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

e About the CQ QRS

Well well!

Group

This week we had one of the quietest nets in 4-1/2 years - last

week, 43 team

members

reported hearing or working 72 stations... but this

week... we had reports from only 16 members

who between them

reported

hearing only 21 stations.
Live Science said:
A severe and record-breaking geomagnetic storm rocked Earth's magnetic shield last
night, shortly after the sun unleashed a powerful X-class solar flare. The epic event,
triggered by a stream of superfast solar particles, painted widespread auroras at
unusually low latitudes across the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe.
Some outlets have reported that the storm is the "largest" of its kind since 2003,
which is an exaggeration (the "Mother's Day storm” of May 2024 was much
stronger). However,

the latest outburst has broken a specific 23-year-old solar

radiation record._

Space.com

said:

Earth just experienced a rare $4 solar radiation storm, the most intense since 2003 —
powertul for satellites and astronauts, but harmless on the ground.
While a severe G4 geomagnetic storm impressed skywatchers with vivid auroras
around the world this week, a far less visible, but historically significant, space
weather event was also underway.
On Monday (Jan. 19), Earth experienced its strongest solar radiation storm since
October 2003, according to NOAA's Space
intensity of the notorious October 2003

Weather Prediction Center, surpassing the

"Halloween" space weather storms.

The Bureau of Meteorology Space Weather Service had been predicting the
geomagnetic

storm - and the warnings were not wrong!

Many of our team

chose to hide under the blanket, but another more adventurous group
squared up to the elements, and boldly went where no QRS fan had been
before!
And most weren't disappointed!

The peak of the solar cycle produces the

best of propagation... and the worst!
When

the incoming solar radiation is so strong that the lower D-layer of the

ionosphere won't let even the mid-level frequencies through (ie the
Absorption Limiting Frequency is above the frequency in use), things just
don’t work as normal.

But our brave experimenters took it in their stride,

and gave it their best shot anyway.

After all, you don’t learn about such

unique situations by watching television.
However,

as you'll see below, many of our excellent team

members took

the time to send in a report, despite hearing nothing but noises.
does this still make

interesting reading (for me anyway!),

Not only

but it helps

everyone realise that it wasn’t just them or their station that missed out one of the biggest geomagnetic storms in recent history affected us all!
Had we only received reports about successful QSOs, the newsletter
wouldn’t have been anywhere

near as interesting to read.

So thank you

everyone for taking a few minutes to assemble some words for us.

We also have lots of interesting articles to read - | hope you find something

to get your teeth into - or perhaps relax with a glass of wine with perhaps?
Ross MONNK for example has sone some deep thinking about perhaps the
psychology of listening to CW - The Guessing Game as he called it! So
despite the tough conditions, there’s still a huge selection of reading
contributed by our team once again this week - thank you to the 33
contributors who've made the time to bring you what | trust will be yet
another pearler.

New

Team

Members

Two new members

have joined our happy band of over 230 this week.

ZL1IDRS from Hamilton and Scotty VK4BRO
fledged team

members

at Ormeau

Don

are now fully-

- and have both been enjoying our WhatsApp

groups, despite the poor radio conditions.

Don is thinking about buying a

paddle to replace the one he’s borrowed, and Scotty has been using CW for
POTA, but is looking forward to trying some rag chews; | reckon they’ve
both come to the right place!
Website
A reminder - if you'd like to find out a bit about our net, or would
information to others about our Tuesday get-togethers,

like to pass

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
cagrsnet@gmail.com

NSW

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

With thanks to John VK2RU’s spreadsheet skills, here’s the 21 stations
reported by 16 members

of our team on Tuesday (those with no stations

heard have written reports only of course).

COMBS

Taam

WeQugn

Ica

Member

qQso1

Qso2

VK2KI

Worked 40m

VKSAV

VK2KI

Heard 40m

VK3AVA

VK2KI

Worked 80m |

VK6NW

VK3ACU

Worked 40m

KOJVX

VK3ACU

Worked 80m | VK3.WOW

VK3BSE
VK3BSE

Heard 40m
Heard 80m

VK3MJ
VK2WI
VK3MJ

|; QsoO3 | QS04 |

QS05 | QS06 | QSO7 | QSO8

VK6GX | VKSAO

VK3CLD

Heard 40m

VK3DRQ

Worked 40m | VK3WOW

VK5CZ

VK3DRQ

Heard 40m

VK3XU

VK3MJ | VK5CZ | JNIRKE | WB5KJE

VK3DRQ

Tried 40m

VK3XU

JNIRKE | VK3MJ

VK3 WOW

Worked 40m | VK3DRQ

VK3 WOW

Worked 80m |

VK3ACU

VK5A0
VK5AV

Worked 40m |
Heard on air

VKSPH

VK5CZ

Worked 40m

VK3MJ

VKSET

Heard 40m

VK5A0

VKSPH

Heard on air

VK6GX

Worked 40m

VK6GX

Heard 40m

VK4PK

VK6JDM

Tried 40m

VK6WE

VK6KHZ

Worked 80m |

VK6NW

VK6ENW

Worked 80m

VK2KI

VK6QI

Heard 40m

VK6GX

VKS5AO |

VK6QI

Heard 80m

VKENW

VK2Kl

VK6GX

VK5AO
VK4CEG | VK3XU

| VK6KHZ

VK2KI

The spreadsheet above shows the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group;
the comments

in the team

bit.ly/COORSNET ) follow.
compiled

members’

reports (submitted via our webform

The written reports and the spreadsheet were

by the clever software built by our team

member

Nigel G4RWI,

and the report layout work was done again this week by Patrick VK2IOW.
Thanks very much

again to Nigel, John and Patrick.

reports:

rH...

mE.

IRAMRTAIES

PO.

Here we go with the

COM!

MOSS

VLINIVNINA

CXCLE!

Vid

OLULIGaAIl

UOeCIMany

[20m]
| was on air, calling "CQ VK" for 35 minutes on 20m.
Nothing. Not a sausage.

Just the odd snap, crackle

and pop amongst the background

hiss. Sometimes

it's like that. If it was easy, there'd be no satisfaction
in DX. There's always next week to look forward to.

From Scotty VA4BRO

at Gold Coast

[40m]
Band conditions didn't seem
didn't seem
next week

From Roy VK6RR

great tonight - nothing heard and

to get spotted or heard anywhere!

Will try again

at Geraldton

[40m]
Sorry but all that | heard was noise -

not a single QRS call
[80m]
Again noise on HF nota signal heard.

From Jordan VK3ACU

Sorry, hope better next week.

at VK3ACU
[40m]
| put a few calls out on 40m

tonight and the RBN

returned

lots of US spots and no VK spots - interesting conditions.
Had a go on 15 20 40 80 & 160.

Iwm

thin

....

Dow

we.

2te

lind

Aik

Lin...

~-fe

tlw

| almost didn't submit my

AAW...

24.

10g

IIS

WEEK

DECdUSe

INY

SLlallinkK

QISM

DIEW

OTT

FOOT!

WIOUTIL

Slayea,

AIS

Giada

Mary Poppins
[80m]
80m seemed

the best band for tonight (for me anyway)

I'd love to see more activity during the week!

If you’re looking to get some

air, please feel free to reach out on the WhatsApp

practice on

group or email to organize a QSO.

I’m happy to go as slow as you like - don't hesitate to reach out for your very first
contact if you’ve been a bit nervous about getting on the air!

From Donald VK6JDM

at 20 km west of Esperance WA

[40m]
There were very few VK stations that could be copied,
however quite a few Indonesian SSB
coming

in strongly. VAG6WE

stations were

and VK6KHZ were heard

but could not hear me. The score last night seems to
have been Sol Invictus 1, radio communication

From Phil VK6GX

nil.

at Gidgegannup

[40m]
The CME

virtually wiped

out 40m.

NO VK6

stations heard at all!

Late arvo a few weak
eastern VK stations

heard. Called CQ for 1/2
hour before Mait,
VKSAO
only S5 courtesy of my east Beverage. To relieve the boredom,

replied. He was

| amused

myself by

alternating between six straight keys every character or two (Begali Sculpture Arrow,

Hi-Mound HK-802, GONVT PB213, RA1AOM
NATO

roan—.1

Swedish

key). It's manageable

Swedish key, |11QOD Swedish key,

at QRS without losing flow and spacing.

joum|
The CW

segment of 80m was obliterated by an OTHR.

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning

NSW

[15m & 20m]
This week

| snuck my phone

listened for Edi DOZEMR
20m

under the dinner table and

on 15m and Ross DL/MONNK

using the Snowline KiwiSDR at Dry Plain.

| knew from

Mike DL3YZ's status page that they were both on, calling CQ
OC,

but not a sausage was heard here, nor were there any ZL

or VKs

heard.

Ol' Sol's display of multiple solar flares produced

the severe geomagnetic storm in our ionosphere, and as
predicted, propagation was very poor.

Bad luck guys, but thank

you for trying.

[40m]
At the start of the scheduled time for the net, 40m was completely empty of stations;

| sent a test call and couldn't hear my own signal on the Snowline, Ironstone Range
or Hoddys Well KiwiSDRs

- | wondered whether the geomagnetic storm had made

the D-layer of the ionosphere so strong that the Absorption

Limit Frequency was

above 40m, so nothing was getting to the E and F-layers?

Anyway, after a while | saw a signal from a VK3 and then noticed Tim VKS5AV coming
through from Mount Gambier calling CQQRS

SKCC

SKM

(Straight Key Century Club

- Straight Key Month).

| was pleased to hook up with Tim again and exchange SKCC

membership

despite the deep QSB.

numbers

After dinner | heard Phil VK6GX

coming through as the ALF dropped and the band

started opening across Australia approaching
from VK2

into the VK6SEG

KiwiSDR

1000z.

| had a listen to my own signal

near Northam - the QSB

was deep, but there

was distinct rapid auroral flutter that was so strong that my CW was even more
unreadable than normal - each dah had become a series

of dits!

| kept calling CQ, and there were a few very fast (and hence unreadable to me) DX
stations on, but no-one took pity on me.... so | headed down to 80m for a look-see.

[80m]

RAL.

2H)

eee

tL.

PI.

VAP

LZ OOPAPS

ANH

SIQNal

Was

COMING

WNOUQM

LNe

MOUaQysS

VVEll

NIWIOUE,

DUL

IKE

4U ITI

fluttery.

At around 1050 | was called by Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown.

Wayne

RSN

413 and Wayne

sent me RSN

418;

Il Was

| sent

interesting to see how despite the

strong intermittent bursts of noise and the QSB, we still managed a chat.

Around

1100z the distinct auroral buzz patterns suddenly appeared on the KiwiSDRs
and NSW.

in WA

Very interesting to see that the noise extended from about 3510kHz to

3580kHz - the rest of band was affected by the bursts of noise but not the auroral
buzz.

I've wondered

if the frequency responses of the KiwiSDRs' antennas caused

this effect, but Hoddys Well uses a long-wire antenna, so that's unlikely.

| might keep

an eye on these blobs of auroral buzz in future, to see whether they move or appear
in different parts of the spectrum.

Anyway, | gave it away around 1125z and on the way to bed, had a
the South.

look at the sky to

have a line of tall trees along the road about 70m away, and usually,

the Southern sky is obscured

the South-South-East.

by the bloom of the lights of Canberra, 7Okm

away to

However, the whole Southern horizon was illuminated and |

could see what looked like wide vertical columns of light-grey coloured illumination

that came and went (similar to the very commonly seen spotlighting from the vehicles
of fox and rabbit shooters) - but more stable, lasting 10s of minutes and growing in

height and brightness.

| dragged Ms Elizabeth out to watch the 3/4 hour spectacle;

finally the wide grey illuminated column

moved toward the South-West and became

quite bright before fading. On the CQQRS WhatsApp group, Warren VK3BYD at
Wangaratta reported a similar view.

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning via the VAK6SEG
KiwiSDR near Northam.

[40m]
9

bain

bec

Kingham

Northam

Strong auroral flutter noted on my signal from VK2,

CW almost un-decipherable.

making the

[80m]
Lots of auroral noise bursts and the auroral flutter was also noticed

on my signal from VK2 at around

1030z.

At around

1100z, the Hoddys Well

KiwiSDR's waterfall display was filled with the auroral buzz display that petered out
around 3580kHz.

Opening

up the display's width showed that it extended down to

3510kHz, then also petered out;

| wonder why?

FIOM

Manny

VAOSUNG

DACKDUITI

[15m & 20m]
On

15m, OM

Edi was not heard. On 20m, OM

Ross was also

not there.

[40m]
Terrible conditions. Apart from NOISE,

not much else was

heard. Just as well that OM

Peter VK3WOW

the rescue and really made

my night with a SUPERB

From John VK5ET

came

in time to
QSO.

at Hope Valley

[40m]
Conditions, VERY

noisy, dead as a dormouse as far as stations

around.

[80m]
VERY

noisy, same on 20 & 15 mts. No stations heard. Waterfall

(Iron Stone Range SDR) displayed practically ALL noise. Better luck
next time???

From David VK6KD

at Ballajura WA

[40m]
40m

Band sounded

dead

until about 8pm

WST. A few stations could be heard but all too
fast for me to decode.

Very strong QSB

signals popped up strong then faded to
nothing. Very challenging. Sorry no QSOs
achieved. There is always next week. 73s to all.

[80m]
80m sounded

dead all night.

| thought my antenna must have fallen down.

Poor

conditions from the West were reported by others on the Post Morsum net Wed
morning so | feel a bit better. 73s

meee

IAL

SR er

— -L...~
tL

FIOM

JOnNnN

VASJBOE

dal

DeeCnwortn

[40 & 80m]
I'm still listening on the SDRs

for which

| was served up

weak signals on 40 and 80 and steady broad noise. |
just managed

to hear a call sign from VK3MJ

on 40

then QSY'd to 80 for a few weak scratches on the
a
offer

waterfall making the VK2WI

beacon the best on

and listened to it for ~ 20 minutes. The evening finished off listening to

https://morsecode.world/international/trainer/headlines.html on my laptop at 18wpm
with Farnsworth set to 15wpm.

That little bit of extra time makes a big difference.

find this arrangement allows for head copy getting the occasional word. So still a
good evening, just not yarning with the key. 73

From John VK2RU

at Munderoo

[40m]
| had to take my antennas down when
came through, and then put them

a storm

back up a few

hours later. There was very little activity showing on
20m, 40m and 80m

bands.

| checked a few signals

that were on 40m. All were very weak, and very
difficult to copy. They sounded

like they were being

sent from the deep end of a swimming

From Daniel VA6WE

pool.

at Cottesloe
[40m]

The band was dead and remained so as | sent CQ
repeatedly.

| bailed out after 15 minutes intending to

return later but was overtaken by other duties.
like beautiful auroras may cancel AR?

Cram

Ban

VLTRAE

Uakhart

Seems

EVE

cal

PF Wee

[40m]
| didn't have much luck with QSO's from down
here in Tasmania. Not for lack of trying. The
band was just dead. Occasionally, I'd see a very
small signal peeping it's head up in the waterfall
but way too weak for me to copy. Any sending
was met with silence. | was hoping to catch
someone local but not this time. Being a
newbie, my assessment of the situation was that
Tasmania, which was hampering any signals
coming in or going out. | did notice on the rag
chew that quite a few operators were successful
over on the mainland.

From Patrick VK2IOW between Bathurst and Orange

reports, it was perhaps not a bad day to miss. It may have
been interesting trying to listen for the DXperiment stations,
though | suspect it would have been a vain attempt.

Reporting
After next Tuesday’s Group, please remember to send me a
worked

list of who you

and / or who you heard using our web form here:

bit.

ly/COORSNET

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:
cgarsnet

mail.com

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.

VIMIMIIIVIVIVIVIVIVIVIVIV
Pant

Aflauarsnee

Leesan

ANAL

FUSL MUISUI Z1St valluary 2UZ0
From Richard VK6HRC.
Six on the South West repeater and AllStar/ Echolink hub this morning.

VK5ET

~~ John

VK6KD

David

VK6NW

Wayne

VK6QI

Mark

| SK
7 Century
CC
Straight Key
Club

VK6HRC
VK6MRB

Mulligan swl and others.

The depressed conditions from solar storm had a big impact on the QRS net.
John heard nothing of the DX crew on 20m and monitored Phil VK6GX and
Maity VK5AO on 40m for a while.
David focussed on 40m not hearing anything for a while until some DX was heard
but not at QRS speed ! He let us know he will be retiring in a few weeks and
hopefully have more time for AR.
Wayne had a contact with Mark VK2KI on 80m, nothing on 40m or 20m.
Mark struggling with weak signals managed a contact with Tim VK5AV on 40m
exchanged SKCC numers and One on 80m with Wayne VK6NW, nothing on 15m
or 20m.
| called at regular intervals on 40m, nothing in the log unfortunately. | caught up
with Ron VK6KHZ on UHF and he was not hearing me calling, usually not a
problem across town. Keeping an eye on the WhatsApp spots and following the
activity only heard occasional weak signals sporadically.
Thank you to all on last night and this morning
73 Richard.

This Week’s Topic of
Interest
Wabi-sabi?
The Guessing
by Ross

ware?!

Ww LIA

Game

MONNK

wWaDIl-saDli ¢
From

Ross MONNK

I’m going to start with a ridiculously general assumption - if the “average” operator on
our QRS Net was asked their Morse speed, they might reply “12 words per minute”.
We quantify our performance like that in order to assess our progress and, less
usefully, to compare ourselves with other operators.
A moment's thought, however, will reveal how meaningless that number is. Is there a

difference between your sending speed and your copying speed? | bet there is. Does
your copying rely on Farnsworth spacing? If so, what is your comfortable character
speed? There are plenty of variables there already, but let me give you yet another
way of looking at this...
| admire the CW operators who excel at Message Handling (Stan ZL3TK is our
resident expert). They aim, as did the professional operators of old, for 100%
accuracy. But in my (albeit, limited) experience, that is not the way Morse is sent and
received between most amateur radio operators. Based purely on a gut feeling, here
are a couple of graphs in explanation:
leo

wee ANC

cofiED

2s-

(SED)

LSet —

zS
ll

You might disagree with my assertion that very slow Morse is hard to copy, but the
important part is that most people don’t copy 100% of what they hear. Morse is,
therefore, a Guessing Game. The other, less important part of the graph is that most
operators can copy some Morse sent faster than their comfortable speed; it’s just that
at some point they may not be able to copy enough to make sense of the message.
Here’s the second graph:

CO
This one is fairly obvious - the other operator’s sending is never going to be error
free, and will become rapidly less accurate if he tries to go faster than his optimum

speed. Once again, due to the sender’s errors this time, Morse becomes a Guessing

Game. Both operators are making errors on both sending and copying - it’s a miracle
that we manage to communicate at all! The fact that we do is, at least partially, down
to the fact that humans are used to dealing with complex and incomplete information

- we are naturally Good Guessers.

Given the above, | now regard errors (both my own and those of my fellow operators)
as all part of the fun and games of Morse code - I’ve learnt to enjoy The Guessing

Game.

According to Google, “Wabi-sabi” is ‘the Japanese philosophy and aesthetic
centered on finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness’. For
example, this bowl...

So, what do you think - should we aim for the same high standards as the old pros,
or should we embrace the imperfect? Be sure to let our Ragchew editor, Mark, know

your opinion! cqgrsnet@gmail.com

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:

see Articles below.

Please email

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

for

On My workbencn
UNUN

for an End-Fed

From John VK3BSE

Half-Wave

at Beechworth
Update from

Last week | outlined development of an
UNUN

Beechworth

From John VK3BSE

for my new end-fed half-wave

Hi Mark and editors.

antenna.

The toroid part is a step-up auto

shack is near the end
of the block and the

transformer of 14 turns tapped at 2 turns
for the 50 Ohm
(14/2)*2

side.

feedline can go straight
out of the shack and
up.

The Z ratio is

= 49:1.

For a 50 Ohm

input, the high Z side its 50

x 49 = 2450 Ohms,

hence the load

73 John VK3BSE

resistors for the Vector Network Analyser
test was 2200 + 220 = 2420 Ohms,

near

enough.
These resistors in series were placed across the full 14 turns, high Z to
ground. These are 1/4W carbon resistors, plenty for Nano VNA power.
A capacitor was placed across the low Z (2 turns) section to compensate
for leakage flux (non ideal transformer where 2 windings are not perfectly
magnetically coupled, some
make

magnetic flux of the driven winding doesn't

it to the core and secondary winding) - the effect is that the Z

looking into a transformer winding includes an effective inductance even
though the other winding

is terminated

into a resistive load.

A capacitor in

parallel with the 2 turn winding goes some way to compensate for this.
The effect is observed

by increasing the matched

bandwidth from a few

MHz at the low end to being useful from 3.5 to 35 MHz.
The little broadcast variable capacitor is for development use only;
adjusted it while watching for the best band width (2420 Ohm
measure

load) then

its capacitance - in my case 125pF which was then replaced with

a high Voltage fixed capacitor.

The use of high voltage capacitors Is not

because | have kV on the line (1OOW to a 50 Ohm

load is only 71V RMS or

about 100V peak), it is because their capacitance value is stable wrt
applied voltage. Even different types of ceramic dielectric have different
Voltage responses.
All good fun.
73 de vk3bse dit dit
[Thanks John.

You know, I'd noticed the recent use of a capacitor in such

BALUNs and UNUNs,

but had not understood why they were there.

“Wouldn’t happen in my day” - HI!
using a low-cost Nano

develooment work so much better!

A Vacuum
From

liict

Tube

Thank you for the explanation - and

VNA for this sort of thing just makes the

Terrific article.]

Transmitter

Martin VK6M]

far

fiin

lvwa

haan

woarkina

valva

tranemitter

far

tha

hand

- ta

jMr~w>

iwi

circulate DAB+

WNIT

OVW

WI!

ISSUE

DSS)

wit

VUuUAI

sourced radio in my home.

UMP

TWIP

PPrrPuuNl

iwt

FUT E

RAMA

It is finished now and working

very nicely. The carrier is stable and the modulation

is excellent with no

distortion.

The large
transformer
provides the
filament voltage
(5v) for the 5Z4G
rectifier tube and
the smaller
transformer
provides the B+
(HT) for all three
valves and the
filament voltage
(6v) for the other
two valves.
The black can on the
right is a 50mm

pvc

tube with pickle jar
lid to keep fingers
away from the
oscillator coil inside
which carries 250v
plate voltage of the
L2AU7.
Everything for this
project came from
the junk box.
lt has been fun and has given me a great sense of satisfaction. The article
was published in Electronics Australia, May 1989 and can be found at:
https://nzvrs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/mate-low-power-amtransmitter.pdtf
| wanted to transmit in AM

using valves to match a valve receiver.

Start the electrical restoration of the receiver shortly.
condition, and so all those caps have to go!

| will

It is in original

| will check and replace any

resistors that need it throughout, and then do an alignment.
| will add this photo and the circuit diagram to the members’

section of the

Peel Amateur Radio Group website, but ask mark If you’d like a copy
cqqrsnet@gmail.com

The room transmitter will give this
1931 Airzone radio receiver
something to listen to as AM
broadcast stations in WA
disappear from the Medium
band.

Cheers,

Wave

Martin VK6MJ

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

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

CW
Compiled

know;

see Articles below.

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

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 wpm.
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
are attached

fable is ‘The Crab

and

His Mother’,

has been removed.

and

the MP3

and TXT files

here -

If you prefer a different soeed or tone you can create your own
converting the text file with the Ebook2CW
https://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html.

app -

MP3 files by

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

player, or load the text file

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

Both options work well, however Ditto CW gives you complete control over
all Morse settings, while a normal

media

player only allows changes to

playback speed, and does that in steps (e.g. +1.25x,

Other
Other things we’ve

1.5x, 1.75x).

News

received

from

our 230-plus

readers.

Newsletter
From

Format

Patrick VK2IOW

fy
|

| read Peter's (VK3 WOW)

letter in

the last RagChew about the

Hit

is
re
be
it

newsletter format. That prompted
me to compose the following
question to the Al Microsoft
Copilot.

| should probably also

ask ChatGPT, since | think it may
be superior to
Copilot. Nevertheless, this is the
response | got from Copilot.
Question

to Copilot:

A smallish group of people (about 200 to 600 people) share a weekly
newsletter containing information on their hobby.

There are multiple

contributors to the newsletter but it is compiled

by a single editor with the

help of asmall group of about 5 other people.

Currently the editor

compiles the newsletter in a program called Mailchimp (mainly used for
email marketing).
composed

In this form | understand that the newsletter is

of a series of image files (eg jpg files).

The editor likes using

Mailchimp, since the members

receiving the newsletter by email don't

have to open an attachment.

He thinks that people often won't open and

read email attachments.

However there is a downside to creating a

newsletter comprised of image files.

The downside is that there is no

searchable text, which limits navigation, searching and archiving of the
newsletters.

Perhaps a different vehicle could be used for the newsletter,

one which would allow better searching and archiving - perhaps having the
newsletter as a pdf file.

The members

of the group may be sufficiently

interested to open an email attachment to read the newsletter.

In this

circumstance the newsletter is coming from a known, trusted source, so |
don't think the members

would be overly worried about acquiring a virus

through clicking on an attachment.
reassuring the members
attachment?
e

What

However is there a way of further

that it would be safe to open such a newsletter

The basic question here is:

is the best format for the newsletter that would

meet

two

objectives:
1. Promote and encourage

members

of the group to read the

newsletter; and
2. Use a format that does not limit navigation, searching,

indexing and

archiving of the newsletter?
Copilot Answer
You've laid out the situation really clearly, Patrick, and you’re not
imagining the tension here: ease of reading versus long-term usability.
Many hobby groups run into exactly this problem as they grow.
Let’s break it down

in a way that respects the editor’s instincts while also

solving the searchability and archiving issue.
The

Core

What

Question

newsletter format encourages

preserves

searchable,

people to read

it and

archivable text?

The good news is: you don’t have to choose between the two. There are
formats that satisfy both goals without forcing the group into attachments
if they don’t want them.
Option

1 — Keep

Email-Body

Delivery,

but Use

Real Text (Best of

Both Worlds)
Instead of sending JPG images inside Mailchimp, the editor could:
Y Build the newsletter in Mailchimp using text blocks, headings, and
images
Mailchimp is designed for exactly this.
e Readers don’t open attachments
¢ The content is fully searchable
« It’s accessible (Screen readers, zooming,
e It archives well

in email

e It can be indexed

etc.)

clients

by Mailchimp’s own archive pages

This preserves the editor’s preferred workflow while solving the
searchability problem.
Why this works
Most people read newsletters in the email body because it feels
frictionless.
If the editor is already comfortable with Mailchimp, switching from JPGs to
proper text blocks is a small change with a big payoff.
Option

2 — Send

a PDF

and a Short Email

Summary

If the editor insists on a PDF, you can still reduce friction.

How to encourage opening the PDF
Put a short, engaging summary
Include a clear link to the PDF

in the email body
(“Full newsletter

here”)

Mention that it’s from a trusted source
¢ Use a consistent file name (e.g., “Newsletter_2026 Week03.pdf”)
¢ Host the PDF on a trusted platform (Mailchimp, Google Drive, OneDrive,
club website)
Reassurance

about safety

People trust attachments when:
* They come from a known sender
* The file type is familiar (PDF is the safest-feeling format)
¢ The email explains what the attachment is
* The group has a consistent pattern (“We always send the newsletter as a
PDF”)
You could even add a line like:
“This PDF is created by the editorial team and hosted on our official site.”
That kind of transparency goes a long way.
Option

3 — Publish the Newsletter on a Website

This is increasingly common

and

Email a Link

for clubs and associations.

Benefits
¢ Fully searchable
¢ Easy to archive
No attachments
¢ No email

size limits

« Members

can browse past issues anytime

¢ Contributors can collaborate more easily
How

it works

¢ The editor publishes each issue as a webpage

(WordPress, Wix, Google

Sites, Mailchimp’s own “landing pages”)
¢ The

contains

a short intro + “Read

This is the most future-proof option.

this week’s

issue”

link

Which Option Best Meets Your Two Objectives?
The only format that fails both objectives is JPG-only newsletters.
My Recommendation
lf the group wants minimal disruption:
Switch from JPG

images to real text inside Mailchimp.

lt keeps the editor’s workflow, keeps the “no attachment”
solves the search/archiving

problem

experience, and

instantly.

lf the group is open to a small change:
Email summary

+ PDF

attachment

or link

This gives you the best archival quality and still feels trustworthy.
lf the group wants the most modern, scalable solution:
Publish on a website

and email a link.

If you want, | can help you:
e Draft a message to the editor explaining the benefits
¢ Compare

Mailchimp’s text-based workflow to PDF workflows

¢ Suggest tools for easy newsletter creation
e Mock up what a text-based

Mailchimp layout could look like

Just tell me which direction you're leaning.
Mark and others have probably already considered these types of things,
anyway,

| thought | would pass it on.

The New Zealand

Net used to send an emailed

a link to the newsletter.

newsletter.

Now they send

| have only been on the NZ Net about once.

couldn't be bothered with all the Q-code abbreviations, too lazy.
Manny

| think

may attend regularly.

Patrick

John

Moyle

National

Field Day

From Tony VK2VIC

I will be in the John Moyle National Field Day as a Single

Op Station 6hr operating from Bimberi Nature Reserve
(VK2).

The location I picked has good elevation to the

west of the ACT.
in with a

parks activation also.

Regards

This is a good opportunity for me to tie

Tony
VK2VIC

Reading

the RagChew

From Andrew VK1DA / VK2DA

Usability Issues with RagChew
From

SEE"

Ie Fe

ees

ar Pane ION pore bang urate vin

some

ee IES
=
;
but not when | use OSX Mail. A quick Google search
a
Pa,
shows that GMail clips
emails, over 102KB, hiding

read

Mark,

AF.
fi
seer
SA
ZG
PPA |
in,
Pa | ey, SINR

in your last issue of RagChew

MNOIS Cr Regcnew

overflowing

in nis-emal

you

mentioned

DENS

content behind a link that reads

Was

GMail reader must either (a) click the "View entire
message"

Reports

newsletter, or (b) click the "View this email in your

708 Know

browser"

“Doulaoa

link
link

that
that

GMail

part

apy

t the

way down

of the newsletter.

what is often a very long newsletter.

As the originator

a
~~

+1,

AAailMhi

Latt

een

C le

t
e

News

b
er

newsletter

:
IS

not

N le

.
.

a le

Z e

,ny

composition tool automatically

link and terminates the email.
depend

h le

}

have clicked the "View this email in your browser" link
Screenshot

t h

the

top

Either way, the reader is going to lose their place in

Coe

7
entire

/
O

.
e|

readers needing to use the web link to
the

"View

SEC ro Men

entire message". To view the whole newsletter, a

+ Link to our Reporting
Form

; on

: t
ere

fave emt bros

Peter VKSWOW

C C

generates the

It may

on how many photos you have included to that point.

But does

mailchimp not have the ability to let you wrap a paragraph around a
photo? Often new paragraphs are seen, which seem to Nave an enforced
paragraph
[Hi Andrew.

break right in the middle of a sentence.
Re:

“..wrap a paragraph around a photo...” -/! wish!

html editing tools in Mail!Chimp are very limited.

The

The enforced paragraph

breaks might be because In MailChimp:
e

the system compiles the work to be viewable on computers,

tablets

and phones (all of which require different formats);
e

when text is broken up into a text block next to an image, followed by
a second text block (like your words above) the software puts a large
gap between the text blocks which 1 can’t change,

and/or

to allow different contributors’ work to be entered without the very
slow insertion of one block at a time, | Use images of word processorgenerated work - and where there’s multipole pages, the images have
large gaps In between - which again, | can’t change. /

A Bit of Friday Afternoon
From

Delight

Richard VK6HRC

Last week’s

Friday afternoon QRS session went well despite the lousy

conditions.
Heard

Max VK6FN

,Wayne VK6NW

and

Morgan VK6OMTF/ MM.
Did post on WhatsApp,

hopefully it was

noticed ?
Thank you
Richard
Di-dit

Morse Training

Net

Our team

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 VK7TAZ on that net.
Many of our team

learned Morse code with the

Support of Nic, and the weekly training session
comes highly recommended

for anyone who

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

Eastern

you'll hear lots of the

team on that net.

Jordan VK3ACU

has

amas
a

net

—

recorded the complete set of lessons which you
can

now

find here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PLHSQmZz6fBXO/swAfbTmutrbbEL1
7fUOL
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.

Weekly

Reminder

Emails

From Andrew VKI1DA / VK2DA

Re the inclusion of the previous week's

=
ae ey

newsletter in the weekly reminder emails, |
=:

think it would be preferable if you include a link
to its location on the website rather than
embedding
someone

the entire previous newsletter. If

has not seen the original email, or

deleted it before reading, it is sufficient for
Si

———

them to go to the website to read it. That
would cut down on duplication in emails. It lets
them

read the newsletter

without the additional email volume.

| Suppose these days most people

have unlimited volume on their email accounts and internet access
accounts, but | still try to limit the amount of email | save.

My gmail

account Is almost at the limit of a free account so | delete from email
anything that Is available on a website once | have read it once.

Mates

From John VK2RU
For some time now
I've been thinking of
trying to find what
our US friends call a
‘code buddy’. Maybe
that's a 'CW mate’ in
Australia - not sure.
4 ee
Sp

MMOMEMAT

ttTa

BIMMWT

ie i

Someone of roughly

= =

similar ability who

POU

a 5

wants to get better,
Ora

Morse Code QSO Mates Sought!

ae: .

| Keen CW operator looking for a dit-full relationship!

Reply to: cqqrsnet@gmail.com

2 s

Sure there are quite a few people around who would be happy to get on
the air more often just to get more confident, to practice sending, or
copying, or trying out a new Key/radio/antenna - whatever - at say 12 to 15
wpm.
Overs could be brief, or up to 5 or 8 minutes maximum.
What do you discuss? The weather, the view out your window, what's
...... anything, except politics, religion, or things that are highly

personal, divisive, or negative. Something

more than the usual 'TU FER UR

RPRT ES FB QSO' etc.
Thoughtful constructive feedback that Is specific and objective would be
important eg,. ‘UR spacing is a bit tight for me’.

Unless we're on the move,

my radio is good to go most days and not getting enough

use.

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

mer
a

Pel

;

easPsi

“

“AS

TOR

iy _

Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club Inc

Lom

ont

pea

rce practice, experimentation and enjoyment of amateur radio!
THE RADIO BULLETIN

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

USB Rig
programming cables
and Windows 11
21/04/2024 - 7:57 PM

Att
toe

Fron
From

Subaru

Coax Install

15/04/2024 - 8:04 PM
Portable Power
10/11/2023

- 10:56

BOM

Propagation

Forecasts

From Andrew VK1DA / VK2DA
Re the forecasts of poor propagation,

| suspect

those forecasts are aimed at daytime users.
The 40m

je
Let's yak about the day, discuss dinner plans, or share a few laughs.
Ee __ No heavy topics, just good old ragchew.

very patient experienced operator who Its content to just poke along. I'm

cooking

band in particular has been very poor

during the early morning and gradually coming
alive later in the day, then being very effective
later in the evening from sunset onwards.
Looking at the T-index maps, you

see where the conditions may change every 15 minutes and a big red

Splotch across most of VK in the daytime fades and is replaced by a
gradually increasing area of good propagation

later in the day and into the

evening. A useful link Is https://sws.bom.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/9.

IPad

Remote

From

Andrew

iPad

devices
The iPad

peri

(Apple

of Transceivers

VK1LDA

Wtefl and o-atency CW Keying
Remote

MAC,

version

Control

witt

Control

iPad or iPhone)

trol

lam continuing to use the remote control

of Transceivers

appf

software to use the Icom 7610 at my home in

ham-radio-apps.com
for |OS

written by Markus

Roskosh

DL8MRE.

Yass.

for |

Ethernet or wifi connection,
website. They
al
h

2 oe tein

| have a third option, this one runs on the

lpad and Is very impressive.

dreaded FT8 mode.

—

eee ee

nothing like as good as the human brain, | ran it

on the morse practice transmission on 3699
from VK2WI

text with no QRM

It even runs the

But its CW reader is

and even a constant speed of plain

its not particularly impressive with lots of unexpected

errors and missing words.

| have even used this software connecting to

the internet via the phone, which always surprises me how well it works.

Wanted

- Used

From

Don

ZLIDRS

lam

interested in where to find a

used paddle.

Paddle

| have one that has

been loaned to me but | would
like to get my own.
If | get good at CW then | would
love to get a really nice one, but
to start with |

hoping to have something

a little nicer than a 3D printed one (which |

can print).
Regards
Don
ZLIDRS

[Reply to: cggrsnet@qmail.com if you can helo our new team member
Don.]

Jules Workshop

Videos

From Jules VK3JFP
Jules Workshop

Its available free for anyone wanting to study and prepare

for their Foundation or Advanced
Several requests prompted

amateur licence.

me to develop training videos on the texts

already available on the site.

Thanks to Al, these videos are being voiced

by a more interesting voice than mine.
| hope anyone using the site will get a greater understanding of the study
material from the two mediums.
Happy New Year to all.
Jules Perrin JP

0457585974
VK3JFP
www.julesworkshop.net

lan VK1HF

Supporting our

veterans.

Gilchrist

| have this key also if anyone Is keen - It is one of those Amazon
keys, which, for the money are not so bad! plus it comes with a
custom designed 3D printed base with magnets so it snaps in VERY satisfying!!! open to offers - | will just stick It in a post box
with some bubble wrap. offers do not include postage of course.
5:46 pm

Also up for grabs Is a fullyfunctional Morserino-32

Morse

trainer/keyer — the classic,
compact CW

learning and practice

device that’s earned

its reputation

with serious operators. This unit is
complete and ready to use,
including a LiPo battery anda
custom

3D-printed internal

battery cradle, which securely
holds the battery in place (no
rattling, no movement — a
genuine usability upgrade).

It also includes a 3D-printed
protective outer case (as shown
the photos), making

it ideal for

desk use, portable operation, or
tossing into a go-bag.

Full

transparency: the external slot
alignment isn’t perfectly matched
to the Morserino’s connectors —
purely cosmetic and does not
affect operation.

If the buyer

wants a corrected case, I’m happy
to reprint one for an agreed
additional cost.
Note: this is the original
Morserino-32

platform and not to

be compared

with the M32

Pocket

— which is a beautiful device in its
own right, but a different form
factor and use case altogether.
Legend

has it that a device

remarkably similar to this one was
used in a secret room

beneath

Station X during WWII, where
Allied codebreakers practised
Morse late into the night while
intercepting German
traffic. Some

U-boat

say this very unit (or

one uncannily like it) helped a
distant relative — my greatgrandfather's uncle’s brother’s
nephew — fall hopelessly in love
with CW, setting off a chain of
events that may or may not have
altered the course of the war. It’s
also been whispered that German
Submariners feared its rhythmic
beeps echoing through the
Atlantic. Or... something

that*.
This is a complete

Morserino-32

package — battery and case
included — at well under new-toAustralia pricing. I’m asking
around A$140-A$150,

open to

sensible offers. Hams

local to VK1

can knock $10 off for doorstep
pickup, which saves me the pain
of a post-office run and gives you
a better deal.
*Story is not real. Added

purely

for comedic value. If the story
sounds unbelievable, that’s
because it absolutely is.

cgarsnet@gmail.com

if you’d like more information from lan VK1HF.

Aurora

Images

from This Week’s

Photos taken near Beechworth
the GLW

Geomagnetic

Storm

(good lady wife) Robyn.

There was that much

going on it

was Impossible to get it all in one
Shot.

No colour to my naked eye

but plenty in the camera.
Cheers,
Warren

VK3BYD

From Jordan VK3ACU
auroral halo - bumping
the Southern States.

And

over there -

from

Rob VK6LD

- The
into

Albany at around
LOpm.

From James VK/JZ’s
back deck.... not
bad from Hobart city
with all the light
pollution.

James

reported that “it
messed

with the

radios”!

First Straight

Key QSO

From James VK/JZ and Jens VK4PE
Jim VK7JZ and | had a QSO on Sunday. After calling and interchange of the
RST the signal faded. We are both very happy.

2500 km with QRP

transceivers on both sides. Jim was on a mountain top. | ask my friend John
Kirk and he recommended

20 m during the day and it worked

My next project is to have a QSO

perfectly.

;

with an amateur in New Zealand.
Peter Parker wrote you can do it

5
ee

on 40 m with 3 Watts and another

: i it!Ty

)

1
=|
ie

ees
ai|

7
E

;

IS your experience?

eee
pa

| !

aem

|
Uh
it!

7
r MP Wo

oe ErstH Aula:
ftr AVA1

amateur told me the best time to
do it is early in the morning. What

A \)Ne
,

iil

bidet
_

a
=

tl
ri

=
au

VK7IZ

18.01.2026

| 85:63)

/
i

——

—

ia
it i 2 aie
ad
A
Te

CONFIRMING QSO WITH | DAY / MONTH / YEAR | UTC TIME |

£f! ve——

|
iI
— aNoe He ae je fal 1 | a
i in

_
=r
Ee

ES
ae
2

.
iy
y il

q
Me

r ai
|

a
ee)

|
|

TL
UIT SGA

MODE

RST

28m

| 259

Rig

Elecraft

Pan
a

KX1
:

PWR

OH3@IR

PSE OSL ae

32 Watt

Wire

crip

digigs!.cam

Anyway

| am very happy it worked

out so well for Jim and me.

The

TNX FER QS0, VY 73 DE

—=—

BAND

re |

:
‘

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
Around 4pm Tassie time this afternoon | plan to be on top of

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
RR, I'll post after the QSO with Jens. Its been planned a while,
Jens sent me a straight key as a gift, never had areal QSO ona
straight key. Its only right | try for Jens first. My spacing will be
terrible, anyone listening will be aghast, then straight back to the
paddle and hopefully can maintain a steady 15wpm. | will be
pushed as | do like my Farnsworth spacing.
1:16 pm

Herringback, VK7/SC-009. When walking with others i dont as a
habit go CW as it's very boring for them. Today | will be alone
and plan to take a paddle and a straight key. Mission plan is:

1) Planned QSO
local.

on straight key with Jens VK4PE

around 16:00

2) Swap to paddle.

Jens VK4PE Grigull

3) Post in our alerts channel and take any contacts that have time
to work me and that the bands allow.

Jim you are doing well.

i:1gpm

Jordan VK3ACU Clarke
I'm happy to give you a straight key contact too if you like Jim
sounds like fun. | don't care how good or bad the sending is .#

4) Then and only then post a SPOT for CW in the Parks n Peaks
and the relevant places that replicate SPOTS and prepare mysel...
12:58pm

ub2

1:19 pm

Tim - VK5AV Hann
Will try and listen out for you.

1:01pm

oe
What is your callsign?

1:02 pm

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
VK7JZ ‘Jim'
1:02pm

Jordan VK3ACU

Clarke

Great @James & Hilary - VK7JZ
try my best to work you

Semmens

I've set an alarm I'll
1:13 pm

@James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens what freq will you be on

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
On with Jens on 14060, 2500 km QRP with lots of QSB

Jordan VK3ACU

4:02pm

Clarke

Ok I'll take alisten

4:04pm

lan VK1HF Gilchrist
pretty sure | just saw you on the waterfall, about S3 I'd say. sorry |
don;t have a key else | would come

Jordan VK3ACU Clarke
got something here before but nota lot

back to you!

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens

4:11pm

Are you trying any other bands today @James & Hilary - VK7JZ
Semmens

4:11pm

Tim - VK5AV Hann
Nothing here

4:11pm

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
Ok, success with Jens, exchanged calls and signal reports, then
faded. Rigging for 40 metes then will post over in alerts. Jordan i
will battle on with the striaht key if you have the patience.

4:13 pm

ue 2
lan VK1HF

Gilchrist

love to see some pics and location pin Jim!
ie location in whatsapp

4:15pm

James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
eens ¥

‘

ck 2
Tim - VK5AV Hann
Id be happy to work your straight key if we can hear each

other. |

lan VK1HF

4:15pm

nice!

sing SK.

QsB coming

Gilchrist
4:16pm

and going, | need to listen for a few call cycles
5:57pm

David VK4JM Thurstun
Bands are very quiet in vk4 today, alot of storms
James

& Hilary - VK7JZ

5:58pm

Semmens

Thanks David, that was one where waiting helped, at times 119
and barely heard, then 559, comes and goes with QSB
6:03pm

David VK4JM Thurstun
Yep tough conditions but you're in the log, thanks for
persevering!
James

& Hilary - VK7JZ

6:04 pm

Semmens

OK, QRT now. Special shout out to Jens VK4PE. Today | had my
first straight key QSO, first summit qualified on a straight key.
Thankyou to Jens for the generosity of the key. Now it's time to
pack up and get of this mountain. Good night all...
6:36 pm

&4
Allegations of speeding

Late to the party. Listening on Snowline.

46pm

4:04pm

'aka Mark' rejected.

S)!!_—

Edited

6:36pm

4:07 pm

Jordan
=

VK3ACU

Clarke

Great stuff @James & Hilary - VK7JZ Semmens
I'm ready on 40
if you want to have a straight key contact when urready
4:16pm

You
Late to the party. Listening on Snowline.
7032?

James

& Hilary - VK7JZ

4:18pm 4

Semmens

4:22 pm

James

& Hilary - VK7JZ

Semmens

7.085
TU.
James
}

& Hilary - VK7JZ

| just noticed all the 40m CW contacts were on 5w.
plug external battery in. Rigging for 20m and CW...

4:41pm 4

Semmens
Forgot to
5:47pm

David VK4JM Thurstun
@James
9°

& Hilary - VK7JZ

Semmens

I'm on 14.046

and in a park

if you want a contact
James

& Hilary - VK7JZ

5:55pm
Semmens

RR, going to 14.046

5:55pm
Vv

Update

from

As it happened
QRS

David VK3DBD/ZL
| had a long evening alone and fired up for a session on the

net, starting

of course

with the DX of DL3YZ

and

G7BED

etc and

any

other takers I might hear.
Like the ostrich | might as well have
| would have drowned
still doing so now ( Wed

buried my head in the sand.

evening).

20m was dead 40m

KQUIY weak but we had a QSO - much to my Surprise
heard

had one signal
- he was only signal

all evening.

Later | heard about the solar disturbance - worst for 20 years.
seems

Actually

doing so as rain was falling all day and all night and

it is still the same, and a local emergency

from the weather bureau in Northland

message

And it

has just come

"prepare for floods and /or

evacuation".
Fortunately we are on the high side of a valley so doubt we will need to
take to the boat.
Torrential rain on the roof is deafening and
quite warm - like 26C.

temp is

Bands are seriously dead,

water tanks overflowing and looks as if there may be a
few more hours of wet.
73 to all David

VK3DBD/ZL

Bay of Islands

POSITIONS VACANT
Morse Code QSO Mates Wanted!

aaa *y

| Seeking friendly CW operators for casual Morse code practice.
fe | All sending speeds welcome, but faster operators may
| have to slow down.

es ; Happy to chat about the weather, daily doings,
}

|
a

or what's for dinner.

No politics, no drama, just dits and dahs!

If you can tap, let's yap!

Reply to: cqqrsnet@gmail.com

Bie wes

lf 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:

There’s

see Articles

cgqgrsnet@gmail.com

Such

Thing...
This week’s
| think the first lesson in Teachering

questions.

101 is to always tell students “There’s

no such...” (I’m sure you know the rest) and “...the only dumb
are the ones not asked”. John VK2RU
out there among

questions

reckons that there’s lots of questions

both our new and our experienced operators - about CW,

amateur radio operating and about theory.

So John didn’t step backwards

quickly enough when asked to volunteer to compile readers’ questions;
thanks mate.
So here we go...

mma

Arborist Throw Line
In RagChew

Edition 03/2026

last week |

responded to a question from John

comps
i 250807 |

cineerivectoayanneon

VK5ET about portable antennas, and said

ee Yc

mera nie
i re

that I’d bought an Arborist Throw Line to

cstyech yon mata voaeneore

help get portable antennas up trees.

[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-Ve
figuration
offa single squid-pole (one is Andrew VK1DA /
VK2DA from our group). | have mainly
I
let rather than as an

During the week | had the following query from Patrick VK2IOW:
/ see in the newsletter you bought one of these on eBay.

Can you supply

some brief, further info, eg cost, what weight works for you etc.

For many

years now | have taken part in a small weekend CW net and / think one of
the members Is considering putting an antenna in a tree at his QTH.

might tind this info useful, though | believe it takes practice to get good at
using one of these lines..

response:

This is what | bought from
Amazon:

THROW

ine

As | said, a 100 foot or 75 foot one
would have been smaller and fine
for most situations (I can’t throw
high enough to need

3.9 i & WW iz (106)

150’!

For a once-of antenna erection, I'd just go with the builder's twine from the
hardware store - useful for other things then.

Finding an oval or boat-

Shaped 8 ounce sinker is a bit tricky - fishing shops usually.
a smooth

rock in a fine mesh

Alternatively,

bag (eg a small supermarket mesh fruit bag -

eg avocardo bag) might work too.
| went for the arborist line because | wanted

a solution that didn't waste

too much time when operating portable for PARKS / SOTA / caravanning.
Amazing

rope - doesn't tangle.

Wind

finger, stuff it in the bag and when

it around your thumb and little

it comes out - no tangles!

And what’s

more, unlike builder’s twine, it doesn’t stick to tree bark - so if it goes up,
usually it comes down too.

If it gets hung up, pull it back a bit and let it

drop, or give the line some

little tugs, and amazingly, down

it'll come.

And

the other thing Is the little canvas bag - full of lead shot - so it’s nice and
soft if it hits something

Have

unexpected.

you

seen Jordan
VK3ACU's
drone with
releasable
payload
hook?
That's what
I'd like one

day!

[Do you have a question or two that are worth sharing?
discussion-starter?
them to John

How about a

Please let me know cgarsnet@gmail.com

and /’// pass

VK2RU for compilation each week. /

Prosign/Character/Sig
nal of the Month
See

if you

can

use this one on Tuesday!

swwegene

Meaning:

Stand

ElUlCU

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

Tell us how you went!]

Di-dah-di-dah-dit
Here we

So back to the CQQRS

Next Tuesday’s

Slow CW QSO

go.

practice net.

Net

Our CQQRS

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

about 1200z;

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

Details page for details.

Coordinated Universal Time
;
;
;
(Note - 20m DXperiments will start at a different time if required)

Australia

0600z to 1200z

Western Australia Time

UTC + 8 Hours

1400 to 2000

Central Australian Time

UTC +10.5 Hours

1630 to 2230

UTC +11

Eastern Australian Time

Hours

1700 to 2300

Queensland Time

UTC + 10 Hours

1600 to 2200

Na Time

UTC +13 Hours

1900 to 0100

New Zealand

06002 to O900z

Band

Frequency

20m

14039-14051kHz

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

0600z to 1200z

40m

7020kHz - roars

atm

3535kHz - 3560kHz

160m

1855kHz (-5kHz for QRM)

7To00

To20
jj

40m

j _ =¥|

rts

;

j =¥

ORO

7040
||

j i ¥j

oo)

3500

CO ORS Net

3535.

80 m ~

ORO

1800

3560

“la

CO ORS Net
1855.

=
1875

Thanks to Lance VATTO for the GOQRS band-plan

&
22002 - 23002
UTC)
(Tuesday

Wednesday (VK/ZL)
ee

WA FM AllStar Network

(Use AllStar to connect to Node 42482 or use
Echolink to connect to VK2KI-L)

Doesn't matter whether you’re brand new and want to try just exchanging
callsigns and RST reports, or you’re ready for a good old rag chew.

We'll

have fun.
There's usually people around until after 1200z - so keep calling in the
segment of the band designated
someone.

in the table below until you catch

| should be on as usual from home

in NSW or via the Remote at

Bedfordale WA, and I'll also be watching the proceedings using the VK6QS
and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW

Reports

respectively.

Hope to hear you there.

& Photos

Please let us know via our Reports form bit.ly/COORSNET who you work or
hear on Tuesday’s Group.

The report form closes at lunchtime (Eastern

Australian time) on Thursday.
And how about helping to make the reports even more interesting by
sending a photo?
please email it to:

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

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? You bet!
Writing not your strong point?
much

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 33 contributors:

DL/MONNK, VK1DA,

VK1HF, VK2IOW, VK2RU, VK2VIC, VK3ACU, VK3BSE, VK3BYD,
VK3DRQ,

VK3JFP, VK3WOW,

VK4BRO,

VK5CZ, VK5ET, VK6GX, VK6HRC,
VK6NW,

VKORR, VKOWE,

VK3CLD,

VK4JM, VK4PE, VK5A0, VK5AV,

VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6LD, VK6M},

VK7JZ, VK7ME

you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI

and ZLIDRS.

And a special thank

(head of software development),

Patrick VK2IOW

(reports coordinator), John VK2RU

(spreadsheet wrangler),

Richard VK6HRC

(Post Morsition) and Lance VK7TO

(technical editor and bit

magician).

Great work all!

€U CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI

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

Ross MONNK’s “creepy hand” key, just six months ago

—>

Bey gear ey
Cit

About

the

Here’s where
For the current schedule

and

QRS

Net

you'll find the details.

information

about the CQORS

net,

please go the the Net Details page on our website:

https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite

The opinions expressed

in the RagChew newsletter are those of the individual
contributors.
The opinions do not necessarily reflect that of the editor or of the 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

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