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Dean

- VK3DL

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RagChew

Edition 12/2026

Lamson

Cats are always so helpful when trying to measure
out wire for an antenna.
Thanks this week to Dean VK3DL from Geelong for this useful tip!

Link to our Reporting

Form

Dah-di-dah-di-dah

Sideways

In-Circuit Component

e CW

Paddling

Practice

Tester

5:04pm

RSS

Redfest 26 - 11Apr26

Band

Plan

e Another
e

Morse Training

e The
e

Posters

On-Line

Long

Baofeng
Dual

Morse

Net

UV-5R

Club

Reverse

Measurement

Receivers and

e John

Mates
Moyle

Frequency
- Cat-II Support

Front-End

Protection

Wanted
National

Not Quite

RandomGram

e There’s

Communicator

Island CW

e Antenna
e

Field Day - This Weekend

Ready?
#41

- This Sunday

No Such Thing
Form

How

Portable Antenna

to Call One

Learning

Feature
Station
Wire

- Straight Key,

Paddle

Prosign

| hear Tell

Di-dah-di-dah-dit - including fuzz ball

or Bug?

of the Month

e About the CQ QRS

Group

Dah-di-dah-di-dah
G'day from what Nigel G4RWI
headquatered
the 250+

dubbed

CQQRS HQ.

at Beautiful South Bowning,

Well it might be

but in reality - CQQRS

is about

operators and readers distributed world-wide.

| think most people enjoyed good conditions on last Tuesday’s CQQRS
CW

Practice QSO

show that everyone had FUN!
compiled

Slow

Net.... the reports that readers contributed this week

by John VK2RU

| love going through the log spreadsheet

and reading the reports compiled

VK2IOW - all from your contributions.

Thank you one and all - your work to

send us a report after every net - and make them
good for keeping our team

by Patrick

interesting - is just so

reading and returning when they can ona

Tuesday.
So this week we had 75 stations heard or worked

by at least 51 of our

CQQRS family on Tuesday - isn’t that great?
Thank you to the 40 people who contributed written material for this
week’s RagChew

as well - fabulous!

We have another thought-provoking

article by Ross MONNK - this time about paddle orientation would you
believe?

We also have an interesting article about a very simple in-circuit

component tester from my neighbour (and now SWL) Jack.
Stan ZL3TK tells us about another on-line CW communicator,
about the Long Island CW Club, a trick with the Baofeng

we learn

UV-5R, and Paul

VK3KLE tells us a bit about protecting the front-end of separate receivers
used when

on air.

Paul also provides a hint about pausing

if needed when

responding to a call.
I’m also pleased to see another bundle of responses to some of our
previous

7There’s No Such Thing questions,

plus a new curly question -

hopefully prompting advice from our trained and/or experienced operators
out there;

standing-by for advice on the new or older questions please.

So this weekend, the John Moyle National Field Day returns to Oceania.

I’d

love to see some of our QRS family out there having a go on CW... wouldn’t
it be great if we could turn it around, and like SOTA and Parks, make CW
de rigueur... and even, preferred!

CW contacts count for 2 points as well.

| think many operators (et mo/s aussi are turned off these events because
of the log-submission

requirements;

the volunteers who run the contests

have a life too - can you imaging manually reviewing the logs, especially
where there are so many people who are serious about contests;
know what the answer is!
However,

so! don’t

even if you aren’t going to have a go yourself (either in the field

or from home),

please help make it worth-while for the CW operators who

do - by giving them a

call if you hear them calling “CQ NFD” or “CQ TEST” -

all they need is your callsign, a three digit serial number (001, 002, etc)
and “QSL” when you copy theirs.
blocks from 0100z;

The event is divided up into 8 three-hour

you can re-work a station in each block... | expect

things will get busy just before and just after 0400z, 0700z, etc.
And if you hear one of our people in the contest, please do not be tempted
to post an Alert on our WhatsApp

group - to do so could disqualify them -

skeds etc are not allowed.
So the fun starts at mid-day (Eastern Australian Summer Time) on
Saturday and goes for 24 hours - check it out.
So enough

hovering.... let’s go - please enjoy the read (and let me know if

you do or don’t - cqqrsnet@gmail.com

New

Team

Members

Welcome this week to my neighbour Jack Child.

Jack retired from NASA a

while back and moved to Beautiful South Bowning

NSW,

next door to me.

He has been tinkering with electronics and radio since High School having built and enjoyed AM

broadcast and Short Wave

never quite made the leap into amateur radio.

receivers - but

These days he enjoys

restoring antique radios, but recently bought a Short Wave

receiver with a

regenerative detector and BFO, and has started listening-in to our gettogethers.

So far, | haven’t heard any forward leakage from the

regenerative detector (Donald VK6JDM

gave a good account of

regenerative receivers in last week’s RagChew
luckily there’s some

in case you missed

IF stages and a front-end in the way.

for Jack’s sanity... he may have started learning the Code!
joined us in style - he’s already contributed
Workbench

below.

However,

it)...
| fear

So Jack has

his first article - see On My

Thanks for the article Jack, and welcome... don’t say |

didn’t warn you though!
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 - on behalf of the CQQRS
newsletter.
dit-dit

Editorial team, please enjoy the

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South
Bowning NSW

cqgrsnet@agmail.com

Patrick
VK2IOW
Milthorpe NSW

John

Richard
VK6HRC
Padbury WA

Lance
VK7TO
Margate TAS

VK2RU
on a track
somewhere

non impediti ratione cogitationis

Nigel
G4RWI
our other grey
nomad

Reports

& Comments

Here’s this week’s

Last Tuesday’s

reports.

Group

With thanks to Nigel G4RWI’s clever software, and John VK2RU’s
spreadsheet work, here’s the 75 stations heard by 51 members

of our

team on Tuesday:
CQQRS Team

Member

Qsoil1

QSsO 2

QSO

aso 4

aso5

OS06

VK6KHZ

VK6RR

VK2KI

VK5C2

VK/TO

DL3Y¥Z

Worked 20m | VK3DRQ |

| VK3DBD|

ZL3TK

G7BED

Worked 20m | VK3BWN | OH6GNPV | VK3DRQ|

VK2KI

G7BED

Heard 20m

K9IV

G7BED

Tried 20m

7ZL3TK

VK1IAO

Heard on air

VKIWA

Heard on air

VK2GR

Heard on air

VK2KI

Worked 20m)

VK2KI

Heard 20m | VK3DROQ |

VK2KI

Worked 40m | VK2RU/P

G/BED

ZL3TK

VKSET/P | VK6MTF | VK6PZT | VKSKFG |

VK6GX

VK2KI

Heard 80m |

VKGNQL

VK/TO

Worked 40m)

VK3ADX |

VK3DRQ

VK2KI

VK2RU

Heard 40m |

VKOKHZ

VK3ECH |

VK3JFR | VK3ADT | VK3KLE | VK5A0 |

VK3ACU

Worked 40m | VK3EPW

VK3JFR

VK7TO

VK7JZ

VK2GR

VK5C7

VK5CZ

VK7JIZ

VK3ADX

Heard on air

VK3BWN

Worked 20m)

VK3BWN

Worked 40m | VK3DRQ |

ZLIDRS

VK3BWN

Heard 40m | VK3Z3EPW |

VK3ACU

VK3DBD

Heard on air

ZL3TK

G/BED

VK3DL

Heard 40m | VK3DRQ |

VK3ECH | VK5KFG |

VK3SDRQ

Worked 20m

DL3Y¥Z

G/BED

VK3DRQ

Heard 20m |

VK6KHZ

VK3IU

VK20]

VK3DRQ

Worked 40m | VK3BWN |

VK3ECH | VK5KFG |

VK7JZ

VK2RU

VK3DRQ

Heard 40m | VK3WOW)|

VK3ACU |

ZLIDRS |

VK2GR

VK5CZ

VK3SECH

Worked 40m | VKSET/P | VK3DRQ | VK1WA |

VK5SCZ

VK3ECH

Heard 40m |

VK3ACU

VK7TO

VK7IZ

VK3SECH

Heard 80m

ZL3TK

VK3JFR

Heard on air

VK/7TA |

VK5A0

ZL3TK

VK1AO

VK3KLE

VK7AO |

VK5CT

VK3SKEV

Heard on air

VK3KLE

Worked 40m|

VK3FB

VK20OL

VK3KLE

Worked 40m)

VK3ADT |

VK4CEG | VK3AXB|

VK3RU

Heard on air

Heard on air
Heard on air

VK4BRO

Heard on air

VK4CEG

Worked 40m}

VK3KLE

VK7IZ

VK6KD

VK2RU

VK5CZ

VK6RR

VK2KI

VK3VB

QSO8

DL3YZ
VKGNW

VK2KI

VK3WOW

QSO 7

Z7L3TK

VK4CEG
VK4IM
VK4IM
VK4IM
VK5A0
VK5SAV
VKS5SAV
VK5AV
VK5AV

VK5CZ |

VK7ZJZ

VK5SCT

Heard on air

VK5CZ
VKSET
VKSET
VKSET

VKSIP

VKS5ET

Worked 80m

VKSET
VKSFD
VKSFD
VK5SKFG
VK5KFG
VK5KFG
VK6FN

Heard 80m | VKSKFG
Worked 40m | K5ET/P
VKS5CZ
Heard 40m | VK3BWN | VK3ACU | VK3DRQ|}
Worked 40m | VK3DRQ
Heard 40m | WK3ECH
VK5CZ
Worked 80m |
VK2KI
Worked 40m | VK6KHZ

VK6GX

Heard on air

VK6HRC

Heard on air

VK2KI

VK5AO |

VKSAV |

VK6IS

Heard on air

VK6JDM
VK6JDM
VK6KD
VK6KD
VK6KHZ
VK6MTF
VK6MTF
VK6MTF
VK6MTF

VK6NQL

Heard on air

VK6NT

Heard on air

VKGNW
VK6ENW
VK6ENW
VK6ENW

VK6PZT

Heard on air

VK6QI

Heard 20m

VK6QI
VK6QI
VK6QI
VK6RR
VK6RR
VK6RR
VK6RR
VK6RR
VK7JZ
VK7JZ
VK7JZ
VK7TA
VK7TA

VK7TO

Heard on air

7LIDRS

Heard on air

ZL1HJ

Heard on air

DL3Y7

G7BED

VK2KI

VKGNW |
VK6KD
VKSKFG |

VK6GX
VK7TO |

ZL3TK

ZL2GD

Heard on air

ZL3TK
ZL3TK
ZL3TK
ZL3TK
ZL3TK
ZL3TK

ZLIDRS |

VK7JZ

VKO6OJK | VKSAV |

VKIAI

VK6RR

VK2KI

VKS5CZ |

VKSET | VK6GX |

ZL2GD | VK2GD |

VK5CZ

VKS5SCZ

VKSIP
VK6IS

VK7IZ

VKSCZ | VKSAO | VKSAV

Comments:
John’s spreadsheet above shows the known stations heard or worked on
last Tuesday’s CQQRS

Net;

the comments

(also submitted via our webform

in the team

members’

bit.ly/COORSNET ) follow.

reports

The comments

were compiled for us by the clever software built by Nigel G4RWI

and the

layout was perfected by Patrick VK2IOW.
Thanks again to Nigel, Patrick and John for the work, and to every team

member who submitted a report -

HU
From Paul

VK3KLE

at Stawell

[80m]

Hi fellow CW operators. This week | was
using my vintage Yaesu

FT101E with

Drake second rec RAC. Key was a
Vibroplex bug. | did send a few errors so

apologies to any stations listening. My
bug hand was rusty LOL.
Most stations were medium

strength, not much

QSB.

Regards Paul, VK3KLE

From Chris G7BED

at Northampton,

England

[20m]
Not great conditions here in the UK this morning,

but workable stations were there and fun was had
regardless. | started early watching the 'huge'
pileup trying to work TXSEU

on 40m,

but thought

the better of it. Then | heard ZL3TK Stan calling
ts

me a number of times, but when | replied,

somebody else decided to call him back (despite

him calling G7BED)

... my apologies Stan, sadly some stations still don't understand

basic radio manners.

| then picked up Mark VK2KI via a WebSDR

exchange.

Mark was just about audible on my ICOM

WebSDR

had to do the leg work - good QSO

Manuel VK3DRQ

and had a brief

7610, but in the end, the

regardless (thank you Mark). Then

called with a great signal (as usual :-) and we had a nice QSO

straight on the rig. Finally, a new VK call me for me, Ketut VA3BWN

with another

great signal into the UK. All in all, a good session for me on the straight key ...
something

I'm not used to. Many thanks to you all, and Stan, I'll get you next time

hopefully. Best 73.

From Mike DL3YZ

at Stuttgart

[20m]
The

hand

tin

here

was

nnisv

than

tisual

Ruiit that

didnt stop us, and

| was happy to work stations from ZL to

VK6 during my shift. Thanks for all the calls; it was a great
pleasure. At the end of the last shift, the DX window was
already closing down and

| was

not able to copy the last

station calling. Sorry for that. Hope we get better
connection

next time. Have a great week. M

From Adam

VK4IM

at Brisbane
[80m]

Sadly, | don't have an antenna for 80m so signals
were very low

From Jim Semmens

VK7JZ

at Hobart

[40m]
What a

blast.

10 stations worked and 2 heard, all on 40

meters.

| am confident this is my best ever turn-out for a

Tuesday QRS night.
on CW

| think | have had more QSO's perhaps

on an occasional summit activation, but those don't

involve a chat as well so are easier work.

Some of my QSO's tonight had a good chat in them for a few minutes and | was
really pleased | asked for very few repeats. That is not to suggest | copied 100%, but
| copied enough to string it together.
Some

QSO's, the hard ones (yes includes you way over in VK6

Peter) were a hard

listen with the headphones pushed against the ear and the frown of concentration
turned on to pull a signal report and a BK out of the hash, so those ones were a

bit

shorter with a TU and 73.

Given

| am a regular complainer about my city QRM,

VK6 from my QTH.

really pleased with my QSO

into

Done it before from a noise free summit or a noise free park, but

never before | don't think from my QTH.

Thanks all for a really enjoyable night, it was
pen as it went down

one.

onto the page and

| came

hard work but | loved every stroke of the
away with an intelligible QSO

for each

73 Jim

From Dean VK3DL
—

at Geelong, Victoria

eed

—

[80m]

Listening only tonight.

From Stan ZL3TK at Waitarere Beach
[20m]
Two weeks

in a row my signals into EU were

reportedly better than signals coming south;
this isn't a permanent trend.

DL3YZ,

| hope

Mike's Live

Station Monitor proved most useful to keep a track
of things, especially to spot frequencies.

| heard

Chris G7BED only well enough to ID him but thena
QRQ

station calling me blotted him out.

sent QRL

Supreme key by Eric Sorenson

Chris commented

on the disrespect too; |

U2 to free up Chris’ channel, but the intruder didn't ‘show his key’ again.

[40m]
Apologies to those |failed to list;

dept. this week.

put it down to disorganization in the paperwork

40 m looked good early on then at ~ 0915Z went strangely dead.

The usual dead-band

symptom

of a noisy waterfall was all that could be seen for

nearly an hour, then it slowly recovered and revealed a
going on.

From David VK6KD
Ty.

a
I

at Ballajura WA

)
aa

lot of lively intra-VK activity

[40m]
Found

Inte

of strana

statinne

across

the

40m

hand

however

PON

most were not traditional morse with different long tone
lengths.

Perhaps serial packets in CW format.

[80m]
| was getting into the VK4 (Townsville) SDR when

self-

tested. Called a few times on 3554KHz and luckily Mark VK2KI picked me up from
SA. TU for the QSO Mark. 73s

From Wayne VK6NW at Bridgetown
[40m]
Conditions were the best | had heard for a while. On
20m

| could just hear Mike DL3YZ

but could not work

him as signals were too weak. On 40m

the band was

alive and full of QRS net stations. It was hard to find a
clear frequency.

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning

NSW

[20m]
Conditions seemed

to be OK this week, and no-

doubt the repaired feed-line on my 80m doubleextended Zepp helped too.
hooked

After many attempts,

up with Chris G7BED,

sending

RSN

521

and receiving RST 229 - tough conditions over
there.

A bit later | worked

Mike DL3YZ, sending

RSN 421 and received RSN 341 in return. | was
pleased to hear that the hour they both spent listening for our weak signals was

rewarded with a number of Oceania stations, stretching from ZL to VK6.

Chris and Mike for being on the other end of our experiment again.

[40m]

Thanks to

| kicked off the net with a nice long rag-chew with John VK2RU
North for the Winter.

who was heading

both enjoyed the good conditions on 40m this week.

Just before heading off for the 20m

DXperiment, at 0720z | noticed that the band was

just starting to crack open to WA - Phil VAGGX ay Gidgegannup was working Wayne
VK6NW

at Bridgetown and they were starting to trickle through over here.

After dinner | returned to 40m and enjoyed listening to the QSOs;

when

Lance

VK7TO sent "QSY 80M", | decided to go through the band-change process and had
a listen there.

[80m]
After lots of antenna coupler and noise canceller adjustments,
Lance VK7TO
laugh when

and Stan ZL3TK

Lance sent

in QSO

- both with nice RSN

| could hear both
572 signals.

| hada

while he removed the cat hair from his shedding

feline that was making its way into his gear.
| sent a few CQQRS
Bunbury;
him.

calls and was rewarded with a call from Richard VK6PZT

Richard was one of our founding members,

and it's always nice to chat to

Being just after sunset on the WA coast, conditions weren't favouring

propagation in the West;

we were both Q3, and | noticed that Richard's signal into

the VK6SEG

KiwiSDR at Northam was still pretty marginal.

After Richard

| had a chat to Morgan VK6MTF

who was running

10W from his

portable location near Albany | think, but conditions were on the improve because he
reported that | was S7.
| enjoyed a nice rag-chew with Greg VKSKFG

at Willunga (running 4 Watts from his

QMxX-plus) who suggested that he might need help of some sort - having just started
building yet another QRP-Labs transceiver kit!
with John VKSET,
solid RSN

who was operating PIMBY

After Greg,

| had another long chat

- portable in his back yard.

John was a

591, but he reported only RSN 444 in return.

| had told Greg that it was time for zzzs, and told John the same... but as | was
packing up | heard David VK6KD

calling CQ,

RSN

542.

The last time I'd hooked

with David was back in October - so | couldn't miss the opportunity to have a quick
chat.

| was

marvelling at how nice his I|C-7610 sounded

on CW;

| think there's some

waveform shaping in that transmitter - the CW characters had a kind of soft sound -

nice.

However when

David had an over, the first half was completely unreadable -

the signal had dropped considerably.

A check of the Hoddys Well KiwiSDR showed

a return ofa problem he's had before - he was emitting three carriers, one on
franiiancyv

and

the

nthar

twin

BNNH?F

ahnvea

and

halaw

Tha

nrnhlam

eiiddanlyv

PEN

pee NR

disappeared part way through, and his signal returned to Q5; looks like the problem
he's had before with his external phase-type noise canceller not solidly switching on
transmit (possibly RF getting in?) had returned.

Well strangely, an over or two later

while transmitting from here, my brand-new noise canceller also turned up its toes!
The bypass relay decided to stop activating when the PTT line from my transmitter

went low - and | managed to let the smoke out of a second noise canceller in six
weeks!

And this time, Nigel G4RWI

was nowhere

in sight - couldn't blame him,

considering he'd just arrived in Tasmania.

Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW via the VK6SEG
KiwiSDR near Northam WA.

[20m]
Good to hear that the band was open long-path into WA

this week.

[80m]

Terrific to hear more stations returning to 80m for the net
again;

= Rockingham
Northam

band conditions were good across Australia and

into New Zealand; roll-on the end of Daylight Saving!
eee
Se
eee

From John VK2RU

at Linville
[40m]
| had no noise with my first QSO

with Mark, but later on

with Merv and Manny the noise came

back in and made

it difficult to hear, but still good fun. It was great to have
three rag chews totaling 85 minutes, which is a bit more
challenging than just a quick exchange of basic

information.

Linville

From lan VK7TA

at Latrobe

[80m]
Plantv

nf anond

SSR

sine

firther

tin the

hand

hit

C\W

ey,

ape re ee

stations heard. | called on 3528 but no takers. The 80m
band plan allocates 3535-3560 to SSB
would suggest moving QRS

From Greg VK5KFG

(as well as CW) so |

activity below this.

at Willunga

[80m]
QRP

tonight with the QMX+

running off an 8 AA NiMH

battery pack providing (thereabouts) the required 9v
supply.

Output was just over 4w on 40 and not quite

5 on 80. Conditions were good.

Great to hear Manny

on 40 and Mark on 80.

Mark said that he had a QMX

kit waiting to be built.

| did warn our dear leader that

these kits can be addictive.

Thus far | have put

together 5 of these kits and have a 6th underway.

recognise that this is probably not normal behaviour and | do know of others who
have succumbed to the same habit.

From Stephen

Coote ZL3ABX

at Todd Valley Nelson New Zealand

[80m]
| didn't get home
midnight.

until after half-past NZ

| had a quick listen on 40m,

but couldn't hear anything I'd class as
QRS. _ | plugged
checked
QRS

in my 80m antenna and

the band.

transmission,

| could hear a good
but didn't listen long enough to get a

for a while and didn't hear a response.

Never mind.

daylight saving ends in about three weeks....

From Ron VK6KHZ

callsign.

| called CQ QRS

The good news is that NZ

yee-hah!!

at Yangebup

[20m]
Varv

stirnrisad

and

hannv

to have

worked

Mike

From Donald VK6JDM

DL3YZ

on 14.047 kHz just before 8.00 UTC

at 20 km west of Esperance

[40m]
We

had visitors coming to stay so did not have much

time. Put out a 5 watt CQ and up popped Phil VK6GX.
We

had a QSO

at a

bit over 10 wpm which

| managed

to get 90% of, which is a great improvement on my
past receiving ability or rather receiving disability. Just
as the QSO

ended the visitors arrived and so | was

able to slip out of the radio room and pretend

| was a

normal member of society; or so | thought. The brother
of one of our visitors, it turns out is a ham

in Ireland, so

questions arose as to the purpose of the towers which
led to request to see the room. Now the room looks like
a consequence

of a deeply sick brain interacting with electronic components.

However Aine said her brother's shack is worse.

From Roy VK6RR at Geraldton
[20m]
Really good to work Mike DL3YZ.

[40m]
As always great hear everyone happily chatting
away!

From Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn
[20m]
If was

nice

ton he

ahle

to work

the

two

OMs

Mike

wee

wer

and Chris on 20m. They both were RSN 331 QSB
but while Mike gave me 531, Chris gave me just
339. Again, time well enjoyed.

[40m]
lt was another enjoyable time on QRS
nice OMs

CW.

came through and even made

Many

me feel jealous about the warm weather

John VK2RU

is having on his traveling North.

From Morgan

Flower VK6MTF

io
P

“
ee

NG
~

"9
.

nee
i

r Ay

}; ca

at Albany WA

‘ : “a

40m)

Great conditions tonight on 40 m with contacts
all over the country. Great to work my first
Japanese
EFHW

DX from a park with just 10w into an

antenna.

| was

late setting up this week

but very glad | made the effort in the end.

[80m]
Just the one contact on 80 m tonight. It was getting pretty late in the east when

decided to QSY. Thanks for the QSO Mark.

From John VK5ET

at Hope Valley

[20m]
On VK5PH

Ironstone Range

Chris, G7BED

KiwiSDR

| managed

to hear

on 20m getting an early start, sending out

CQs.
[40m]
Heard other stations on 40m with good signals before
going “Back Yard Portable” in tent.
experimenting

| did a bit of

to see what and where to put the HF gear

in the tent; a bit squeezy and not comfortable for long periods. There was a lot of
hash noise most of the night, possibly due to the temporary feedline configuration.

[80m]
On 80m | could only catch bits and pieces of Greg, VK5KFG talking to Mark, VK2KI,
who was marginally better than Greg. Weird signals, great signal report from Mark,
but he was weak to me????

Good

QSO

with lan, VK5CZ who

had the strongest

signal on 80m. Good to catch up with Allen, VA5FD, who had a fair signal. Also had
an interesting chat with Rob, VAK3ECH about his callsign and using paddles; | am still
learning to use my paddle. My old Clipsal straight key is my favourite. 73, John

Post Morsum 18th March 2026
From Richard VK6HRC.
Seven on the VK6RLM

rpir and AllStar/Echolink hub this morning.

ZL38TK

= Stan

VK6KD

David

VK6NW

Wayne

VK6QI

Mark

VK6BQQ

Reg

VK6HRC
VK6MRB

Mulligan swil.

At the top of the list this morning Stan let us know that the 20m slot was busy and
made use of the status monitor maintained by Mike DL3YZ. On 40m busy at
times and part of the way through vey quiet and then busy again, meal break or
propagation ?
David had a great ragchew with Mark VK2KI on 80m, tuned across 40m and
heard the QRM from multiple stations higher up the band seeming to be
transmitting the same data. Stan let us know that it is wide FSK.
Wayne worked four on 40m enjoying the low noise and East West propagation,
with a bonus very enjoyable ragchew with Phil VK6GX. He was just hearing Mike
DL3YZ on 20m. Wayne is going off on a field trip so no QRS for a while.
Mark called in from a cool and overcast Beautiful South Bowning to report that he
worked two on 20m heard four, heard eight on 40m and a sixty minute ragchew
with John VK2RU whom is moving on soon. On eighty heard three had good
ragchew with David VK6KD.
Reg was given a rundown of what we were up to, his experience of morse was
during his time with Canadian Airforce reserve wing a while ago.
During the Post Morsum David mentioned that his noise canceler was not
performing as it should and Mark let the smoke out of his new unit ! So Stan
came to the rescue with a lot of good information about the cheaper units and
recommended the locally available more expensive but better kits from VK5.
A most enjoyable get together this morning, thank you.
Richard

[Thanks for your hard work mate. ]

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

you'd be happy to include, please email it to:
cgarsnet

mail.com

if possible) that

So, please help attract new and old team
submitting your report each week.
Australian

Summer

time)

members to have a go by

Submissions close 1300 (Eastern

on Thursdays.

Sideways
Another

Paddling

Lonely Backwater?
by Ross

MONNK

Sideways Paddling
From Ross MONNK

RagChew’'s mobile-friendly, long/narrow format doesn’t lend itself to busy photos
but | hope the image above gives you some idea of the layout of my Shack Desk.

“But where is your radio ?”, | hear the eagle-eyed amongst you ask.

The answer, given that | can’t operate radio from home, is that it’s sleeping in my
shopping trolley, ready for its next Portable outing.
My Shack Desk, as you may therefore have guessed, is purely for Vband internet
Morse code, and so this is where my wonderful modern paddle and my much older
straight key reside. It’s also my main “work” desk (if a man who is retired can be said
to do any work!) hence the rather unusual cluster of keyboards and input devices on
the black mat in the centre.
The eagle-eyed will also have spotted (full marks for observation BTW) that the
orientation of my paddle is at right-angles to my straight key, and we come (the
Clue is in the title above) to the subject of this article.
I’m right-handed. And that’s the reason why the straight key is on the right-hand side
of my desk. My paddle, however, is on the left-hand side. Why so?

| know that 99.99% of radio operators have their paddle towards the upper right-hand
side (if they’re right-handed) with the paddles pointing towards them. But this has
always felt awkward, requiring me to crank my upper arm, elbow and wrist around to
an uncomfortable dearee. Also. in the davs when | used a conventional comouter

_--

eee

----;

woe

—-

—-—--—

—-~-

mouse, the right-hand side of my desk was where that lived - another reason why
that wasn’t a convenient location for my paddle. So | placed it on the left-hand side
instead. Now my right forearm and wrist lie comfortably across my body. | don’t find
the forward and backward motion of my paddle wrist at all strange. It felt right, right
from the start.
Given the cramped nature of my Portable lap desk, I’ve also started using this “cross
body” style with a straight key:

I’m not advocating this arrangement as a universal improvement for all operators (I
doubt I’d get much buy-in anyway) but I’m offering it as an example of thinking about
the ergonomics of your own operating environment and not just adopting the
“received wisdom” coming out of the hobby.
Am | alone in arranging my shack desk (and now, my portable desk) in this way?
Does anyone else find the “upper right” an awkward location for a Morse paddle?
Answers on the back of an envelope addressed to the Editor. I’d love to know that,

for once, I’m not paddling along a lonely backwater.

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.

for

Please email

cgqqrsnet@gmail.com

My Workbench
An

from

In-Circuit Component

SWL Jack Child - Mark VK2KI’s

Tester
Neighbour

A few years ago | was repairing various electronics in a shop in Canberra and was
wondering what the ‘component’ function on the CRO might be used for. The owner,
Claude Hastir (VK1TE), explained how it worked so | began using it to trouble-shoot
solid state amplifiers.

| was always curious as to how it worked. and recently did a little researching. Turns
out to be a very simple concept, so I’ve provided the details in the attached
schematic.

A simple component tester

Xchi1

6.3 vac

\I -—-p-\WW4

~Ych2
47k0
_

Component probes

What’s most useful is the (limited) ability to test components while still in circuit. The
patterns observed on my ‘scope are as follows:
* Capacitors less than 1nF, high resistance or open circuits result in a flat horizontal
line.
/
SRE REIL

|
annie

ARARRAAa Anne EEE

eee
Pere

eet

Taree aR

eens

* Capacitors between 1nF and 1uF produce an oval shape, being circular at about

0.06uF-.

Peers

DDDDE SA

Sibi

seman

abi

* The oval becomes flatter as capacitance increases, and becomes a vertical line at
about 1uUF, a low resistance or a short circuit.

roe

oT mode

* Resistors greater than 4meg result in a horizontal line, whereas low values (or
shorts) show a vertical line. A slope becomes apparent at about 1k, rotating to 45
deg at 47k ohms

* Out-of-circuit diodes and transistor junctions exhibit an L-shape - vertical when
conducting, horizontal when not. These shapes vary greatly when in-circuit but still

can give a useful indication of the component being tested.

“T

Please let me know if you find this useful.
comments to me cqgrsnet@qmail.com

er ees
saa

Email to Mark and he'll pass your

SWL-Jack

[As | said at the start, Jack retired from NASA JPL and moved to Beautiful
South Bowning NSW, next door to me.

Jack has been tinkering with

electronics and radio since High School - having built and enjoyed AM
broadcast and Short Wave receivers.

These days he enjoys restoring

antique radios, but recently bought a Short Wave receiver with a
regenerative detector and BFO, and has started listening-in to our gettogethers.
Code!

| fear for his sanity though - he may have started learning the

Thanks for the article Jack, and welcome...

don’t say | didn’t warn

you though!]

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

cggrsnet@gmail.com

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

see Articles below.

Practice

John VK2RU

on a track somewhere

know;

This year we’re 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 wom.
It is suggested that you read the text file before listening to the audio file.
That will make

it easier to follow the audio file and prepare you for any

unusual words.
Any punctuation that is not usually used with CW

has been removed.

This week’s fable is ‘The Hawk and the Nightingale’, and the MP3 and TXT
files are attached

here -

If you prefer a different speed or tone you can create your own
converting the text file with the Eoook2CW app -

MP3 files by

https://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 250-plus
readers.

Redfest 26
Exciting Amateur Radio Event

11" April 2026 9:00am-1:00pm

[=]

For more details & on-line
ticket sales:

www.redfest.org

Band

Plans

RagChew

10/2026

reported that the WIA Technical Advisory Committee

had completed the latest band planning activity and published the results
here:
httos://www.wia.org.au/members/bandplans/data/
Here’s the new

downloadable

Australian

Band

Plan

Posters - click each

download:

2200m Band — 135.7 - 137.8 kHz (Secondary)

ee
ADVANCED CLASS ONLY

WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIAN AMATEUR RADIO
4,

- MF -HF BAND PLANS
- 2026

bid
Xo

'§
UP
oF

630m Band

= 472 - 479 kHz (Secondary)

20m Band — 14000 - 14350 kHz (Primary)

ecw
160m

mde

‘CLASS

Aner

SCW

PaLy

Band — 1800 - 1875 kHz (Primary Shared)

=cw

5
ADVANCED CLASS ONLY

kts}

;

mData

wm Voice!

image (< BkHz)

anvauctes CLAGS OME

res

S
en

Be yaee

meee

(Par)

ADVANCED CLASS ONLY

BDate

SB Voice!

image (“GkH:)

MIBP

ALL CLASSES

ova

Image (

RF from

rig death very

quickly.
| made up a duel back-to-back
LED protector on a RCA plug that
pops into my restored FT-901

case | forget. The RX port LED and
a shunt 50 ohm

resistor dissipate

1 Watt of RF into the resistor
without front end harm. It plugs
Smoke let out of a front-end attenuator resistor
(source VK6LD).

into the RX Out port on the FT901DM.

A green led has a forward voltage
drop of about 3 volts. A pair back
to back
does dissipate a little RF without damage . Yes they definitely glow bright
in my shack sometimes on 40m.
I've measured

RF input using a RF power meter on a dipole adjacent to a

TX antenna - the RX antenna terminated with 50 ohms.
is not unusual from a 100 Watt TX near field antenna.

2-3 watts back RF
My QRO vintage TX

probably a lot more, they could TX around 200 W.
That | sq R heat will definitely blow a modern

rig’s attenuation CCT to soot.

The smoke will blow without any hesitation.

There-after is the first RF amp

FET and first mixer, neither can dissipate 1 Watt of input RF.
My TenTec Omni V has two sets of four U310

FETs in parallel in the front

end. The manufacturer advised it's to try and dispute any high level RF the
front end may get in service.

There is no adjustable RF gain, just an

attenuator to set the mixer level in range. The RF gain Is actually IF gain
and the AGC

is audio-derived.

It has some temp drift hot to cold, no temp compensation

on the local

oscillator crystals. Overall it's a good CW rig and it's TX stability is ok for
the era. It's nothing like my TS-590SG
cold into a good

- which has practically no drift hot to

HP frequency counter. The Kenwood

has zero front end

protection.
By the way my improved

FT-901DM

has sensitivity on all bands around

0.2uV. That rig was more than 30 years ahead of technology when
and is also a fine vintage CW

rig. The one shot internal DM VFO

stable for CW TX. The 3SK51dual

gate MOSFET

best thing to tubes. It has a car hifi audio amp

IF amp

made,

is very

is probably the next

producing decent level

quality audio at the speaker. Also almost no headphone thumps TX to RX zero if using the audio bandbass filter.

By the way with your own vintage rig. When
iron hot I’d recommend

you you get your soldering

using 50v tantalum capacitors where you can.

Most caps in DC rigs except for driver and pa are low voltage ie 12v. 50v is
enough

headroom.

For any 1luF coupling caps like audio path and IF board, go for wima

metal

poly film caps.
Hope the rig tips info is of interest and a help to our readers in their shacks

a £5

Regards Paul
VK3KLE

_ POSITIONS VACANT

bid

Morse Code QSO Mates Wanted!

TT"

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

‘|

Happy to chat about the weather, daily doings,
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

John

Moyle

This weekend

National

Field Day Contest

- March 20th & 21st

The John Moyle National Field Day contest is on this weekend.

| hope that

many of our QRS team will get out there and have some fun demonstrating the terrific come-back of CW
If you can’t get out into the paddock,

in Oceania.

park or mountain-top this weekend,

perhaps you might support those CW operators who do, and have a listen
to the CW segments between 0100z on Saturday and 0100z on Sunday for
any CQ TEST or CQ NFD calls. Bands are: 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10

meters

HF and

50MHz

to 241Ghz

on VHF/UHF/SHF

(no WARC

The event Is divided up into 8 three-hour blocks from 0100z;

bands).

you can re-

work a station in each block... | expect things will get busy just before and
just after 0400z, 0700z, etc.
Just respond with your callsign then be prepared to receive a three digit
serial number and reply with one of your own

(starting with OO1).

No need

to send an RST or RSN - optional of course, but redundant for the field
Station’s purpose.
lf you'd like more information, the rules are here:
https://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/johnmoyle/

In last week’s RagChew 11/2026 we provided a

= Sree Se ——

of us who don’t have the patience for logging

=: mee mame

rome= ess o = =

helpful logging spreadsheet template for those

However,
SE

if you do use a logger, the WIA has

vaemnane
:

published a how-to setup guide for the John Moyle
Field Day logging programme N1MM. Click on the

image to the left.

——-

And from Bob VK6POP:
| had issues..it cost me several hours today so:

Install nlmm, and not the update (yet)

EEE

- when asked to nominate a folder, MAKE SURE IT'S
NOT A ONEDRIVE folder.
After you've completed the configuration, close NIMM
and install the update.

Good

luck

Bob
VK6POP
Thanks to Alan VK4SN for the work and to the WAHAMS

email group and Martin VK6ZMS and Bob VK6POP for the

information.

Not

Quite

From

Paul VK3KLE

Ready?
at Stawell

See

——

| do have a suggestion regarding how to
'

commence

aSS
=

SQA

zs,

EEF: \

ZX
=e

a reply to a call, if caught not

quite ready.

(Fs)

—

SE=s

(

ahWNP

~TA WS

S380!
pir

ARE

LOG LOG LOG

>= =F

No}

LOG LOG LoG

Bz Oe i
eT

Scsnoo iy
<——>

= (See
D) 2
COFFEE
——

—

on,

Send two or three times letter R to equal received.
Then

if you still need to tune, tweak or clean your key contacts, send a

series of the letter V couple of rounds or so. This is an expected

response.

Some operators are unsure and send broken characters or half sentences
etc, then recover half-way into the over.

With practice you'll be able to

send Vs with one hand without thinking, allowing a whole other hand to do
what ever else is distracting you.
After sending your couple of rounds of letters V then begin with call sign
exchanges,

ending with AR then KN to indicate which station is to respond.

As long as you have initiated a response a few short carriers for tuning is
also expected.

However random

bits and bobs isn't that good at the

receiving station end.
Another reply might be "pls QRX for tuning" (or
sheet on the wall is often a good

A cheat

help if caffeine depletion kicks in HIHI

Regards Paul, VK3KLE

RandomGram
From

Stan ZL3TK

RandomGram

has come

around again this weekend.

the greater scheme of things.

It's event

# 41 in

Hopefully more from Oceania will be on

than ever before.
RG #41 starts March 21 @ 22:00 UTC.
Sunday for most (Sunday morning
now. You can request a

That is Saturday evening through

in Oceania).

Code lists are available

list by replying to this email or to

RG+owner@groups.|o
This will be a 24-hour event with five-character alphanumeric groups. See
the full description at https://groups.io/g/RandomGram/message/657
73,
Drew/AF2Z
RG Event Mgr

If you’ve read something that you think might be of interest to our readers,
please let me know.
below.

For guidance on writing for RagChew,

Please email material to Mark VK2KI:

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 here we go...

Question:
| am trying to fill up my results from yesterday but
when

| open your reporting page to do so, the page Is

still with the information | provided last week !!!

mtn i a pe

Please, can you help?

somvongcannan ta

Manny VK3DRQ

Cheers,

Answer:

You've discovered one of the Google Forms

internet went down,

undocumented features - previously cached data from
your computer may populate a new form. @

enh ni
a] ee
homework... hmmm?

Please try closing the web browser tab completely, then re-opening a
new one from bit.ly/CQORSNET.

If that doesn't work you could try to ‘clear the caches’ in your
computer - the machine

remembers what you entered

is trying to be helpful by re-loading that material!
caches, the best approach

last time, and

To clear the

is to do a Google Search on ‘Clearing

Caches in a PC running Windows version ..., MacOS version.... etc’.
e

If for some
Webform

reason that doesn't work, you may have to close the
window, then shut the PC down

The Google Webform

and re-start.

sometimes also replicates previous weeks’ entries in

the database - but you don't get to see it!
then find it when we do the download

Patrick VK2IOW

and John VK2RU

and processing - which Is a real

challenge - what's old and what's new?!

Painful right?

Please let me know how you went.
By the way, our reports wrangler Nigel G4RWI

(currently in VK7) is working

on some delightful upgrades to our system of reporting (the things we do
when

on holiday!)... who says they don’t like software updates?

and everyone else!

However,

reporting and publishing much

You, me

it’s exciting and of course - it’ll make
nicer for everyone.

Question:
After an existing QSO

has ended,

if | want to call one of the stations, can |

only send MY call sign followed by K to get his attention?

Or should | send

the callsign of station | want to QSO with, then my callsign?
John VK5ET
Answer:
Good question John.

| think this is an /t depends’ situation.

Here’s my take

on It:
e

/f you know that the station you're after was on the frequency and
calling CQ, but was answered by the second station, the gentlemens’
(gentlepersons?) protocol Is that the first station has the frequency - If
you send your callsign, ideally, the ‘frequency-owning’ should
respond.

If not, try again with ‘VKNAA de BK’.

If you know that the person you’re after (lets call them VKnBB) wasn’t
on the frequency first, | think I’d send ‘nBB UP 2 UP 2’ - then move

frequency 2kHz and start calling them.

They may or may not have

heard or understood you... so you might need to drop back and try
again after a few calls (unless someone
original frequency of course).

else has started on the

Note, if the ‘owning’ station is very

strong with you, Il’d go up further than 2kHz - so that you’re outside of
their USB passband
e

there first?
‘owner’;
e

if they don’t have a narrow receiver.

Now, what if you’ve come across the QSO, and don’t know who was
| think I’d treat the wanted station as if they were not the

go with the ‘nBB UP 2 UP 2’.

Now what if you were VKnBB,

happily finishing a QSO with VKnAA who

‘owned’ the frequency, and someone
‘UP2’ protocol?

called you but didn’t use the

Outside of our training environment,

it would

form for you to respond and take over the frequency.
thing would

be bad

| think the best

be for you to send ‘UP2 UP2’ to the caller then move

and call the caller or ‘QRZ DE VKnBB’.
e Of course, our Tuesday evening CQQRS

Slow CW Practice QSO

Net is

for both experienced and new operators - so no-one is allowed to get
their nose out of joint if someone
probably a good

gets it wrong.

it’s

place to practice the right way.

e And the situation is a bit different on the 20m
net.

Nevertheless,

DXperiment part of our

Our European operators are in a very QRM-rich (and probably

bad-manner-rich) environment;

threat them as ‘owning’ their

designated sked frequencies please.

It’s bad manners and puts VK

and ZL operators in a bad light if people at the Oceania end start a
QSO on the one of the designated

DXperiment sked frequencies.

don’t want to make things any harder for our mates on the cold side.
Now all of this is just my own thinking;

I’m sure those who, unlike me,

were either trained properly or have a

life-time of CW experience will have

different opinions.

I’m keen to hear others’ thoughts on this possibly

delicate question!

cgqgrsnet@gmail.com

Question

from

RagChew

From Mal VK8MT:

please.

11/2026:

berate

what do people use for

portable antenna wire?

Answer from

Craig VK3CLD

Jaycar speaker wire.

at Alexandra:

Actually | use this same

wire for my 20m vertical EFHW at 400W at my

QTH.

Answer from

Dean

VK3DL

auey Thing...

sh ee Sivan este css

ene

sean

acme

at Geelong:

| use Jaycar's light duty hook-up wire.
It's stranded

13 x 0.12 mm

(26 AWG)

with PVC insulation. | use it as it is

locally available for me, it's cheap, light, flexible and sufficiently durable
for portable use. Antennas

made with this wire have survived many

portable operations with routine repairs of terminations along the way.
https://www.jaycar.com.au/yellow-light-duty-hook-up-wire-25mroll/p/WH3004
Rolls of 25 m length are currently $5.95 and packs of eight rolls are
$39.95. It's one of the few things at Jaycar that is cheaper than equivalent
options elsewhere.

| think it is also available in rolls of 100 m length but

the per metre cost is higher for some

reason.

You want to avoid anything too heavy even if you're not carrying it far as
you'll want to throw a

line into a tree or hang it from a squid pole. You also

don't want wire that is too thin/light - you'll soon learn how many things
there are in the bush for your wire to catch on. For portable use choose
brighter colours like yellow, orange or white as they are more easily seen
on the ground or in trees. Save colours like black, brown or green for
antennas used at home.
If operating

portable you'll be doing lots of winding and unwinding of that

wire. Use figure-of-eight winding on a suitable winder.

Question

from

RagChew

From Adam VK4IM:

11/2026:

the question in Letters to the Editor above about

learning on a straight key, paddle or bug.
Answer

from

Dean

VK6DL:

I'm far from an expert but | think too much

is made of this decision. There

is an argument that learning on a straight key helps build the patterns in
your mind due to the conscious physical effort required but there is
another argument that learning on a paddle means greater early exposure
to better formed code. Both of those arguments sound

reasonable.

| learned first on a straight key and thought that getting used to iambic
sending on a paddle would

be quite challenging.

It wasn't - a bit of practice

over a week or so was enough to feel confident. At the end of the day
sending is relatively easy, copying
doesn't matter that much when

is relatively hard. How you send just

it comes to your own CW

| have never used a bug. Each to their own

learning.

but | doubt that it would

best way to get started. | can't imagine a CW

be the

beginner could send pleasing

code with one. Apparently some experienced operators can send pleasing
code with a bug.

[Do you have a question or two that are worth sharing?

How about a

discussion-starter? Please let me know cqgrsnet@gmail.com
them to John VK2RU for compilation each week. ]

and /’// pass

Prosign/Character/Sig
nal of the Month
See if you can use this one on Tuesday?

Prosign:

Meaning:

gg =

End of Contact

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

Tuesday.... and tell us how you went!]

| Hear
You

never

Tell...

know

who’s

Who was it that had to pause mid-QSO
the transceiver?

listening!

on Tuesday to clear the cat fur from

Must have been quite a fur-ball - | wonder how big the cat

was?

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

or even yourself...

that’s worth sharing, please let me know cqqrsnet@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.

Coordinated Universal Time
OPA Dd,

a ee eed ee

a ee

en nll

0600z to 1200z

(NOE

= 4UIT)

WV APENIIMENtS

Australia

WII

Stall al a ONPErent

UME

I required)

Western Australia Time

UTC + 8 Hours

1400 to 2000

Central Australian Time

UTC + 10.5 Hours |

1630 to 2230

Eastern Australian Time

UTC + 11 Hours

1700 to 2300

Queensland Time

UTC + 10 Hours

1600 to 2200

NZ Time

UTC + 13 Hours

1900 to 0700

New Zealand

Frequency

06002 to 09002

20m

14039-14051 kHz

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

0600z to 1200z

4om

TO20KHz - 7O40KHz

3535kHz - 3560kHz

160m

1855kHz (-5kHz for QRM)

7o00

7o20
l

40 mis

ORO

3500

160 m

_COORSNet

3535

80 m EF
1800

Gle

7O40
]

ORO

CO ORS Net
1855.

Thanks to Lance VA7TO for the COQRS

&
3560

1875

band-plan

e
22002 - 2300zZ
(Tuesday UTC)

Wednesday (VK/ZL)
Post Morsum
Callback

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

internet’s KiwiSDRs around Australia.

Reports

in NSW or via some of the

| hope to hear you on.

& 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

And of course, I’m always on the lookout for more photos for the
newsletter, so if you have something that might be of interest aside from
the reports, please send it through as well - | always enjoy the photos that
our readers send - and I’m sure our readers do too.

Email them to

cgqrsnet@gmail.com

please.

Oh and by the way, | recommend
website open

that you don’t keep the Reports Form

between submission of reports from one week to the next.

you’re unlucky, there’s an undocumented

feature in the software that

could cause your current week’s report to be combined

with your previous

report - it’s happened to your editor several times - much to the chagrin of
our Reports editor

Post

Morsum

Richard VK6HRC

will run our phone Post Morsum

on the South West AllStar

net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time, then from
0700 WA time on 80m

(3605 LSB).

See https://bit.ly/COORSWebsite and

navigate to the Net Details page for details of how you can connect via
Echolink or even possibly via your local FM repeater.

Articles
The newsletter is interesting to readers because of the material
contributed by so many people - be it the reports each week or the various
articles.

Could you write a short article or articles for RagChew?

Writing not your strong point?
much

You bet!

Don’t worry, I'm very happy to help as

or as little as needed.

You can find out more about how to write an article (perhaps even try
using an Artificial Intelligence tool?) on the Newsletter page on our website
bit.ly/COORSWebsite.
Oh, and one more thing (actually two) - copyright material:
e

please use your own

images - don’t use images copied from the

internet unless you have the producer’s permission, or they’re
marked
e

‘Creative Commons’

or similar;

if you include other peoples’ written material, unless you have
permission, you may only include small snippets (unless it’s marked
‘Creative Commons’

or similar), and you'll need to site the source and

author.
For more guidance on writing for the RagChew

newsletter (including how

you might even try using an Artificial Intelligence tool?), head to our
website bit.ly/COOQRSWebsite 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 40 contributors this week:
DL3YZ, G7BED,

MONNK,

N1CC, SWL-Jack, VK2RU, VK3ACU,

AF2Z,

VK3BWN,

VK3CLD, VK3DL, VK3DRQ,

VK3ECH, VK3KLE, VK3KLE, VK4CEG, VK4IM,

VK4SN, VK5A0O, VK5AV, VK5CZ, VK5ET, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK6FN, VK6JDM,
VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6MMM,

VK6OMTF, VK6NW,

VK7HH, VK7JZ, VK7TA, VK8MT,
you to our editorial team,

VK6POP, VK6RR, VK6ZMS,

ZL3ABX and ZL3TK.

Nigel G4RWI

And a special thank

(head of software development),

Patrick VK2IOW

(reports coordinator), John VK2RU

(spreadsheet pilot),

Richard VK6HRC

(Post Morsition) and Lance VK/TO

(archiving bit wrangler).

Great work all!

€YU CW on Tuesday,

Mark Bosma
VK2KI / VK6QI
Beautiful South Bowning NSW

cqqrsnet@gmail.com

i
|

Cit

non impediti ratione cogitationis

}

«Rao
ota
:

Saad

An Ode to CW - thanks to David VK3RU:
In days of old, when ops were bold,
And sideband was not invented,
Words were passed by pounding brass,
And all were quite contented.
- Unknown

author

About

the CQ

Here’s where
For the current schedule

and

QRS

Net

you’ll find the details.
more

information

about the CQQRS

please go the the Net Details page on our website:

https://bit.ly/COQQORSWebsite

net,

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 https://bit.ly/CQORSWebsite

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