cq_qrs_newsletter

2026 30 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

Thanks this week to Jordan, VK3ACU, relaxing during his five day jaunt. Look for his full report in this edition.

Van-al-dan-al-aan

Mark VK2KI / VK6QI GQQRS Convenor Another week has zipped by – and another CQQRS Slow CW Practice QSO net happened. and guess what? So many people enjoying the relaxing art of QRS conversation with others…

Sharing the same passion, along with the science and challenges of amateur radio. I think it’s a good place to be; then again, I would! And speaking of good places – I also think that our three CQQRS WhatsApp groups add to the enjoyment.

Social Media not for you? Normally I’d agree – especially when commercial and political interests’ influence on the minds of social media participants.

However in our case (yeah, I know!), I’m amazed how useful the tools are to our enjoyment, and after using the system for years, I’ve seen no negatives.

The Alerts group in particular help net participants to find each-other, especially when conditions are poor; and outside of the net times, it’s just so good if you’d like a nice chat with one of our team, a quick ‘Calling CQ on ….

KHz’ can bring joy to an otherwise quiet band. Similarly, if you have a question for others, the Rag Chew section is a great place to start.

The RF Exchange is good if you want to buy or sell something; obviously not as widely read as VK Classifieds, but I suspect perhaps a bit more secure…. we know who our users are!

So I’m pleased that our numbers are on the increase – yes, people come and go as. their interests change, but about 40% of our team use it – and the numbers are increasing.

If you’d like to join in, you’ll need a mobile phone (the system is encrypted by your phone) and perhaps a nearby teenager if you’ve got fat fingers like me.

But once established, you’ll be able to use your PC or Mac; drop me a line and I’ll get you going cagrsnet@gmail.com Anyway, back to this week’s newsletter.

With thanks to all of our contributors, and to Lance for doing the hard editing yards, there’s so many nice things to read. I hope you can make the time to enjoy. Dit-dit

New Team Members

You may read in this week’s reports from Tuesday’s net, I came across Jamie VKSIDK at Point Cook calling CQ on 80m. I really enjoyed our 45 minute QSO, and was floored to find out later that it was his very first CW contact!

Jamie has now joined our team and our CQQRS WhatsApp groups, and has even started on the right foot by writing a bit about his background in the QRZ? section of the newsletter. Welcome Jamie. Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI CQQRS Convenor

Website

Lance Mark Bosma Patrick VK7TO VK2KI / VK6QI VK2IOW Margate TAS Beautiful South Bowning Milthorpe NSW Editor NSW Assistant Editor cqqrs.ragchew.editor@gm CQQRS Convenor ail.com cqqrsnet@gmail.com John Nigel Richard VK2RU G4RWI VK6HRG on a track somewhere our other grey nomad Padbury WA Assistant Editor Assistant Editor Assistant Editor Jordan Ross VK3ACU MONNK

With thanks to Nigel G4RWI’s clever software, and John VK2RU’s clever spreadshe: work, here’s the 61 stations heard by 41 members of our team on Tuesday:

NOTTS. John’s spreadsheet above shows the known stations heard or worked on last Tuesday’s CQQRS Net (reported via our webform bit.ly/CQQRSNET ); the comments in the team members’ reports follow.

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 –

[20m] Today we had great condx, I was even able to hear Stan – ZL3TK FB here in Stuttgart. Unfortunately there is some strange event going on during our DX time on Tuesdays recently.

The air was burning with EU stations pounding their callsigns between 14.040 and 14.045 MHz, I was not able to find any sense in it. I thi frequency range for future DXPeriment schedule planning. I what that qatharina mav he? Have a areatweak Mika

[40m] Started on 40m running just 1 watt and worked Lance VK7TO. After tea, I increased to 10 watts and worked Roy VK6RR, followed by a fantastic contact with Stan ZL1TK.

I finished the night on 80m with a great QSO with Paul ninht naw…ctill racnavorinn fram my trint!l lho ant COTA nn

[40m] Wow James (VK3JFR), your 5 watts on 40m was pounding in here tonight. It must be connected to a very good antenna! BTW we have worked before – checked the log afterwards – my bad.

Good to work Mark (VK2KI) nice and early, pity the VK6’s were still at the pub.

Paul (ZL1AJY), Stan (ZL3TK) and I worked Mark LUSUMB around 10.10 UTC – tha was a nice surprise ! The VKs I heard were all 5/9.

[20m] Can reliably work OM Mike week-after-week thanks to SDR in N Ireland. Despite being able to see myself in N Ireland 521, again no sign of Mike direct. EFRW works very well one way, pity it hears nothing the other way HI.

No sign of y didn’t hear him on the SDR?

[40m] 40 m as cleaned up nicely, little noise, only slight QSB and VK6S not strong but steady.

[80m] Nice signal from LUSUMB in Argentina on 80 m via grey zone, as predicted by Patagonian Sergio LU7YS in RagChew edition 38. Great circle distance 9557 km to La Pampa province.

[40m] Operating from home tonight. I started the day keen, plan was to come home from work on time, pack the backpack with portable kit and go find someplace quiet to operate from What really happened was I came home, brain fried, in a funk, no motivation to go out

So I switched on in the shack and on with the head phones. I heard Pat VK2IOW chatting with I think VK6GX (someone correct me) but was uncertain as it was hard to hear. Could not hear much else going on on 40 or 80, put out some CQ’s and no response.

Headphones off for a bit and came back to it later hoping for better conditions. Another CQ call and Pat VK2IOW was right on top of me.

I recognised Pat was holding back for my benefit and I copied 90% of what he was sending the first go, thanks Pat for your patience.

Nice chat about the weather and such things, his inland temp and my Tassie by the sea temp was only 2 deg different, I joked it was just right for ice creams. Later on 80 meters I heard Manny VK3DRQ on with

Mark VK2KI, Manny was strong and had him in my ears for easy listening, Mark was a bit harder work. I hung around eaves dropping hoping it might get a little better but it went the other way with Mark fading to nothing and Manny dipping into my noise floor and no longer workable.

I plan to be back next week hopefully with the brain energy to turn my funk back into funky and get out portable where there is no noise.

[40m] The 40m band appeared to stay open for quite a long time last night.

[80m] When the 80m band opened up to SA my

MA ~ MU AO wm POA IN pw J UI INF DAT I SATS NAAN NS VK5 land very well. I couldn’t hear much at my end here in WA. Mark VK2KI answered my CQ call and we persisted for a good amount of time trying to get my weak signal into VK2 land. I send Mark 2x sig reports.

One from my QTH and one for his signal into the VK5 SDR. I do feel I cheated a bit by logging onto the Ironstone SDR to assist my receiving however under poor conditions it helps to get the CW practice.

Mark however was struggling to hear me under the noise floor and strong QSB. After a good attempt we sent our 73s and hoped to get better conditions next time. Thanks again Mark for persisting.

Alway good to catch up on the Post Morsum Net Wed mornings at 6am WST to explain what exactly I was doing, hihi. 73 to all.

From Donald VK6JDM 20 km west of Esperance

[80m] There were plenty of signals heard on 80 metres from the east. 40 metres was very crowded with non CW signals in the CW segment.

[40m] The noise floor was fairly constant at around S5 on my receiver but even so I could copy VK2KI and VK6NC quite well. I could hear several slow stations but they were just too weak to copy.

I called CQ on and off over the next hour or so but didn’t get any takers. VK6NC was still making contacts when I gave it away. I managed to have a QSO with CQ QRS member VK3ECH, thanks to Rob’s remarkable decoding ability, on Sunday.

Much later I discovered the reason for my poor sending and it was a radio menu setting that I shouldn’t have altered.

| switched between 7 MHz and 3.5 MHz during the course of the evening but didn’t copy any CW stations on the 3.5 MHz band, even while using the Ironstone Range SDR.

[40m] Very Noisy, only QSO with VK5AO. Nothing heard my way on this band or 80 m. Kiwi SDR much the same, high noise weak stations just audible.

[40m] What an amazing afternoon and evening to be on the radio. Before the evening even kicked off I saw that 20 m was booming from early afternoon with EU stations, far earlier than the usual grey line surge down here. I snagged a smorgasbord of DX

Contacts including Croatia, Bulgaria, Sardinia, Spain and France. There were so many other stations I didn’t get around to. What a treat!

As the sun dipped over the horizon however I dropped down to 40 m for a look, and was rewarded with a great selection of signals there too. I only had time to work four stations across VIC, NSW and WA before I was called into the house.

Several hours later, a brief pop into the shack before bed was somewhat extended when I was once again greeted with a rather active 80 m waterfall.

I snagged quick QSOs into NSW and WA before the highlight of my evening when I enjoyed a lovely rag-chew with Sava up in QLD. It was the strongest circuit we’ve ever enjoyed with no QSB/QRM whatsoever; armchair copy in the truest sense.

But alas, all good things come to an end, and with my eyelids heavy, issued my final 73 and headed off to bed. It really was a remarkable evening. Thanks all.

[20m] I was a bit late as usual – when I got to 20m and Mike DL3YZ‘s Runners Point web page said he’d already gone QRT due to the QRM in Europe. Unfortunately I missed Carlos’ CT7BPF slot too – dinner time here.

[40m] Nice to catch up with James VK3JFR at Ararat, then Grant ZL2GD who was romping in RSN 591 from PRL chek cee OM Lhe es bee Mec ce dL ce cee BR we ed ae

Christchurch. After the strong signal from New Zealand, I had to listen hard to hear Wayne VK6NW – the band was still waking up but we managed to just exchange reports on QSB peaks.

The AGC swung back into action and I had a nice chat with Lin VK6NT operating the Northern Corridor Radio Group’s VK6NC club station at Whiteman Park East of Perth; the four element Yagi was in fine form with S-7 signals both ways.

Lin asked me to record a bit of his CW – which I could do only crudely – phone to speaker…. but because I mainly use headphones, the Trio TS-120S radio-top speaker was not accessible and the phone was just on the desk.

So much to the amusement on our CQQRS WhatsApp group, the dinner-preparation kitchen noises were just about as strong as the CW…. and my arrhythmic clack-clacking on my hand key wasn’t much better!

After dinner it was time for some 80m fun. First up I had a nice chat with Manny VK3DRQ at Blackburn then tried my luck when I heard David VK6KD. David was only RSN 222 – copyable on QSB peaks, but the QSO was a struggle.

I copied an RSN report but I really wasn’t sure – so we declared it a no-go this time – thanks for trying again David. Tuning around I heard a nice bit of QRS, that turned out to be Jamie VK3IDK at Point Cook.

Our 45 minute QSO turned out to be Jamie’s very first CW contact! Not only that, but he was able to maintain a 45 minute rag chew, exchanging names, QTHs and even responding to my suggestion that he email me to find out more about our net.

Jamie has now joined our team, and as such, I’m going to count this as yet another first CW QSO on the net. So all in all, I had lots of fun, even though I didn’t have as much luck as last time on 80m. But thank you to all who had a go anyway.

[40m] With the VK6SEG KiwiSDR out of action, I listened to the VK6QS.2 KiwiSDR down at Augusta; I used to use Matt’s SDR near Brookton, but when I tried it this time, it appeared to be on an airband frequency – so I guess he’d added a converter.

——————————————————— Nice to hear Grant ZL2GD coming through while I was chatting to him; no sign of my own signal from SNSW at the time though.

[80m] After dinner I had a listen on the VK6BL KiwiSDR at Mt Barker near Albany. Signals from the East were coming through, but not particularly strong this week. Oh well, we’ll just have to try again next Tuesday.

From Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney Brisbane

[80m] Very late start so most of my time was on 80m. Could see my carrier at Marahau (ZL SDR), Ironstone SDR and VK6BL SDR so conditions looked good but for my perpetual high noise. Managed just three QSOs but all very lengthy.

Greg VKSKFG was very strong into Brisbane but he has a good signal every time. I mentioned to him mae 7) Oe eve OO ee YO IN Ne eer PR Re oe,

Riacatasy woe a re Sa oe bes ence nt that I just QSY-ed from 160. He lamented his trouble with tuning problems at that band, but he is not the only one. I can often hear sparking across tuning Caps in my balanced tuner!

QSO with Lance VK7TO was our first and we had a good rag chew. My whinging about how cold it was in Brisbane was countered by his remark that 15 Cis not considered cold in his part of the woods.

Last QSO on 80 was with Daniel VK2HLM who is virtually only down the road across the border. He was romping into Brisbane with just 10 W and he gave me 20 dB over 9 at his place.

But what is interesting about our QSO is that I was monitoring my signal into VK6BL SDR and on occasions I could see Daniel’s carrier as well with just 10 W remarkable.

Stations I heard but did not work were all spotted at VK6BL first then tuned on with my transceiver to get the calll sign. VK3DRQ was very strong in WA but not at my QTH.

At the very end I tuned onto a couple of signals I was keeping an eye on for a while chatting with Daniel obviously a long rag chew, both pretty strong into WA. Finally when I tuned on their frequency it was already after 13:00 UTC.

The two stations were VK2KI and VK3IDK just signing off. Being that late I did not butt in. [160M] Alone again, could see my carrier at Ironstone SDR and sporadically at VK@BL, nothing at Marahau.

There was a strong signal at VK6BL for a while but when I tuned on that frequency I could not resolve anything, just noise. No signals in the FT8 segment either. Regardless I will be on 160 again next Tuesday.

[40m] Good signals from eastern VK, but no ZL’s heard. Good rag chews with Pat, VK2IOW and Dan VK6WE.

[80m] I fell asleep watching Le Tour, awoke at 2am, went to turn off the radio, but noticed a solitary CW trace on 40m, which was GW2CWO, Stew (GWOETF) at Bangor, N Wales, running their version of aCQ QRS Net every Tuesday evening.

A pity our two net times don’t coincide. We had a good chat. I dropped him an email with a link to our website.

From Richard VK6HRC.

VK6KD David VK6QI Mark VKNW = Wayne ZL38TK ~— Stan VK6HRC VK6MRB Muligan swil and others.

David listened out on 20 m which seemed to be busy with a contest going on. Heard five on 40 m and on 80 m tried working Mark VK2KI but condtions not good enough! Mark had four contacts on 40 m, on 80 m worked Manny VK3DRQ and a first timer Jamie VK3IDK.

( more in information in Mark’s notes ) Wayne had four contacts on 40 m and even into ZL, on 80 m caught up with Donald VK6JDM whom was on one of his homebrew rigs. Stan listened out for Mike DL3YZ on 20 m, nothing from home but better on a Kiwi sdr in Ireland.

Due to the activity Mike had to shift frequency and let people know on the Live Status monitor. A reminder from Stan, Randomgram on again this weekend link here http://bit.ly/rgannouncement.

I was out at the NCRG club with Lin VK6NT sitting in the co pilots seat again, will give Lin a break and most likely work from home next week. As usual a lot more was discussed during the session apart from band conditions contacts etc.

Most times reflected in the individual reports. (Key featured, Galbraith from New Zealand ) Thank you to all on last night and this morning. 73

The Post Morsum callback happens the every week between 2200Z – 2300Z on Wednesday morning (Tuesday UTC). You can join via AllStar node 42482, or Echolink on VK2KI-L or VK8MT– L

Reporting

After next Tuesday’s Group, please remember to send me a list of who you worked and / or who you heard using our web form here:

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: cqarsnet@gmail.com So, please help attract new and old team members to have a go by submitting your report each week.

Submissions close 1300 (Eastern Australian Summer time)_on Thursdays.

Five Days of POTA & VKFF

Adventure

By Jordan, VK3ACU What started as a simple five-day POTA/VKFF trip quickly turned into an adventure! My travelling companion was my good mate Adam.

Adam doesn’t have a radio bone in his body, but whenever I say, “Let’s go on a mission,” his answer is always the same… “I’m in.” So we loaded up our utes and hit the road.

The original plan changed almost immediately when we became very bogged on the first day. Fortunately, a local farmer came to the rescue and pulled us out.

While we were free again, the thick sticky clay packed itself into the wheels and threw the wheel balance tight out. We decided to call it a day and spent the night at the Dimboola RV Park.

It wasn’t exactly how we’d planned to start the trip, but in hindsight it made for a much better story

The following morning we changed our plans and entered Little Desert National Park from the Dimboola side. There I activated AU-0351 / VKFF-0291, making 44 contacts.

It was a very cold night, made even more interesting by a rather determined kangaroo that wandered into camp in the middle of the night and refused to back down!

The next morning it was back into Horsham, where I spent over an hour at the car wash trying to remove the sticky clay from the wheels. Even after all that, the car was still filthy and mud continued to fall off for the rest of the trip.

From there we headed north to Jeparit and activated the Wimmera River (AU-7211 / VKFF-4258), making 56 contacts. We camped at Four Mile Beach, which is a fantastic little spot.

The lake itself was completely dry, but the campsite has hot showers that still run on 20-cent coins—something you don’t see very often anymore!

The next day we worked our way through several smaller reserves. Crymelon Bushland Reserve (AU-3981 / VKFF-4863) produced a quick 11 contacts in about 15 minutes before we moved on to Banyena Bushland Reserve (AU-3981 / VKFF-4544), where another quick 11 contacts went into the log.

We then continued to Avon Plains ‘Swamp Nature Conservation Reserve (AU-2602 / VKFF-2257). The swamp was full of water and looked fantastic. Another 16 contacts were added to the log before stopping in St Arnaud for some lunch.

That afternoon we arrived at Kara Kara National Park (AU-0372 / VKFF-0629), where we camped for the night. It was another freezing evening, but we had a great campfire and I managed 56 contacts. We had the entire campground to ourselves. Campfire and CW…

On the final day we slowly made our way home, fitting in a few more activations along the way. + Redbank Nature Conservation Reserve (AU-0270 / VKFF-2180) — 10 contacts + Avoca Bushland Reserve (AU-3936 / VKFF-4270) — 16 contacts * Mount Beckworth (AU-5244 / VKFF-3779) — 48 contacts Mount Beckworth was a fantastic way to finish the trip.

We set up beside the dam, enjoyed beautiful weather, spent a few relaxing hours on the air and even managed several Park-to-Park contacts, including one with Mark VK2DI.

The original plan for the trip was to make it a CW-only adventure, and most of the contacts were made using Morse code. I even dusted off the microphone from time to time and handed out a few SSB contacts before happily returning to CW.

Over the five four days I activated nine parks, each qualifying for both POTA and VKFF, making 268 contacts consisting of 161 CW and 107 SSB contacts.

A huge thank you to everyone in the QRS group who followed the trip, spotted me, and jumped on the air to make contacts. Your support really helped make the activations enjoyable.

Despite a bogged vehicle, plenty of mud, freezing nights and a few changes of plan, the trip turned out to be a fantastic adventure.

We discovered some beautiful campsites and was reminded once again that some of the best adventures are the ones that don’t quite go to plan. See you from the next park! 73, Jordan VK3ACU

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; for guidance on writing for RagChew, see Articles below. Please email material to Mark VK2KI: cqqrsnet@gmail.com

On My Workbench

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 us know; email to cqqrsnet@gmail.com For guidance on writing for RagChew, see Articles below.

QRZ?

Jamie VK3IDK

My story so far is that my interest in radio started when I was growing up. A short attempt at CB with a mate to try to communicate (pre mobile phone era) and a bit of listening on scanners etc.

I was put off amateur radio as I had no one I knew in the hobby and it required licensing etc which seemed too hard and expensive.

Life moved on and I forgot all about it until about 3-4 years ago when I stumbled on a discussion about Software Defined Radio (SDR) and the low cost of entry, $30, appealed to me.

I set up an SDR and started listening and was soon interested in all the things I could hear on HF etc.. I studied a bit of electronics in my early career and have not worked in it since then but have attempted to get back in to it throughout my life with no real focus or direction.

When amateur radio came along it once again ticked all the interest boxes and I have been hooked. I got my foundation licence and have since upgraded to advanced.

I enjoy making contacts on HF radio and building antennas, I have not purchased any antennas since starting the hobby, my QTH runs a high gain flowerpot antenna for VHF/UHF and an EFHW for bands up to 80m, both of which were homemade.

I enjoy doing POTA activations and again have a multitude of antennas for POTA, not yet settled on my preferred one.

In regard to CW, I attempted to learn at various times, including when I was very young with a walkie talkie that had a big orange ‘beep’ button and the morse alphabet written on the handpiece.

Since being licensed, I have tried to learn CW through various websites etc. with varying degrees of success but have not done it regularly enough to truly get any proficiency.

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to get better at CW and that it was time to take it seriously. I practiced more often but still was not progressing very well.

I made the mistake early on of learning each letter by dit and dah and not focusing on the sound of the letter. So I still try to manually decode each letter in my head.

Not really progressing, a couple of months ago I signed up with Long Island CW Club (LICW) to get some outside assistance and practice.

Their sessions are good, although the time difference means I can’t attend many of their activities, it has shown me that I did learn a few things in the last few years and I wasn’t as bad as I thought, still not great, but not bad.

I have been trying to listen to more code to break my habit of counting dits and dahs and focusing on letter sound and regularly listen to Morse Ninja in the car to hear letters, numbers and pro signs.

I have never felt anywhere near good enough to go on the air, The LICW training activities and Morse Ninja practice have slowly enabled me to hear more than one letter in a row before it got into a mess of dits and dahs. I still have a long way to go though.

A week or so ago on an LICW online session, the teacher sent a number of words at a higher speed, while not being able to get every letter of every word, I got most of the letters and could work out the words and at the end of the session the teacher advised that if you could get those then you are ready to try on the air.

While I did not feel comfortable with this, I was a bit shocked that I may be in a position to try ‘live CW’ in the wild so to speak.

Ihave followed a number of morse groups, FISTS, SKCC, LICW, and have tried to listen in on their frequencies but they are either too fast or I can’t hear them. A member of my radio club mentioned they had been learning CW and recommended your slow morse group.

So I decided to give it a go. I tuned around and could not hear anyone so called CQ and the rest you know.

‘As noted above I like POTA activations, however at the moment these are done on SSB and I take my full rig, battery, antenna etc which is quite a bit of kit out into a park.

I will continue to do this, but I am keen to try some QRP on CW so that I can have a small kit that I can take to more places and quickly try to make contacts. I think CW will be better for this as well as being a bit more fun than calling CQ into a microphone.

Which brings me to where I am now, locking to practice my CW and get a level of proficiency where I can make contacts without constantly calling AGN?.

Sorry for the long email, probably more of my life story than you wanted to know. Thanks again for the QSO, I have to say at times during the call it was a bit surreal that I could understand large parts of what you were sending and send something back.

I have a long way to go but it was a blast and I look forward to being able to try again soon. Jamie VK3IDK – Point Cook, VIC Fantastic – thank you for taking the time.

The LICW training explains why you were able to understand so much of what I was trying to send! Great work. And by the way – don’t worry one bit about not copying every letter… I am exactly the same – I lose concentration and only get bits and pieces…

Just enough to understand what’s going on; that’s all you need – especially for relaxed head copy. You’ll see in the newsletter we discuss the CW practice sessions run by Nic VK7WW on 80m on Wednesdays (with feedback on air or via DISCORD).

We also have a weekly CW practice that you can download and run at various speeds. Take care mate – and congratulations… it gets better from here! – Mark

Our net is a fun get-together that people enjoy returning to each week. It’s really nice to know who’s on the other end of the QSO. So, please share some thoughts about yourself to cqqrsnet@gmail.com for a future RagChew.

CW Practice

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 wpm and run for about 15 minutes.

If 15 wpm is a bit quick for you, load it onto your phone and set the playback speed at 0.75 X or even 0.5 X – whatever works for you. 0.75 X will play the MP3 at a bit under 12 wom.

It is suggested that you read the text file before listening to the audio file. That will make 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 two frogs’, and the MP3 and TXT files are attached here:

If you prefer a different speed or tone, you can create your own MP3 files by converting the text file with the Ebook2CW app — https://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html.

You can either play the MP3 files in any media player, or load the text file into the Ditto CW: 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, 1.5x, 1.75x).

CW Activities

RandomGram Event #45

RandomGram provides another fine opportunity to mix DX with high-quality Morse and accuracy in a relaxed environment. This month’s Event # 45 starts at 2200Z on Saturday 25 July 26 and runs for 24 hours.

If not already affiliated with Team Oceania, please advise your choice to affiliate with Team Oceania when requesting your code groups. Just the once because your team affiliation now rolls over between events.

Operational details are available at https://oroups.io/a/RandomGram, along with last month’s results. The Team Oceania two-hour focus period will be 0700Z~ 0900Z Sunday 26″ when most US stations are not operating, so get your DX contacts in at other times.

Simply calling CQ RG is often unproductive. Registering on the https://sked.skeegroup.com webpage helps you to earn points, ‘Go Active’ in the right-hand column.

This event is auspicious, it is timed exactly right to get familiar with RG in anticipation of a new series of activities to be released imminently.

These activities, one of which includes two exciting RG options, will appeal in some way to every type of CW enthusiast, from beginner to master. 73 de Stan ZL3TK

Morse with Purpose

Worse WIth Purpose 27 July Are you looking for something with a bit more of a challenge? Maybe you need something different or simply want to learn some new skills. Morse with Purpose is an awards program providing everyone with something.

Whatever you enjoy there will be something to appeal: contesting, ragchewing, Dxing, RandomGraming, Telegraming, skills development, outdoor ops or the mastering the straight key.

Work to gain badges towards Bronze, Silver or Gold awards in the Morse with Purpose Awards Program. And there’s no rush; you have 12 months from your date of registration.

To learn more, join my Zoom session on Monday 27TH July at O200UTC or visit the website: https://groups.io/g/MWP Zoom Meeting: Topic: Morse with Purpose Info Session Time: Jul 27, 2026 09:00 Universal Time UTC Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.z0om.us//81202820247?

Pwd=Ab9IQpqn8HSCb5NAPWTalb4Bhu7{ZH.1 Meeting ID: 812 0282 0247 Passcode: 429098 Ifyou have any questions send an email to MWP+owner@groups.io The program will open for registrations on 27TH July 2026. 78, Chris VK8QB

Are you aware of any additional CW activities on the horizon? Let everyone know by emailing us the details and we’ll publish it for all to see.

Other News

The event has a CW component, with Chris VK3QB presenting on CW. We have a huge program of presentations and activities by some of Australia’s best-known VKFF operators; see our web page for details: Paul VKSPAS – Mt Barker, SA

Unknown Straight Key

I’m not much of a museums guy but today I broke the journey to my campsite by stopping at the old WW2 Davidstow Airfield (active only between 1942 and 1945 but surprisingly intact after all this time) which has two excellent museums.

Naturally, being a radio guy, I look out for anything related to our hobby. I saw a few wartime aircraft radios and a couple used by SOE operatives (aka “spies” and “agent provocateurs” for the allies).

They even had the carefully re-assembled workshop of a radio electronics engineer. But I’m ashamed to say that my ignorance of such things made them pass well over my head.

They did have a few Morse keys though (all in poor condition), which is much more up my street. One in particular caught my attention as it was in the best condition and wired up to a buzzer so you could try your hand at Morse (yeah, right).

Unfortunately it wasn’t in the least bit familiar to me. Here’s a photo of it. Do any of you know anything about it?

DR-48 Communications Receiver Several years ago I joined the Historical Radio Society of Australia (the HRSA). I’ve found them to be a very friendly and very supportive group of electronics oriented people, many of whom are also radio amateurs.

As a member I regularly attend the monthly meetings, which comprise a swap meet or auction along with a technical presentation.

At last months auction I happened to acquire a National Panasonic DR-48 Communications Receiver, which is far better than anything I have previously owned.

Ihave a reasonable long-wire antenna, so I decided to listen in on last Tuesdays CQQRS session (14/7) and had a bit of luck. My next door neighbour and CQQRS guru Mark VK2KI / VK6QI identified my signals as Richard VK6PZT in WA and Rob VK3ECH in Vic.

There were others as well but not identified. Happy with my new receiver ($80).

Jack SWL – Beautiful South Bowning NSW Wow! That’s a beautiful bit of gear Jack. I’m a sucker for old radios, and that one’s got style in spades! – Lance

QRM Busting Old Power Supplies I participated in the Trans-Tasman contest last weekend, but after an hour or so the QRM was really dampening my enthusiasm.

S7+ noise on 40, 80 and 160 meant that I could only copy strong signals, which are far and few between down into southern Tas. A couple of days later I decided to sweep the close neighbourhood with my QMX and a tiny loop antenna. Absolutely nothing.

Almost no noise was being picked up. Next step was to run my radio from a battery, and turn off all power to the shack. Bingo, S7 down to S0.5 on the radio’s meter.

Progressively applying power to different parts of the shack identified two pieces of equipment. A multi port USB charger, and a PoE injector.

It’s worth pointing out that both pieces of equipment were from quality manufacturers and have been in my shack for at least the last ten years. I guess over time something has failed and I never noticed the worsening state. Pot – frog – boiling water.

Replacements are now in place, and with all the various bits and bobs powered up in the shack, I now have a stable S1 noise floor from 40 m up with wide filters. Oh the joy! Lance VK7TO – Margate, TAS

David’s QRS Musings

G’Day from Yack City Each week for some time now I have been intending to hang up a bigger and better aerial for 40 (as well as one for 160….. Ah Well it just has not happened.

Don’t hold your breath) we are so often fraught by Murphys infallible law, ” If something can go wrong it will” But enough on that. I was surprised gto read Marks opening line about “having a ball last week” or was it the previous week?

I cannot report same from here The last two weeks on the QRS net _| have had careful listen / look around , usually first on 20m and then on 40 with a quick check on 80m (nuthin’ doing on 80 as is usually the case during most of the daylight hours, why ?

But it can often do remarkable things in the hours of darkness. My last and quite rare (In terms of the 3.5 me/s frequency) was with Graeme VK5GG (a fellow FOC member) around three weeks ago 599 each way aso.

Ido quite often put out a few Cqs on 80m, where in the CW section – silence seems to rule. Now on tues 14TH july, on about 14043 I found VK6PZT and we enjoyed a decent chat 599 each way, Rich having a Fists member and a SKCC too .

I am not sure he was specifically intending to be on the qss chunk of band, but really I will t alk to anyone! In any case VK6 is almost a rarity for me.

As we signed from that qso I changed to 20m and on about 14042 heard a somewhat garbled callsign starting with TM I say garbled as what was sent was somewhat iffy TM then 3 dashes then three more with no sort of sensible timing sequence followed by what I thought was TMR -well at least that is what my hand wrote down as I do not think about what I hear really it’s a case of ” The moving finger writes and having writ…….

Etc” — Ah stop waffling… -—- Anyway after listen to this scabbily sent call several time and a_ few variations of it by laws of averages I decided it was indeed TM Zero ZetoTFR I write Zero as I cannot Type the 0 with a line thru it ( without looking up the special character which make it possible to do lots of funny things with a keyboard) I called the station concerned and he actually answered I sent him a 429 report and got something unintelligible back with 73.

QRZ assisted later and it seemed I actually had the call right It was something to do with the Tour de France Cycling event…….. Ah well it takes all sorts . Perhaps he was a Cycle /mobile station- ? a morse key on his handlebars !!

Next Step was a look on 40m and there I found VK5CZ and a proper qso of around 20MINS took place at a respectable 599 each way according to my log. That was sum total of my QRS activities that day, bands were very devoid of signals.

Not very exciting The Following Tuesday as usual the witching-hour of the qrs session creeps up suddenly He was running a mere 12 watts to alkl home brew equipmentand I realised it was nearly 0700Z Switched on the rig, which happened to be on about 14033 and heard ON7PQ and a reasonable qso resulted, i say reasonable but he was using a bug key and it was not to my liking.

However I can usually read almost anything and did not miss much but I have heard much better from a bug. then a little higher up the band I found ISOIYX ( Sardinia) in case it baffles you , as it did me until the op had explained where he was!

And another rs stn was successfully logged Not much to hear on the band at all but as I was about to abandon it I was called by VK2DVA , Colin in Blacktown (west of Sydney -I was pleased he informed me) by means of some really lovely and impressive, not too QRS Morse sent virtually to perfection with his Cootie key.

He was booming in at 599 and he told me about his equipment TX and Rx home made running 12 watts to a horizontal loop made to fit his small garden area and his relatively inexperience with the code.

So I just had to cut down my 100 watts to match his power and we completed the qso which lasted about 30 mins One of the most satisfying and interesting contacts I have had in recent times.

(his qrz page worth a look at) I hope we will hear more of him in future on the ars session.

David VK3DBD – Yackandandah, VIC Thanks for your musings David. I’m with you in really enjoying working and listening to a quality fist on any manual key, be it straight, bug or cootie.

And for anyone who’s not yet worked David, you really need to make the effort, just for the experience of copying his QTH. If you’re not left scratching your head, you’ll feel like a rock star! – Lance

Hope to get some good wx for more portable ops agn. Last Wednesday – Friday while portable in Riverland.. , photo taken 07:30 , Thursday .. Bit fresh to say the least.

Newsletter Report Accessibility

Newsletter meport ACCessipIIty Noticed a small technical “deficiency” in the news letter. The Reports and Comments section, beautifully laid out, are delivered as an image, as a result, when using a screen reader, they are skipped.

Whilst I am not strictly vision impaired, rather simply blessed with “old man eyes”, I’ve been using the iphone screen reader as an alternative to podcasts, or to read longer form stuff to me while I go about my manual chores not requiring that part of whats left” remaining of by brain.

“What’s left of my brain…is my left ear…the word remaining is less ambiguous. I may be a minority of one, and, given my recent involvement, qualify for “rare QRS” however I am happy to help in any solution to make this part of the newsletter more “accessible”, be it some HTML templates and CSS trickery, or some code to generate an alt text for the image.

Happy to liaise with whomever in your team to help this happen. Something that fits the workflow, and doesn’t create additional friction to the process. If not, that’s OK too.

I’ll ust default to reading words on a screen through my grandma glasses, just like I have to with the dank memes I am sent. Thank you once again for making Ham radio more enjoyable for many. Chris VK2NAP – Marrickville, NSW Hi Chris.

You may have noticed that as of late the articles are no longer presented as images, but are now actual text, so we’re making progress. I already have a plan of attack to address the issue of reports being presented as images.

Let me tackle the first step to have the reports in text format, then if there are accessibility issues with the screen reader, it can be tweaked with your feedback. Rest assured, this is my #1 priority for the newsletter. – Lance

Morse Training Net

Our team member Nic VK7WW runs an on-air Slow Morse training net every Wednesday at 7pm 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 – 3580KHZ at 7pm Eastern time every Wednesday; you’ll hear lots of the CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU has ralso ecorded the complete set of lessons which you can now find here:

Https://www. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsQmZz6fBXO7swAfbT mutrbbEL17fUQL Contact Nic VK7WW for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com including how to join the NTARC DISCORD group to follow the action, or just come along and join in on Wednesdays.

Readable File

If you’ve read something that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let us know cqqrsnet@gmail.com

There’s No Such Thing…

_— I think the first lesson in Teachering 101 is to always tell students “There’s no such…” (I’m sure you know the rest) and “…the only dumb questions are the ones not asked”.

John VK2RU reckons that there’s lots of questions out there among bot our new and our experienced operators – about CW, amateur radio operating and

Our new and our experienced operators – aDOUut Uv, amateur radio Operating ana about theory. Upload ADIF files for weekly reports? Jordan VK3ACU has , suggested that it may be useful to upload ADIF files when completing the weekly activity report.

Would you find this useful? Let us know your thoughts via email for next week’s Ragchew. Kids and CW Our peaceful existence was somewhat turned on its head last week with visiting relatives, including a pair of nephews (| think – wife’s brother’s kids – yes, I think they would be nephews…

They call me Uncle Mark so I guess that’s about right). ‘Anyway, at one stage the 10 year old was watching me listening-out for Jordan VK3ACU on last week’s great Western Victorian getting stuck in the mud trek.

Unfortunately, Jordan was between Parks at the time – so all the Nephew could hear was a bunch of crackles, pops and other strange noises. However, there was an unusual spark of interest that was re-confirmed a few days later when it came up in conversation.

Elizabeth asked “When we die, is there anything of ours that you would like to have?” – interesting question to ask a 10 year old from a philosophical or psychological perspective. And the answer surprised me “Uncle Mark’s Morse key”!

Hal I wasn’t sure if I should be thinking about James VK7JZ‘s “I’m not fanatical” comment last week; so I’ll park that thought. Anyway…

I thought perhaps for the next visit in support of an interest in woodwork by the 10 year old, maybe a simple Morse sounder might be the go.

Then again, that thought needed to be balanced against today’s Generation Alpha types (je instant gratification / YouTube / iPad & TV- influenced / short attention span etc); a simple wooden kit seemed to be the answer.

So I thought a couple of these might be the go for the 10 year old and his 8 year old

Now to the question for those with more experience of kids than me (that would be the 98 percentile of the population): How to teach Morse code to an autistic 10 yea old (in particular, maintaining interest, setting reasonable challenges, avoiding younger-brother take-over and showing-up etc)?

There’s a bunch of Morse code / secret code / Samuel Morse books available for kids – has anyone had a look, or better-still, any experience with any of them? I’m hoping that there’s a solution that the parents could take away and encourage the kids with.

And what about this sort of look-up table (from Nic VK7WW) as a helper rather than trying to learn something as abstract and un-cool as Morse code?

Over to our experienced kid-psychology / philosophy folks for thoughts. Mark VK2KI – Beautiful South Bowning, NSW [Do you have suggestions or perhaps a question or two or a discussion starter worth sharing?cqqrsnet@gmail.com if so.]

Prosign/Character/Signal of the Month

[Put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for Tuesday…. and tell us how you went!]

I Hear Tell…

We’re a little light on gossip this week, so tell us what you’ve heard that made you feel amused, concerned or relieved?

[If you have some intel about other team members… or even yourself… that’s worth sharing, please let us know cqqrsnet@gmail.com |

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

Next Tuesday’s Net

Our CQQRS Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0600Z until abou 1200Z; see https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite and navigate to the Net Details page for details.

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 in the table below until you catch someone.

Reports & Photos

Please let us know via our Reports form bit.ly/CQQRSNET who you work or hear on Tuesday’s Group. The report form closes at 1pm (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: cqqrsnet@gmail.com And of course, we’re 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.

Email to cqgrsnet@gmail.com please. Oh and by the way, I recommend that you don’t keep the Reports Form website open between submission of reports from one week to the next.

If 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 Wednesday mornings 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/CQQRSWebsite and navigate to the Net Details page for details of how you can connect via Echolink from anywhere in the world.

Could you write a short article or articles for RagChew? You bet! Writing not your strong point? Don’t worry, I’m very happy to help as much or as little as needed.

Oh, and one more thing (actually two) – copyright material: * please use your own images – don’t use images copied from the internet unless you have the producer’s permission, or they’re marked ‘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 one of the new Artificial Intelligence tools), head to our website bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite 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.

Thank you so much to our team of 38 contributors: DL3YZ, MONNK, SWL Jack, VK2GAS, VK2GAZ, VK2IOW, VK2KI, VK2NAP, VK3ACU, VK3DBD, VK3DL, VK3ET, VK3IDK, VK3QB, VK3TK, VK4EV, VK4IM, VK4PN, VK5A0, VKSET, VK5FD, VK5KFG, VK5PAS, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6MRB, VK6NW, VK6QI, VK6RR, VK6TX VK6WE, VK7JZ, VK7TO, ZL2GD, and ZL3TK

And a special thank you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI (head of software development), Patrick VK2IOW (reports coordinator), John VK2RU (spreadsheet manager, Richard VK6HRC (post morsition), Jordan VK3ACU (head gagster) and Ross MONNK (seconded from the Philosophy Department).

Great work all! GU CW on Tuesday, Lance VK7TO Margate TAS Editor cqqrs.ragchew.editor@gmail.com

About the CQ QRS Net

For the current schedule and more information about the CQQRS net, please go the the Net Details page on our website:

The opinions expressed in the RagChew newsletter are those of the individual contributors. The opinions do not necessarily reflect that of the editors 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/CQQRSWebsite

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