cq_qrs_newsletter

2024 18 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

International Morse Code Day on April 27TH was behind many goings on this past week. I hope you were able to get involved; see below for details.

Here’s this week’s list of the 41 stations heard on our Tuesday night CQ QRS Slow CW Practice QSO net:

New Team Members

Only one new member joined us this week – John VK3BSE down at Somers; John has participated in the last three International Morse Code Day quizzes, so it’s terrific to see him join the RagChew distribution list as well.

I’ve been tied up with various distractions but I expect we’ll have another bunch of new team members to add to the current 175 readers by the time the next RagChew comes out.

Reports

After next Tuesday’s net, please send me a list of who you worked and / or who yot heard using our new web form here: bit.ly/CQQRSNET

Getting reports from stations and listeners is important to me – even if you listened and didn’t hear anyone or weren’t able to copy anything – the fact that you had a go needs to get recorded so we know that the net is working and attracting new and old team members to have a go.

Thanks again to Nigel G4RWI for building the Google Form, the Python software back-end that does the processing, the new link and the QR code.

Masthead Image

And thanks this week to Geoff VK6HD for the screenshot during our International Morse Code Day Quiz; unfortunately, the mug-shots of Jordan VK3ACU and Stan ZL3TK aren’t in the shot – both were enjoying internet or computer problems when the snapshot was taken.

Cheers, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark.bosma@icloud.com non impsditi ratione cogitationis

Reports & Comments

The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s net. Comments distilled from the reports I’ve received are below:

Comments:

From Martin VK3FG at Mt Waverley:

• Fantastic leadership; love it. ¢ Only a small window for me tonight. [Feeling the joy of QRS CWI]

From Nic VK7WW at Legana:

• Only a small window to operate on 40m on Tuesday. ¢ Thoroughly enjoyable – and I receiving a Chinese Whisper from Jordan VK3ACU which I’ve emailed to Stan ZL3TK. ¢ I wasn’t aware of the K beacon or it’s location; 599X with me from NE Russia on 7039.3 kHz.

[Thanks to Dylan VK3AE and Ketut VK3BWN in our WhatsApp group for some insight into the apparently Russian F, K and M beacons (possibly propagation beacons) that operate in our 40m band.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_ beacon or do a Google Search on “Russian F, K and M beacons” for more. I’ve been watching them for some time on the KiwiSDRs wondering what they were.]

From Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith: ° Was not sure I was going to make it tonight but squeezed in a few contacts. © Managed to pass on my last Chinese Whisper as well – just in time for the end of the month. © Great rag chew with VK6MK Stuart.

WX is a lot different between VK6 and VK3 hehe. Great contact; we both used 20WATTS and a long wire.

From Tim VK3TBR at Horsham:

• Couldn’t manage any takers for a Whisper unfortunately, but enjoyed the process – it was fun learning some message-taking techniques.

From David VK3RU at Burwood: © The K marker was very strong but there was lots of stations in 40 tonight. ¢

From David VK3RU at Burwood:

• After three weeks of almost nightly CQ QRS trying to pass residual whispers with not one taker outside ‘school hours’, at almost the last minute of the last hour, the final whisper was sent.

Of course it’s not expected to travel far, but it proved that miracles do occasionally happen!

• From lan VK7TA at Latrobe: © I started a bit late but still found some activity. © I had to decline a Chinese Whisper from Stan as I was not sure I could stay long enough to pass it on.

It could have been seen as ‘catch and kill’ (as one hears about in court room dramas). ¢

From John VKS5ET at Hope Valley: e Much QSB tonight. ¢

From Richard VK6HRC at Padbury: © Had to shut down early due to an electrical storm! ¢

Conditions were not great – signals down, QSB.

From Peter VK6IS at Wundowie:

From Adam VK2NNW at Deepwater:

From Grant ZL2GD at Oxford:

• QSO with Ketut on 3.5255 using my WS 62 with 2W into an end-fed. ¢ Sent 459 RX449. e My sig had some chirp when rxed in Melbourne. More Cs to replace?

From Derek VK4DRK at Wyreema: © I got home quite late, and called CQ on 80m, from 1240Z to 1300Z, but didn’t hear anyone. © The Reverse Beacon Network receivers spotted me several times in NSW and New Zealand, but maybe everyone was already asleep.

° Most Tuesdays, I can only manage to be on late, after 1200Z… so maybe next time! [Bad luck Derek; there’s usually people around until around 1300Z – so hopefully better luck as we head into Winter?]

• From me VK2KI having a night off: © Net time on Tuesday I found myself up in Sydney sitting in a nice restaurant overlooking Circular Key.

• I’d just got off the phone to Nigel G4RWI who was back in Brisbane with Jo after they’d spent a couple of weeks in New Zealand. They were all packed up and ready to head to the UK the next day for our Winter.

• Although playing amateur radio in the restaurant probably wouldn’t have been good form, I did sneak a couple of listens to the Tecsun KiwiSDR at Araluen NSW.

© There were a number of stations on, but my time was limited – and I only recorded three in the log this week. © I didn’t have time to listen to the VK6QS KiwiSDR to see what was brewing in the West either. Memo, to me….

Take earphones my phone for listening to the net when eating in flash restaurants!

Post Mortem

Hi Mark

Four on the net this morning. Thank you for letting me know you were not checking in. + VK6LD + VK6FN + VK6KD/M * our short wave listeners and myself. + VK6QI was busy elsewhere. * David had some fun trying out his new key on 80MX and is looking forward to.

His year long caravan trip around Oz. He will still be active on the QRS net when he can, we will be listening out for him. * As for young Max, the new Flex radio set up is working well, no update on the new towers unfortunately.

* As for myself, a fierce electrical storm stopped play early in the proceedings on Tuesday! Thanks to all, looking forward to the next one. Cheers, have a great week Richard VKHRC [As always, thanks for running the net Richard, and for the report.]

International Morse Code Day / N

ABC Classic FM

On Saturday April 27TH, in response to an SMS from me to ABC ClassicFM, the presenter Ed Le Brocq played the theme music from a TV series Inspector Morse (which includes come code at the start).

Then over the following half hour, Ed talked about International Morse Code Day, the celebration of Samuel Morse’s Birthday, and the fact that radio amateur operators around the world still use the Code, including our slow Morse net here in Australia and New Zealand.

He mentioned it again about an hour later. The segment on ABC ClassicFM on Saturday April 27TH between 0710 and 0745, and more around 0838 can be heard here:

International Morse Code Day Quiz Richard VK6PZT Thanks to all who took part in this year’s International Morse Code Day quiz, held last Saturday 27TH April, with myself Richard VK6PZT as host and Mark VK2KI keeping score on his big spreadsheet.

We had 12 contestants (plus two who tried, but arrived after the event had finished) from all over the globe, including Australia, New Zealand, UK, Germany, and the USA.

A big thanks goes out to Zack and Gary who joined us at 0445 US time, and Stephen and Stan who stayed up late in ZL land.

The quiz kicked off just before 0900 Zulu, with 1 point for each correct answer and the occasional bonus point for spotting errors or in Kees’ case, whipping out a J37 / J47 key to demonstrate the difference between the two.

Our contestants did battle through lost connections (Jordan), frozen computers (Stan), and unexpected software updates (Geof!), however we got through six rounds of five questions with a maximum possible score of 30.

Rounds included were, Mr ‘Samuel FB Morse, Pop Culture, Q codes, Dates and Celebrities, Brainteasers, and a Picture round.

International Morse Code Day Quiz

An honourable mention goes out to Mr Alfred Vail, who deserves much greater recognition for his efforts developing both the single wire telegraph and the original version of the Morse Code we know and love today.

Perhaps, we can celebrate International Alfred Vail Day on September 25TH? Once again, a big thanks to all those who took part, helped with the organisation, testing, development and IT support. Richard VK6PZT

From Kees VK1KVS: ¢ That was good fun, the quiz, thank you! ¢ I learned a few things, or at least things I should read up on! 73 Kees VK1KVS

From Kees VK1KVS

From Ron VK6KHZ who managed to mis-read the start time, and came in to the Zoom meeting after it’d finished; this is his email to Mike DL83YZ and Ross MONNK, both of whom were in the Quiz: + Hi Guys i have just finished talking to Mark only to be told that the quiz has finished I got the time wrong.

They changed it from last year so i will have to wait for next year hope you all had fun and cant tell you how pissed off I am. Ron. And from Mike DL3YZ in response: + HIRon. We really have missed you. I began to wonder what may have happened to you.

Looking for next time, was a funny crowd. And maybe I should learn some facts about Morse code. I was just guessing. Have a nice day, Mike.

From Stan ZL3TK: * Thanks for a grand, well-run quiz night. Sorry about the confounded compute lock-up, very disappointed about that I can tell you.

[A standing ovation is the go for the huge amount of work that Richard has put into this event this year, and the previous two.

Richard came up with something like 120 questions each with four multi-choice answers; from that bank of questions, we selected the top 80-odd, which were to be available on the night.

Richard ended up using 30 questions, which kept everyone busy and amused for nearly two hours. I’d like to thank Richard’s wife and kids for their help in beta-testing the quiz set-up on Zoom and for the time Richard had to take to get all the problems sorted in time for the event.

Well done to the Ayre family – and thank you.]

IVUU A WU = Uninese Whispers Montmn April has drawn to a close. Chinese Whispers, one of the CQ QRS Group’s activities to commemorate International Morse Code Day has also concluded, meaning it is the time to collate a summary showing how far into their intended five-jump journey each of the twenty-six whispers traveled, and how each one fared.

To do this we need your help since twenty-four whispers are ostensibly still in circulation. Would all operators currently holding one or more whispers, regardless of the number of jumps achieved, please email the whisper text in its entirety, make no changes, along with relevant serial numbers, to Stan at zi3tk@qsl.net

[Thank you Stan for your hard work in coming up with the Chinese Whisper concept, creating the rules and the 26 different Chinese Whisper messages, distributing the messages and running the activity.

Richard VK6PZT and I had tried to come up with something similar last year, but instead settled on the short Corroboree contest.

Your efforts are very much appreciated Stan; I hope you get some feedback from our team, because I’m keen to find out others’ thoughts on whether or not we should run similar activities in the future.]

Many of us will have worked Nigel G4RWI as he an Jo travelled in their motorhome around the Southern and Eastern States over the past six months. This week, they returned to the UK for Summer, to allow his Australian visa to recuperate.

Visa about to expire – so return to the UK or be not given a return option. On their previous visit, Nigel heard very little amateur activity – but this time he stumbled across our net, and was quickly adopted as our token tourist.

Nigel and Jo visited Elizabeth and me here, and told us how he’d really enjoyed the difference our QRS net had made to his time in Australia.

Nigel told us that as a volunteer at the Bletchley Park National Radio Centre, he was a founder of a similar QRS group to ours in the UK (see our 9FEB24 RagChew article). No wonder he immediately took to what we were doing.

When I spoke to Nigel on his last evening in Australia he told me how much pleasure our net had brought to his visit this time, compared to the previous six month visit where he hardly met anyone.

Nigel said he’d enjoyed the camaraderie of the net which made bringing all the portable gear worth while. While visiting here, Nigel was convinced to develop the Google Forms system for RagChew reports and write a Python program to help clean-up and collate the reports for input to the newsletter.

We’re now using a developmental prototype and there’s lots more to come. Nigel and Jo will be back as we head toward Summer, but will continue to develop the software for us from afar. Thanks mate.

Thanks for the alert about the mentions on ABC ClassicFM. I had a listen. Nice plug, and “Mark” even rated a mention! Good that Alfred Vail was there as well; his contribution as the inventor of the International Morse Code is not always considered or even recognised.

His birthday is 25 September. What shall we call that and how to celebrate that date? Maybe another quiz?

But let’s not forget 25 April, not sure if that popped up anywhere, Marconi’s birthday. Attached my ‘commemorative’ picture, with some of my Marconi (or Marconi affiliated) Morse keys.

MFJ to Cease Production

In case you haven’t read about it already, here’s the advice that MFJ is going to ceas production in the US this month: hitps://qrper.com/2024/04/mfj-ceases-on-site-production-in-starkville-mississippi/ MFu’s other brands are affected as well, including Ameritron, Cushcraft, Hygain, Mirage, and Vectronics.

Rob VK2COS Remote

Hi Mark. Just wanted to let you know that I will not have 40 or 80m for a while. I have set up a remote station on the South Coast but I only have a hex beam for 6- 20m.

I will still post my calls on WhatsApp when I am operating on those bands but won’t be able to participate in any of the nets until I can get something on 40m. It’s a great thing that you are doing, well done.

Regards Rob VK2COS [Thanks for the update Rob; I hope you get your remote going on 40 and 80m so you can join us again soon.]

G’day Mark, I got my latest Lo Key mag. Good to see you put in some info about the Slow morse net. Also was browsing the net for CW info, came across VK2AOE, who mentioned you & the slowww CW on you tube. News is getting out. John.

[Thanks John; I didn’t contribute to the VK QRP Group’s magazine – but no-doubt one of our readers did – thank you to who ever it wasj.

Hi Mark. Thanks for the information about the ABC radio discussion about International Morse Code Day, and for organising the Tuesday night QRS net. Its been a real success. I have recently read ‘The CW Way of Life’ by Chris Rutkowski.

If you haven’t heard of it, you might be interested. I think its pretty good on the topic. Cheers Greg Fisher VK5KFG [Thanks Greg. A synopsis of the book for a future RagChew would be interesting to readers I reckon.]

From: Silverdale Trainsafe Date: Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 1:22PM Subject: Amateur Radio Foundation, Standard and Advanced Training programs Good afternoon, I am taking expressions of interest for those who are seeking an ‘Amateur Radio Foundation License.

The next course is scheduled to commence on Monday 6th May 2024 commencing at 7pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. The course will run for three consecutive Monday evenings for approximately 3 hours per session. The cost of the course is $15.00 for the course.

Should you wish to express interest please email trainsafe@silvertrain.com.au and further details will be provided. 1am also taking expressions of interest for those who wish to upgrade to the Amateur Standard or Advanced licence.

The next course is scheduled to commence on Thursday 9th May 2024 commencing at 7pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. The course will run for fifteen consecutive Thursday evenings for approximately 3 hours per session.

This course also includes an additional maths refresher and regulations session. The cost of the course is $35.00 for the course. Should you wish to express interest please email trainsafe@silvertrain.com.au and further details will be provided.

Regards Fred VK3DAC, VK4FE Kind regards Silverdale Trainsafe

When you Don’t Have a Key during a Contest

From Chris VK2NAP Good luck with the Quiz and thanks for keeping the dream & the code alive We all do our bit. Here is me doing mine https://youtu.be/POXqS-AquzY 73 DE VK2NAP dit dit [Dit ait]

Nic VK7WW runs a 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.

The NTARC also feeds the CW live via the Discord phone / computer audio stream, and previous weeks’ recordings are available. Contact Nic VK7WW for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com – or just join in on Wiadinacdayve

Brain teaser

Jules Perrin JP VK3JFP has created a terrific resource to help guide learning for all levels of amateur radio licenses: https://www. julesworkshop.net/Amateur%20Radio.

Html With thanks to Baz VK6MU for he idea, and Jules for the good learning website, here’s this week’s quiz questions from Jules’ Workshop example test questions: What do the terms MF, HF VHF and UHF represent and what frequency range applies to these?

When compared to ground wave propagation, sky wave propagation usually has: * Much smaller effective range + Much greater effective range + The same effective range * Differing effective range depending of the weather The voltage across terminals A, B is:

Which of the following is the correct calling procedure for radiotelephony? (a) THIS IS VK7APL CALLING VK6AB, 7APL CALLING 6AB (b) VK6AB VK6AB VK6AB THIS IS VK7APL VK7APL VK7APL OVER (c) VK7APL TO VK6AB VK7APL TO VK6AB COME IN PLEASE (d) VK6AB VK6AB DE VK7APL K How did you go?

Answers from last week’s Quiz:

What is the unit of frequency? Answer: Hertz One KHz is the same as « 10 Hz ¢ 100 Hz ¢ 1,000 Hz ¢ 10,000 Hz Answer: 1,000 Hz The bias used in this amplifier circuit is:

• fixed bias ¢ grid leak bias ¢ cathode bias * combination bias Answer:fixed bias

A station using the callsign VK1NSR/4 is indicating that: ¢ Itis an ACT station temporarily operating in Queensland ¢ The operator’s licence has now been held for four years ¢ A Queensland station is operating mobile temporarily in the ACT ¢ VK1NSR also holds three other callsigns Answer: It is an ACT station temporarily operating in Queensland How did you go?

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

So back to the Slow CW QSO practice net.

Next Tuesday’s Net

Our CQ QRS Net will be on as always on Tuesday from around 0700Z until about 1300Z; see below 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.

Please let me know via our Reports form bit.ly/CQQRSNET who you work or hear ot Tuesday’s net.

Richard VK6HRC will run our Post Morsum on the South West AllStar net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time. If you’re in WA, all you need is an FM 2m or 70CM transceiver and an AllStar node nearby.

If you’re elsewhere in the world, you may be able to connect your local AllStar-enabled repeater to the net, or you can connect via Echolink. Let me know (mark.bosma@icloud.com) if I can help with that.

Teamwork

Thank you so much to our team of 33 contributors this week: VK6HD, VK3FG, VK7WW, VK3ACU, VK3TBR, VK3RU, ZL3TK, VK7TA, VK5ET, VK3BTV, VK6IS, VK6AAV, VK6KHZ, VK3KLE, VK2NNW, ZL2GD, VK7KPC, VK4DRK, VK6HRC, VK6PZT, VK1KVS, DL3YZ, VK2COS, VK5KFG, VK2NAP, VK3JFP, VK2DLF, VK2GAZ, VK3BWN, VK4EK, VK5AO, VK6DEV and VK6WE.

Thank you team. GU CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma VK2KI / VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark.bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione cogitationis

Matching

PSE QRS

CW Tips

As always, for newbies, operating suggestions are available from the operating hints link here: https://www.parg.org.au/_files/ugd/ebe236 3ca5ca08bb38429db4eee524bda2f97a. pdf.

There’s usually people around until after 1300Z – so keep calling until you catch someone. I should be on as usual from home in NSW and via the Remote at Bedfordale WA, and I’ll also be watching the proceedings using the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW respectively.

The opinions expressed in the RagChew newsletter are those of the individual contributors. The opinions do nat necessarily reflect that of the editor or of the C@ QAS Group members.

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