cq_qrs_newsletter

2024 40 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

Another sensational Tuesday evening this week – so many people having a go, learning, and having fun in the process; what a great group!

I’ve put my head in the sand and tried to ignore it… but sure as eggs, Daylight Saving is with us again – bugger. There goes much of our across-Australia and NZ success on 80m except for those who can stay up for the late-late DX for another si: months until sanity returns.

So the new suggested schedule for daylight saving starts now. I’ve decided to keep the GMT and WA times as the stick in the sand (so as to speak) because that has a better likelihood of both 40m and 80m propagation during the get together as the Absorption Limit Frequency drops with the setting sun; if we shifted the times to align with existing Eastern / NZ times, over in the West, they’d be still having their mid-evening Barbies and EBs in the sunshine, while the rest of us have gone to bed.

Ditto for the Post Morsum on Wednesday morning – the net will continue to slot neatly between the early yawners and the 7AMERS.

Last Tuesday’s Group

Here’s this week’s list of the 62 stations heard on Tuesday evening’s get-together:

Masthead Image

And thanks this week to Richard VK6HRC for the image of his bush retreat’s Bush T’ in the rain; no wonder he didn’t get on air from there on Tuesday evening.

Reports

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

As our team outside of Australasia grows, we’ve seen lots of interest in expanding our activities to other bands to catch our overseas members.

The head of our software department, Nigel G4RWI has been making progress on a simple way of reporting on contacts with our team outside of 40 and 80m.

But in the mean time, please just use the 80m report area (separate out your 80m report from other bands of course), and when you enter the list of callsigns worked, heard or missed, please append an ‘@band’ to each callsign without a space (eg VK2KI@20 VK6QI@15 etc).

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 Group is working and attracting new and old team members to have a go.

Reports & Comments

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

Comments:

[20m] + I managed to work Roy VK6RR – but not much was passed between us because conditions were poor. But VK3DRQ and VK2IOW were both “loud and clear”! [See the details about Ross’ operation this time in his article in This Week’s Topic of Interest below.

Also see his YouTube video about his DXperiment this week. https://youtu.be/zZLCEiNOzp7o ] Ernm Tany AMAnrric VK2C TRA a+ lhinngartoniin

[80m] + I really enjoy this net! The next time I go on a road trip I will take my HB1B transceiver, squid pole, drive – on antenna mast base and EFHW antenné – and no SSB capability!.

[40m] + What a great night, 40m was alive with CW QSOs! Took my newly minted Elecraft K1 for a spin for its maiden voyage on the QRS net. Absolute blast, Thanks to those who answered my CQ calls… nice to get VK6 with 5 Watts, I’ll take that any day!

[40m] + I was homebrewing a VFO kit from QRP Labs. So not much operating. Plugged in the QMX Plus Transceiver from QRP Labs and teamed it with the QRP Labs 50 watt amp and my EFHW, for one QSO with Allen VK5FD. He was also running 50 watts into a dipole. 73.

[40m] + Little slow tonight perhaps I was a little early – it picked up a bit after 9PM Vic time. Contact with VK6NW Wayne got cut short unfortunately another super fast DX station came in over the top way stronger completely wiping him out.

[80m] + It was a nice sunny morning in the hut on the meadows. All the migratory birds, that gathered together here in the valley last tuesday, are on their way. So it was silent again with no “QRN” HI.

Condx were great, I was constantly busy chatting on the radio. A big thanks to all calling stations, you guys really rock.

Some signals nearly blew the top of my trusty radio 🙂 On my last shift I really had trouble with local european stations again, calling me despite my “CQ VK QRS” call. So I wasnt able to fully understand VK2IS.

Otherwise his signal had made it round the globe on 20m quite fine.. Thanks for the fun ! 73, and greetings from germany to all of you – Mike DL3YZ.

[40m] + No accuracy exercises requested. More traffic than previously, and an exciting, epoch-making event: the first time traffic has been initiated by another station; very well executed by OM John VKSET. Expect a QTC in reply next Tuesday.

[80m] + Heard both VK6 stations QS after 1200Z. One reply to repeated CQs resulting in an informative discussion with OM Sava about the beneficial effect from improvements made to his 80 m antenna, especially good for his signal on NZ Net.

[80m] + Very noisy on 80m due to storms.

[40m] + Good to have a chat Mark, it had been a while.

[16m] + Unable to call DL3YZ due other stations working him!.

[20m] + Thanks to VK2IOW for QSPing my RST to Ross on 20m..

[40m] + Again a well enjoyed evening and a GREAT surprise to be able to work dear OM Drew VK3XU after several years…

[80m] + It was a nice sunny morning in the hut on the meadows. All the migratory birds, that gathered together here in the valley last tuesday, are on their way. So it was silent again with no “QRN” HI.

Condx were great, I was constantly busy chatting on the radio. A big thanks to all calling stations, you guys really rock.

Some signals nearly blew the top of my trusty radio 🙂 On my last shift I really had trouble with local european stations again, calling me despite my “CQ VK QRS” call. So I wasnt able to fully understand VK2IS.

Otherwise his signal had made it round the globe or 20m quite fine.. Thanks for the fun ! 73, and greetings from germany to all of you – Mike DL3YZ.

[80m] + I did copy OM Ross RSN 331 and I was surprised when he gave me 579! + Mike gave me 569 and he was 551 at my QTH.

[40m] + Couldn’t hear many stations tonight, my internet having issues meant my online SDR connection kept dropping and phone notifications were delayed which made things difficult. Tried calling CQ but had no luck, I may have been in amongst some noise…

+ I have my own SDR but it doesn’t yet have a good antenna for 40/80M. I tested a loop on the ground recently and the noise floor was amazing compared to what I usually get, I just need to figure out the logistics of where it can sit undisturbed by the lawnmower and dog!

[80m] + Faint signals in amongst a high noise floor – I tried! :).

[40m] * Met Arthur on the band. Signals were good. Had to cut QSO short. Enjoyed the CW.

[40m] + it did seemed to be an bit quiet, this week.

[80m] + it’s nice to have the odd contact on other bands, + and outside of the weekly net meet. + also nice to get the odd Eqs! for an CW contact, as well..

[40m] + Au signals weak early early on in the evening, picking up as it got later. Still not as strong as they were in the middle of winter (reduced daylight hours?). Higher bands were good on Tuesday night as well with 20m still going after sunset..

From your Editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning

[16m] + missed the first DXperiment skeds, so I didn’t hear Ross on 20m. The Tecsun KiwiSDR now has a time limit of 1 hour in 24 hours (after a South East Asian operator repeatedly occupied all four channels continuously on FT8 for several weeks), so I opted to use the VK1CM KiwiSDR with occasional use of the Tecsun one…

+ Mike DL3YZ was coming through nicely at RSN 552, and I heard him working Patrick VK2IOW at Millthorpe, who I was surprised to be copying over the 150KM path..

[20m] + When Mike moved to 20m, he was very weak into NSW RSN 311..

[40m] + I was pleased to work Andy VKSLA using his new 5 Watt Elecraft K1 that he’d built; this was the transceiver that we saw under construction two editions ago in RagChew 38/2024.

Good to also chat to both Richard VK6PZT and Peter VK7KPC, neither of whom I’d heard for some months.

[80m] + Good to work David VK6KD/4 at Airlie Beach whose transmitter had returned to full power on 80m – tough to do fault-finding when you’re on the road; have fun with the salling Maties.

After David, I rounded out the night with a chat to Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney. Sava had been on the ZLCW net on 80m and as usual was calling, calling, calling hoping for some QRS QSOs, particularly rag chews.

I suspect that the static crashes from central WA that I could see on the VK6QS KiwiSDR, plus Daylight Saving in New Zealand meant there wasn’t as many on 80m this time.

By the time we finished, it must have been getting late; at one stage it took me several goes to send his callsign correctly – what fun!. Also from your Editor Mark VK6QI at via the VK6QS KiwiSDR near Brookton

[16m] + 15m was working nicely on the long path with Mike DL3YZ rolling in to the VK6QS KiwiSDR at RSN 451..

[20m] + Mike DL3YZ was a lot stronger in WA on 20m long path than here in NSW; RSN 551 in WA and RSN 311 in the East. I wonder how his signals were in ZL?

Funny listening to Mike quickly batting off the UK and European callers who were responding to his CQ VK QRS calls – hard work I imagine.

I think Mike’s signal was better than either the UK or the Italian stations that I heard – possibly because he was beaming long path (despite his Yagi pointing into the hill on LP)…

[40m] + Nice to hear Andy VK5LA‘s 5 Watts from his new Elecraft K1 kit Q5 into WA..

[80m] + When I worked David VK6KD/4 on 80m from home in NSW, the static crashes had abated and we were both copyable on the VK6QS KiwiSDR, but not strong this week..

[15m & 20m] + Didn’t work 40 or 80 metre bands this week. However had nice QSOs with Ross, MONNK and Mike, DL3YZ.

From Stan ZL3TK Believe it or not, our third traffic handling station has already initiated a question QTC, so now you have three options: answer VKSET, answer ZK3TK, or answer both!

Since plenty of examples of printed answers have been provided, there’s really no need to labor the point so from now on only ‘as sent’ traffic will be shown.

If anyone needs help just email for assistance or book an echolink training session with your questions prepared in advance.

Zi3tk@qslnet ‘Two answers from the previous week: QNC CT NR 36 R VK3DRQ CK 11/9 BLACKBURN 0633Z 29SEP24 = ZL8TK = YOUR NR 137 ANSWER 34R528 138R46E COMMA 34R400 GIGALITRES = VK3DRQ AR QRU QSL?

K QNC CT NR7R VKSET 14/12 PFR9SID 0205Z 25SEP24 = ZL3TK = REPLY NR 137 COORDS FOR LOOKOUT 34R866E 138R7815 STOP LAKE CAPACITY 19R1 GIGALITRES = QSL NR 137 K All are invited to answer these two questions for next Tuesday, the first being John’s inaugural offering as a traffic initiator.

Look carefully and critically, it’s a text-book presentation: QNC CT NR14R VKS5ET 20/18 PFR9SID 0405Z 30SEP24 = ZL3TK = WHO WERE THE A.A.T.T.V. COMMA WHEN DID THEY ARRIVE IN VIETNAM COMMA WHO WAS THE COMMANDING OFFICER QUERY = VK5ET AR QSL?

K Then another from the ‘Focus on Australia’ series, this time VK8-land: QTC CT NR143 R ZL3TK 29/23 WAITARERE 0550Z 10CT24 = VK3DRQ VIA CQ QRS FFA = GIVE ORIGINAL PURPOSE OF STRUCTURES AT 12R4402S 130R8762E AND 12R4406S 130R8778E IN CHARLES DARWIN NATIONAL PARK NT STOP GIVE RED NUMBER ON EACH ZL3TK AR COL 12R4402S 130R8762E, 12R4406S 130R8778E.

NW FILLS? K As promised in the reminder version of RagChew, the eight accuracy training exercises were offered again on the hour between 0700Z and 1100Z inclusive, five hours! There were no takers, not even for Ping Pong.

Hello Mark, Six on the VK6REC rptr and AllStar / Echolink net this morning. Reporting from the portable retreat up in Gidgegannup where the rain on the tin roof made for a difficult copy!

VK6QI_ Mark VK6NW Wayne ZL3TK Stan VK5ET John VK6KD/4_ David VK6HRC and our shortwave listeners. VK6MRB swi checked in before the net.

David from Airlie Beach in North Queensland had a squid pole up and worked 40 mx also battling the QRN. So thank you and as usual looking forward to the comprehensive reports in the RagChew.

This Week’s Topic of Interest

The Half Square “12 Step Tango”

From MONNK 1. Unload the car and struggle out to the operating site (those water-filled beach umbrella stands are heavy and cumbersome).

2. Set out the umbrella stands 410M apart * Facing in the correct direction (sideways on to the Long Path) * Allow 7m either end for the guy lines * Find a place for “Base Camp” (camp chair, radio, etc)Fully extend both ém fishing poles 3.

Fully extend both 6m fishing poles 4, Attach one guy line to the top of each pole 5. Insert the poles into the umbrella stands and place the guy line anchors in roughly the right place 6. Remove the poles from the umbrella stands and place them on the ground

7. Unwind the antenna wire and lay it out so that the transformer is nearest “Base Camp” 8. Tape each antenna corner to the top of it’s pole; tape the transformer to the bottom of that pole 9. Raise both poles and place them in their umbrella stands 10.

Adjust the guy lines so that the horizontal element of the antenna is not sagging 11. Attach the RF Choke end of the coax to the transformer; attach the other end to the radio 12. Turn on the radio and scan for SWR (in this case, close to 1:1, Yippee!)

Phew! But you haven’t finished yet – now you need to flop into your camp chair and start assembling the spaghetti of wires at “Base Camp”. However, I’m pleased to report that I was successful again on today’s DXpedition, using this Half Square antenna.

But the Half Square antenna does seem like a lot of hassle compared to my previous foray with the tripod-mounted coil, mil whip and elevated radials (not that that was trivial, either).

As you can see, this Portable lark is not for the lazy – the “operating” is the easy bit!

How does it get there? The mystery of Long Path DX

How does It get there? [he mystery of Long Path DA

From Ross MONNK I’ve been trying to figure out how on earth I’m managing to have DX contacts with you chaps in Australia.

From some internet research, I believe that the maximum distance for a ground to F layer and back to ground reflective hop is 4000 kms, but let’s call it a more-realistic 3000 kms.

The Short Path distance between London and Sydney is 17,000 kms, so about six hops. Doing the maths, I think that makes the Long Path distance 23,000 kms. So about eight hops…

There’s going to be signal attenuation at each ground contact but I believe that the sea is more reflective than land. Given that the Long Path is completely over the sea except for a short crossing of South America, this might explain why we’re having such success with the Long Path.

You can also see (from the grey area in the map) that transmitting at 0700 UTC means that most of the signal path is travelling through the night when the D-layer has dispersed and the F-layer is most reflective.

One of the things that I find very strange about the F-layer is that the free electrons in these layers tend to re-radiate signals coming into them – so they effectively act as micro-amplifiers.

This must be why my paltry 20 watts makes it all the way to Australia – the F layer is boosting my signal after every attenuating contact with the surface. “You learn something new every day”. [Bloody interesting analysis Ross – thank you,]

Sydney is Better than Perth

• yaoney is better Wan rerun from Ross MONNK Whilst looking at the Propagation forecast for 20m for Tuesday’s QRS “net”, I came across the interesting difference between the Long Path from Exeter (UK) to Perth and the Long Path from Exeter (UK) to Sydney.

The chances of me getting a contact on the east coast seem to be significantly better than getting one on the west coast!

In case you want to look at it yourself on the VOACAP Ham website: ¢ The transmitter power was set to 25 watts (the default power level is 1500 watts!). ¢ The transmitter antenna was set to a 1/4 wave vertical with a very good ground.

¢ The receiving antenna was set to a dipole at 5m.

How about 30m?

From Ross MONNK Too close in for 40m? 20m band not open yet? Have a go at 30m then! Yes, yes, yes – I know that you haven’t got an antenna for 30m. My favourite antenna is a 42 foot Random Wire antenna. As the name implies, it’s non-resonant.

“Non-resonant!”, I hear you say. “How can that possibly be any good?”, I hear you splutter. Non- resonant antennas use a forgotten technology called Magic to achieve impressive results across several bands.

My Xiegu G90 has an excellent Antenna Tuning Unit which pulls the SWR down to practically 1:1 across the 20, 30 and 40m bands. To change bands, just press “Tune” and wait 10 seconds.

But, really, how difficult can it be to put up a resonant dipole or EFHW for 30m? 30m is a small (short? narrow?) band which makes it easy to dial across if you haven’t got a spectrum/waterfall display.

It’s shared with the digital guys but they don’t take up much bandwidth. There’s no SSB and, even more importantly, there are no contests to saturate the band at convenient times. It always seems to be open and I’ve had a lot of success with it.

I’m not a DX guy so I can’t comment on how good it is for world-girdling though, if that’s your thing. In my humble opinion, 30m is the band that really deserves to be the home of CW.

So, splash out half an hour of your time to knock up a dipole (or what other flavour of antenna tickles your fancy) and give 30m a go. You may be pleasantly surprised.

If you’d like to contribute to the fun, motivation & learning via a RagChew article, please let me know – happy to help; email to cqqrsnet@gmail.com

My Workbench

Andy VK5LA’s completed Elecraft K1 kit transceiver.

Couple of our characters brewing up a scheme.

Jordan VK3ACU‘s Direct Conversion RX & TX.

Other News

From Stan ZL3TK Man- O-man (ooops sorry), I keep forgetting this is 2024 and we’ve discovered 99 somehow-equal and interchangeable genders! Starting again. Person-O- person, Edition 37 … what a Bosma of a read!

No reason to change the FFA’s name from net, although FFA sounds good to me, just so long as everyone understands, as you’ve tried to point out, it’s not a net, in fact bears not the slightest resemblance to anet.

Question: except for contest environments where every fleeting contact consists of 599 wham-bam thank you ma’m, has there ever been such a large gathering of like-minded AROs in the world engaged in real-deal QSOs, as on 40Tuesday?

Aaah, could that be a new name for Tuesday’s FFA? As for RagChew editorship, it comes as no surprise that such big feet might need respite. The challenge will be to find another set, or sets, of feet to fill those huge boots.

Could it be done on the principle that ‘many feet make beautiful wine’? How about dividing RagChew tasks into roughly equal thirds, e.g.

Ed A, possibly the notional chief, updates the fluid data such as the QSO table which changes from week-to-week, and he maintains the general structure of the newsletter; Ed B collates and filters new material/articles submitted by members along with the one-off features such as, ‘Abstract from the 2024 Remembrance Day Memorial Contest Report’, Ed 3 collates the ever-increasing load of ‘Reports and Comments’ and slips in those magnificent photos of serious-looking guys, they even look human and would never have thought were capable of sending broken tones.

Hey, there’s another potential name: catch you on 40broken-tones, or 80broken- bones! Sounds almost aboriginal. The logistics for collection and distribution of RagChew material would need to be worked out.

With Zoom’s full ‘pentaplex’ video and sound, coordination between the three Eds need not be tedious. Could all be over well inside the 40 minute free- allowance. Each would be able to ‘show-and-tell, then email their product to the chief.

Would need to try it then maybe adjust the load ratios to ensure rough equality. 73 de Stan

Names and Sharing

Oceania DX Contest 12 Oct 24.

The Oceania DX CW Contest is on next weekend, Saturday starting at 0600Z. https:/Awww.oceaniadxcontest.com Might be a bit of fun, good practice… and a good promotion for the success of

Our Group if we have a bunch of QRS operators out there demonstrating how much fun CW can be. Perhaps also an opportunity for our team members in the US, UK, EU, Indonesia and Argentina to have some fun in our direction.

Bletchley Park Group activity perhaps Nigel?

CW Popularity

From Graham VK6RO via the Hills Amateur Radio Group email. Millions of Aussies listen to CW every night. At the very beginning of the ABC TV news every night there is CW. This is right at the beginning within maybe 1 to 4 seconds?

Made by some type of musical instrument Text is AB CT Probably at about 20 words per minute? de VK6RO

Jordan VK3ACU continuing his CW every day September challenge.

VOrUdll VANVAYYU COMUNUINIG Tis UY every day September challenge.

Morse Training Net

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 Wednesdays.

Brain teaser

Jules Perrin JP VK3JFP has created a terrific resource to help guide learning for all levels of amateur radio licenses: https:/Awww.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:

Exam Questions:

What device would you use if you wanted to test the output power of the transmitter without sending a signal up the antenna?

The mixing of audio and radio frequency signals is * frequency multiplication * frequency mixing * detection * modulation ‘The hfe or beta of a transistor is: * noise figure * current gain * operating speed * breakdown voltage Answers next week.

Answers from last week’s Quiz:

With regards to antennas, what do the following terms mean? ¢ Directivity ¢ Gain ¢ Beamwidth « ERP Answer: Directivity is the ability to focus the signal in a given direction. Gain is achieved by focusing the signal in a given direction.

Beamwidth is the width of the signal beam from a directional antenna. ERP is the perception of increased power by a directional antenna.

The mode of operation of this amplifier is known as a

• common emitter * common collector * common drain * common gate Answer:common emitter

A power gain of 30 dB is an equivalent power ratio of e 1,000 e 10,000 e 100,000 e« 10 Answer: A power gain of 30 dB is an equivalent power ratio of 1,000 How did you go?

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

So back to the Slow CW QSO practice Group.

Next Tuesday’s Net

Our CQ QRS Group will be on as always on Tuesday from around 07002Z 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 on Tuesday’s Group. For stations on other bands, please just use the 80m report area (separate out your 80m report from the other bands), and when you enter the list of callsigns worked, heard or missed, please append an ‘@band’ to each callsign without a space (eg VK2KI@20 VK6QI@15 etc).

Post Mortem

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 (8605 LSB).

For the 0600 (22002) net, 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 (cqqrsnet@gmail.com) if I can help with that. and if you can’t connect that way, give 3605KHZ SSB a try from 0700 (23002).

Teamwork

Thank you so much to our team of 29 contributors: DL3YZ, MONNK, VK2AOE, VK2ASB, VK2GAS, VK2IOW, VK2NAP, VK2NNW, VK2WF, VK3ACU, VK3AFH, VK3BWN, VK3CTM, VK3DRQ, VK3JFP, VK3KEV, VK4DRK, VKSET, VK5FD, VK5LA, VK6BEK, VK6FN, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6NW, VK6PZT, VK6RO, VK6RR, VK7KPC, ZL3TK and ZL4BDG.

In particular I’d like to thank and congratulate Ross MONNK for his continuing series of terrific thought-provoking articles about his activities and research.

Frustration

My editing dramas with MailChimp, the system that’s used to publish and distribute the RagChew newsletter continued again this week.

The system is web-based and automatically saves every time a change is made – the editor can’t save a copy – it’s all done via the magic of the internet.

After losing the lot on a number of occasions, like previous weeks, today I’ve been religiously exiting the system and replicating the saved version, then editing the replication (this was MallChimp’s recommendation after I lost the lot the first time).

However, today I’ve been not only losing several iterations either when exiting, or even on the fly but to add insult… some of the previous replications have simply disappeared, so I’ve had to back track several hours and re-create what’s been written.

Hmmm….| don’t think it’s just me, but it might be! So here we are again, late on Thursday night… tapping away on the computer, re-writing what I’ve already written… instead of doing all the jobs that are piling up However…

Why haven’t I spat the dummy and given it away? It’s the comments in the reports from the team that make it all worth while.

So many people are finding such joy in our Tuesday evening meet-ups – learning, chatting to QRS team friends, having a go, making mistakes, getting frustrated, just having so much fun and I can just about hear it in their key clicks on air – it’s infectious.

UY CW on Tuesday, mb. Mark Bosra VK2KI/ VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark,bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione cogitationis

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 QRS Group

Frequencies and Times

So tune around and call anyone you hear, or find yourself a quiet spot in the designated segment, send “QRL?” and if the frequency is quiet, start calling CQ QRS at about 75% of the speed you’re comfortable receiving at; hopefully responders will match (or send slower to their comfort level).

If we’re on 40m and you can hear that the band is open outside Australasia, perhaps consider calling 500HZ above each 1KHZ slot – to minimise the chance of having to copy our team through QRQ QRM that’s often dead-on the kHz markers.

Speed

Landing Zone

CW Tips

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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