cq_qrs_newsletter

2025 01 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

Terrific to hear so many of our team on Tuesday who tore themselves away from their New Year’s Eve fandangos and joined the QRS celebrations on air.

I had a great time, and I know many of the others on did the same; much better than watching the fireworks on TV (I’m a bit biased…. I haven’t watched TV since January 1st, 2005 – 20 years ago!). Thank you one and all – what a great team!

FAINY Event – tonight Oceania lime U9UUZ Don’t miss our HNY event hosted by Ross MONNK, Mike DL3YZ, Nigel G4RWI and Simon MOKBJ tonight (8pm Eastern). Doesn’t matter whether or not you have a DX set-up – if you can operate on 20m, have a go….

And either way, it’ll be great to put some faces to callsigns if you can join the team for our Zoom videoconference. You can join Zoom from your smart phone, tablet, Mac, PC or RaspberryPi – as long as it has a camera and an internet browser, it’ll work.

Last Tuesday’s Group

Here’s this week’s list of the 33 stations heard:

Masthead Image

And thanks this week to Geoff VK6HD for the shot of some of his portable gear; FT- 817 and his switched antenna coupler. See On my Workbench below for info on the coupler.

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: bit.ly/WCQQRSNET

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

Submissions close lunch time (Eastern Australian time) on Thursday. If you hear or work one of our team on a different band on Tuesday, please just use the 80m report area and annotate which bit applies to which band.

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).

The head of our software department, Nigel G4RWI has continued to work furiously to produce a simple way of reporting on contacts with our team outside of 40 and 80m; I have a Beta version sitting on my pile of projects waiting to be tested.

Please help attract new and old team members to have a go by submitting your report each week.

Reports & Comments

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

Comments:

[40m] * Slim pickings tonight! And why not ©! Happy New Year!

[40m] * Not many Station heard tonight, nevertheless, we enjoy them and first time I hr OM Stephen ZL1ANY in CQ QRS Net.. + Avery Happy New Year to everyone. 73&77 from Manny. I hope to be here Next Year..

[40m] * The band was quiet when I tuned in but on Max, VK6FN, answered my CQ

[40m] * The band was quiet when I tuned in but on Max,

Fulfilling our previously arranged sked. Further CQs had no response however returning later Roy, VK6RR answered and I enjoyed my first contact with him. Happy New Year!

[40m] * Thunderstorms around, not many signals heard. Happy New Year to all..

[40m] * Camped out on the Newnes Plateau near Lithgow. * Thunderstorms with rain and lightning at times. Also firefighting helicopters with water buckets transiting overhead. Not the best time to play amateur radio..

• After spending too many hours trying to disconnect a bloody Power Take Off shaft from our little tractor (don’t ask – I’d forgotten that the PTO shaft is actually too long, so it won’t come off – one day I’ll get around to shortening it) I rushed inside to join the team.

• I first had a chat to one of our great supporters, Georg VK2DLF at St Marys, then Wal VK2WP who was portable at Newnes Plateau North of Lithgow; Wal was set up ready for the SOTA change of year on Wednesday.

Later I caught up with David VK3DBD who was still set up near the Bay of Islands North of Auckland… + It was nice to have a decent rag-chew with David VK3RU at Burwood – who was celebrating New Year’s Eve with one of his longest CW QSOs…

[80m] + I had a listen down on 80m at around 1200Z and was pleased to hook up with one of our founding team – Richard VK6PZT at Dalyellup. Signals weren’t brilliant, but we did manage to exchange the important info (HNYs etc… oh and reports).

Things were quiet as the proverbial so after more calls, I slipped back to 40m, and had a second QSO with Richard, who was a nice Q5 on 40m; nice way to welcome 2025.. Also from your editor Mark VK6QI via the VK6QS KiwiSDR near Brookton

• l had a listen on the VK6QS KiwiSDR near Brookton, and heard two more of our founding team, Max VK6FN at Manjimup chatting to Shaun VK6BEK at Quinns Rocks – terrific to hear that Max had put the brown smells back into the antenna coupler and sorted out his

Antennas at last.. «| thought it would be appropriate to try to have a New Year’s Eve three-way QSO via one of the Southern Electronics Group’s remote HF stations. My notebook PC refused to load the Remote Hams application, and required a hard reset.

But once connected, I couldn’t make the Remote couple to the antenna, so I tried the Carnarvon Remote. As usual, the Remote was in use on six metres FT-8, so I gave up, and hoped the band would open to the East before too much longer..

* The band opened up eventually, when I caught up with Richard, but he was the only Sandgroper that I heard from the East this time..

• HNY to you and all on the net. + I suggest that without encouragement from Manny VK3DRQ and the net, I expect my key would have been back in the cupboard a while back.

* We had some visitors last night so I joined very late but there you were wailing into the wind on 40 so I thought you at least deserved a response. + It was a great QSO, possibly one of my longest.

Pity the QRM picked up and killed our chat and just as we closed a

Fella jumped in calling CQ at far more than our speed. Not sure if he expected us to reply but I thought that was a bit over the top. Look forward to joining QRS during 2025. AR Cheers David VK3RU

Post Morsum Report

Mark worked nine stations from home and then tried to operate the Southern Electronics group remote in Bedfordale VK6 but no go, then the Carnarvon one but that was busy with FT8 crew.

David called in from Howlong NSW on the Murray river but with Christmas and New Year falling on the Tuesday hampered AR operation! Still working on the Eighty metre setup. Plus doing some temporary waterproofing on the van to get it home for warranty work.

Bob was busy on the home front and unfortunately missed the net and is looking forward to the next one. Max was back with a vengeance, having managed to get his new antenna up and giving a paddle a run and enjoying being back on ait.

J only managed to listen in sporadically only hearing local stations at first but was happy to hear traffic from over East later on.

So Happy New Year to all wishing you all the very best. Thank you. 73 Richard VK6HRC

This Week’s Topic of Interest

Tonight 8pm Eastern, 0900z!

We’te taking a break from our DXpeditions for a while but we’ve enjoyed them so much that we’re going to have a one-off “Happy New Year” (HNY) special event 0900-1000 UTC on Thursday 2 January.

We’ll be on the 20m band on 14.060.500, or close by if that particular frequency isn’t workable. To make this as fun and as easy as possible, all you have to do is send “de your_callsign your_callsign” followed by the letters “HINY” on our frequency.

Nothing else please, just your callsign twice and HNY. Slow speed is good. Repeat the message if you make a mistake. If we hear you, we will respond with “your_callsign de our_callsign HNY”. That’s it. Don’t reply.

If we don’t respond, try again in another 5 minutes as there might have been someone else transmitting at the same time as you. If we hear you, we’ll find a way to send you our special event QSL card. But that’s not all!

We also invite you to take part in our Zoom conference by clicking on the link below https://usO5web.zoom.us/)/2686952995?

Pwd=bTlybkZkSUdGOHFab2twZ2RBcFVVQTO9 You don’t need Zoom installed on your computer for this link to work – it works through your web browser.

If the link doesn’t work, enter these details manually: Meeting-ID: 268 695 2995 Passcode: 4AH7KS This Zoom invitation extends to everyone in the QRS CW group so, even if you can’t reach us on HE, please say “Hello” on Zoom if you can – we’d love to see your ugly mug and so put a face to a familiar callsign.

Finally, if we don’t make any sort of contact with you, we wish you a Happy New Year anyway, and hope tc beep with you in 2025.

Ross MONNK

[My sincere apologies guys; I’m embarrassed to report that I’d intended to publish this in the RagChew a week early…. and managed to mis-calculate the dates! It did go out in the last weekly email reminder, but still! Sorry all.]

…except perhaps when it comes publishing the HNY event on time!

From Geoff VK6HD:

From Donald VK6JDM

New year eve saw Anne and I pretty well tied up with the grandchildren however managed to briefly listen on 40 and heard five stations in a brief period. Progress on the Amplifier continues with photo attached.

So on New Year’s Eve, the Morse just became a minor component of the audio environment created by two loud, active grandkids and two rescue dogs competing for sound spectrum dominance.

The amp works as of 1 hour ago and has a built in forward and reflected power meter. Only wired for 40 metres at the moment as we need more miniature coax to wire-in the band switch for the filters.

There is a jack for a Morse key to switch the preamp stages on and off so feeding the input with a DDS converts the amp into a CW transmitter – see how much brain damage you have done to a proud SSB homebrewer – you have me adding key jacks to a linear amp!

Hope to contact Richard this afternoon for a trial on ait. See you on CW next Tuesday 73, Donald Howarth VK6JDM. [Thanks Donald. CW jack on a linear amplifier – well well!

Do we need to come up with a name for this strange disease – people re-discovering the joy of Morse code! Amazing isn’t it! Perhaps check with your nearest epidemiologist?}

Other News

Frustrations of a CW Operator Under Training

From Gary VK3ZXC: lam frustrated. I can’t keep up with the CW. I should be able to, on LCWO I am doing 5WPM (20WPN character speed). A couple of things that throw me: 1. Callsigns. Could we please send all callsigns twice?

I wait for the callsigns but I can’t always completely catch them. If they are always sent twice I might have a chance and I am sure there are others with this problem. I can’t be the only one. 2. Long QSOs.

I know it’s called Rag Chewing but I am not up to that yet. I need to know what is coming next: Callsigns, RST, Names, Callsigns. If] know there is a predictable order I’l be able to guess some of the words.

I have now learnt that = means “new paragraph” That’s useful. 3. Idea: One night how about a simple contest (no scoring, no awards) with a simple format.

Callsign callsign de callsign callsign = rst rst = number number = name name = callsign callsign de callsign callsign k Sorry about being so grumpy. Happy New Year all. (Mark – thanks for using public transport for your holiday.

Love it.) vk3zxc@gerrywatts.com PO Box 507 Pakenham Vic 3810 Australia [Gary has reminded us of the challenges of learning CW; things to consider when operating on the net to make things a bit easier for our new operators. Thanks Gary.

P’ve run a number of simple CQQRS CW contests over the years – but we haven’t fo awhile. Would any of our team like to run a simple event? I’m happy to help if needed.]

Demonstrations of a CW Operator Under Training

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.

| have attached the SKCC KSY – 2025 Non US Operators Guide for your perusal.

To register for the 2025 K3Y event, please email me at vk4je@vk4je.com Ihope you will find the time and courage to participate to some degree in this annual event.

For those that feel they are not ready to take to the Air Waves this will be a fantastic time to practice your receiving skills. Ifyou have any questions regarding the 2025 K3Y event, please do not hesitate to contact me. And what is KY I hear you ask?

Good Question and one I also asked; lunderstand it is a Historic Call Sign, I will ask again a bit further up the Hierarchy and let you know. Wishing you Good Luck and lots of Fun!

Please send your log files to vkdje@vk4je.com The 2025 K8Y Map is available to view her The SKCC Sked page is available here: Cheers, Ron VK4JE SKCC # 24961 SKCC K3Y 2025 OC Coordinator vkdje@vkdje.com 73 Ron VK4JE Maleny. Queensland. Australia.

Further info from Richard VK6HRC The SKCC Straight Key Month non-US operators’ instructions were provided but didn’t give much information about what it’s all about. The links in the SKCC.

Website provide more information, and I have done some hunting around for information on the January event. Scant info so far !

SKCC KSY- US Stations only AU registered operators : Call CQ.CQ SKM de VK Exchange : RST, QTH, Name , SKCC # number non SKCC ok just log without number. Log Files in ADIF format, send to the regional coordinator as regularly as possible.

Log file, eg K3Y AUS-VK-AUS-01-ADI numbers incrementing 01 02 etc. This information is from what I have gleaned from the net, might not be 100% accurate, so checking with Ron VK4JE would be good .

You most likely know all of this, I haven’t done this sort of event before so I will follow along and have a go next time. BTW Ihave installed the SKCC Logger prog and hope to be more active. Cheers. Richard.

1)i-aqan-qai-aan-ait

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. The report form closes at lunchtime (Eastern Australian time) on Thursday.

Post Morsum

Richard VK6HRC will run our phone Post Morsum on the South West AllStar net (via repeaters and hotspots all over WA) from 0600 WA time, then from 0700 WA time on 80m (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 via DTMF codes, or you can connect via Echolink.

On Echolink, search for one of the following Nodes: « *VK6-HUB* ¢« VK6ZGN-L ¢« VK6RMH-R Let me know (cqqrsnet@gmail.com) if I can help with connecting via AllStar or Echolink.

If you’re in WA and can’t connect, give Richard a call on 3605KHZ SSB from 0700 (23002).

Teamwork

Thank you so much to our team of 18 contributors: DL3YZ, MONNK, VK2DLF, VK2WP, VK3AE, VK3AFH, VK3DRQ, VK3RU, VK3ZXC, VK4JE, VK5CZ, VK6BEK, VK6HD, VK6HRC, VK6JDM, VK6RR, VK6WE, VK7WW. Thank you and Happy New Year team.

The ‘Joy’ of Daylight Saving

There’s usually people around until after 1300Z on the Tuesday Group – so keep calling in the segment of the band designated in the table below until you catch someone.

I should be on as usual from home in NSW or via the Remote at Bedfordale WA, and I’ll also be watching the proceedings using the VK6QS and Tecsun SDRs in WA and NSW respectively. Hope to hear you there.

GU CW on Tuesday, mb Mark Bosma 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

QRL?

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).

And if you are already having a QSO and someone sends “QRL?”, respond with “R”, “C”, “Y”, “YES” or QRL to let the caller know that the frequency is in use.

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? Rhythm?

If you’re proficient at CW and can race along at 20 or 30WPM – terrific, but please remember, the Group’s aim is to encourage participation and learning, not show how fast you can hammer the key.

Please send slowly where you can and concentrate on rhythm – listen to your side-tone, get that wrist action going and make a special effort to make it sound like perfect CW; the longer we go with our Group, the more I understand just how many non-transmitting listeners we have – and they will most likely appreciate your QRS!

So, if you’re an experienced operator, please try to send nicely balanced slow CW to give them a chance to practice and gain confidence…. they’ll reward you one day by coming up on air to say g’day and thanks – how good is that?

And if you’re new or like me, just rusty…. ignore the above… just have a go – the lather of sweat will be worth it and there’s plenty of time to get the details sorted out as you practice.

Matching

And also for the oldies like me, when you hear someone new, please match their sending speed – or slower. The person you’re replying to may not be as deft on the decoding as you – it may be their first ever CW QSO – remember your first?

Lather of sweat, key that refuses to send that you tell it, brain that refuses to decode those complex letters that were right there half an hour ago, etc!

PSE QRS

And if someone is sending too fast to comfortably copy – “PSE RPT PSE QRS” or “AGN? PSE QRS’ will make life easier for everyone…. and might just encourage other listeners to have a go themselves.

The other thing to remember – most operators are writing down what they hear… so when you put it back to them, expect a delay while they read your words of wisdom, before replying.

The aim is to give everyone a go at contacting others – no-one owns their calling frequency in this Group. So unlike working DX, if you hear someone signing off – jump in and call – doesn’t matter who was first on the frequency – we really are all good mates in this Group….

And besides, at the speed we’re sending, after a QSO most of us will have forgotten who was first!

If you really want to move off frequency (eg because of a spurious switch mode power supply signal that’s just drifted into the conversation), you could try sending an abridged callsign of the person you’re after, followed by “UP 5” or “DN 5” then K; then call that person on the designated frequency and keep your fingers crossed, they may have understood you and followed…

Landing Zone

If the band goes really quiet, call and listen on 7032KHZ (7028KHZ secondary) or 3555KHZ. If you catch someone, there’s no need to QSY – enjoy the frequency.

But don’t forget to tune around if it’s quiet – we have lots of operators with crystal locked transmitters – and they could be anywhere within the segments.

For those who are locked, or can only transmit outside the segments, send a message on our WhatsApp CQ QRS – Alerts group advising of your current frequency.

And of course, put the frequencies in a memory so outside of the Group, if you’re not tuning around, leave your receiver on one of the primary frequencies – you never know who you’ll hear (7032 is used in VK and ZL for SOTA / PARKS during the day so you’ll often hear activity there).

CW Tips

As always, for newbies, operating suggestions are available from the operating hints link here: https://www.parg.org.au/ files/ugd/ebe236 3ca5ca08bb38429db4eee524bda2t97a. pdf. mb VK2KI / VK6QI

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