cq_qrs_newsletter

2025 07 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

Newsletter from the CQQRS Mob Edition 7/2025

If I said last Tuesday’s net wasn’t great fun, would you believe me? Nope! It was great! Although numbers were still down a bit on last year’s participation rates (where have all our Kiwi mates gone’), our little segment of the 40m band was full of signals during much of the evening – so many people having such a nice time!

Teamwork

My sincere apologies to everyone who tried to submit their reports via the link included in Monday’s reminder email. Our conscientious team members started sending me emails at 2120 on Tuesday night – they were all getting the strange ‘“That’s odd” response.

At that time of night I couldn’t work out what was going wrong. Some had managed to use the form, others not. The QR code in Thursday’s RagChew worked, but the emailed link didn’t. A quick note was flashed to Nigel G4RWI the Chief De-Confuser of our

Software engineering Department; Nigel had already seen the traffic, and coincidentally found he couldn’t access his Bitly account – which made me think there was some sort of Denial of Service attack on our Bitly URL re-direction service.

I sent out the full URL of our Google Forms system by email and WhatsApp, which allowed some of our team to submit their reports before hitting the hay. It wasn’t until midday on Wednesday that the penny finally dropped!

I just couldn’t work out how a URL re-direction failure to Google Forms could produce a MailChimp error – a closer look at the top left hand corer of the error page showed a MailChimp icon. My brain operates pretty slowly… and this time was no exception!

Our team members were clicking on the bitly link that I’d inserted in Monday’s reminder email…. but I’d copy/pasted the link from the RagChew newsletter…

And sure enough, although the link showed “bit.ly/CQQRSNET” the actual link was trying to take our intrepid users to a re-direction in my MailChimp account…. which of course couldn’t be accessed without a password. The solution was hidden in plain sight.

My apologies to everyone for stuffing this up so badly – thankfully, we still got a few reports this week! Phew!

Last Tuesday’s Group

So back to the business at hand… here’s this week’s list of the 48 stations heard:

Masthead Image

And thanks this week to Richard VK6HRC for the screenshot of his Raspberry Pi running the HamClock application. I also happend across Greg VK5KFG’s shack photo which also showed the application running on his shack monitor.

More from Richard in This Week’s Topic of Interest below.

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:

Please help attract new and old team members to have a go by submitting your report each week. 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 use the instructions to annotate which bit applies to which band.

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 Group. Comments distilled from the reports I’ve received follow:

Comments:

[40m] + Finally put antenna back up in time for the net. It had blown down in storms last year. * Good CPI es nice to get on air again after some time. TU

[40m] « Band started off quite noisy and within 30 min had improved with lots of stations on air ..

From David VK6KD/5 at Maitland SA on Yorke Peninsula

[40m] * Once again great activity on 40m from my QTH. I was able to filter out most of the QRM. Some stations’ CW speed were a bit fast for my decoding so sometimes I missed some of the details. Good reason for me to practise more often, hihi..

[80m] + By the time I moved over to 80m i think most had headed off to sleep. I couldn’t hear much on the band this week.

[40m] * Good to make quite a few contacts tonight. Excellent to hear so many new operators on the air. Had my first Bug contact today with Drew on 100 year old simplex auto, Quite a challenge but good fun.

[40m] + I heard Drew talking to Keiran at first, and was able to head-copy the @SO including their rag chew. I somehow missed the end of the QSO and the next callsign though, didn’t realise it was a new calller and the sending speed had subtly increased!

I thought I was following along but wasn’t writing anything down so I have no idea how much I actually missed there or who the second caller was 🙂 + There was nothing for a bit then I came across Keiran again, and lan, both 599+ here also (not surprising for Keiran being less than 20KM from me)…

+ Heard Mark again, and eventually VK6IS. Was hard to hear and only got the callsign exchange at first, but the signal from WA increased just enough and I caught the ending.

Time just flew by again, its so easy to get caught up listening to all the conversations – 73 alll. [Great fun eh Matthew?!)

[40m] + In middle of packing house, so one traffic msg to Stan was all I had time for. Antennas will have to come down soon 🙁

[40m] + Didn’t hear as many as usual. But good to hear those that were on..

[40m] * Hello from Germany ! Today I had just a few minutes to take a quick peek at the famous ironstone SDR. Hope to be back on the air soon 🙂 Have a great week 73 Mike.

[40m] * Heard Jordan VK3ACU call at one stage and he ended up with a pile up !

[80m] * More listening than sending due to gremlins in the shack ( stray RF ) sorted now.

[40m] + Trans-Tasman conditions were perfect, three QTCs passed as planned, plus a welcome unexpected answer from previous week’s question… From your editor Mark VK2KI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW

[40m] + really enjoyed using my old Trio TS-120S on Tuesday. I’d managed to find a CW filter via the VK Classifieds and last week and this week discovered two things.

The alignment of my receiver was way off (strange – I’ve only carried it all over the world for nearly 0 years!) – adjusting the IF shift on with the narrow filter increased the signals by a couple of S-points and removed the unpleasantly harsh sounding background noise; the adjustment also reduced the S9 noise level by about 20+dB (without my noise canceller), allowing a much improved signal-to-noise ratio.

+ Ialso found that the narrow filter makes adjustment of my phasing- type noise canceller much easier; the noise null is much more distinct with the narrow filter, and providing there’s no static crashes around, an S1 noise floor was easily achievable on 40m (S2 on 80m).

And of course, the previous unusably busy 40m band during our net has now become much more roomy…

• So equipped with my drifty old transceiver, I really enjoyed the net. I chatted to Armin VK2GAS up at Norwest and lan VK5CZ at Clare, Wal VK2WP at Bathurst and Georg VK2WE at St Marys (it was Georg’s neat shacl that was featured at the start of last week’s RagChew)..

+ After dinner I had a nice chat with Greg VK5KFG at Willunga just South of

McLaren Vale (that used to be such a renowned wine-making area). Greg reminded me that things were still pretty dry down his way – easy to forget that just because the drought broke here several years ago, the same doesn’t apply everywhere.

While chatting to Greg, Richard VK6HRC posted on our WhatsApp group, an image of the display of his new HamClock Raspberry Pi shack computer application; I had been looking at a picture of Greg’s shack, and noticed that he had the same application up on his shack computer as well.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about the HamClock system from Richard, Greg or others using it as well? + After Greg I had a call from Peter VK6IS at Wundowie as the Absorption Limit Frequency dropped and the band started opening across into WA; I then listened-in to the subsequent QSO between Peter and David VK6KD/5 at Maitland on the Yorke Peninsular before heading down to 80m for a look-see…

[80m] + On 80m I could hear Peter VK6IS working Jordan at Meredith; Peter’s signal was marginal, but Jordan was romping in here. I then hooked up with Jordan, who swapped between his hand key and the Simplex bug he’d been and hear).

I thought these used to be called Sidewinder keyers – but I suspect I’m wrong – anyone remember? I’ve heard others on our net using similar keyers, and I’d found the CW a bit difficult to read – not only are they usually too fast for my small brain, but I think the short dashes and non-standard spacing between elements can be quite hard to get used to.

But interesting to listen to… keep going Jordan, eventually I’ll figure it out.. + Feeling pretty tired, I intended to round-out the evening with the QSO with Jordan – but as we started, the emails started arriving telling me that our team members couldn’t access our Reports form.

I couldn’t replicate the problem at first (and one person had successfully posted his report), but then recognised that the problem was happening if the link I sent out on Monday’s reminder email was used.

A WhatsApp message went to Nigel G4RWI who was watching the fun from the other side of the world, and a work- around was posted by email and WhatsApp – all while Jordan was talking to me; Jordan was able to confirm on the fiy that the alternative links I sent were working – phew!.

+ So with that distraction, it was time for beddie-bys for this little black duck. Thanks all – teriffic night.

McLaren Vale (that used to be such a renowned wine-making area). Greg reminded me that things were still pretty dry down his way – easy to forget that just because the drought broke here several years ago, the same doesn’t apply everywhere.

While chatting to Greg, Richard VK6HRC posted on our WhatsApp group, an image of the display of his new HamClock Raspberry Pi shack computer application; I had been looking at a picture of Greg’s shack, and noticed that he had the same application up on his shack computer as well.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about the HamClock system from Richard, Greg or others using it as well? + After Greg I had a call from Peter VK6IS at Wundowie as the Absorption Limit Frequency dropped and the band started opening across into WA; I then listened-in to the subsequent QSO between Peter and David VK6KD/5 at Maitland on the Yorke Peninsular before heading down to 80m for a look-see…

[80m] + On 80m I could hear Peter VK6IS working Jordan at Meredith; Peter’s signal was marginal, but Jordan was romping in here. I then hooked up with Jordan, who swapped between his hand key and the Simplex bug he’d been and hear).

I thought these used to be called Sidewinder keyers – but I suspect I’m wrong – anyone remember? I’ve heard others on our net using similar keyers, and I’d found the CW a bit difficult to read – not only are they usually too fast for my small brain, but I think the short dashes and non-standard spacing between elements can be quite hard to get used to.

But interesting to listen to… keep going Jordan, eventually I’ll figure it out.. + Feeling pretty tired, I intended to round-out the evening with the QSO with Jordan – but as we started, the emails started arriving telling me that our team members couldn’t access our Reports form.

I couldn’t replicate the problem at first (and one person had successfully posted his report), but then recognised that the problem was happening if the link I sent out on Monday’s reminder email was used.

A WhatsApp message went to Nigel G4RWI who was watching the fun from the other side of the world, and a work- around was posted by email and WhatsApp – all while Jordan was talking to me; Jordan was able to confirm on the fiy that the alternative links I sent were working – phew!.

+ So with that distraction, it was time for beddie-bys for this little black duck. Thanks all – teriffic night. Also from your editor Mark VK6QI at Beautiful South Bowning NSW, via the VK6QS KiwiSDR near Brookton and the VK6SEG KiwiSDR near Northam

[40m] + This week I listened-in to both the VK6QS KiwiSDR near Brookton and the Souther Electronics Group one at Northam; for reasons unknown, when I try to connect to the SDRs from my unbelievably fast Macbook M8 that my lovely wife bought me as a Birthday present, the pages take a long long time to load, or hang up (I suspect my anti-virus system is the problem)…

So if one wouldn’t load, I’d try the other.. + I wasn’t watching the whole time but I didn’t notice any locals on air whenever I looked.

Here in the East, my signals were quite weak on the nearest KiwiSDR to me – about 60KM away – so perhaps that’s why I didn’t see much activity in the West either..

• Anyway, when I was chatting to Georg VK2DLF in St Marys in Sydney, I saw that the band was opening from East to West – and a bit earlier than recently.

Georg was around S7 with his dipole, whereas my 60 Watts into my 106M long 80m double-extended Zepp up 7 metres was weaker at S6. Georg said he’d send us a photo of his antennas one of these days – thanke mata

My high-tech 300 Ohm TV ribbon feeder omy 8om _thanks mate. ouble-etended Zepp onthe tar end ofthe shed So why is my signal 6dB down on Georg’s?

Either my temporary run of second-hand 300 Ohm TV ribbon feeder that I’ve been using for about 18 months (yeah, I know!) had finally given up the ghost, or my antenna was too low and was producing too high an angle of radiation? Nope – I keep forgetting…

The two five-eighths wavelength elements in phase which should produce a nice East-West radiation pattern on 80m, are likely to. produce a clover-leaf type pattern on 40m where the antenna is two 1-1/4 wavelength elements.

Guess I need another DEZ antenna for 40m! + Half an hour later I watched Greg VKSKFG’s signal into WA, and finally I could see some Sandgropers – Peter VK6IS at Wundowie and David VK6KD portable at Maitland on the Yorke Peninsular SA…

[80m] +I slipped down to 80m at around 1145Z, and it was nice to see that the band was also open across Australia a bit earlier than recent times.

I listened in to Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith chatting to Peter VK6IS, before I hooked up to Jordan myself from my home in VK2..

[40m] * Great conditions on 40m, with a plethora of stations to listen to, I spent some time copying Manny VK3DRQ and Stan ZL3TK having a long discussion. The rest of the evening spent trying to improve my head copy skills, (work in

Progress!!). Lots of faint DX heard, mainly Japan.

[80m] * Switched to 80m at 9.30pm, only heard crickets. Sent some CQs out, no response.. [Bad luck Kevin. Don’t forget, you could always flash out an Alert on the CQQQRS WhatsApp group – that might bring some of the team down to 80m.]

[40m] + Pretty noisy conditions but the VK2 VK3 local stations are coming in strong. VK6 was heard very faint..

[40m] + 1am sad and disappointed to heard the INSULT “ham” popping up every now and then amongst the Radio Amateurs . It seems to me, that some Radio ‘Amateurs either don’t know or don’t care…

+ Yes, I do like ham on my toast or in my sandwich, but please, we are NOT hams; that’s VERY DEROGATORY..

[40m] + Surrounded by bands of lightning storms which made for difficult conditions. Perhaps better luck next Tuesday.

Post Morsum Report

Hello Mark, Six people called in on the AllStar / Echolink and WA Repeater network for Wednesday morning’s Post Morsum. VK6QI. Mark VK5ET John VK6FN Max VK6KD/5 David VK6KRC Bob VK6HRG VK6MRB our regular SWL and others.

The early opening from East to West on 40MX was enjoyed by all. Mark had six contacts on 40MX and one on 80MX and did a great job of spotting on WhatsApp.

John called in to let us know that he hadn’t been on for a while, but will back on when it is cool enough to get back into the shack.

Max spent this Birthday evening listening-in as his rig had a problem with no side tone; Max was confident that all should be OK soon.

David called in from the Yorke Peninsula in VKS to report all went well with his setup last night and was also busy packing his awning away trying to beat the gusty wind and heat – 40 deg C expected!

Ihad two contacts on forty but spent most of session listening around and trying to trace the stray RF creating havoc in my shack. Thanks to all for the great copy practice though. Bob called in trying to track the ever-elusive Donald VK6JDM down.

We will do our best to establish some way of regular comms with our wandering Doctor! Thank you to all on the net lon Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, stay safe. 73 Richard.

This Week’s Topic of Interest

HamClock Shack Utility Application Raspberry Pi Shack Display by Richard VK6HRC

| saw this app on a computer in the Northern Corridor Radio Club shack. It looked very interesting so decided to try it out.

HamClock is a kiosk-style application that provides real time space weather, radio propagation models, operating events and other information particularly useful to the radio amateur.

HamClock was introduced in an October 2017 QST article and continues to be maintained and expanded by the developer WBOOEW.

I managed to get it going just before the CQQRS net on Tuesday and it was good to see it working – showing how the band was changing as the evening progressed. Still work in progress and a lot to learn, it is running on a Raspberry PI 4 linked to my LAN.

I have read that it will also run on other Pi models as well as other operating systems. It looks like it can be configured to display all sorts of useful live information such as the Reverse Beacon Network, satellite passes etc.

Here’s the link to the website: https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/

For quick start on Raspberry Pi or other UNIX-like operating systems see the Desktop tab on that website. The User Guide tab provides detailed operating instructions.

It would be good to get some feedback from others in the group who try or are already running the app; I know Greg VKS5KFG uses it as well. Cheers Richard

HamClock running in Greg VK5KFG’s shack.

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; email to cqqrsnet@gmail.com

On My Workbench

From Paul VK3KLE at Stawell

Spent a fair bit of Tuesday evening listening and copying bits and pieces in my head. Did this while recapping a Geloso 1950 G222 transmitter. Tube lineup is 6CL6, 5763 driver and 6146A tube . Modulated by a pair of 807 tubes.

The new metal Poly caps arrived today. Not surprisingly they have very low esr. They hold a full charge after a cuppa – no perceivable self discharge. Wouldn’t leave one of those on the bench fully charged hihi.

Physically they are quite large so they need a roomy chassis. Really the caps are suitable for a 2 cap one choke pi filter for a HT power supply.

The G222 made in Milano Italy. Currently connected to a dummy load for bench tests. Send me an email to VK3KLE@ gmail.com if you ever hear a very weak test call. I announce “testing tx no reply” just in case.

Previously connected the VR tube to three seperate screens of the RF lineup. During the week I also renewed the VFO caps again as I had a fresh supply of NPO ceramic caps and some 5pF N750 temperature compensation caps.

The VFO drifts down about .5 KC in the first 5 mins then gradually about another 1 KC over 30-40 mins. I’m calling that near enough. The exact temp compensation cap would be in range of 6-8pF N750 but they are very hard to obtain these days.

Some VFOs are built with a butterfly cap connected to a neg temp cap and a positive one of same value. Not enough room to do this mod. Alternatively I could try a different 6CL6 tube – but it’s close enough and reliable so |’m calling it done.

And from the Not-So-Good Outcomes Department

ANd trom the NOt-so-Wood Vutcomes Vepartment

From Peter VK6IS First try at the 3D-printed paddle mentioned in recent weeks’ RagChew editions.

Also from Paul VK3KLE

I’ve setup the Drake R4A as a second receiver with the TS-590SG. Interestingly I had another tweak of the Kenwood audio, once I had something good to compare with – the Drake netted-in with the Kenwood. At lower audio the two make a nice sound together on Rx.

The speaker is an old Yamaha hifi from a bookshelf system.

Snuck on the far right is a wall ladder line connection for my 80m 1/4 wave sloper – well it goes higher by a shallow angle. Did some 160M CW during the week; made contact with Adrian VK2WF at Tallong. I also had a reply on 1812KC but was too week to copy.

QRZ?

In response to my requests for ideas for the RagChew newsletter, this week two of our team have made suggestions. ¢ Ketut VKSBWN said something that had been on his mind was the question why/how others became interested in CW in the first place?

¢ lan VK1HF said he’d like to hear audio recordings of our team members – background, interests etc. So lan has bounded away with microphone in hand to start running up some quick interviews for future editions, and Ketut has recorded a bit of his background as a sampler for others.

QRZ? Ketut VK3BWN

| guess I have always been fascinated since going to the USA for university, when I saw images of World War II on TV. They always showed a ship or submarine and the accompanying sound was some kind of Morse code, just to dramatize the images.

I guess that stuck with me and I had been practicing CW since getting licensed as an amateur in the USA.

My shack is very simple, nothing to brag about. I am a bit embarrassed to show but here is an impromptu picture with the usual mess.

Being in the US also helped (at least back then) – the CW airwaves were always busy and there was always someone every evening to answer your CW CQ and rag chew in the same language (as opposed to CW in Europe I was told).

As a side note (and maybe even a disclaimer), I dabbled with CB (28MHZ and 422MHZ) around the 1985S (during middle school in Indonesia) but those were not the same as CW of course. So there is that ham/tinkering aspect too since long ago.

However, I do not think that TV programs in Indonesia show much of WWII history. It must be an American thing (and here too with ANZAC history). Sincerely Ketut

So I’m really keen to share backgrounds of some of our team members – it’s really good to know who’s on the other end of the QSO.

If you’d like to share some thoughts about yourself either written or recorded on yout phone note-taker application, please let me know: cqqrsnet@gmail.com Alternatively, lan VK1HF is keen to record and produce some short segments for RagChew if you’d like; send me an email and I’ll pass your details to lan.

Other News

SKCC Oceania QRS Saunter

From Garry VK2GAZ: The SKCC Oceania QRS Saunter will take place this Saturday, 15TH February, 2025 from 00:00 UTC until 11:59 UTC a 12 hour event. All are welcome to join in – no need to be an SKCC member.

All the details for the Oceania QRS Saunter (OQS) can be viewed on the SKCC website at: https://www.skecgroup.com/operating_activities/oqs/ Please make use of the SKCC Sked Page and the CW Club RBN Spotter.

Https://sked.skccgroup.com/ https://rbn.telegraphy.de/ I look forward to contacting you during the event.

Best regards, Garry VK2GAZ/VK2ZP #5460C Manager SKCC Oceania QRS Saunter

Morse Training Net

Nic VK7WW runs a Slow Morse training net every Wednesday at 7pm EDST on 3586 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club VK7TAZ on that net.

One of the many regular emails I receive is Noe! News, a newsletter from an investment advisor Noel Whittaker. There’s often some gems in the newsletter, including this week, a burst on a book he’d read called Growing Young by Marta Zaraska.

He claimed that what made the book interesting is its explanation of how everyday events influence the body’s chemistry.

For instance, smiling at someone —a stranger or a supermarket cashier — triggers the release of chemicals like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin in both you and the other person. These chemicals promote happiness, bonding, and well-being.

In contrast, stress triggers release of cortisol, a stress hormone, which can lead to anxiety, increased heart rate and long-term health problems when elevated chronically. The book claims a profound impact of our interactions and emotions on physical health.

Whittaker also mentioned a 2014 study by Dr Gillian Sandstrom, from the University of Essex, who found that casual encounters with acquaintances — like neighbours, baristas or gym classmates — boosts happiness and a sense of community.

Her research shows that talking to strangers fosters connection and contentment, challenging the notion that such encounters are trivial or unworthy of our time.

Dr Sandstrom pointed out that speaking to even one new person weekly can bring unexpected joy and meaning into your life. He tells us that the book’s case studies and conclusions are compelling.

A profound message for retirees is to consider more than climate or cost of living. Key questions include: What activities foster connections? How does the environment support purpose?

Equally important, what will your partner’s social life look like if you pass away first? Whittaker thinks that reading Growing Young is like following a roadmap to aging well.

Zaraska’s insights are grounded in robust science but remain accessible and engaging. The book reminds us that aging doesn’t mean growing apart.

The choices we make today — nurturing relationships, fostering positivity and staying engaged — can profoundly shape our future years. Akey takeaway is that humans are wired for connection.

Loneliness, Zaraska explains, is as harmful as smoking, while strong relationships can add years to life. For older folk in retirement, replacing workplace interactions with hobbies, volunteering or community groups can enrich life.

The author also highlights how viewing retirement as an opportunity rather than the start of decline could precipitate longer, healthier lives.

Whether or not you believe the claims, I’ll leave you to form your own opinion, but here’s a thought; has your life improved since you joined the CQQRS team? Do you feel more happy, engaged and young?

We try to make the Tuesday evenings fun and engaging, and hopefully the RagChew newsletter, the Post Morsum and our WhatsApp messaging groups all focus on making our mob such a great team.

When I was first licensed in the early 70s, some of the CW people I knew seemed to be a exclusive (in the verbal sense) club that kind of looked down its nose at the people who weren’t on the inner.

I know that what we now have is a group of people who not only enjoy the challenge of CW, but really enjoy the company of our 200-plus team members. If there’s something we can do to build on that momentum, please let me know; cagrsnet@gmail.com

For Sale – Bencher Single Lever Paddle

Fists Down Under – Summer QSO Party

Join us every Friday night between 0800 and 1100 UTC for the weekly FDU get together. Split into an early time slot (0800 to 1000) and a late time slot (0900 TO1100 there should be something for all suggested bands and conditions.

Choose the early slot for the higher bands and see if you can work between VK and ZL or beyond. Choose the later slot for local 40 and 80m working. Contacts with FDU and non FDU members are encouraged.

No need to exchange FDU numbers, just have a short chat exchanging the basics, or more. Don’t hesitate to ask for QRS if need be, but don’t miss a chance to practice a little quicker if you can!

While any band is OK for FDU activity, the focus of this Party (and the associated Award) is 80-40-30- and 20m. Results of who was on (and submitted a log to Philip) will be published each week.

Therefore, remember to submit a log to Philip (zululima1psh(at)gmail.com) at your earliest convenience. Calling format is “CQ FDU de ”. Frequencies are the usual FDU frequencies, but +/- to find participants is fine.

For the period 3 January 2025 to 28 March 2025 an award for QSO Party participation will be presented, see the award details here QSO Party Award. Format will be fine tuned again as the winter months approach.

For more information: https://www.fdu.org.au/events/

Even if you can’t make it to Mandurah, here’s an opportunity to get over the line for that new bit of kit: PARG’s mega raffle: https://rafflelink.com.au/parg2025

CWops New Monthly Zoom Meeting

73, Chris VK3QB CW Ops # 2949 Wwww.cwops.org

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

So back to the Slow CW QSO practice net.

Next Tuesday’s Net

Our CQQRS Group 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.

We’ll have fun. There’s usually people around until after 1300Z – 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.

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 (3605 LSB).

For the 0600 (2200Z) 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, if you have an AllStar node (or you may be able to connect your local AllStar-enabled repeater to the net via DTMF codes), connect to node 42482, 51077 or 42732 – these are the hubs that tie the network of repeaters and nodes together in WA.

If you don’t have access to AllStar, you can connect to the network via Echolink. On Echolink, search for one of the following Nodes: * VK2KI-L * *VK6-HUB* * VK6ZGN-L * VK6RMH-R- * VK6NRA-L When you connect to one of those stations on Echolink, you’ll be automatically connected to the WA AllStar network, and you should hear us on soon after the hour; let me know (cqarsnet@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 3605kKHz SSB from 0700 (23002).

Thank you so much to our team of 27 contributors: DL3YZ, VK1HF, VK2DLF, VK2GAS, VK2GAZ, VK2IK, VK2WP, VK3ACU, VK3AFH, VK3BWN, VK3DRQ, VK3KEV, VKSKLE, VK3QB, VK5AO, VK5CZ, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6JDM, VK6KD/5, VK6KHZ, VK6RR, VK6WE, VK7KPC, VK7TA, VK7WW and ZL3TK.

Thank you team. 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

Why is it that If a deaf person Why are you IN Why do people people say they has to go to a movie, but pay to go up ‘slept like a court, is it still you’re ON tall buildings baby’ when calleda television? and then put babies wake up hearing?

Money in every two binoculars to hours? look at things an the arniind?

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 o 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

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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