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2025 20 CQ QRS RagChew

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Contents

CQ QRS RagChew

Well wasn’t last Tuesday’s CQQRS practice QSO net interesting? Some people reported lots of strong signals, others heard nothing, I heard some interesting signal- cancelling echos, and our UK teams struggled to be heard on the long path.

The joys of the sunspot cycle peak! Would you believe our 41 known team members reported working 72 stations – isn’t that amazing – well done one and all.

Read On

Last Tuesday’s Group

Here’s the 72 stations heard by 41 members of our team on Tuesday:

Welcome this week to John VK6TEA who lives at Joondalup. John had been workec by a few of our team over the last few weeks, and one of them successfully twisted his arm into joining our team.

Not only was he pleased to discover why there were so many enjoyable QRS QSOs to be had on a Tuesday, but he also went out on a limb and wrote us a nice introduction – which you’ll find in the QRZ? column below. Welcome to the team John.

Masthead Image

All dressed up and nowhere to go! Richard VK6HRC was ready to go with his trusty plastic box radio aka (tr)uSDX for Tuesday’s CQQRS Slow CW practice QSO net – and for sure he would have had fun out at his portable location at Gidgegannup…

Unfortunately, Richard wasn’t feeling well, and missed out on a really nice evening; oh well, better luck next time mate!

Remote

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/CQQRSNET

Please help attract new and old team members to have a go by submitting your repor each week. Submissions close 1300 (Eastern Australian time) on Thursday.

Website

If you’d like to find out a bit about our net, or would like to pass information to others about our Tuesday get-togethers, here’s the link to our website.

Bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite 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; the comments distilled from the team members’ reports follow:

Comments:

[20m] * Was just listening on my shack and on the fabulous SDR at Ironstone today. Its a great practice for me. Greetings from Germany and have a great week !

[40m] + I was using a remote access radio in Northern NSW South of Brisbane (hence my callsign VK/MONNK) over the internet whilst sat in my home on the south coast of the UK. What a difference having a

100 watt ICOM-7300 in-country makes! I had contacts all over Australia – NSW, Victoria, SA, WA, and TAS. I’d like to make a special shout-out to VKSET/P.

I didn’t get his name or portable location but he made heroic efforts to complete the QSO in difficult conditions, which is exactly in the spirit of amateur radio. So thank you, whoever you are..

[80m] + 80m ? No chance – I was completely exhausted after my efforts on 40m! [The mystery man was John VKSET – one of the earlier pioneers who helped get this net off the ground.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the session Ross – yes – isn’t it just great to be able to relax and have nice ambling QSOs like this. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and finally got the Summerland Amateur Radio Club’s Remote system sorted out on CW]

[40m] * Great to be back after nearly 12 months. It was good to hear a few QRP stations tonight. I originally started as QRP, but conditions weren’t that good, so cranked up to 100 watts instead. Allin all, a good night.

[40m] + Number of active QSOs tapered off quickly from my location in Capel. Could not hear many East coast stations. Cause may have been my portable location..

[80m] + Not many stations heard on 80m tonight either.

[15m & 20m] + We’re having a spectacular spring in the UK. I parked up on the shore of Blithfield Reservoir under a completely blue sky. The reservoir is near the village of Abbots Bromley, which holds an unusual horn dance each year.

It’s been going for hundreds of years, possibly even thousands, but no one is really sure why.. +I didn’t get out of Europe but it was nice to work my pal Chris G7BED who is one of the CQ QRS team now.

The highlight for me was using my home- built QCX+ kit radio to reach HB9CBRYP, who was on the summit of Wisenberg in Switzerland’s Jura mountain range..

[20m] * Could hear Chris G7BED on 14.042Mhz. I was not able to work Chris. Too much QSB 4).

[40m] + So, QRS night rolled around, and naturally, my brain went straight to ‘let’s try something slightly bonkers!’ First up: Operation Flagpole Antenna! Picture this: me wrestling with wires trying to turn a humble flagpole into a DX-busting machine.

Okay, maybe “DX-busting” is an overstatement since I had zero contacts on it. BUT! The super cool news is, the RBN in New Zealand heard my tiny signal! How awesome is that?!. + Then the magic happened – three whole contacts!

I was feeling pretty chuffed until BAM! Flat battery. Seriously? Just as Kev wrapped up with Chris on 20m, and I was this close to snagging Chris myself, my rig decided it was nap time. I think |

Managed to squeak out the “V” of my callsign before everything went dark. Talk about suspense!. + Dejected but not defeated, I packed up and headed home, where thankfully, the shack was still powered up.

Managed to bag another five contacts there, bringing the grand total to eight. Not too shabby for a night that started with flagpole fantasies and ended with a dramatic power failure, eh? Definitely one to remember! @.

[See more about Jordan’s adventure in “More Flags?” in the Other News section below].

[40m] + Put a couple of calls out, no takers. Good to hear all stations with improved CW, speed slowly creeping up! Well done. Nothing heard of the gang on 20m just QRN..

From Peter Henderson ZL1PX at Waiuku, near Auckland, h

[40m] * I called CQ on 40m and thought I heard VK4QN Richard reply. I answered with name and signal report. Then I realised he was replying to someone else. Sorry Richard for blasting over your QSO..

[80m] + Have been trying for some weeks to have something to write in this report with no success. Finally, I made it across the Tasman.

Part of my problem may be I work you all between 0700Z and 0900Z when you are all still eating dinner or on your way home from work. Nice to catch up with Sava VK4PN whom I hear most nights on NZ CW NET.. [Terrific to hear from you Peter!

Great that you found something to share mate! But – even reporting the fact that you were listening and heard nothing is fine – that in itself gives us insight into life and propagation conditions in the Shaky Isles.

Well Ill have you know that you were pounding in to our portable location in the Central West of NSW on 40m – RSN 591. I called you a couple of times but my 5000MW just wasn’t making the journey; hopefully next time – or perhaps on the weekend’s Don Edwards QRS contest on Saturday evening on 80m and Sunday aro on 40m?

[40m] + I had a prior engagement which meant I only turned my radio on at 22:00. There was no activity on 40 m, my CQ calls were going unanswered, and I was getting no reports from the RBN. What an odd time for the band to be

[80m] + Heading down to 80 m I found a couple of QSOs in progress between VK4PN, VKSKFG and VK2KI. Despite my heightened anticipation, like 40 m, I couldn’t get any responses to my CQ calls, and once again, the RBN was suggesting I wasn’t getting out.

Oh well, an early night instead. Here’s hoping for better conditions next week. Lance was dreaming of BOTA activations on sunnier days whilst his CQ calls were going unanswered on a cold Tassie Tuesday ——->

[20m] * OM Chris G7BED was hard to copy, very noisy band and QSB. I am not sure if he heard me..

[40m] * Conditions were a bit quiet but happy to have met OM Ross with such a good signal all the way from England, hi hi..

From your editor Mark VK2KI at Lake Brewster Weir Campground, Central West NSW [10m, 15m, 30m]. + Not much luck on the higher bands on Tuesday. Simon MOKBJ was out portable on a beautiful blue morning but I didn’t hear a peep from him on 15m.

Similarly, Chris G7BED tried 10m and 30m but I heard nothing on either band; Jordan VK3ACU was also on 30m, but I heard nothing of him either.. Rather sad that they went to all that effort actually!

[20m]. * Both Chris G7BED and Simon MOKBJ were very weak into my portable location at Lake Brewster Weir Campground, about 50KM East of Hillston NSW. Bit of a pity because I’d managed to get my ZS6BKW doublet 9m up and well clear of trees this time;

However, Chris’ 100 Watts and Simon’s 20 Watts (plus flag) weren’t matched by my 5 Watts this time I’m afraid. I also couldn’t raise Wayne VK6NW who was thundering in here..

[40m] * Great to hear Ross MONNK coming through very well from the Summerland Amateur Radio Club’s remote station near Lismore NSW; he was RSN 591 to me.

Ross has been such a terrific supporter of our net and the RagChew newsletter, and had previously tried the VK6SR Remote in Perth cso !/] was

Pleased to hear him able to participate in the easy 40m QSOs that the East coast provides. The software that I think that Remote uses makes tuning around abit difficult (sometimes you can use a mouse wheel to scroll around, but at other times that doesn’t work and you’re left with clicking frequency digits – which then works best if used in conjunction with a KiwiSDR waterfall display to actually find stations); so hopefully Ross had some fun this week..

+ Next up I heard Peter ZL1PX with a nice RSN 591 signal; however, I wasn’t able to raise him with my 5 Watts unfortunately. Signals from other QSOs were good and strong early in the net..

+ Swapping between 40m and the higher bands of course means re-adjusting my antenna coupler, and when I came back to 40, I heard Wal VK2WP/P nice and strong, but I wasn’t tuned up; his lovely chirpy signal told me that he was out and about with his boat-anchor portable again, complete with vibrator power supply – but unfortunately I missed the QSO..

+ Instead, after tuning up, I had a nice armchait-copy chat with Manny VK8DRQ at Blackburn; I thought it was a fun turn of phrase to use… considering the size of the tiny AVan we’re camping in, complete with foam-block square plywood seats.

Manny reported that my signal wasn’t the best – so it was only a single armchair apparently.. + Dinner was being served by the lovely Ms e, so I needed to clear the shack table (aka the AVan dining table) and just as I switched off my FT-817, I heard John VKSET calling; sorry I had to pull the big switch on you mate.

John didn’t call-in to Wednesday’s Post Morsum call-back so I took that as a smack on my wrist! However, John advised by email that in fact he was out portable this week – and hence couldn’t access the AllStar callback via Echolink.

So not only did I miss a QSO with John, I missed one of his portable ops as welll. + Anyway, when I came back from the dinner formalities (ie doing the dishes), there was lot of activity.

I noted with interest the QSO between Maity VKSAO and Georg VK2ALF; they both had an interesting fluttery echo on their signals – but when one of the interfering signals intermittently faded, their signals would suddenly jump up significantly in strength.

My guess was some sort of backscatter being propagated via an auroral effect (because of the flutter) – but it was amazing how the mixed signals were so much weaker than the direct signals alone. Isn’t this part of the solar cycle just so interesting?.

+ Hooked up with Jordan VK3ACU at Meredith who was a solid RSN 589, but he could only report RST 319 in return. So dejectedly I @SYed down to 80m to see if I could get any better reports from the people down there. :).

[80m] * Having had such poor reports on 40m (considering the strength of the signals I was hearing), I was pleased to hear that 80m was also alive with really strong signals. Rob VKSECH at Echuca and Kevin VK3KEV at Seymour were thundering in here.

I was really excited to hear Phil VK6GX at Gidgegannup pouring through RSN

591 and I was very happy when he replied to my call. Phil had recently lost most of his beautiful antenna farm in a storm, and it was great to hear that he’d put his big 80m flat-top loop back up – with the top at 20m height; what an outstanding antenna!

See Other News below for more. + After signing with Phil, I hooked up with Greg VKSKFG at Willunga – Greg’s 50 Watts was also RSN 591 and he reported RST 579 – at last, signal reports that gave me a little more confidence in my transmitter output power (6W is 10DB below SOW – and S7 is 12DB below S9).

I need to decide whether we stay here over the weekend to participate in the Don Edwards Memorial Slow CW event on 40m and 80m on Saturday arvo and Sunday evening – my ZS6BKW doublet (modified GSRV) is up nice and high, clear of the trees, and we’re alone in the campground…

But if my signals aren’t getting out….. + Anyway, after Greg I rounded out the evening with a chat with Sava VK4PN at Mount Ommaney near Brisbane; Sava also reported an S8 signal, which was good news.

+ Anyway, all in all – a really fun night for me; I hope you also had some fun..

[80m] +l am not sure if this has been mentioned already in these pages, but Morse Mania is an interesting app that makes practice a bit of fun..

[40m] * Condx were difficult all around – but I was able to fish Sava’s signal from the noise floor with QSB. I thought signals were coming in better later that evening but I had to leave the station. See you again next week guys.. From lan VK7TA at Latrobe

[40m] + At the start of the net I heard nothing, until I came across VK2WP. Wal was running 4W from his homebrew WWII replica, so propagation was there in places (maybe they don’t make Watts like they used

[40m] * Very good conditions on a very quiet band = easy working weak signals. I missed the email explaining Ross’s (MONNK) use of the VK remote station and welcomed him to VK, Hal.

[80m] + I have never heard 80m so quiet during an evening, my noise level was S1, nota trace of QRN, hence I had very pleasant, armchair copy, rag chews with Mark VK2KI/P QRP, David VK6KD/P and Sava VK4PN..

[See Other News below for more from Phil after Tuesday’s net.]

From John VK5ET at Para Wirra Conservation Park SA « Saa Other Newe helow for .John’s renort.

CQ QRS Post Morsum Report

Great get together on the VK6RLM repeater and AllStar / Echolink network early on Wednesday morning. Thanks to all that keep the system going, much appreciated.

People on this week: VK6EN Max VK6QI Mark VK6NW Wayne VK6KD David VK6HRC ‘SWLs Mulligan VK6MRB and Rob VK6LD and no-doubt others. Max reported going well on 40MX with Phil VK6GX on Tuesday’s net until a reset of the Flex was required… which took a while.

So on coming back on-line, Phil had QSYed and Max went into SWL mode for the rest of the session. We also heard about the catch-up from Max at the FN QTH last Saturday with David & Pauline (VK6KD) and Wayne VK6NW which went very well.

Mark called in from Lake Brewster Weir in VK2 red dirt country ! We were given a great overview / description of the irrigation area by Mark including a low-flying pelican sighting.

Being portable with the FT817 was rather difficult being heard amongst the higher powered stations at times. Listening out on 10, 15 Mx nothing heard of Chris G7BED or Simon MOKBU, but Mark heard a strong signal from Wayne VK6NW, Kevin VK3KEV and Chris G7BED on 20 Mx.

On 40 Mx he got Manny VK3DRQ, Jordon VK3ACU and Ross M@NNK via the Summerland amateur Radio Club remote in Northern NSW. On 80 Mx he chatted to Phil VK6GX, Greg VK5KFG and Sava VKAPN.

Mark as usual was having fun listening and posting on helpful alerts on the CQQRS WhatsApp group. Wayne had a good old rag chew with Phil VK6GX, a contact with Daniel VK6WE on 40 Mx and tried 20 Mx before heading off to his Tuesday evening duties with SES.

David called in from Capel between Bunbury and Busselton to report that he worked Jordan on 40 Mx and worked Phil VK6GX on 80 Mx. Looks like Phil was busy on Tuesday!

I was hoping to go portable but was not feeling great so stayed home in listening mode on Tuesday night and was treated to a busy net, thanks to all. Stay safe, Richard.

This Week’s Topic of Interest

N the depths of the British winter, my wife Jo took off to visit her family and friends in New Zealand and Australia. I looked after myself for a month, then drove our little 1.2 litre Honda Jazz over the Alps to meet her in Rome and begin a five-week tour of Italy and France together.

I had packed my Xiegu G90 radio and JPC-12 antenna of course, so I had the fun of joining the CQ QRS Tuesday activities from an olive grove in Campania, from the Mediterranean shoreline in Liguria and from the vineyards of Provence.

Some highlights of our trip were always part of the plan: The ancient remains of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum were awe-inspiring. At sunset, the beautifully engineered Roman aqueduct at Pont-du-Gard was as lovely as the medieval glories of

Bologna. It all contrasted with the gorgeous creations at the Lamborghini factory. But travel must always allow for the unexpected, and surprises often provide the most memorable moments.

So imagine my glee when staying in a converted pigsty in northern Italy that we were less than 20KM from the family home of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.

Not only that, the Villa Griffone was the location of his groundbreaking early experiments and offered tours by prior arrangement. I wrote a polite email to the administrator, enquiring if I might be able to visit on a Sunday morning.

A day later, I was thrilled to find that Jo

And I were allowed to join a very large group of Italian amateur radio operators from Tuscany and their families. We were shown into a theatre and introduced to the museum and Marconi’s life and work in a 20-minute lecture.

Then we joined a group for a tour, which began with a scientific demonstration. Our young guide was not a licensed amateur but he was exceptionally good.

He stood behind a large table, on which was arrayed replica equipment on wooden plinths – all polished brass, wires with woven fabric insulatior

Simon – not the guide! He reached behind him to a high shelf and keyed a straight key. A fat spark sizzled across a 50MM gap on top of a large induction coil.

He then connected a receiver o1 the table in front of us and showed us a coherer, the RF detector that Marconi famously improved with a self-resetting device. Now when he keyed the spark transmitter, a brass bell connected to the receiver rang out “SOS”.

He swapped out the bell for an inker, which prints out the dots and dashes of Morse on a thin paper tape. I listened to the buzzing spark and shouted out “CIAO”, to the consternation o several of the visitors.

Replica of Marcon’’s Goherer/Decoherer Receiver Ihad done some reading about the coherer. Marconi had followed the work of Branly and Varley in exploiting the phenomenon by which loosely gathered small particles of copper or other conducting substances would clump together in the presence of electromagnetic radiation.

As they did so, their electrical resistance dropped. Marconi could make the copper shavings inside a vacuum tube twitch when he keyed his transmitter. But to make use of on-off signalling, once the shavings had cohered, they somehow needed to be reset.

His simple solution was to put an automatic tapping hammer against the coherer tube, driven with a make-and-break circuit.

The changing resistance of Marconi’s decoherer enabled a pulsing current to flow in the receiving equipment which corresponded with the transmissions. I was amazed to see it all working on the table before us and the original devices in glass display cases.

Marconi now had a reliable means of receiving transmitted messages over the distance of a few feet. He sensed that far more was possible and dreamed of making transmissions beyond the horizon.

In the silkworm farm at the top of the villa, where caterpillars were once fed on mulberry leaves, Marconi’s research laboratory had been recreated. I recognised Leyden jars, gold-leaf electroscopes and the flat metal sheets that he used as primitive antennas.

An interactive area was set up so that visitors of all ages could play. I waited my turn and enjoyed using a spark transmitter to send Morse Code (not “continuous wave”) to a receiver a few feet away. There was so much to see.

I was also eager to emulate Marconi’s consequential experiment of 1895, which is commemorated with a plaque in the garden.

To a companion two kilometres away on the other side of the Celestine Hill, Marconi sent a message to demonstrate the first non-line-of-sight radio communication. I asked for permission to emulate the feat, which was freely granted.

I set up my radio under the silk room window. I switched on the radio and to my surprise and joy, I heard a spark transmission. Someone in the museum was sending “SOS” and I could see it across the waterfall on my G90.

Since 1924, spark gap transmitters were banned from the amateur bands and in 1934 they were outlawed for all radio transmissions.

There can’t be many people alive today who have heard, on their own radio receiver, a Morse Code message sent as a spark gap transmission.

I was desperate to get a call out. I called *CQ DE I4/MOKBJ” and had pleasant exchanges with Brian G4BIP in Northamptonshire and Derek G4VWI in Leicester.

They were not much more than 1000KM away and I thought about how the limits of transmission grew so spectacularly in just a short time at the end of the nineteenth century. The real spirit of radio is experimentation and making discoveries for ourselves.

Anyone whose heart has skipped at the sound of a distant station calling them will know what Marconi experienced 130 years ago at Villa Griffone. Read more about my radio adventures at: https://sjharvey.org.uk/MOKB4/2025 blog.html#2025-04-13.

Simon MOKBJ [Fantastic story – thank you Simon for making the time to put this together for us – [ often wondered how the coherer receiver worked – thank you outstanding work!

Wonder what the (perhaps not CW-literate) Italian amateurs thought of your “ciao” exclamation!)

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

QRZ?

This week – introducing John VK6TEA

• veral of our team members have worked John VK6TEA lately – and with their ncouragement, he’s joined our mob. Here’s a bot of John’s background.

Y way of self introduction, probably more than you want to know: + I’ve always been technical pulling apart toys from a young age always curious about how they worked. I later developed the hand skills to put them back together.

+ Electronics experiments started at 10 years old and continue to this day. + I bought the Dick Smith’s Australian Amateur Radio Handbook in 1981 and a plastic base Morse code key at the same time.

I poured over that book trying to make sense of it all and learned Morse code by reading/memorising the visual dots and dashes 🙁 + I started with CB radio at 14 years of age and talked internationally for the first time without a telephone on a 5/8 wave vertical 🙂 + Work, cars and girls interrupted radio until 2007 when I became a licensed amateur radio operator.

+ I work in cybersecurity tech sales now but electronics, radio and microcontrollers are part of everyday relaxation time. I’d return to radio full time in a heartbeat if I could pay my bills.

+ I’m focused on CW and QRP now which includes kit building and from scratch construction. I’m genuinely driven by the idea of doing more with less. + Beyond my early attempts at Morse, I’m now focused on ICR and becoming proficient on air.

Having completed CW Academy Beginner, I’m currently in a class of 1 studying fundamentals with them. I’m certainly open to local suggestions and inclusion in learning the code.

+ I currently send at the CW Academy recommend speed of 25WPM with Farnsworth spacing of 10WPM (send and receive) with a paddle working towards 25/25.

+ Lambic I’m playing with, but straight key being my preferred, I’m sending faster than I receive so trying to manage this with ICR. Sending slow is annoying but not being able to copy the reply is worse!

+ I made my first POTA contact on the weekend as a hunter and now of course am hooked to also become an activator. So many great parks close to me.

+ Irun small 5W rigs into a hand made shorty forty EFHW at low elevation from a single piece of continuous/uncut wire (including loading coil) supporting 40, 20, 15, 10m. Made possible with test equipment which I do love.

M keen to understand what QRS speeds I’ll be working with here. With straight key nd slower speeds (opposite to CW Academy) this sounds like a good fit for me. appreciate the CQQRS team’s dedication to QRS and efforts since 2021.

It sounds ke you’ve all built an amazing radio community which I’m keen to be part of. ‘ertainly the contacts I’ve made so far have been very encouraging even offering dditional assistance on/off air.

Uesday is such a good day for this and for the longest time I’ve been hearing tations on this day not knowing why, it makes sense now so thank you for making nis happen. hanks for the encouragement everybody – I’ll be on air Tuesday. sheers,

QRZ? Who’s on the other end? From your editor Mark VK2KI / VK6QI So, who’s next? Please email me if you’d like to send me some info about yourself: cqqrsnet@gmail.com Alternatively, lan VK1HF is keen to record and produce some short audio segments for RagChew about some of our team members.

If you’d like to have a chat with lan rather than writing something, send me an email and I’ll pass your details to him. So… QRZ?

QRZ? Who’s on the other end?

Other News

The Don Edwards Memorial Slow Morse Contest 2025

From Rob VK3ECH Dates: This weekend – Saturday 17 May 2025 and Sunday 18 May 2025 Contact contest@sgars.org In recognition of Don, the St.

George Amateur Radio Society will be holding the Don Edwards Memorial slow Morse contest on the weekend of the 17TH and 18TH of May 2025.

The contest will be in two sections, 80 metres on the Saturday evening from 6pm to 9pm Eastern (0800 – 1100 UTC) and 40 metres on the Sunday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm Eastern (0300 – 0600 UTC). Amateurs can enter either or both sessions.

The contest will be open to all VK and ZL amateurs. Many amateurs have rarely or never used Morse code since they passed their exam or never needed to learn Morse code for their licences.

This contest is to encourage inexperienced or rusty operators to try their hand or fist at Morse. For this reason, the contest will be a slow Morse contest with a speed limit of 10 words per minute, no keyboards or screens – all sent by hand and received by ear, To encourage those amateurs who never sat for or passed a Morse exam for their licence, they will be able to claim an extra 2 points per session.

For more information and contest rules can be found here: https://www.sgars.org/index.php/downloads/1-contest-and-field-days Exchanges: A two digit serial number and your name – that’s all you’ll need to exchange and record in the log – signal reports aren’t required.

Location: In your shack or out in the field www.sgars.org for more info. Have fun, Rob VK3ECH

Antenna Check!

From Phil VK6GX at Gidgegannup. Hi Mark, Many thanks for the QSO on 80m. I have never heard 80m so quiet, absolutely no QRN crashes. I almost dashed outside to check if the antenna had fallen down.

Genuine S1 noise level, but then I heard your /P QRP signal and knew all was well. I was using my TS-890S > IC-2KL > Palstar HF-Auto and my only Tx antenna at the moment, the repaired 80m flat top delta loop, back up at 20m.

The East Beverage, temporarily pinned on ground by a fallen tree and branches, was not hearing you as well, but you were audible. It’s bare galvanised steel wire and is broken somewhere along its 201M length.

Attached are pictures of the rig in use (TS- 8908S) and the key I was using for the QRS net, made for me by Val RA1AOM, a Swedish style key, polished stainless steel on a block of Jasper and a stainless steel base-plate.

The tin cans to the right of the TS-890S are a 430HZ (my preferred side-tone frequency), resonant CanSpeaker. Unfortunately, that’s where it is most effective for my operating position.

Most of my other VAK6GX CanSpeakers work best under a shelf, out of the way. They are remarkably effective, particularly for rigs that don’t have an Audio Peak Filter, or narrow CW filter.

If anyone is interested in building a CanSpeaker, there is a description on my QRZ page. Cost of parts, almost zero, just your time! Vy 73, Phil VK6GX.

[Thanks very much Phil. Yes, terrific contact – you were booming in to Central NSW on 80m – you sure you weren’t pointing those cans towards me? Interesting about choosing 430HZ – surprisingly low for

My old ears! And yes, I recommend your QRZ page for info on your brilliant resonant cans, and really for anyone interested in CW! Now many of us older ops prefer / only use headphones on CW…. which would be a funny sight!]

If in doubt…. PSE QRS!

[My lecturer from 51 years ago would be disappointed to learn how little electrica power theory I now remember!]

Vausages, tapping naraer, Diowing Tlags and playing Nookie. See what you’re missing if you’re not on WhatsApp during our net’

Click on the images Very very short version —>

Click on the images Very very short version —> Long version I Vv

John VK5ET Out and About

G’day Mark, This week I was portable in Para Wirra Conservation Park on 30w, EFHW at shrub- level in E – W direction… probably contributed to not being heard although many stations I did hear were at low signal strength.

Interesting night, i heard Chris, G7BED at S8 while VK stations trying to get Chris G7BED were down to S2. I tried few times to get Chris but not heard. After sunset, no one heard on 20 Mts – better on 40M.

If you look carefully you will see the EFHW wire going top left to right to the small tree in the background. Jipsi gets the RED CARPET treatment. ©

PS: heard the temp was 5 C that night, no wonder i was feeling a tad cold ©). Better luck next time 73 VKS5ET , John [Wow! That’s pretty amazing that you heard Chris G7BED at S8 John!

Perhaps there’s something in your near-Beverage antenna, compared to my ZS6BKW up 9m which struggled!]

Morse Training Net

Our team member Nic VK7WW runs an on-air Slow Morse training net every Wednesday at 7pm EDST on 3580 for 30 mins. He uses the callsign of the Northern Tasmania Amateur Radio Club VK7TAZ on that net.

Many of our team learned Morse code with the support of Nic, and the weekly training session comes highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn the Code, or simply brush up.

Everyone’s welcome – 3580KHZ at 7pm Eastern time every Wednesday; you’ll hear lots of the CQQRS team on that net. Jordan VK3ACU is recording this round of training lessons – you’ll find the link to the YouTube recordings on our website here:

Bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite then navigate to: useful-resources-and-links Contact Nic VK7WW for more info nicholaschantler@hotmail.com including how to join the NTARC DISCORD group to follow the action, or just come along and join in on Wednesdays.

SKCC Oceania QRS Saunter – this weekend (Saturday GMT time:

Https://www.skccgroup.com/operating_activities/oqs/ for more info

Readable Five

This Week – Something Different!

Good morning QRS team. Attached is an excerpt from a book, The Nymph and the Lamp. It is old enough that copyright has expired, so no issues reproducing it. It’s a little long but it’s a lovely evocative piece of writing about maritime CW.

The book cover suggests the rest of the book may evoke strong images of another nature! Click to download. Kind regards, Lance, VK7TO

If you’ve read something 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

I Hear Tell…

WIA Recognises Two of our Team

Well well well! The WIA annual general meeting announced that two of our team members have won 2024 annual WIA awards this year! Huge congratulations to both Donald VK6JDM and Rob VK6LD; how good is that? More details to follow, but in the mean time…

Https://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/display.php?file_id=wianews-2025-05-11 [If you have some intel about other team members… or even yourself… that’s worth sharing, please let me know cqqrsnet@gmail.com |

Di-dah-di-dah-dit

So back to the CQQRS 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 https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite and navigate to the Net Details page for details.

Doesn’t matter whether you’re brand new and want to try just exchanging callsigns and RST reports, or you’re ready for a good old rag chew. We’ll have fun.

There’s usually people around until after 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.

Reports

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).

See https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite and navigate to the Net Details page for details of how you can connect via Echolink or even possibly via your local FM repeater.

Teamwork

This week we were at the Lake Brewster Weir, between Hillston and Lake Cargelligo in the Central West of NSW. MailChimp, the software used to compile and distribute the newsletter is a web-based system that requires a continuous internet connection (every change triggers a re-saving of the material to the cloud – nothing can be saved and done off- line).

So part of the RagChew newsletter was compiled

Ms Elizabeth and our little Apple MacBooks, hard at work at the Hillston NSW library.

In the nice Hillston library by me, while Elizabeth worked on a major Landcare grant bid – how else would you spend your caravanning holiday?

Hillston amazed me; considering where it’s located, I expected a normal hot and dusty rural struggle- town – but I was wrong – the place was as neat as a pin – someone sure knows how to stretch the local Council budget to make it look on the surface, pretty comfortable.

Anyway, thank you so much to our team of 33 contributors: DL3YZ, G7BED, MOKBJ, MONNK, VK2ALR, VK2GAS, VK2KJJ, VK2WP, VK3ACU, VK3BWN, VK3BYD, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3JFR, VK3KEV, VK3TBR, VK4MFX, VK5AO, VK5ET, VKSKFG, VK6BEK, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6KD, VK6NW, VK6RR, VK6TEA, VK6WE, VK7TA, VK7TO, ZL1PB and ZL1PX.

Some of our members have commented how amazing it is that we have so many who want to help make the newsletter interesting, and in-turn keep the net such a great meeting spot; thank you all.

And a special thank you to our article contributors, our editorial team (including Nigel G4RWI (head of software development), John VK2RU (WhatsApp spy and research) and Richard VK6HRC (Post Morsition and spy)), and the people who are such regular contributors.

Great work alll UY CW on Tuesday, mb. Mark Bosra VK2KI/ VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark,bosma@icloud.com ron impeditiratione cogitationis

About the CQ QRS Net

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

The opinions expressed in the RagChew newsletter are those of the individual contributors. The opinions do not necessarily reflect that of the editor or of the CQ QRS Group members.

Any material and images received by the editor or published on the CQQRS WhatsApp groups may be published in this newsletter unless specifically requested otherwise.

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