cq_qrs_newsletter

2025 27 CQ QRS RagChew

Below is a reconstruction of the 2025 27 CQ QRS RagChew newsletter designed to support full text searching. This reconstruction was built using OCR, and will contain errors.

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Contents

CQ QRS Rag-Nibble

I’m not sure that I like the title either – but it’s all I could think of at the time. Your thoughts please? cqqrsnet@gmail.com This is the first light edition of the weekly CQQRS RagChew newsletters – aiming for something that keeps you in touch with the CQQRS Slow CW Practice QSO net, but that’s still practical to hand over to a team of once-per month editors.

Did you have some fun on Tuesday? I hope so. Conditions on 40m were somewhat flakey and the high-cnesad DY ctationc that ctartad coming throiigh ac

U have some fun on Tuesday? I hope so. Conditions on 40m were somewhat flake e high-speed DX stations that started coming through as

And the high-speed DX stations that started coming through as the net progressed drove some down to 80m (a good thing) and even drove some further down to 160M (a very good thing).

And our sole DXperimenter Simon MOKBJ on Crowley Beach didn’t make the long-path distance this week. At least he worked some closer DX this time.

Masthead Image

Thanks this week to Morgan VK6MTF for showing us his portable set up for hi current Tasmania visit.

The Walrus Said

Last week I advised that the time had come for me to relucté editor of the RagChew newsletter. Thank you to those who thoughts.

I’ve taken up the suggestion of John VK2RU of the editorial team to try several light versions of the newsletter each month, perhaps with a longer edition from time to time.

In this edition, I’ve continued experimenting with ways of inserting material edited outside of our production and distribution systemMailChimp – opening the way to having our new editors each able to produce material using the simple, flexible and free word processing software now available.

I think I’m on track to finding a way for editors to produce a worthwhile and attractive catalyst for our net participants, with only a few hours work each week – rather than the

With only a few hours work eacn week – ratner than the existing days and days of effort. Fingers crossed. Please let me know if you’d like to help.

Oh and by the way – you’ll notice that some of the usual sections of the newsletter are missing in this light edition. That doesn’t mean that they’ll be excluded from future editions – so please send me your QRZ?, I hear Tell, On my Workbench, Other News, Prosigns and Characters of the Month, etc larticles for inclusion in future editions – they’re what make it an interesting read – and also can be things to have a rag chew about during our net.

Net Frequencies and Times

CQQRS is an uncontrolled practice QSO net that runs on Tuesdays at the following times. In addition, when weather and long-path conditions allow, we have a team of stations in the UK and Germany who also operate on 20m; details of the 20m activities are advised closer to the day via email.

Also, of late a number of our team have tried 160M as well – with frequencies coordinated via our CQQRS WhatsApp Alerts group.

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 repo! 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

Here’s the 51 stations heard by 33 members of our team on Tuesday:

The spreadsheets above show the known stations on last Tuesday’s Group; the comments in the team members’ reports (Submitted via our webform bit.ly/CQQRSNET ) follow:

[40m] It is getting quite noisy on 40m any time after 1800 WST makes those CW contacts more tricky – the east coast was quite strong into WA this week.

[80m] Lovely to work Donald but the signals suffered from QSB

[40m] Listening mode only tonight from inside warm qth. Listened to Kiwi SDR of Paul, VKSPH. Noisy but managed to hear stations listed. Bit quieter than usual.

[80m] Souldn’t stay long, good to hear so many on the air.

[40m] All four quadrants of the ‘sending-quality’ spectrum were evident again last night, from small-but-perfectly-formed 2 wpm due to the useful but over-exploited concept unleashe by Don Farnsworth W6TTB, all the way to 20 wpm with the same very poor spacing.

Despite having been remarked on repeatedly, lousy spacing is still heard from one particular station. Seems some are incapable of performing self analysis or quality control.

However, the general trend shown by those brought up on the QRS FFAis one of very acceptable quality, the test being whether it can be read by intolerant electronic decoders?

After a range of trials, despite weak signals, the answer is yes, the majority can be decoded. Ergo, t straight key-sending spectrum, a central strategy will alv SO CEO bs Peer an COU ene eee ne eed eee

[40m] Enjoyed the soft shell Taco banter !

[80m] Put some calls out on 80 Mx but very quiet at that time.

[40m] Conditions on 40m were poor. Even local stations were significantly down.

[40m] As always, I am not sure which stations heard were participating in the net. VK6 stations were very weak early on but had good signals later in the evening.

| ates taint I Strong winds and rain this evening, however the antenna (large horizontal loop) held up OK. The 450 ohm window line feeder gets whipped around in the wind however it has survived several years without breaking, touch wood.

First QSO with Otto, VK4OLB, only 15 years old. His signal was very low but we managed to exchange some basic information. Very poor propagation between Mark, VK2KI, and myself, probably because we are too close.

Currently conditions on 40 metres after sundown don’t seem to support QSOs betweer

Sundown don’t seem to support QSOs between close stations. Yesterday I plugged an old Dell computer monitor into my relatively new Yaesu FTDX10. I can’t say that an external monitor is essential, since the small built-in screen is adequate.

However the huge monitor does look dramatic and I have a choice of which screen to look at, hi.

West of Esperance Propagation was poor on 40 and 80 and there was a lot of QSB that was over 20 dB making contacts dip into the noise.

I see the man who led me down the path of CW is trying to retreat into retirement with piloting of an experimental helicopter on the list of to dos.

It is useful to have a few dangerous things to do in retirement. I recently built a shed and had fussing colleagues tell me that I should not climb ladders at my age.

This seemed to partly satisfy their need to control the lives of others and at the same time to remind me of my age and therefore their relative youth.

My response was to post on the notice board a photo of myself screwing down the ridge on the roof, taken from an angle that exaggeratec the height, with a caption that read “Elderly chap undergoing nursing home bypass surger (NHBS) – surgery was unsuccessful and will have to be repeated”.

[Heh heh, I thought that was your job to tell your patients to not climb ladders Donald.]

[40m] Conditions seemed a bit down, but worked and heard stations no issue, gave my usual “What’s for dinner?” report to our illustrious leader Hi Hi. Soft shell tacos —

[80m] Took a look at 80m and heard 4PN and 3ACU about t QSY to 160M, followed them down but I don’t think they could hear each other, I had Jordan 599 and Sav. pT had ee eT ee TO ee YR

They could hear each other, I had Jordan 599 and Sava 559. Ended up with an easy contact with 50 watts and a VERY compromised antenna with Jordan on 160 after he started calling CQ. Tried 80m again after the SSB Boatanchor net and worked VK4PN with good sigs.

We tried 160 and Sava was good copy for me still 559 but his high noise level had him struggling to hear me. We will keep plugging away! Then 3DRQ Manny called me and we had a lovely catch-up. Great night! Sete oer ee rne mene ree

Try to catch OM Simon straight after 0700Z, he was only RSN 222 and was working N4TTU. When they finished QSO I try several times but couldn’t get any answer.

Just before 0730Z, OM Mark VK2KI called me to let me know that Simon was abt 1 down, by then it was too late for me. With the XYL Estela we were ready to go out for dinner with friends, so I have to CL.

Nt straight to the radio and in 80m I managed to have a other with OM Andy VK5LA.

At abt 1230Z we arrived home, went straight to the radio and in 80m I m QSO with OM Mark VK2KI and another with OM Andy VK5LA. Sennen ite simone htenball

[80m] I had a short session on 80m this week due to 1st day return to work after 13months leave. I found the Ironstone SDR was experiencing high QRM on 80m band so I tried calling on freq where QRM was least. heard trom mv OTH to Ironstone but no OSOs tonioht.

[20m] I could hear some of the stations working Simon MOKBg, but nothing at all was heard from our beach- comber this week. Sorry mate, and I hope that the early morning 160KM drive and beach set-up was nice.

Interesting photo of the brick debris from the bombed Liverpool streets above the foreshore.

Prweeey I slipped down to 40m when Simon advised that he was off looking for less exotic DX on 20m and heard a bit of activity. I came across a faint signal from VK4OLB, a fairly new CW operator operating on low power from Brisbane.

QSB got the better of us after exchanging reports; I tried again later in the evening, but the result was the same – QSB. Next I hooked up with Andy VK5LA for an update on the dinner menu.

A few weeks ago Andy and I chatted about what he was going to make for dinner – and his green chicken curry took on an elevated status – apparently a number of stations heard the conversation.

Anyway, this week we discussed Andy’s wife’s recipe for soft-shell tacos; Mal VK8MT was listening-in from Central Desert NT, on his first trial of his new QRP-Labs QMX transceiver, and picked up the discussion about soft shell tacos.

The next morning on the Post Morsum call-back on AllStar, others reported hearing the same words! Andy’s getting a bit of a reputation for food-related QSOs – HI.

ENG PASC EN EE BNE ENN ENP ERE ih Ne ere I overheard a QSO between one of our founders, Richard VK6PZT in Bunbury and Patrick VK2IOW up at Millthorpe.

Signals weren’t great with either station, but when I was chatting to Patrick, Richard advised via WhatsApp that he could hear me ok; boy times have changed over the years – a few years ago Richard’s noise level was so high, he had zero

Chance when conaitions were tougn… lOOKS like that neignbour might nave finally altchea that noisy TV. As the evening moved on, 40m became pretty noisy and full of DX stations here (I know, nice problem to have!) – and the number of CQQRS stations dropped off.

Hopefully if this is a recurrent problem, we might have more giving 80m a go later in the evening.

80m] On 80m, I had a nice chat with Greg VK5KFG at Willunga who reported that at last the rain had started falling down that way after years of drought. I then wound-up the night with another chat with Manny VK3DRQ who had a nice signal to me.

So 80m wasn’t Bourke Street this week, but still there were QSOs to be had. And terrific to see a bit of interest in extending the net to 160M as well – well done guys.

[40m] I heard Ron VK6KHZ, Max VK6FN and Richard VK6HRC weakly through the high noise at the Southern Electronics Group VK6CRO Remote at the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum.

However, every time I keyed up the transmitter, the remote control software disconnected 1 to the server. Further testing demonstrated that this was on is such a long way from anywhere that I expect it’ll be

Tansmitter, the remote contro: sottware Gisconnectea itself from the internet connection to the server. Further testing demonstrated that this wa: a problem on 40m only.

Carnarvon is such a long way from anywhere that I expect it’ll be some time before Rob VK6LD and the SEG team can get up there to do some trouble- shooting.

[20m] No luck hearing Simon MOKBJ this week, but I could hear some of the stations he was working including N4TTU and DL4FQ. Their signals were better into the VKS5PH KiwiSDR system at Ironstone Range.

[20m] No luck hearing Simon MOKBJ this week, but I could hear some of the stations he was working including N4TTU and DL4FQ. Their signals were better into the VKS5PH KiwiSDR system at Ironstone Range.

[20m] No luck hearing Simon MOKB4J this week, but I could hear some of the stations he was working including N4TTU and DL4FQ. Their signals were better into the VK5PH KiwiSD system at Ironstone Range.

From Peter Dann VK3WOW at Blackburn, Victoria [160M] First time I’ve worked 160 metres. Bit of a ‘who’d have guessed the! actually life on Mars’ moment for me. [Outstanding.]

A better week this week than last week when I could not hear a thing. I put this down to extremely poor band conditions at the time. It had been very windy and wet.

Things became clearer the following morning when I saw the tuner end of the antenna floating in the breeze, making no connection with the > tuner had been happily tuning 100W into thin air the ng up the counterpoise running along the ground usy antenna.

Tuner at all. The odd thing was that the tuner had been happily tuning 100W into thin aii night before. Perhaps it had been tuning up the counterpoise running along the grounc beside the shed. If it was, it made a lousy antenna.

[40m] Could not really hear Stan well enough to copy. Only knew it was him from other stations replies. Shows that my 40m antenna has potential.

Post Morsum Report

VK6NW Wayne VK6QI = Mark VK6FN Max VK6HRC VK6MRB Mulligan swl and others

Max put in a big effort working the locals to start with and then onto the Eastern states. He worked a ZL station at one point ZL2AGY Tony probably not aware of the QRS net. Max went QRT at about 20:00 WST and headed off get something to eat !

I worked three on 40 Mx ( locals ) before the band opened to the East where it got busy with DX stations calling over or

To the cast where it got busy with VA stations Calling oO the top making life rather difficult. Thank you to all on last night and this morning. Stay safe 73 Richard

This Week’s Topics of

This week I’ve reproduced what ! think is a very interesting article on clear thinking from Dr Hank Prunckun VK5XB. The article appeared in AR Magazine in December 2013.

Thank you to both Hank and Roger Harrison the editor of AR for permission tc re-print this article.

Pair ranked analysis

Tune a Remote SDR using your transceiver’s controls

Tune a Remote oun using your transceivers controls

From Phil VK6GX Hi Mark, Users of web SDRs will be interested in this software, it enables you to tune a remote SDR with your own rig, as long as it can be connected to the internet.

LS a ee I I /isit https://catsyncsdr.wordpress.com/ for more information.

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

You may have read this week and previous weeks about the culinary discussions with Andy VKS5LA, and how so many of our net listeners overheard bits of those conversations.

In parallel, you may have seen the work each week by John VK2RU to generate the head- copy practice audio segments based on the A.A. Milne books, Winnie the Pooh.

This week, John has generated the chapter about Winnie and Piglet and the heffalump; when I received the text, naturally I had to read the chapter to Ms Elizabeth while we had a cup of tea and some scones.

So continuing the previous weeks’ themes of green chicken curry, and soft-shell tacos, John VK2RU has shared his secret Country Womens’ Association scone recipe. I still do a bit of baking in the caravan here; focaccia and scones turn out better than most.

The scone recipe I use is one from the CWA girls.

Gloria Hyatt’s scone recipe Makes 12-18 (depending in the size of your scone cutter) legg 4 tablespoons of oil (she uses vegetable oil) 2 cups of milk (or 1% cups milk and half a cup of sour cream or thickened cream) 4 cups of self raising flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar Beat the egg, oil and milk until combined.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Add the egg mixture to the flour, Knead until just combined and then turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Pat into a flat shape of the thickness you’d like your scones.

Hyatt prefers % inch, Cut with a floured scone cutter and then place on a greased tray. Cook at 220 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Hyatt’s recipe was the last recipe I tried and the most complex of the three I tested, although still very easy to make.

To say that the dough was sticky is an understatement, It’s so adhesive that just rinsing your fingers under the tap alone wasn’t enough – you have to scrape it off.

Don’t forget to flour your kitchen bench, otherwise you’ll spend ages scraping the mixture off that too. Tt was all worth it though, the end result was light and fluffy with a lovely golden sheen on top.

My guests described them as “tasting country” and devoured the lot. These scones were delicious eaten with butter as well as jam and cream and well worth the few extra steps.

| put a bit of baking powder in with it, if it’s too wet then in goes some more flour, just mix it enough to combine ingredients, and make sure I rest the flattened out dough at least 10 minutes before cutting.

I also use less oil, and then sometimes substitute some butter for oil. I rub-in the butter or freeze the butter and just grate it into the mix. Changing some of the milk to cream or sour cream is also good.

I also make it a bit drier than appears to be recommended. Having said all of that, there is no such thing as a bad scone, unless you include the rubbish served up to us at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame some years ago.

Tea and scones consisted of a styrene cup with teabag and warm water, scones came in plastic container – mass produced rubbish.

Other News

Too late – but interesting

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 has recorded the complete set of lessons which you can now find here:

Https://www. youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsQmZz6fBXO7swAfbT mutrbbEL17fUQL 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.

QRS International Flight Contest

The third flight in this learning exercise (cleverly disguised as a contest), has taken off to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Early contest entries have been interesting and enabled a couple of misunderstandings to be ironed out.

Yes, a few points were lost, but now everybody seems to be on the rails to

• arn full points for the next eight flights. It really does pay to get in early! Be aware, there’s still time; those who missed the first flight south-west across the Pacific are down only 10 % on potential points, and at even less of a disadvantage when you count NR 11, which may still be solvable to give a final bonus 20 points.

Also to consider, who knows how many won’t last the course thus raising the stakes? Instructions at _ bit.ly/qrsifc 73 Stan ZL3TK

Objectives: This eight-week event has the following objectives: * to promote regular on-air QSOs primarily between VK and ZL operators. Other DX operators and contacts are welcome.

E for CW operators to have as many QSOs as possible whilst meeting the minimum criteria for a QSO. « toprovide an event that meets the needs of different types of CW operators. e touse these sessions to build on existing skills and satisfy your own goals.

© Foraperson who normally operates POTA/SOTA, this might mean extending QSO vocabulary to include a few new words or phrases. o Foran operator comfortable at 12WPM and basic QSOs, this might mean aiming to increase speeds by 2-3 WPM once a week.

O Foracontester this might mean exchanging station details they don’t normally exchange. Participants are encouraged to notify the Event Administrator of their personal goals prior to the event.

When: Start date: Tuesday 17 June 2025 End date: Sunday 10 August 2025 This is an eight-week event with one-hour sessions commencing 17 June 2025, and taking place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 0930-1030Z.

Https://morsecodesessions.wordpress.com/morse-mania-winter-2

Readable Five

What have you been reading lately? Compiled on the track somewhere by John

What have you been reading lately? iled on the track somewhere by John VK2RU

From John VK2RU In RagChew editions 23, 24, 25 and 26, John VK2RU provided CW audio files from the out-of-copyright Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. The audio files are recorded at a reasonable pace, but can be slowed down using your phone.

The aim being to play the audio just too fast to copy comfortably, and without writing —— down the characters, let your mind do the decoding and assembling of words.

It’s helpful to have pre-read the text to help stop yourself from being tripped up by the unusual words; you won’t hear “heffalump” on CW all that often…. yet! This week, as promised above, we have the very special Chapter 5 – the heffalump hunt!

Click the images below to download the text and the three audio files.

From John VK2RU In RagChew editions 23, 24, 25 and 26, John VK2RU provided CW audio files from the out-of-copyright Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. The audio files are recorded at a reasonable pace, but can be slowed down using your phone.

The aim being to play the audio just too fast to copy comfortably, and without writing down the characters, let your mind do the decoding and Aceambiina afisarde 3 3 te halnfiil tan Aaa Anrarascd tna tave tan hain .

Downstream, you’ll be able to find the head-copy exercises on our website: https://bit.ly/CQQRSWebsite

If you’ve read something that you think might be of interest to our readers, please let me know and I’ll pass them to John VK2RU for compilation each week; email to cqqrsnet@gmail.com

Prosign/Character/Signal of the Month

[Suggestion – put it on a sticky note near your key as a reminder for Tuesday. Tell us how you went!]

Hi Mark. Not sure if this prosign has been mentioned before, just in case it hasn’t I thought this was interesting. The Origin of the Prosign By James Wades (WB8SIW) The prosign KN (DAH-DI-DAH-DAH-DIT) is still occasionally used by CW operators.

Undoubtedly, some believe it is an official procedure of some type, perhaps promulgated at an Intemational conference or an import from military or commercial practice.

The prosign was intended to indicate that a reply was only wanted from the specific station called. For example, if one sends W6RRI de W1MK KN, this means that W1MK only wants to communicate with WERRI.

In fact, the prosign KN was entirely a creation of the ARRL, having been first announced in the April, 1947 issue of QST magazine.

The QST article describes it as follows: Anew signal, KN, has been introduced to clarify the actual intent of an operator when concluding certain transmissions….To avoid calls from other stations when in contact with a specific station, and to avoid being called by another station upon completion of a call to a specific station., a new signal, KN, has been added.

While it was definitely intended to be sent as a prosign, and while it is perfectly legal to use it on-air today, it is only rarely heard.

Assigning it the birthdate of April 1, 1947 was perhaps a happy accident, as it appears most hams, at least today, see it as a bit of an “April fools joke” despite it having been promulgated in numerous Amateur Radio publications over many years.

73 Roy VK6RR [Thanks Roy – interesting find.]

Di-dah-di-dah-dadit

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.

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

Thank you so much to our team of 28 contributors: MOKBJ, VK2IOW, VK2KI, VK2RU, VK3DRQ, VK3ECH, VK3KEV, VK3WOW, VK5AO, VKBET, VKSKDO, VKSKFG, VK5LA, VK5XB, VK6GX, VK6HRC, VK6IS, VK6JDM, VK6KD, VK6KHZ, VK6MK, VK6MTF, VK6NW, VK6PZT, VK6QI, VK6RR, VK7TA and ZL3TK.

And a special thank you to our editorial team, Nigel G4RWI (head of software development), John VK2RU (Pooh- wrangler, WhatsApp spy and researcher) and Richard VK6HRC (Post Morsition and spy). Great work alll UY CW on Tuesday, mb.

Mark Bosra VK2KI/ VK6QI Beautiful South Bowning NSW mark,bosma@icloud.com non impediti ratione 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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