In 2022 I reactivated my amateur radio license as VK3WOW after a four decade hiatus, and immediately began relearning how to send and receive Morse code.
Not long afterwards, I discovered a group of keen Morse operators who, for various reasons, prefer to work at relatively slow (QRS) speeds, and who get together on the air on Tuesday nights. Participating operators often contribute to a newsletter known as "CQ QRS RagChew" which Mark Bosma VK2KI publishes weekly.
The native format of this newsletter does not readily support full text searching. However, using a combination of a purpose-trained neural net and OCR, I have been able to create a sufficiently accurate replica of each newsletter to support a useful, if not perfect, search function.
Note that in the reconstructed versions of each newsletter presented here:
Search the CQ QRS RagChew archive:
Here we are, Simon MOKBJ, Nigel G4RWI, Chris M7BED volunteering at the RSGB National Radio Centre. Take note of the display on the screens behind us. This week: Well here we are.... early hours of Sunday morning... and still no…
No doubt the highlight of the week was the Museum Ship Radio weekend with our team member Mike DL3YZ operating from the Technik Museum Sinsheim near Stuttgart. U-17 Submarine Activation HF conditions were tough so contacts to VK and ZL…
So all’s peachy at the peak of the sunspot cycle? Ha! During this week’s Tuesday net, our intrepid UK stations had plenty of European stations to work... but no luck with long path to VK and ZL... And many of…
Well well... another tertific Tuesday evening. Not as many people reported as last week (five dozen this week, six dozen last week would you believe?) but more people trying 80m again - which is great! Interesting again how conditions were…
So much fun on Tuesday - and so variable the reports! For some the bands were alive during our CQQRS Slow CW Practice QSO net; for others very quiet! Really interesting conditions on 40m and 80m.... and success with some…
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…
Last Tuesday’s Group Here’s the 54 stations heard by 40 members of our team on Tuesday: Masthead Image And thanks this week to Jordan VK3ACU for the brilliant short video captured above - see Other News below. I think this…
Alittle quieter on our Tuesday CQQRS Slow CW practice QSO net this week - I counted 29 of our team chatting to 45 other stations; 80m in particular was peculiarly quiet. However, from the reports below, everyone had themselves a…
Well well well.... wasn’t Tuesday’s net interesting? The Bureau of Meteorology’s Space Weather Services predicted difficult conditions following two solar flares - anc the prediction was right. We all had fun, but things were challenging. Our DXperiment stations in the…
Well well... what fun on Tuesday - Simon out portable early on a rainy morning on the Italian Mediterranean, Rob maritime mobile, me fiddling with Remote stations in WA and finding how hard it was to transmit without decent side-tone…
Another pearler on Tuesday! So many people having such a good time, practicing, learning, or just relaxing and having fun! Read on for more. Relax. Ifyou haven't worked it out already, relaxing and having fun with slow CW is what…
If I said there was 67 stations worked or heard on Tuesday’s CQQRS Slow CW practice QSO net... would you believe me? What a great team! So in this newsletter you'll read the reports from our reporters, you’ll learn about…
Great fun on Tuesday night again - lots of people on having such a good time! The reports indicate that we had 60 stations on this week - woo hoo! Thanks to everyone who had a go.... and especially those…
Thanks this week to Ketut VK3BWN - we could just about hear the grin on his face when he was operating from his back porch on Tuesday night! See Other News for Ketut's terrific report - thanks for sharing your…
Wasn’t Tuesday just great fun? We had a good turn-out again - so many people having such a satisfying time - learning, practicing, or just relaxing having fun. What a great team! Thank you all. Terrific to see our team…
Wow, wasn’t last Tuesday's CQQRS Practice QSO net great? I was amazed when I checked the VK6QS KiwiSDR receiver part way through the evening - the waterfall had turned into a downpour - with signals romping in from the East…
Would you be surprised if I didn’t say Tuesday was a ripper? I would! Wasn'tit great to have such good conditions and so many of our mates on air - all enjoying the gentle art of slow CW. This week…
CQ QRS RagChew Terrific to see our numbers on air increasing again this week. We had 41 reports from our team about our Tuesday net, and 57 stations heard. The reports showed that most of us had fun on the…
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…
Well what fun! Although we had only 43 stations on Tuesday evening, boy did we all have fun! I really went to town with rag-chews - some nearly an hour long. For someone who hated CW and vowed to never…
As the weather continued to challenge us both on and off the airwaves, it's been a week of persistence, innovation, and camaraderie within the group. Whether you've been operating from the comfort of your home or enjoying some portable ops…
Things were looking up for this week's CQQRS Slow CW QSO practice net on Tuesday. A number of people reported that band conditions were good, but our numbers were still down a bit - only 55 stations heard on air,…
It’s time to think again about this year’s International Morse Code Day quiz, held via Zoom in April. Richard VK6PZT has been running these events each year, and the participants all had a scream - great fun. The event is…
Last Tuesday’s Group Masthead Image And thanks this week to David VK6KD portable near Mansfield in the Victorian High Country for the screenshot from his phone of some of the participants in our HNY 20m / Zoom event on Thursday.…
Terrific to hear so many of our team on Tuesday who tore themselves away from their New Year's Eve fandangos and joined the QRS celebrations on air. I had a great time, and I know many of the others on…