EuCW Bulletin No 2023/02 1) Thank you all who have contributed material for this Spring bulletin of EuCW. There seems to be a lot of activity ongoing and several initiatives to stimulate CW activity all over. Conditions have been gradually improving, but during this phase of the sunspot cycle, nothing is forever and lots of sun activity partly challenges us. However, for CW operators there is still plenty of things to do even if DX propagation temporarily is affected. I wish you all an active Second Quarter of 2023 and see you on the CW bands. I am trying to be as active as possible when work/family commitment allows. 2) The GQRP Club has a large base of valve-enthusiast builders. They will be on air with their latest creations on the 15th and 16th of April, for testing and rag-chewing. Most of the stations will be operating CW using modern homebrew transceivers based on simple technology from yesteryear. A relaxed activity to spread knowledge and interest about vintage CW transmitter and receiver technology. More info available by contacting Colin G3VTT. The GQRP Club will also celebrate the International QRP Day on the 17th of June 2023 by activating all the regional variations of the G5LOW club callsign, i.e., G5LOW (England), GM5LOW (Scotland), GW5LOW (Wales), GI5LOW (Northern Ireland), GU5LOW (Guernsey), GJ5LOW (Jersey) and GD5LOW (Isle of Man). The callsigns will be operated on all modes, but a large proportion of operations will be in CW. Watch out on all the HF/VHF/UHF bands for those callsigns, as we collectively fly the flag of QRP. 3) NTC (Netherlands Telegraphy Club) is experiencing a nice and healthy growth. In February the total number of members reached 200, which is an excellent result after a relatively short time of existence. 56 percent of the members are Dutch, but also members from 23 countries are represented in total. The second anniversary was celebrated on January 31st, 2023, through the anniversary QSO party. 40 participants in the event and the lucky winner was Enno, PF5X, with 50 contacts. Congratulations! The monthly QSO party called the NTCQP is now introducing bonus points. For details see: https://pi4ntc.nl/ntcqp. The February QSO party has set a new record of 52 incoming logs. NTC also reminds us to participate in the AGCW-NTC Friendship QSO Party on April 18. From 18:00 to 20:00 UTC. The Rules can be found at https://pi4ntc.nl/agcw-ntcqp 4) HACWG (The Hungarian CW Group) announces the next "HA3NS Sprint CW Memorial Contest" to be held on June 2nd. This is a one hour contest: "one hour CW one hour fun". There are so many contests around but in this case it is more important to meet as CW friends and strengthen friendship through CW exchanges. The detailed Rules can be found here: https://radioamator.honlapepites.hu/?p=1280 The full list of HACWG members can be found here: https://radioamator.honlapepites.hu/?p=1836 5) SCAG (Scandinavian CW Group) reminds us about the annual EuCW SKD Straight Key Day on Midsummer Day, June 24th. First session is between 0600-1059 UTC followed by an evening session 1500-1959 UTC. Frequencies nowadays are limited to 3530-3560 and 7020-7040 (KHz). Full details cannbe found here: https://www.eucw.org/euskd.html 6) AGCW/EUCW QRS-Week April 24, 00:00 UTC through April 28, 23:59 UTC. The AGCW/EuCW cordially invites all radio amateurs and SWLs to take part in the annual EuCW QRS Activity Week. This is not a contest, on the contrary, it is an invitation to slow down CW speeds and to enjoy plenty of slow Morse activity for a period of five days. The dates selected are intended to avoid weekend contest activity. The goal is not self-exposure and competitiveness but to lower the threshold for newcomers to give CW a try. The right spirit is to take part in this as a service to potential newcomers. This won't get YOU closer to any Hall of Fame, this will help others while your patience might be stretched a little. 7) The AGCW-DL invites all radio amateurs to participate in the annual QRP CONTEST. The QRP CONTEST is to arouse and to promote the interest in all aspects of low power amateur radio communication. QRO stations who want to learn about these activities by contacting QRP stations are therefore also invited. They will be counted in a separate category. Details can be found here: https://www.agcw.de/contest/qrp/qrp-c-engl/ 8) AGCW-DL Activity Week is taking place May 22nd - 27th. https://eucw.org/agcw/aw.txt 9) FISTS organizes the Straight 8 (SK8) between May 1st and 8th. Details here: https://www.fists.co.uk/activitiescalendar.html#fistssk82023 10) HSC Activity Day takes place on the 15th each month: https://hsc.lima-city.de/en/activityday.html 11) A permanent reminder on our own Snakes and Ladders program: https://eucw.org/sl3.html and our Associate Club ICWF's excellent activity Top9 https://internationalcwcouncil.org/top9-activity/ Snakes and Ladders as well as Top9 is not just another activity. They represent an essential and crucial activity, ensuring that the upper part of the CW segments are always activated by CW only! If you notice some DX expeditions announcing FT8/FT4 activity in the Top 9/10 kHz of the CW bands, please let me know, and I will initiate a dialogue with such expeditions, to reconsider other frequencies higher up in the band. 12) I also remind you that the quality and extent of this Newsletter highly depends on the interaction between myself and the ECMs. Several clubs are very active and deliver interesting information regularly. However, I expect every member club in EuCW to commit to contribution and contact. I am reaching out for all ECMs and ask you to regularly contact me with proposals, ideas or coming activities from your clubs. My email is always open for you! Welcome! 73 de RM2D (SM6LRR) Mats