NZ Net News 171, 8 Nov 2025

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By Herman VK2IXV

This is my restored bug made by Felix Drescher in his precision engineering workshop in Jena, a town in the German State of Thuringia.

Although a bit wider and heavier, this extremely rare bug is a clone of a Vibroplex No.6 Lighting bug or its military version J-36. The Drescher bug was probably made in the same period when the German Junker company made their Junker bug, also a clone of the Vibroplex Lightning bug, i.e. between 1960 and 1970.

Only three of these bugs are known to exist.

Quick notes

What is this object? A radome perhaps? A precious gem? Nope. But it was the subject of an interesting radiogram sent by Stephen ZL1ANY during NZ Net a few days ago. Read on to learn all about it.

News in CW: Several websites and apps offer daily news headlines in CW. For example, here’s one on Youtube.

Back in the USSR: Space historian Gabriela Radulescu describes how the advent of radio astronomy led to the Soviet Union’s search for extraterrestrial life in the latter half of the 20th Century.

Graphic: Amanda Montañez; Source: “A Convex Polyhedron without Rupert’s Property,” by Jakob Steininger & Sergey Yurkevich; 25 Aug 2025

Photo flashback

Jac Holzman K2VEH (born 1931) is a retired music executive who founded Elektra Records where he signed future musical stars including Judy Collins, the Doors, Carly Simon and Harry Chapin.

His ham shack shown here includes a GPR-90 receiver and Globe Scout transmitter. Interestingly, the two units at the right of the photo are hand-labelled Elektra 1A and Elektra 1B and they look to be a portable tape transport and associated electronics. There are boxes of tape on the shelves as well as LP records.

The noperthedron, a polyhedron that doesn’t fit

Stephen ZL1ANY sent the following message to all stations on NZ Net a few days ago:

NR118 R ZL1ANY 9/5 RF72SI53 21ØØZ 4NOV25
=
NZ NET TRIVIA
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WHAT IS A NOPERTHEDRON QUERY
=
ZL1ANY

A noperthedron is a convex polyhedron with 90 vertices, 240 edges and 152 faces. What makes it so fascinating is that it is the first polyhedron that mathematicians have proved does not have the Rupert Property, which is the ability to pass through a straight tunnel cut through an identical polyhedron.

In 2017 researchers formally conjectured that all convex polyhedrons, are Rupert. Nobody could prove them wrong until mathematicians Sergey Yurkevich and Jakob Steininger released their paper on the noperthedron last month.

You can find out more about the Rupert Property and the noperthedron in this article from Quanta magazine.

Click to view animation from Quantamagazine

Net numbers

NR39 R ZL1NZ 47/44 AUCKLAND Ø8ØØZ 1NOV2025
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NZ NET
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OCT QNI G3WGV 1 KH6NN 1 LU8ENU 1 VK2MZ 1
VK3DRQ 29 VK4PN 18 ZL1AJY 1Ø ZL1ANY 29 ZL1BDS 29
ZL1HJ 1 ZL1NZ 31 ZL1PX 18 ZL2GD 16 ZL2KE 26 
ZL2LN 2Ø ZL2TE 1Ø ZL4GW 19 ZL4KX 7 ZL4LDY 7 
TOTAL 274 QTC 5Ø
=
ZL1NZ

Video: Kids in Calgary learning Morse Code

Net tip: QNX

We continue our look at Q signals with QNX.

It means: “You are excused from the net.”

If sent with a question mark, QNX?, it means “May I be excused from the net?”

Net Control will use this signal when he wishes to excuse specific stations from the net, after which the net will continue without them. Typically this is because the net has finished taking check-ins, traffic including all QNCs has been passed, but some stations need to remain on the net to clear QTCs. In such cases, there is no reason for everyone to stick around until the end of the net.

Notice that QNX is not used at the end of the net, as there is no reason to excuse stations from a net that is finishing.

Also, if a station is leaving the net without seeking permission, they would use QNO.

The A-Z of Q Signals

A well-run CW net is a lovely thing to experience. Communication between stations is quick and concise, and the net business is conducted with minimal time wasted.

As CW operators, we have many techniques to communicate quickly and efficiently. And if we know and use these techniques, we can often match or exceed the speed and accuracy of voice communication.

One of our most important tools is the set of Q Signals (or Q Codes), and in this series we look at the “essential” ones, in alphabetical order.

Advertising archive

1901 advertisement for JH Bunnell showing various telegraph apparatus

The Telegraph Age, 1 Jan 1901

Suggestions?

If you have suggestions on how to make the NZ Net better, or things you’d like to see covered in these newsletters, please contact ZL1NZ. Articles and photos will be gratefully received!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear you soon on the NZ Net!

—

Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)