If you are in the less than 1% of the ham population who actually rolls their own (homebrews) their rigs, then this is the publication you want to arrive in the mail. Roll your own refers to an era where real men rolled their own cigarettes and never resorted to store bought ones. Same idea with rigs!
In yesterday's mail in addition to all the junk mail received from both political parties asking for my money, my Summer SPRAT arrived. The SPRAT is a quarterly publication of the G-QRP Club.
Talk about giant sized panty hose, this issue has something for everyone. We have rig construction for both solid state and valves (tubes), some articles on test gear and antennas and as a bonus how to build a HT (high voltage) power supply for use with tube rigs.
The articles are short and for the theory nuts, you will not find a discussion of third order linear regression. But for those who are extra class license holders this is a gap filler of what you should know to hold that license.
One really cool short article is an analog meter tester -- just a handful of parts is all it needs. So, when you spot that neat 100 microamp 2.5-inch round meter for 50 cents at a flea market -- this jewel will tell you if it works. This specific meter is perfect for a homebrew SWR Bridge which you can find described in SSDRA.
There is an update to the W7ZOI Micromountainer rig that shows how to use a substitute PUT. I will let you find out what a PUT device is -- you can Google it.
How about a three band two valve receiver or perhaps a Direct Conversion Receiver construction article. Predominant on the front cover is a Ten Tec Argonaut, the 509 version, where the author had a several decade quest to find one and make it operational.
One particular section covers member news where there are many photos of projects that have been built which includes the call sign and short description of the project. This is an eye opener to see what is happening in our hobby.
The bonus is the back cover that has a listing of hard-to-find parts that are being sold by the G-QRP club. Part alert -- they have crystals for the CW primary calling frequencies (ie 14.060MHz). The most difficult part of the purchase process is the money conversion as the crystals cost 50p. But good old PayPal takes care of that problem. The dispatch of parts is quite excellent. (dispatch = shipping).
Yes, several of my projects have been published in SPRAT and often I receive emails asking for info on a project, so I know it is being read world over.
Happy Rolling Your Own.
73's
Pete N6QW