GQRP SPRAT

Many times, I have said that if I had to give up every radio magazine then SPRAT would be the last one to go. This is still my view. 

SPRAT is published every quarter as a colour A5 magazine. It is packed full mainly of simple construction projects and annual subs are very low. It is entirely run by volunteers with back issues of SPRAT available on a flash stick at a very reasonable sum. Well worth getting.

See https://www.gqrp.com/sprat.htm .

SPRAT article

It was very pleasing to see my short article about the use of the ISM bands for QRPP beaconing in the latest SPRAT. 

In the UK this means 10mW ERP on the HiFer and 8m ISM bands under IR2030 interface regulations.  No callsign is mandated and this is licence free. It is a good idea to use a callsign that WSPRnet can cope with if using WSPR. Likewise if using FT8, choose a callsign that PSKreporter can handle.

Certainly on the 8m ISM band 10mW ERP WSPR is enough to reach into much of Europe on Es. The same is probably true of the HiFer band too.

GQRP SPRAT

My latest SPRAT magazine has just come. The winter edition usually comes about now.

I have said this very many times, but if all other magazines had to close, I hope SPRAT would survive as it is filled with good QRP projects and news. 

It is put together by volunteers and comes out every quarter as an A5 colour magazine. It is excellent value. Back issues are available on a flash drive. It is worth it for this alone!

It is my ethos entirely.

See https://www.gqrp.com/ .

SPRAT back issues

All the back issues of SPRAT are available on a flash drive. It is cheaper for GQRP club members. It is very low cost and well worth it. There are years of projects on it. Look for "SPRAT on a stick". 

Many times I have said that if all magazines had to go, SPRAT would be my last. This is incredible value. 

See  https://www.gqrp.com .

SPRAT 187

The GQRP Club produces an excellent quarterly magazine called SPRAT that is always packed with ideas and projects. It is, without fail, excellent. 

They also offer SPRAT 1-184 on a DVD or Flash stick for £5 plus postage - excellent. 

If ALL other magazines had to stop, I'd keep SPRAT. 

See www.gqrp.com. 

GQRP Club

I have been a member for a very long time! It is run by volunteers and produces an excellent colour A5 magazine called "SPRAT" every quarter. This is filled with ideas and projects.

Joining GQRP club allows you to buy parts from member's sales, which includes nearly all the past SPRATs on DVD or flash stick. It is worth joining just for this! 

Many times in the past I have said that, if I was suddenly poor, SPRAT would be the last magazine to go. I still feel this way.

See http://www.gqrp.com/ .

SPRAT magazine

SPRAT is the quarterly magazine of the GQRP club. It is a small A5 sized magazine in full colour.

Of all the amateur magazines, it is the very best. It is entirely produced by volunteers. Many times in the past I have said it would be the last one to go if I fell on hard times.

Past editions are available on a DVD that is incredible value, especially if you are a GQRP club member. It is almost worth joining just for the DVD.

Every edition is packed with good ideas for simple projects and news. I love it.

See http://www.gqrp.com/sprat.htm

GQRP SPRAT

Many times before I have mentioned how good SPRAT magazine is.

This comes out every quarter and is now in full colour A5 format.  Most of the back issues are available on a DVD and it is worth joining just for these. If you enjoy simple projects you will find lots to inspire you!

It is only a few pounds to join GQRP and the DVD is heavily discounted for members. Most editions have something simple to make.

Many of the founder members are now SK, but these have been replaced by keen, younger folk.

See http://www.gqrp.com/sprat.htm

Latest SPRAT and the Peregrino QRP SSB rig

The latest version of SPRAT has arrived. This is issue 179 of the GQRP club magazine. This has colour on inside pages too. I think this is the first time. Presumably it is cost-effective. It certainly looks good, making a good magazine even better.

On page 20 is described the Peregrino, which is a basic SSB transceiver for 17m. It all fits on a single, small PCB designed by a couple of Spanish stations. It uses only 84 parts.

SPRAT and GQRP Club

Today SPRAT 168 arrived. This is the quarterly magazine of the GQRP Club. Every one is excellent and full of ideas. As I have said in the past, if all other mags had to go, this is the one I'd keep.

By the way all SPRATS 1-160 are available to GQRP Club members on a DVD for £5 plus postage - a real bargain.

See http://www.gqrp.com/ .

GQRP SPRAT

As I have said many times before, if I had to give up every other amateur radio magazine I would leave GQRP SPRAT. At £6 for 4 issues a year it remains excellent. It is filled with constructional articles in every issue. If you are a member you can get all the back issues on a DVD at a very good price. It is almost worth joining GQRP just to buy this DVD. To non-members it is £12 plus postage. I can promise you will not be disappointed with GQRP Club membership.

See http://www.gqrp.com/sprat.htm .

Autumn SPRAT

I always enjoy getting my GQRP Club SPRAT magazine every quarter. It is worth every penny. Every edition has circuits and useful ideas. I have said many times that SPRAT would be the last to go if I had to stop amateur radio mags. Currently I get SPRAT, RadCom and PW. I used to get QST digitally, but stopped this.

GQRP Club and SPRAT magazine

Several times in the past I have said that, if all other magazines had to be cancelled I'd keep GQRP Club's SPRAT magazine. This small format magazine comes out quarterly and is excellent value for money. You don't get the endless adverts by the few remaining national radio companies in the UK, just a few adverts from companies selling bits.  Every quarter there are articles showing things to build or ideas on which to base your own projects.

SPRAT really is first class and all produced by unpaid volunteers who love our hobby. As much as I enjoy browsing PW and RadCom, I look forward to getting SPRAT far more.

See http://www.gqrp.com/ .

GQRP Club and SPRAT

I have many times said that if all radio magazines had to go, then GQRP Club's SPRAT would be the very last to go. This quarterly magazine is low in cost, very high in simple projects to build and the back page always has GQRP Club sales items.

Of ALL the magazines I see, SPRAT is without doubt the best. Back numbers of this excellent magazine are available on a DVD.

This is a little (sized) magazine but it is excellent value. The best in fact.

SPRAT on DVD - new version

I am a great supporter of the GQRP club. Their quarterly magazine SPRAT represents the very best in Amateur Radio. If you are interested in QRP then please join the GQRP Club. It is excellent.

There is now a new, up to date version of the DVD with all back copies of the excellent SPRAT magazine.  If I had to stop all subscriptions and magazines then the GQRP club (and SPRAT every quarter) would be the only one I'd keep  - it is that good.

Hi

Tony & I have been working away and we have produced the latest version of the Sprat-on-DVD. This includes all Sprats right up to the one that has just been sent to members (number 160).

It is now available to members at £5 plus £1.20 postage. I will have them at the Galashiels rally and at Rishworth of course. The local guys who represent us at some of the other rallies will also have some shortly.

As we have known that this issue has been on the way for a while, as a concession, we will let anyone who bought the current DVD (1 to 148) after 1st August this year, have a copy of the new DVD for the special price of £2.50 including postage. To get this deal, you have to tell me when you bought the old DVD – if at a rally, which rally it was, and send me the CD case paper label together with the £2.50 in stamps. I do not want the actual DVD, just an assurance that you will destroy it when you receive the new one.

I should add that this is for members only of course, and applies just to UK members! Overseas members who think they also qualify should contact me direct and we may be able to work out a deal for them also.

Overseas prices are on the club website - http://gqrp.com/sales.htm

The new DVD is available to non-members at £12 plus the appropriate postage.

Thanks

73

Graham

G3MFJ

My 1990s station ...and clearing out

Whilst sorting through my collection of SPRAT magazines to give to a local amateur G4NUA - I recently bought the SPRATbook and have most on DVD - I came across this photo inside one of them. It must have been taken around 1992 I think and shows the amateur radio station I had then. What is interesting  is that I actually had a 100W radio (FT747) at that time, although it was hardly ever used at that power because of the problems with RF feedback into the rig. The shack then consisted of a table by the window in our main bedroom. My wife must have been very tolerant!

The 10m Lincoln President, derived from a CB radio, was actually a very nice radio: I recall working mobile with it and having a solid SSB QSO with a station in India early one evening around the 1990 solar maximum whilst driving near Cambridge. It was sold long ago though. The little Mizuho MX2 (I still have one) was used to drive a 10m transverter and I worked plenty of 10m DX with it and around 1W pep to a vertical CB halfwave. The Standard handheld rigs came from my workplace: at one time we were considering OEM-in of PMR radios from Standard (before they joined with Yaesu)  and one of my colleagues got a pile of samples on a trip to Japan. Guess who got some of them after they had been "evaluated"? In the end we got some portable PMR radios from a source in South Korea and that was a disaster.

Today I have far fewer transceivers - all QRP - but get just as much fun. There are no homebrew rigs in this 1990s picture although I did have some. Today quite a lot of my kit is home made, although not all rigs remain in their cases for too long as I tend to note the schematic and take a few photos, then reuse parts and enclosures.

The Low Power SPRATbook.

http://www.rsgbshop.org/acatalog/

Today, my new paper logbook (yes I still use a paper logbook!) and a new book arrived from the RSGB. The book was the Low Power SPRATbook, recently published by the RSGB and edited by Steve Telenius-Lowe 9M6DXX. As I want to de-clutter and possibly clear the book shelves of my old paper SPRAT copies (I still have them on DVD), this book was ideal as it contains a very good selection of the best of SPRAT articles from 1974-2012. If you have not read SPRAT and seen the excellent articles each quarter, then I recommend this book. I challenge you to buy it and not be inspired to build something.

Perhaps I should also mention that my 14 component 80m CW transceiver is one of the articles. But don't let that put you off! The circuit works well and G3XIZ worked GM with his version (despite running only about 18mW) and was copied on Switzerland.

SPRAT on CD (GQRP Club)

An ideal, if late, Christmas present is the latest Sprat CD which has all editions of this excellent UK QRP magazine from edition 1 to 140.  Price to members is £4 and to non-members £10 plus postage.

GQRP Club SPRAT 140

The latest copy of GQRP's quarterly magazine SPRAT arrived here today and it was nice to see my little Sixbox 6m AM transceiver featured on the front cover, alongside my car keys! Also in this edition was my article about WSPR weak signal beaconing. Since the article was written back in the summer I have been using WSPR almost daily on all bands from 500kHz up to 50MHz.

Just £6 annually gives you GQRP Club membership with 4 article-packed issues of SPRAT magazine a year, as well as access to the GQRP QSL bureau and club sales items such as toroids, QRP frequency crystals, transistors and ICs at good prices. As a GQRP club member, you can get a CD with all 140 editions of SPRAT magazine for just £4. It's worth joining just for this alone. If all other magazines had to go then SPRAT would be the one I'd still get as it is the best.

GQRP Club and SPRAT

Attached is the 6V6 valve transceiver by Geoff, G3YVF, from SPRAT magazine number 137 (Winter 2008/9). It uses 19 parts in all.

Join the GQRP club and receive the excellent SPRAT magazine every 3 months. The fee is only £6 per year (or equivalent in other currencies) which is excellent value. See: http://www.gqrp.org/join.htm for details on how to join. You can now pay with Paypal too if you prefer. BTW, if times got hard and all other radio mags had to go then SPRAT would be the one I'd keep.

Every quarter SPRAT is packed with circuits, ideas and news of interest to those who enjoy QRP. Back issues of editions 1-132 are also available on a GQRP club CD for just £5 if you are a club member.