Mike, This design was popular some time ago, I think Bill Orr had one in his handbook, I know I have seen the design.
I think its actually harder to get a regen working well than a simple superhet. I built regens, but frequently had problems with them actually regenerating, or working smoothly when they did actually regenerate. This was some time ago, and I did not know then what I know now, but feedback oscillation can be quite tricky, with the antenna blowing in the wind changing frequency, hand capacitance changing frequency, microphonics, etc. Careful development can eliminate many of those problems, but can be tricky. A mixer and LO are VERY easy to build, as are IF amps. The IF amps CAN have problems with oscillation, if two high gain stages are used, but if you keep the gain moderate, they are really simple and easy to build. I see no reason to settle for a regen when a very usable superhet can be built. With a Kiwa filter, the simple superhet can actually perform as good as anything you can come up with for a receiver on AM. It wont cover 50Khz to 30Mhz, but for AM on 160, 80 and 40 meters, can top anything you can buy for fidelity and receive quality. Higher frequencies are a different story, and need more work. You can use a lot of different type tubes, 8 pin, 7 and 9 pin tubes, the LO and mixer can be one 6u8, the IF amps can be many tube types, detector can be as simple as a diode. I hope to put together an actual article with pictures and diagrams of the new receiver, and send it into Electric Radio. The schematic will be broken down into stages, to make it simple to understand. Brett N2DTS > > Thanks Brett for the reply. Yes, November 2003 QST has a 2 > tube receiver > described in it. I don't subscribe to QST but a friend shared > the info with > me. I made a copy of the article but have not really looked > at it. I believe > it is a real compromise, but a simple design. I don't have > the info in front > of me now but it uses some 12 volt filament and 12 volt plate > voltage tubes. > I believe they were a 12AD6 and a 12DZ6. I don't have any of > these in my > junk box. I do have some transformers so I guess higher plate > voltage and a > more common type receiving tubes is what I would rather use. > Just thought I > would ask what you real technicians thought of the QST > article and design. > Again I have never built a receiver so I am interested in > starting with a > simple design and getting it to work, forcing me to learn > some rx theory. If > there is a good schematic on a simple receiver that you would > recommend, I > am Interested. > > Mike > W0FD
