VE6AB in QST
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Time Warp
A New York amateur by the name of Edwin H. Armstrong invented the one-tube regenerative receiver in 1913. This new receiver had greater sensitivity than the crystal detectors then in use. Although vacuum tubes were expensive at the time, some amateurs started experimenting with tube-operated regenerative receivers.
Few would have predicted the revolutionary changes that took place in Amateur Radio in only a few short years. If one had to point to a single most significant reason for those changes it would be the vacuum tube, accompanied by an almost insatiable curiosity by hams.
I built my one tube regen receiver from an article that was originally published in "Radio News" magazine from the early 1920's. The article described how to build it using a bread-boarded type construction.
Of course, I could not build it without jazzing it up a bit, and I decided to use an old model T coil box that I had lying around my shop for the housing. I mounted the type 30 tube that I sourced on the Internet on the top of the housing along with the spiderweb-coils that I cut fron fiber sheet and wound with magnet wire.
I used a type 30 tube, because of the fact that it has a filament drain of only .06 of a amp, making it easy on the "A" battery which is a 1 1/2 volt "D" cell. For the "B" battery, I use three 9 volt batteries connected in series, giving 27 volts that is sufficient to operate the receiver.
The batteries are housed in the box that resides on the right side in my photo that includes a knife switch for turning on the power to the receiver
The headphones required to operate the receiver are high impedence magnetic headphones in the form of a set of "1920 Brandes." The regen receiver is beautiful in its simplicity and operating this receiver in a darkened room with the tube filament glowing while listening through the Brandes is wonderful, and it takes you back to a time when the regen receiver was King.
Click on photo for a closer look.....
Here is a different view.....
http://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/VE6AB-Technical/i-hLn6fPp
