Educational and entertaining. Thanks Mike. You are one of the old timers who for people like me like to dabble and experiment in the field of rf. I totally enjoy your friendly way of conveying your experiences with radio in a way that helps make the youtube environment better in many cases than other media sources. You have been around for some time and I hope that you continue for a long time into the future.
One of the few things my Dad and I worked on together was a junk box three transistor (germanium) AM BCB regen receiver. We lived a half mile from a 5 KW AM station, so simple crystal receivers were useless. The receiver we built used a 4" ferrite rod antenna with a tickler coil wound on the end, and we spent many hours getting the correct number of turns and position of the ticker coil on the ferrite rod to get regeneration control across the band. We also swapped out the first transistor many times to get a hot transistor that was 'just right'. I was simply amazed at the time on number stations we could pick up using that homemade receiver. Something I thought was only possible with a superhet given our proximity to the radio station.
Wow! That was a great introduction! Gaining insight into how hard getting bipolar transistors to behave in regen circuits compared to tubes or FETs, is another rite of passage for many.
First of all, thanks for explaining the hair cut. You and Bert must have an excellent barber. You have some nice looking radios. I'm still learning about receiver designs after 31 years in ham radio. Great video! 73.
@@MIKROWAVE1 I did it on bipolars and fets. It works well, but doesnt give as much satisfaction as on tubes. I have homebrew regen, which has parallel connected tubes connrctors. I can quickly change 6k13п to 6k4 (6sg7) in rf amp, for example. and its very cool. In addition, i made agc in rf stage. And i can adjust to the first or third grid (if i apply 6ж2п or 6ж10п in rf stage). sorry for my english...
It has been said that when one listens to Mozart, he becomes more intelligent. I feel the same way about your videos. I have been fascinated by radio since I was 10 and have learned so much from your presentations. 73-Dave, N0ALN
My intention is to create a 1929 transmitter from your 4 part series. These regen circuits are going to take some rewatching, as for the most part, they are still a magical mystery to me 🤪
I recently restored a DKE38 and a VE301 (both regens) and they work remarkably well and are quite stable. They were made to be cheap so that the average German could afford them and yet they perform excellently. I have also built a few regens in by time too. One of my favourites is the Hikers two (from Australia). It runs off of a pair of 9Vs and a 1.5 V battery. It is a beautiful radio. I love the R29 regen you show off here too. I think I might make one of those. I love those with the coupling link. The DKE38 has one of those as well.
The Refurb-Rebuild is coming along on the Steampunk Portable. I have a good radio now and am in the middle of evaluating the plug in coils. I can say on headphones it is doing a great job on 20M, which kind of shocked me, and it is blasting on 40M and 80M. Three of the coils are misses. Missed the band completely or tickler way off. That is why 5 coils for 3 bands!
Where might one get a deep dive on these throttling schematics broken down knife and fork style? (Volts for dolts method) Or tube radio topologies in general. Newbie here hence my curiosity 😉
The Steampunk Scotty Regen came with three 80M Plug in coils (why 3?) one 40M coil and one 20M coil. As part of the restoration, I will do a 30M coil on a tube base just as an experiment.
Dear Mike, I think the 1H5 is sounding poorly is because of the very high plate resistance of that tube. If the plate load is inductive, the low freqs are attenuated.
Hello ive watched your excellent videos. Im a electronic technician. And have built. Many regen sets. Tube types. Am band. They all work great with batteries but as soon as i add a 120v ac power supply circuit im plagued with hum problems. 4 Henry chokes help alot. But i still have hum. No matter how much filtering or shielding. I need help. Any tips??? Most of my radios are twinplex type. With a 6aq5 output. 12at7. Or. 6sn7. Thank you
Be interesting to use it actually on the air with a home brew oscillator. make contacts. all home brew you know . I even get good comments OSOs with a fixed up HW 101 and hams amazed at me using all tube radios.. they made DXCC years ago with old tube radios. I seen 70 countries done on old DX 20 transmitter too. thanks microwave for all videos you make must be lots work do that all dig in the old books and builds the circuits. wish I had time to experiment too . 73 tony ve4akf
A very commonly use negative resistance component, was used in the HP RC audio oscillators, developed in the late 1930s early 40's. This component you probably have guessed it by now, is the common 3 - 4 watt 115v night light bulb. It was use to control the negative feedback vs the frequency determining positive feedback, so you could get a clean low distortion sine wave output. Could this principle be applied to a RF regenerative circuit?
It really is hard to beat a twinplex with a 6SN7 or 12AU7, with a standard Armstrong setup and a 300 pF throttle cap. Build it as is with a fixed 2" form rather than plug in coil. Bottom Pri 10T, Top Tickler 30T, middle Secondary 90T. Then remove the 470 pF bypass cap and replace it with a throttle cap. www.frostburg.edu/personal/latta/ee/twinplex/schematic/twinplexschematic.html
Thank you for the link, I see your describing winding 3 separate coils on 1 form, is the Pri 10T for the antenna & ground? I don't like the the way that guys design uses a variable cap to couple to antenna directly to the tuning coil. BTW: I have a ton of 6SN7's NOS and UOS, good tube choice.@@MIKROWAVE1
In commercial broadcast radio production, regenerative sets went away by the mid 1920's because the TRF and superheterodynes did not emit interference when you went into oscillation, and they were easier to adjust and tune for listeners. They lasted longer for the military longwave receivers up to WW2 and hams and experimenters built them well into the late 50's.
The real true Inventor of the "Regenerative" radio Detector may never be known.....Anyone who's played around with "Hot" Non-Regenerative Grid Leak receivers pushing Higher plate voltage, using High Q Litz wire Coils & other High Performance Low loss Circuitry may have experienced sudden unexpected Uncontrollable Oscillation sounds when Tuning across the Band Not realizing much Weaker never heard before stations are Mixed in under the Hiss/squeal Regeneration sounds....Armstrong's novel Patened Idea of intentional Adjustable "Controlled Oscillating" detection mode may have been Accidentally noticed by Earlier radio Experimenters but considered it's effects as Undesirable & Unstable operation....Who Knows how many times in History a functional Receiver circuit was Overlooked because No transmitter was nearby ?? .....
Yes, it was an idea whose time had come, and I'm sure lots of people stumbled upon it but didn't realize its value. One of them may have been Lee de Forest.
@@amoore411 deForest, perfect example of wandering into great things! The tragedy is that after getting the patent, then they realize the errors - how they should have made the drawing easier to understand or more correct, but too late! They had to defend it as shown nevertheless, waving hands and finding notebooks and communications to back up claims. In the end all of this killed Armstrong.
![Hunxho - Ball Forever [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nki9ZTF9Uls/mqdefault.jpg)
Educational and entertaining. Thanks Mike. You are one of the old timers who for people like me like to dabble and experiment in the field of rf. I totally enjoy your friendly way of conveying your experiences with radio in a way that helps make the youtube environment better in many cases than other media sources. You have been around for some time and I hope that you continue for a long time into the future.
Yes it has been a while and I am starting to load even older content and articles onto my new Patreon Channel. Patreon.com/Mikrowave1
One of the few things my Dad and I worked on together was a junk box three transistor (germanium) AM BCB regen receiver. We lived a half mile from a 5 KW AM station, so simple crystal receivers were useless. The receiver we built used a 4" ferrite rod antenna with a tickler coil wound on the end, and we spent many hours getting the correct number of turns and position of the ticker coil on the ferrite rod to get regeneration control across the band. We also swapped out the first transistor many times to get a hot transistor that was 'just right'. I was simply amazed at the time on number stations we could pick up using that homemade receiver. Something I thought was only possible with a superhet given our proximity to the radio station.
Wow! That was a great introduction! Gaining insight into how hard getting bipolar transistors to behave in regen circuits compared to tubes or FETs, is another rite of passage for many.
First of all, thanks for explaining the hair cut. You and Bert must have an excellent barber. You have some nice looking radios. I'm still learning about receiver designs after 31 years in ham radio. Great video! 73.
I've only met about 4 or 5 real receiver designers in my career. They know math. Ha.
"Ahhh! The regenerative receiver at night.. .what sweet music (squarks) it makes". Count Dracula, probably 😂😂
Oh yes sweet wooo to screaming and howling. Neighbors will wonder.
099
L😅
Very interesting, thanks! Regens are very " real ". Once passed by them. And now i really love them. And of course they should be on the tubes
They can and have been tamed with bipolars and ICs, but it is a bit tricky.
@@MIKROWAVE1 I did it on bipolars and fets. It works well, but doesnt give as much satisfaction as on tubes. I have homebrew regen, which has parallel connected tubes connrctors. I can quickly change 6k13п to 6k4 (6sg7) in rf amp, for example. and its very cool. In addition, i made agc in rf stage. And i can adjust to the first or third grid (if i apply 6ж2п or 6ж10п in rf stage). sorry for my english...
A great walk through the theory and evolution of regens. I didn't realise how involved the subject is... thanks Mike. 👍
When something so simple was 100 times more effective than the crystal detector wireless stations of the day, that got people excited.
@@MIKROWAVE1 Put that way makes you realise just how big a step it was. Thanks for your reply.
yes! I always thought that "negative resistance" is an oxymoron)). That's how something else is always hidden behind words))).73 !
It has been said that when one listens to Mozart, he becomes more intelligent. I feel the same way about your videos. I have been fascinated by radio since I was 10 and have learned so much from your presentations. 73-Dave, N0ALN
Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. We wander around radio and electronics on this channel like a 10 year old!
Fantastic
👍Thank you sir.
Thank you for this lesson on regens. I learn so much from your channel. :) 73 KE8SDS
Regens are endless fun and learning boxes.
My intention is to create a 1929 transmitter from your 4 part series. These regen circuits are going to take some rewatching, as for the most part, they are still a magical mystery to me 🤪
Tunnel diodes are good for Microwave Generation at frequencies between 10Ghz and 30Ghz or higher.
Much better than my two that I made from the Boys first book of electronics.
Oh I struggled with those too! But tamed them. See my video series on the Morgan Regen.
I recently restored a DKE38 and a VE301 (both regens) and they work remarkably well and are quite stable. They were made to be cheap so that the average German could afford them and yet they perform excellently.
I have also built a few regens in by time too. One of my favourites is the Hikers two (from Australia). It runs off of a pair of 9Vs and a 1.5 V battery. It is a beautiful radio.
I love the R29 regen you show off here too. I think I might make one of those. I love those with the coupling link. The DKE38 has one of those as well.
The Refurb-Rebuild is coming along on the Steampunk Portable. I have a good radio now and am in the middle of evaluating the plug in coils. I can say on headphones it is doing a great job on 20M, which kind of shocked me, and it is blasting on 40M and 80M. Three of the coils are misses. Missed the band completely or tickler way off. That is why 5 coils for 3 bands!
Where might one get a deep dive on these throttling schematics broken down knife and fork style? (Volts for dolts method) Or tube radio topologies in general. Newbie here hence my curiosity 😉
The Steampunk Scotty Regen came with three 80M Plug in coils (why 3?) one 40M coil and one 20M coil. As part of the restoration, I will do a 30M coil on a tube base just as an experiment.
i see a Knight Kit "Star-Roamer" there in the background, i built one,
King of Receivers!
Regen master
Dear Mike, I think the 1H5 is sounding poorly is because of the very high plate resistance of that tube. If the plate load is inductive, the low freqs are attenuated.
Hello ive watched your excellent videos. Im a electronic technician. And have built. Many regen sets. Tube types. Am band. They all work great with batteries but as soon as i add a 120v ac power supply circuit im plagued with hum problems. 4 Henry chokes help alot. But i still have hum. No matter how much filtering or shielding. I need help. Any tips??? Most of my radios are twinplex type. With a 6aq5 output. 12at7. Or. 6sn7. Thank you
Be interesting to use it actually on the air with a home brew oscillator. make contacts. all home brew you know . I even get good comments OSOs with a fixed up HW 101 and hams amazed at me using all tube radios.. they made DXCC years ago with old tube radios. I seen 70 countries done on old DX 20 transmitter too. thanks microwave for all videos you make must be lots work do that all dig in the old books and builds the circuits. wish I had time to experiment too . 73 tony ve4akf
A very commonly use negative resistance component, was used in the HP RC audio oscillators, developed in the late 1930s early 40's. This component you probably have guessed it by now, is the common 3 - 4 watt 115v night light bulb. It was use to control the negative feedback vs the frequency determining positive feedback, so you could get a clean low distortion sine wave output. Could this principle be applied to a RF regenerative circuit?
This feedback control compensation leads the way into automatic regens, which we will be exploring soon.
I'll be looking forward to that.@@MIKROWAVE1
Very interesting. Is it possible to convert the regens for use mosfets instead of tubes. I think so but I have no experience.
It is easiest with JFETs and small RF mosfets. Using power Mosfets is possible, but the frequency range is limited, and biasing is more difficult.
Mike I want to know, what would be a recommendation circuit design, for a good AM broadcast Band regenerative receiver.
It really is hard to beat a twinplex with a 6SN7 or 12AU7, with a standard Armstrong setup and a 300 pF throttle cap. Build it as is with a fixed 2" form rather than plug in coil. Bottom Pri 10T, Top Tickler 30T, middle Secondary 90T. Then remove the 470 pF bypass cap and replace it with a throttle cap. www.frostburg.edu/personal/latta/ee/twinplex/schematic/twinplexschematic.html
Thank you for the link, I see your describing winding 3 separate coils on 1 form, is the Pri 10T for the antenna & ground? I don't like the the way that guys design uses a variable cap to couple to antenna directly to the tuning coil. BTW: I have a ton of 6SN7's NOS and UOS, good tube choice.@@MIKROWAVE1
@@JCWise-sf9ww Me neither, so yes that is the input link. The order would be gnd ant space gnd hot, space, tick tick.
And maybe trimmer into the ANT terminal for coupling control. I like the variocoupler and lift link for this on SW, but for BCB - no problem.
@@MIKROWAVE1 What do you think would not a wideband RF amplifier stage ahead of the regenerative circuit be an improvement?
Great video! How long did that regen era last? It seems like those were not too popular as you would need to teach the operator how to use it?
In commercial broadcast radio production, regenerative sets went away by the mid 1920's because the TRF and superheterodynes did not emit interference when you went into oscillation, and they were easier to adjust and tune for listeners. They lasted longer for the military longwave receivers up to WW2 and hams and experimenters built them well into the late 50's.
hahha breadman from albany area... hahhahaha miss the 06.
It took me a while before I realized the benefit of a gentle entry into regeneration; popping into oscillation does almost nothing good for anyone.
When you feel one that is "right" you know that this is the ticket.
The real true Inventor of the "Regenerative" radio Detector may never be known.....Anyone who's played around with "Hot" Non-Regenerative Grid Leak receivers pushing Higher plate voltage, using High Q Litz wire Coils & other High Performance Low loss Circuitry may have experienced sudden unexpected Uncontrollable Oscillation sounds when Tuning across the Band Not realizing much Weaker never heard before stations are Mixed in under the Hiss/squeal Regeneration sounds....Armstrong's novel Patened Idea of intentional Adjustable "Controlled Oscillating" detection mode may have been Accidentally noticed by Earlier radio Experimenters but considered it's effects as Undesirable & Unstable operation....Who Knows how many times in History a functional Receiver circuit was Overlooked because No transmitter was nearby ?? .....
Yes, it was an idea whose time had come, and I'm sure lots of people stumbled upon it but didn't realize its value. One of them may have been Lee de Forest.
@@amoore411 deForest, perfect example of wandering into great things! The tragedy is that after getting the patent, then they realize the errors - how they should have made the drawing easier to understand or more correct, but too late! They had to defend it as shown nevertheless, waving hands and finding notebooks and communications to back up claims. In the end all of this killed Armstrong.