[AMRadio] RE: new home brew receiver progress

[Brett Gazdzinski]

Robert,
I go my own way, and don't worry about what other people think or say,
except when they say I am bothering them, or doing something wrong.
Its important to be considerate...


Keep in mind, this is the second homebrew superhet I am building,
the first one works very well.

The first one was so much fun to build and works so well,
I thought I would take what I learned and build another
with improvements.

For AM work, its quite easy to build a good receiver, it does not need to
be complex, no RF amp is needed on 160, 80 and 40 meters, a tuned circuit
or two in the antenna input (hi Q), a mixer with local oscillator, a few
stages of IF amp, and a good detector.
You don't need to build an audio amp, just use an external amp.
For operating convenience, an S meter is nice, and a bfo (xtal controlled)
so you can zero beat signals quickly helps.
The digital frequency display is an easy to build kit, and the very good
Kiwi filters just tack onto the IF someplace.

You can use almost anything for coils, there are only two or three, the
antenna
input coil(s), and the LO coil.
Slug tuned ceramic ones, B+W coil stock, hand wound coils on almost
any type form, whatever you can come up with works.
Any type of tubes will work, octal, 7 and 9 pin, etc.

The only tricky part is test equipment.
You don't need much, but it would be harder without the very
nice spectrum analyzer I have through work.

Glad you enjoy the info, I always like hearing about home brew stuff,
and transmitters are quite easy to build if you have any parts,
so there are many home brew transmitters around, along with
modulators and so on.

These days, home brew receivers are rare, although there are
many regens out there. Bob Dennison seems to build one every month...
Its only a short step to go from a regen to a simple one or two band
single conversion superhet.

In the old days, guys were building homebrew SSB rigs, quite
an achievement getting those to work well.

Building is where a lot of the fun is, and many people are
missing out on the fun, its not hard to build something like
a 6146 modulated by a pair of 6L6 tubes, single band, or two,
xtal frequency control, or excited by some modern rig, an old
heathkit vfo, or even a home made vfo.
How many xtals would you need? 7295, 7290, 7285, 3870, 3875, 3880.

Add a regen or simple superhet, and you have a home brew station,
and what fun it would be to operate it on 40 meters weekends!

Something really seems lost when you just yack into the FT-1000
you got off Ebay.

I used to have a lot of fun playing with the old classic rigs, but these
days, hacking up a 32v3 or Johnson rig ruins its value, and they are
expensive
to start with.
Glad I had my fun with them when they were give always...


Brett
N2DTS


>
> Bret,
>
> I think what you are doing is GREAT!  Really enjoy reading
> all of your email
> notes in the theory, design, construction (and hopefully not
> too much trouble
> shooting on the bench HI).  Keep up the good work.  I look
> forwards in reading
> your post, as it is actually a tutorial for us all.   Of
> note, I am not an
> engineer;  I am a retired mental health psychologist.  Don't
> let the "think
> they know it all, but their wives know better" types change
> your course in this
> project as this retarded shrink wishes to be on for the bus
> ride in the back
> seat enjoying the view with you driving. HI
>
> bst 73 de Robert WPE4FGR W4RL Pensacola Florida.
>