[AMRadio] Boat Anchor Receiver

[Brett Gazdzinski]

In some respects, building a receiver is easier then a transmitter, smaller, 
lighter.
I did not find it hard to build one, I just had to do a bit of experimenting 
to find out what worked and what did not, or was hard to get working.

I got the coil stock from the junk box.
I had ordered a bunch back when they still made it, and it was cheap, plus 
found some at fests.
You only need little pieces for a LO coil.
I tried slug tuned coil forms, nice ceramic ones I found at tubes and more, 
and those, along with the larger octal LO tube resulted in a bit of startup 
drift. After 5 or 10 minutes its stable, but the B+W coil stock and a 7 pin 
tube is stable after a minute.
All the modern kits use toroids, and they seem to work well.
I did not have any or try them.

The hardest thing to find (I think) would be good tube type 455 KHz if 
transformers, but since the filter does the work, there might be other ways 
to do it.

Brett


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Wilhite" <w5jo at brightok.net>
To: "Brett Gazdzinski" <Brett.gazdzinski at verizon.net>; "Discussion of AM 
Radio in the Amateur Service" <amradio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Boat Anchor Receiver


> Brett where did you find the B&W coil stock.?  B&W still exists and has 
> some stock left but it is pretty picked over.  I bought some direct from 
> them a couple of years back and the guy said they are not making it any 
> longer and when the stock is gone, that will be it.
>
> You will find it floating around hamfests from time to time but the new 
> stuff is difficult.  I haven't see any in the past 3-4 years.  Sadly as 
> you know, most hams don't home brew much now so parts like coil stock is 
> not finding its way to fests much unless it is an estate sale.
>
> Do you have another suggestion?  Maybe a tolorid type would do?  Anyone 
> have any suggestions?  This is a worthy endeavor for the more experienced 
> ham.  Receivers are infinitely more difficult to build than transmitters 
> so I suggest someone new start with a transmitter then move to the 
> receiver.
>
> Jim/W5JO
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
>
>> > Stability, I found it easy to build a stable LO if you use B+W coil 
>> > stock.
>>
>> Brett
>> N2DTS
>