[ARC5] REAL regen receivers RAL/RAK.

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 7 Jun 2010 at 23:14, Roy Morgan wrote:

> One well regarded regen receiver pair, the RAL and RAK, use the 6D6 as
>  a detector. Are there any folks who use these radios regularly?  (i
> don't but will after a while.) 

I do. I have several now, one in operation, the others on "standby".

And when I was a young fellow, I used one for several years, at least 6 
and maybe as many as 12, as my main station receiver.

As far as I am concerned, it is a really superb receiver. Stable as a rock, 
very sensitive, selective enough for me, and supremely reliable. 

I never turned my first one off for at least 6 years. Then I checked the 
tubes, didn't find anything amiss, and fired it back up for another 4 or 5 
years.

It has a "transparent" sound I haven't heard in any other receiver.

Works great for SSB too.

I also used an RAK for a long time. Selectivity was amazing!!!! True 
single-signal. The "other side" of zero beat simply wasn't there. Careful 
examination of the coils shows you why this is so. They are beautiful 
beehive toroids wound with Litz wire. "Q" must be amazing.

The only thing I ever wanted to change in either receiver was the dial 
calibration, which was, simply, non-existent.

I even bought an Eddystone 898 dial back in 1960 or so to fix that, but 
never did.

Now, I use a calibration chart, which works adequately. I can also couple 
a simple frequency counter to the detector output when it is oscillating 
and read the frequency, but that's cheating. :-)

As someone else said here, the RAL/RAK sure ain't your grand-daddy's 
two tube blooper: not by a long shot.

Ken Gordon W7EKB