[HBR] Regenerative communications receiver

[Martin Marris]

>> I would expect that power requirements would be less, and high frequency
performance better too, but what do I know (;->)...<<

Power consumption is low, sometimes much lower than conventional tubes. I
just ordered a bunch of 6418 pentodes whose filaments draw only 10mA!! Low
enough to run for ages on a single AA battery.

But there are compromises. The above-cited 6418 has a transconductance of
only 200-300umos, for instance. It can be a challenge to get usable
performance out of such tubes, especially if (like me) you stick to the
directly heated types. The cathode types are better, but their power
consumption is much higher and at that point you have to wonder, why bother
using these small tubes in that case?

Best,

Martin