Lets build two of the most popular single valve Superregenerative (Super-Regen) receiver circuits and see how they perform on the Broadcast FM Band between 88 and 108 MHz.
Mike, I've learned more from you than any other ham radio channel on RU-vid. Keep up the great work! That circuit was made the year before I was born! I was born in 1966!
Thanks, I'm glad to see there are people keeping this technological history alive. I first learned electronics from a gentleman, Ronny Hill, that was in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II as a radio engineer. He loved when he retired fixing old Antique radios. He was a good guy. His old Army WWII books inspirated my interest in studying electrical engineering. Honestly, I have to review some of the old tube physics. The technology changes but the old physics doesn't and continues to apply.
1971 summer the DI MADE A MISTAKE. (Army) I sliped off to atlanta ga. I hit a radio shack and snuck parts back to the barracks. Then with a bag of thumbtacks, a board. And a telephone. Head set. A tp roll. I got what what I wanted wsv, ga. Near by. On regen reciver. And 10' of wire I know how powerful a regen is. 2021 may. I showed your clip to a school kid. Wow he is now inspired. Thanks. Kv4li 73
Hello Mikrowave, I've passed a long time today viewing your excellent videos on super regens. I appreciate your dedication with very special thanks and congrats for your clear explanations. Please keep the good work on! Regards from Lima - Peru, South America.
In 1960 I was 15 years old and on the farm. we lived under the approach path to mpls international airport. I built a super regenerative detector with half a 6bq7 for aircraft band and it worked great.
I've always had difficulty envisioning exactly what is happening in any regenerative receiver...I'm guessing I'm probably not the only one? Maybe you could take the time to teach us about what happens physically inside the tube and around the feedback loop, that would be very helpful, at least for me! Thanks for another great video! 73 - Dino KLØS
Mike, looking forward to the next video. Many years ago I made a superreg for the VHF AM Aircraft band using a 954 acorn tube triode connected, built in the front-end box of a surplus Navy TBS receiver. It worked but I did not use it very much thinking it might cause too much interference on those critical frequencies. Design from an old ARRL handbook that used a 955 acorn triode. Update: I dug out the old superreg today and found it was actually built like your Test circuit 2 using the 954 penthode connected. Tunes 105 to 135 MHz.
Wow! That must have been hot! My first one was a lowly 6J5 for FM. My second was a firecracker, a 6BZ7 dual UHF triodes, one section untuned one as the regen, into a 6AU6 headphone amp.
When I was 13 I made a super regen using a 955 for the 2m band. It was mounted in a box on the carrier of my bike so I could take it to hilltops., but it is sad I never heard an amateur station on it. Eventually I put the freq up to 600 MHz and made a matching unofficial TX and we made some really interesting propagation tests over the hill near my home. This was in about 1961 before I had my license. Then it all had to stop.
@@akrsrivIt is possible that I have made an incorrect translation of this phrase. No one is safe from errors. In general, the video is very interesting. Look for positive information.
You could make that radio compact using KORGS NU-Tube 6P1 and just use two 2X1.5v batteries for heater and 4xPJ996 6v batteries for the B+ and you can use a duel inline socket for said tube.
That 4.7M on the grid looks to be going to the wrong place. Normally the grid leak resistor goes to the voltage at the cathode.This applies to the opening/title picture.
Howdy. No intention to be a killjoy. John Hunter from Cool386 Australian Vintage Technology has pointed out that managing regeneration by controlling the B+ voltage results in inferior sensitivity. Regeneration should be managed by controlling biasing. Applies for triodes and BJT:s. For pentodes regeneration should be done controlling the screen grid voltage. Best regards.
This is a first principles super-regen; a common mid century circuit that is proven to work well with triodes. I built my first one with a 6J5 back in the early 70's. Regeneration should be controlled by varying feedback, no matter the method. The problem he is trying to solve is trying to independently control regen for the best sensitive region and squegging, for the shape and best rate. So optimized. I worked with Chuck Kitchin at Analog devices. You may have seen some of his regen circuits.
Which radio has a stronger signal? The one with tubes or the one with transistors? I know the tube one causes more interference, but how is the signal compared to a transistor?
Ok, I will. With knowledge, the eye moves faster! A good teacher knows that people have ways of learning that are unique, different from the other guy. One must tailor to teach. Also, some of us who have canned a topic have forgotten how hard to grasp some concepts can be. Torture lol.
Nice explanation that "effectively explains" how it works but it is not exactly correct as someone else below has already noted. Next for you to display is the separately quenched superregen, using a separate constant frequency quench oscillator. This gives a much less critical control of the circuit.
I have a request. would it be possible for you to use an on-screen pointer when you are describing parts and how they are connected? My eyes have difficulty staying with your descriptions. Love your topics and plan on building some of your projects. Entertaining and educational. Thanks.
19:54 In my case - it wasn`t easy to see the Quench pulses: my super regenerative receiver received DSO-2150 PC oscilloscope😊.But it was a BJT super regen with a 1.5V power supply.
You cannot beat bipolars for cost and power. Bipolar regens were very popular in low cost garage door openers remote controls and such in the 90s. We used to make them at Whistler when I worked there one summer.
@@MIKROWAVE1 What is about intermodulation - tubes are very good (because grid cuttoff voltage is quite hight: -10Volts).But hhat is about sensetivity between a tube and a jfet or a bjt in a superregen ?
I bought the UHF valve and installed it. But That is as far as I went. At least al tubes sockets are now all filled. Honestly I have never even tried the AM modulation, as I do not have the accessories. Always used it on CW.
R3 is a voltage divider that changes the voltage applied to the plate, so it really is a gain control that gets you into the correct range for proper super-regeneration with the tube.
@@MIKROWAVE1 Thanks, ill probably try to make that one at some point, i was also looking at Sputnik regen reciever, that one doesnt look much complicated too...
@@MIKROWAVE1 as a kind of challange, would you try to built that Transistor regen without any pcb? something like this i.ytimg.com/vi/n3j2aSMSOu8/maxresdefault.jpg
I have to disagree with the author's description of how a superregen receiver detects the modulation. In a self-quenched superregen receiver, the presence of an amplitude varying RF carrier permits the oscillator to start more quickly and the quench cycle to shorten depending on the instantaneous signal amplitude at the beginning of each quench cycle. This varies the oscillator current and the modulation is detected by low pass filtering the oscillator current. This has little to do with the grid leak or plate detection found in a regenerative receiver.
Martyn, what you are describing is Pulse Position Modulation (PPM). I do not believe that you can integrate PPM and get the waveform back. I think you have to turn it into PDM first, then integrate.
Thank you Martin. The material I presented is cursory and based on older published articles and books and is likely not accurate. Again the complexity of the super regen action confounding through the years.
