Found Tonight In Storage Stuff - Neat Regen Set!

[W1UJR]

As I've noted in earlier posts, I've really turned my focus to the very early regenerative receiver sets,
their simplicity of design and function just fascinates me, and also appeals to my minimalist nature.
It's easy to imagine some young ham, huddled in the warmth of his parents attic, just finishing up
one of these sets, freshly built from the plans in Radio News, eagerly trying it out on a blustery winter night.
As the howls of the wind outside mix with the howls of the regen in the headphones, he's fascinated, drawn deeply
into a world he never knew existed outside his small hometown. Voices with a foreign accent, snippets of music,
the sharp staccato clicks of a distant brother ham sending CW...oh those were the days....

In any case, some years, back, in the early days right after I got my ham ticket, I attended one
of the AWA Conferences in Rochester, NY. While prowling about the outside radio market, I came across a very
nicely constructed regen receiver, which I promptly bought, took home and played with for hours.
The set was built my Ralph Michelson KG8FA, and the construction is really top notch, and best of all, and this most
unusual for a homebrew design, Ralph did some very nice documentation on the set, supplying both the schematic and parts list.
The seller explained that he had bought it during the previous year's AWA Auction but found he did not use it much.

I was soon to move out of NY for the state of Maine, about 90% of my radio items, including this neat little set,
were packed away in storage for the better part of nearly 10 years.

I was therefore delighted to come across this little set when I finally had my items moved up to
Maine. While unpacking boxes inside a 40' shipping container, I had four items on my "must find"
list, and this little set was number one. Finding the set, I hurried home, plugged it and listened to the
melodious strains of shortwave broadcasts emanate from the set of vintage cans (headphones) which
I had placed on my head. Just as I remembered it.

Now that I have the set working, I'd really like to look up Ralph.
I understand that he often built sets to be entered into the AWA Auction, with the proceeds benefiting the organization. I attempted to contact him using the email address listed on QRZ, but that address is no longer functional. If you have any additional information on KG8FA, or own one of his other sets, by all means I'd enjoy hearing from you.

Link to complete story on Bruce's Bench -->> http://www.w1ujr.net/bruce's_bench_2010.htm

 

 

[KC4ALF]

Great looking set!

[WU2D]

Bruce,

What is the tube 6N7? 53? 6A6?

Regens are great fun and when built for light coupling they really can perform on 160 - 40M at least, even when the bands are busy. The resistor coupling scheme he used cleverly eliminates all of the chokes and transformers in the audio chain. Of course some gain is lost but this is a good way to roll them.

Off the Arizona this week for work. Must play with radio in desert...

Mike WU2D

[W1UJR]

Parts list follows:

[W2DU]

When I was first licensed in 1933 with callsign W8KHK, my first receiver was a regen with 201A detector and 201A audio amp into headphones. My second receiver, also a regen, with '57 detector and '56 audio, also into headphones.

These two receivers were the only ones I had until I went store-bought with an RME-69 in 1937, which I still have and is still in mint condition.

I worked all continents on 40m CW with the '57-'56 rx prior to the RME-69. In that era 40m was CW only. Not until after WW2 was phone allowed on 40.

The two regens didn't survive after ww2.

Walt

[WU2D]

Wow Walt, that must have been a hot receiver similar to a 6SJ7 6SK7 lineup. Was it a Hartley type regen?

Mike WU2D

[W1UJR]

When I was first licensed in 1933 with callsign W8KHK, my first receiver was a regen with 201A detector and 201A audio amp into headphones. My second receiver, also a regen, with '57 detector and '56 audio, also into headphones.

These two receivers were the only ones I had until I went store-bought with an RME-69 in 1937, which I still have and is still in mint condition.

I worked all continents on 40m CW with the '57-'58 rx prior to the RME-69. In that era 40m was CW only. Not until after WW2 was phone allowed on 40.

The two regens didn't survive after ww2.

Walt

Agree, the RME-69 is a gem, pretty set too, won't part with mine for the world,
had wanted one for years, and at the AWA Conference a few years back one
came up for auction. The YL bought it for, there's commitment for you!
I was most impressed with the aluminum casting that the RME uses as a
chassis/support, wow, talk about overkill.

You must have been a most skilled and patient young fellow Walt to do all of that
trans con work with the regen as a RX. Many of the AWA guys use a more "modern"
RX in the contests due to the tricky nature of operating a regen RX and TX together.
But if the early hams could do that...well, that sure should not be a lost art.

The set using 56 and 57 tubes, was that a Doerle design?
I know that was a popular design in the early 30s.
I've been experimenting with the Doerle sets since the beginning of this
year, really pretty neat lash ups. http://www.w1ujr.net/doerle_sets.htm

Larry built a very nice set using 201As as a Christmas present a few years back,
too nice to be out on display, I keep this one in the cabinet! http://www.w1ujr.net/gift_from_ne1s.htm
I've really loved learning about and operating these regens.

I've got to sign and go get the YL from the the airport, look forward to reading later.

[WQ9E]

Bruce,

That is a very attractive regen.  I wish there were more decent shortwave stations out there now that I have my RAK and RAL receivers which I think of as the "kings of the regen" world.

Another Bruce (Bruce Vaughn NR5Q) penned some excellent articles on regen receivers in Electric Radio which you will probably want to acquire if you don't have them already.

[W2DU]

Bruce, I don't know that the '57-'56 rx had any particular design. I just built it--plug-in coil, tuning cap in shunt with the main L, and a separate regen-winding L in the plate circuit just below the main L, grid-leak resistor, and audio xfmr coupling to the 56. I don't know what type of osc you'd call it, Mike.

The '57 was a successor to the '24, one of the first screen-grid tubes, following the original '22 that came on the scene in 1927. The '22 was a DC filament type, but the '24 was 2.5 v AC indirectly-heated cathode, and the '57 was also AC, but 6.3 v

And yeah, the RME-69 was a great rx, and still is. Yer right, Bruce, about the cast aluminum base--sturdy!! One could copy cw with it, using a typewriter (mill) on the same desk, with no pitch change in the tone. The same with the National HRO. Many others couldn't perform that way without producing a change in pitch with every bang on the mill, making copy impossible.

I'm attaching a pic of some of my older receivers. (I recently purchased an SX-28 that needs a lot of work that isn't in the pic.)

I also built a hi-fid AM tuner, prior to much FM BCing. It had multiple-tuning in the IF cans for wide-band IF, and one RF stage preceding the detector. At night the 10 Khz beat between stations was audible, and needed filtering. No audio amp--connected directly into the audio amp. Pic also included.

Walt

Just now found an error in my original post. The '57-'58 rx should be '57-'56. The audio was a '56 triode, not a screen-grid.

[W2DU]

Should mention, Bruce, that my first tx was a 210 Hartley osc, with rectificed AC, but no filter. It had a beautiful 120 cycle tone. This was before a pure DC tone was required. My next rig had a '45 osc and a 203A amp, but the rig I used for the DX contacts had a '59 tri-tet osc, 6L6 amp followed by an Eimac 35T, and the final was a 250TH, which I ran at about 600 w. Quite a difference between rx and tx, huh?

Walt

[W2DU]

Bruce, I missed seeing the link you provided for the Doerle rx until now. Very interesting info, but I must confess, I had never heard of Doerle before, yet I scanned the Short-Wave Craft mags relentlessly in those days. Probably I saw their ads, but didn't heed them.

Walt