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.
Mike, I've learned more from you than any other ham radio channel on TH-cam. Keep up the great work! That circuit was made the year before I was born! I was born in 1966!
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
Hi MIKROWAVE1. Great video! I built the second test circuit and it seems to working in the right direction using a 6J1 or my 6AK5W tube. I run into one issue, the radio seems make a quench hiss/squeal with no audible stations. The 100 k regen control works. It seems that I can use my tuning capacitor; doing so would make the noise vary in intensity and give the impression of 'tuning'. I sometimes even 'imagine' hearing faint local stations, but they may be masked by the hiss. By attaching a collapsible antenna, it reduces the hiss. By removing it, the hiss goes stronger. I'm running it at 120v DC with a metal case as a ground plane, using a small bourns 22uh choke. I couldn't find a 470uf 100v + cap, so I substituted it with a 33uf at the moment. The only major changes I made, I think would cause a problem is the grid leak. I used a 270k soldered in series with a 100k attached to a 56pf capacitor. I also used 4 turns of 16awg to match my variable capacitor. Is there anything else besides changing the the grid leak components to make it work? Thanks!
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.
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?
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
@@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
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.
Mike, I've learned more from you than any other ham radio channel on TH-cam. Keep up the great work! That circuit was made the year before I was born! I was born in 1966!
I have to keep watching your stuff when I have slept more and had less wine .. cleared already few questions I had after studying the old literature.
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
Very clear explanation, Mike. Thank you.
Hi MIKROWAVE1. Great video! I built the second test circuit and it seems to working in the right direction using a 6J1 or my 6AK5W tube. I run into one issue, the radio seems make a quench hiss/squeal with no audible stations. The 100 k regen control works. It seems that I can use my tuning capacitor; doing so would make the noise vary in intensity and give the impression of 'tuning'. I sometimes even 'imagine' hearing faint local stations, but they may be masked by the hiss. By attaching a collapsible antenna, it reduces the hiss. By removing it, the hiss goes stronger.
I'm running it at 120v DC with a metal case as a ground plane, using a small bourns 22uh choke. I couldn't find a 470uf 100v + cap, so I substituted it with a 33uf at the moment. The only major changes I made, I think would cause a problem is the grid leak. I used a 270k soldered in series with a 100k attached to a 56pf capacitor. I also used 4 turns of 16awg to match my variable capacitor.
Is there anything else besides changing the the grid leak components to make it work?
Thanks!
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.
Nice work! Looking forward to the finished radio:)-John in Texas
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 made one with a 6J5 as a teen at 16 and it actually worked fine up there! With headphones, that thing would kill your ears.
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
Wow, what an excellent video! I learned so much about superregens. Thank you 👍 73 de PA1DSP
I have built a Superregen with JFETs it was scary and wonderful!
Не перестаете удивлять. Интересная конструкция.
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.
In fact, an isolating rf preamplifier would be required if you do it properly.
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.
Доброго времени суток. Под старость лет заинтересовался ламповой техникой. Повторил данную схему на 6ж1п. Все работает, настройка острая. Благодарю.
Hello Sir. Whats the specs for L1 and L2 on the second circuit (the pentode one). Thank you.
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?
Common sense says that the transistor would be the winner, but I have not tried both circuits against each other.
Very interesting and informative. Thank you!
At 19:29?? 😁😁🤭🤭🤭
@@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.
@@UB1WBY sir, it was just a joke.. I am sorry if you are offended.. the sound output from radio was about some sexual issues which was kind of funny..
@@akrsriv The author of the video is not only a connoisseur of radio engineering, but also a master of jokes... :-)
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.
I had good luck as a kid back about 1960 with a 6ab4 which is like a half a 12at7 in a 6 meter super regen detector.
Those dual VHF TV front end tubes like the 6BZ7/6BQ7 were my "hot" choice in the 1970s as a teen.
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.
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.
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.
Love it, now I'm waiting for gravitational wave transmitter and receiver .
Come back to earth man!
@@MIKROWAVE1 That's a heavy subject! ;)
SuperDetector! Bravo!🎛🔊🎵👌😁
I've seen super regens that use a separate chopper oscillator and then feed that Nyquist freq into the Regen to squeg it.
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.
Ok something to do. Learn this!
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.
@@MIKROWAVE1 Howdy again.
Fair enough. Thanks.
Regards.
Good Result, with Folded Dipole & 300-ohm ribbon cable.
4:49 R3 this regen? isn' that basicly a offset control?
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.
Mike, did you try out the superreg receiver of the UHF B-set of your WS19?
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.
Fellow hams loved the interference of the receiver alone if hams retuned the B-set many years ago to the 145 Mhz amateur band.
good video 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 ?
The simple way to describe the operation of a superegenn is chaos, controlled chaos,,,,,,,
Thinking that FM reception is the "Slope Tuned" kind.
I wonder how the 6CW4 would work as a super-regenerative detector at VHF?
How about UHF? Maybe even 1296 MHz.
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.
@@MIKROWAVE1 Here is a link to a good introductory description of the operation of a superregen receiver.
www.eix.co.uk/Articles/Radio/Welcome.htm
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.
thx so much ++!
73 :)
Thank you for watching!
Would it be possible to build this circuit with a transistor? I mean a normal NPN/PNP transistor, not J-FET/N-FET
Yes a bipolar transistor makes a fine superregen. But that is too easy! sites.google.com/site/aurelwwiz/aurelso
@@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
@@MIKROWAVE1 And one more thing, is changing the tuned circuit enought to recieve SW signals on that circuit?
@@MIKROWAVE1 Please what is the scheme of the first one on that website, it doesnt load the image...
Ah, I got a.reply. someone needs to.investigate Donald Trump uncle. I hope someone would investigate this. I have heard it's already.been.done.
Yes I know Donald Ducks uncle Srooge - you are thinking SSB with the BFO on the wrong side of the carrier.