6 Valve Regenerative Receiver with

Automatic Regeneration Control 

 

Background 
This receiver is a reincarnation of a set I built in 1984, which was
actually my first homemade valve radio. The design is based on Radio
& Hobbies' "Three Band Two" of May 1957, later reprinted in October
1966. This project was a broadcast and shortwave receiver with
switched coils, using a 6BL8 or 6U8 as a regenerative detector
(pentode) and output stage (triode). Following issues added a 6AQ5
output valve for improved performance, with the 6BL8 triode converted
to a voltage amplifier. Rectifier was a 6X4. 
In September 1983, Electronics Australia featured the design again, as
to explore the possibilities of building a valve project in the 1980's. That
article was rather unenthusiastic and anyone reading it today will notice
the author having a general dislike of valves. 
When I was attempting to build a 27MHz CB transceiver back in 1984 , I
chose this circuit for the receiving section as coil data was available for
up to 30Mc/s. Incidentally, a regenerative receiver can be used for SSB
and CW reception, so is ideal for shortwave use. 
It certainly did receive CB transmissions, and in view of its performance,
I wound a coil for the broadcast band and never looked back. 
Instead of using a 6AQ5, I used a 6BM8 pentode as I had many of
them. The 6BM8 was also to function as the transmitter modulator. 
However, the transmitter part never eventuated and the project became
a broadcast receiver only. Seeing as the triode of the 6BM8 was doing
nothing, I made it into a further voltage amplification stage. 
My set had a lot of use, and in fact was my main receiver for a number
of years. I added an automatic regeneration control, which worked very
well, a vibrator power supply for battery operation (it once spent a day
out in a boat), and an RF amplifier to allow use with a car radio aerial
(the spin off from this was a separate car radio project in 1985). Later
additions were a tape recording output, negative feedback, and in its
later days, provided the test bed for FM receiver additions, initially with a
Fremodyne tuner, and then simpler straight super regenerative circuits. 
Finally, I experimented with a hybrid audio amplifier, using a valve to
drive a solid state output stage. 
Eventually around 1990 I pulled the whole thing apart as the chassis
was now full of holes and the effects odd numerous experiments. I had
lost interest in AM radio, and my super regenerative FM receivers were
not performing properly.
The circuit of the reincarnation is largely the same as my original.

As the years went by my interest in AM came back, and so did my

sentimental attachment to the receiver I learnt so much from. I decided
to rebuild the receiver on a new chassis, as close as possible to my
original design. I decided against the FM add on, although my present
super regenerative tuners work well. As I already have this receiver in
12V form when I built it for car use, I decided not to include the vibrator
supply either. The rebuild was to incorporate automatic regeneration
control, but this time using valves. An RF amplifier would also be
included to eliminate aerial loading effects.

The Regenerative Detector 

Everything is completely conventional. The beauty of the design is that it
uses some of the most common Australian TV valves. The 6BL8/ECF80
was initially designed for VHF TV tuner use, with the triode for the local
oscillator, and the pentode as the mixer. The 6BM8/ECL82 has been
discussed elsewhere, and was common in field deflection and audio
use. 
The pentode in this circuit functions as a grid leak detector, with
regeneration control by screen voltage. The aerial coil is tapped for
feedback. 
Potentiometer control of regeneration was one of the factors that got my
interest in the original design. As it turned out, this method of control is
the smoothest with no backlash or detuning, as happens with variable
condenser feedback. My original receiver had one aerial terminal which
worked satisfactorily with a 10m long wire aerial in Sydney at the time.
Now that I have a much longer aerial with peculiar resonance and
loading effects, I decided the new receiver would be a bit more flexible.
So, a simple untuned RF stage was added. 
Not only does this mean the regeneration control is not dependent on
the aerial, some extra gain is also obtained. 
The triode of the 6BL8 is a straightforward audio amplifier stage. The
cathode is not bypassed as there is sufficient gain over the various
stages, and it does create some local negative feedback which
improves sound quality. The unbypassed cathode is the source of low
impedance line level signals, and I did in fact use it to feed a tape
recorder in the original set. If you wish to do this, connect the cathode
via a .47uF condenser to the audio output connection. Other valves
which have the same pin connections and work with no changes are
6U8/ECF82, 6EA8, 6CQ8, 6JW8/ECF802. However, that is not to say
they are interchangeable in other circuits. Needless to say, for
European constructors, the series heater equivalents might be easier to
get. 9A8/PCF80, 9U8/PCF82, 9JW8/PCF802 for the RF and
16A8/PCL82, 50BM8/UCL82 for the audio. Of course, separate similar
triodes and pentodes can be used if more convenient.

       550Kc/s-2.2Mc/s                            2.2Mc/s-12Mc/s                           8Mc/s
-30Mc/s 
Coil data for 550Kc/s-30Mc/s. Frequency coverage is with a 10-415pF
variable condenser. All coils 3/4" (20mm) diameter. The Radio & Hobbies
design used a rotary switch to select coils, but pointed out that absorbtion
effects could occur depending how close the coils were to each other. It was
suggested that the two unused coils be shorted out with extra switch poles to
prevent this. My coil former is a piece of 32mm conduit attached to an octal
plug. Coil winding data was adjusted to suit the wider diameter.

Audio Amplifier 
The audio amplifier is discussed here so won't go into elaborate detail.
Suffice to say, this was the first project I'd used an M1100 line
transformer as sold by Dick Smith, and was delighted with its
performance. I have made some slight changes though. As some
6BM8's suffer from grid emission, I have reduced the pentode grid
resistor to 220K. It is true that this would reduce gain compared to the
usual 470K, but the reduction is small, and there is plenty of audio gain
over the whole circuit. As M1100's are no longer available, I have used
a new old stock Rola E14 speaker transformer. Although its primary
impedance is 7K instead of 5K the difference is unimportant in this
application. As the E14 had only a 15R secondary, I unwound it and
brought out an 8R tapping. The negative feedback circuit is the same. 
With the new receiver, I also decided to elaborate on the headphone
socket. Previously, the headphones would connect straight to the
speaker transformer secondary and switch out the speaker in the usual
way. However, as Jaycar now have a headphone socket with DPDT
switching, I decided to use this to improve the matching when
headphones are in use. As most headphones are 32R per channel
these days, a 10R resistor loads the secondary when the phones are
plugged in. Additionally, a 33R is in series with the phones to reduce the
possibility of overloading them.

Power Supply 
The power supply is different in my new set. For the original, I used a
transformer from an Astor radiogram. 1N4007 diodes were used to
rectify the high tension. My new transformer has a 5V 2A winding so
couldn't resist using a valve rectifier. I used a 5Y3. 
It also provides 225V aside at 60mA and has a 6.3V 3A heater winding.
(Yes, I could have used a 6.3V heater rectifier in the original but never
did). 
Like most projects, I used resistive filtering of the B+. This works and is
more convenient than a choke. The 800R 5W resistor, and the two 16uF
filter condensers are from the original set (as is the tuning gang). The
original Astor power transformer, filter capacitors, fuse and mains lead
ended up in my first pulse counting FM  receiver. Note that I've put the
800R resistor in the negative line. Electrically, it works the same as
when put in the positive line as is conventionally done, but doing it this
way creates a source of negative voltage which may have been
necessary for various forms of automatic regeneration control I was
experimenting with. 
As the DC output from the transformer and valve rectifier are lower than
the original set, the two feed resistors for the audio and RF stages have
been reduced in value. They were previously 3.9K 5W and 47K 1W
respectively.

RF Amplifier 
This is simpy a 6AK5 pentode with the primary of the aerial coil in the
plate circuit. Input is untuned, with the 100pF and 47K performing as a
simple high pass filter, as well as the usual grid leak and DC isolation
functions. The high pass filter is desirable to prevent the 6AK5 being
overdriven by 50 cycle mains picked up on a long wire aerial. This could
cause modulation hum. The low plate voltage might seem strange, but
increasing it beyond around 30V did not increase gain. In fact, many
valves work perfectly well at low voltages and the automatic assumption
one needs to start out with 250V is often a needless waste of power and
valve life. Gain of the receiver is higher with this RF amplifier, and
selectivity is also improved because the aerial is no longer loading the
tuned circuit. However, with this configuration gain is not high enough to
use something as short as a a car radio aerial.

Automatic Regeneration Control 

For an understanding of how this works, see this article first. Basically,
the idea is that when regeneration is excessive, the detector puts out an
abnormally large signal. The level of this is then used to back off the
regeneration to the point where it is below the point of oscillation. In this
particular receiver, regeneration is controlled by the screen grid voltage
of the 6BL8 pentode. For manual adjustment, the 250K pot controls the
voltage in the usual way. 
The audio signal from the 6BL8 triode is further amplified by half a
12AX7 triode which drives a 6AL5 voltage doubler. The output of this is
the DC control voltage and becomes more negative with increasing
signal strength. The other 12AX7 triode then controls the B+ level fed to
the 6BL8 screen grid. 
Let us now look at the operation of this circuit in detail. Audio is picked
off from the volume control as here the voltage is at its highest and not
affected by the volume control setting. 
The first half of the 12AX7 triode operates as a further audio amplifier.
Only for convenience did I use a cathode rheostat to control gain. A
conventional volume control of 500K to 2M could have been placed in
parallel with the normal volume control instead. The triode uses contact
bias for simplicity, but of course cathode bias could also have been
used. 
From the plate, the signal is now strong enough to drive the voltage
doubling rectifier. The second 12AX7 triode is not used as a cathode
follower, as it may seem at first glance, but the control voltage is used to
control its conduction. With no control voltage, the triode has no bias
and passes full current. In this situation the 6BL8 screen grid receives
full voltage. 
With an excessive control voltage, the 12AX7 is cut off and the 6BL8
receives no screen grid voltage. The control voltage is normally
between these two extremes. 
Note that the voltage doubler input cannot be referenced directly to
earth because it has to float at the 12AX7 cathode, and thus 6BL8
screen grid, voltage. Nevertheless, it still receives full input signal
because the 330K, and when the ARC is selected, the  .22uF, are in the
return path. The time constant is formed by the 10M and 5uF. With the
coil I used in this set, oscillation occurs around 10V on the 6BL8 screen
grid. 
When the receiver is not tuned to a station, it weakly oscillates as a
result of the ARC negative feedback. Thus, the detector is operating at
full gain. When a station is tuned in, the strong audio signal takes over,
developing a higher control voltage which then backs off the
regeneration. The receiver now operates below the oscillation point,
thus providing a clear signal. The ARC will also compensate for fading
to a useful degree. As signal strength increases, so does the audio
signal, thus reducing gain. And, vice versa, although once weak
enough, the set will start weakly oscillating until signal strength picks up
again. 
To set the automatic regeneration, the set is tuned to a weak station
with the manual control. Then, switched to ARC, the ARC set control is
slowly advanced from minimum until oscillation just stops. A voltmeter;
preferably of reasonably high impedance, and analog, can be
connected across the 330K to function as a crude tuning meter. 
  
 

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