Ifito .

ega'3a,
•~ a.. e e

tr Ssc~ . a~:r"..,`'r"'~g~~ t.~.= ~.y~~..i•'`'E~;sr,:~ .?-~`.r ;~'~I:i'Y~~":'-:2i:5'-~'r:"

*: ap~
id -.t e -•i' e'•,y`. z'a--'~ ~a.r •~`,`'t ,'-yerk',t"3-c .rLt ~`u"r. ,~,`.~f'F' 06***104r"'

G: _•ad2r.

r,`r,*•r--,.x-00-fti;,s -,yr-4.o o-+J-0,0_4 03-c?'rv7-F *

Special `nostalgia' project:

BUILD AN OLD TIME

ONE-VALVE RADIO T
There's a lot of interest nowadays in building simple valve-based radio sets, of the type that were
popular from the 1920s right up until the 1960s. Here's the first of two articles which give all the
information you'll need to construct an authentic one-valver starting with a basic `grid-leak' set
and progressing to a regenerative circuit with surprisingly good performance. Enough information
is given to allow you to use almost any old valve or other components to hand.
by PETER LAUGHTON
Cleaning out my radio `shack' (read had, and how much I'd learned. This, cussion is the following project.
mess) the other day, I came across a along with several recent Letters to The circuits described can be built
number of radio receivers that I con- the Editor asking for more vintage using almost any combination of com-
structed years ago based on valves, radio projects, resulted in me talking ponents, even from junked valve TV
and remembered how much fun I'd to Jim Rowe, and the result of that dis- sets. But for convenience and safety,
62 ELECTRONICS Australia, May 1997
they will be described using a 1.4 volt
battery valve that is still available: the HEADPHONES
20000 OR
1T4. The filament of this valve is sup- GREATER
plied from a single 1.5V alkaline bat-
tery, whilst the 'high tension' comes ANODE (PLATE)
+45 VOLTS
from two or three 216-type 9V batter-
ies connected in series. The parts to
construct the radio are also available
SHORT
from the Vintage Wireless Radio ANT 1nF
Company in Sydney if your junk box
doesn't have enough 'bits and pieces' JV~M-
LONG 1.5M
in it. (See end of article for prices etc). L1 oft oro o + FILAMENT
ANT VOLTAGE
500pF SWITCH
Understanding feedback
Before we start, a few words about EARTH 0 0 COMMON
feedback. To many people this is usu-
ally associated with a rude, loud noise
from a PA amp at a concert, etc. But L1: 60T OF #28g ECW V1: A609, 26,
TAPPED AT 30T, ON /2 12AT7, ETC.
technically the term means something 50mm DIAMETER FORMER
1
FIG.1
much more useful, which can exist in
two forms: positive and negative.
Basically, feedback is achieved by A basic `leaky grid' receiver circuit, using either a triode valve or a multi-grid valve
feeding back energy from the output connected as a triode. This type of set uses the valve's grid and cathode as a
of an amplifier to its input. If the sig- detector diode, and then the valve as a whole to amplify the resulting audio.
nal fed back is in phase or in step with
the original signal, then it adds to it Conversely, if the feedback is out of components in a circuit as well as the
and this is called positive feedback. phase or out of step with the original effects of temperature, especially with
This type of feedback tends to exag- input signal, so that it subtracts from solid state components. Negative feed-
gerate or enhance any frequency it, then it is said to be negative feed- back is commonly found in audio ampli-
selectivity; hence the effect with PA back. In this case the total amplifica- fiers, and can be applied to several
amps, where the sound begins to tion is reduced. stages of an amplifier at the same time.
`ring' at a particular frequency before Commonly called degeneration, this
a condition is reached where the type of feedback tends to smooth out Grid detectors
whole set-up becomes unstable i.e., any frequency selectivity, and also The basic circuit for a grid or cumu-
begins oscillating. reduce the amount of distortion pro- lative type of detector is shown in
The effect of positive feedback is to duced by an amplifier as the output Fig. 1. As can be seen, apart from a
increase the signal available at the out- distortion is present in the signal fed crystal set, nothing could be simpler.
put over what was there before i.e., back to the input. The amplified fed- Interestingly, there is no solid state
the effective gain increases, as well as back distortion is in opposition to the equivalent for the 'grid leak' type of
the selectivity. If there's too much pos- output distortion (as it's out of phase) detector shown here. Even the field
itive feedback, the amplifier will and thus tends to cancel it out. effect transistor, whose characteristics
become an oscillator. Another word for Negative feedback also tends to com- approach that of valves, doesn't work
positive feedback is regeneration. pensate for changing characteristics of as well as a valve does. Therefore this
circuit arrangement is unique to valve
technology.
In this type of detector, the grid cor-
responds to the plate of a diode, which
RFC HI-Z
(IF USED) CRYSTAL works together with the valve's fila-
0.1 uF
EARPHONE ment or cathode to detect the incom-
I-0 ing RF signals fed to it from the
4.7k
TO AUDIO tuned circuit formed by L l and the
AMP
500pF capacitor. As a result of this
B diode action the rectified RF produces
+45V
a varying DC voltage across the 1.5M
'grid leak' load resistor, with the
220pF capacitor acting as a low
impedance to the RF signals. The
- „ 80 HEADPHONES,
>2k - 0-8S7: OR EVEN A SPEAKER varying DC voltage then causes the
FIG.2
(GOOD SIGNAL AREAS) grid to vary the electron flow to the
plate, giving some audio amplification
at the same time. Note that at this
stage we haven't applied any regener-
ation or feedback.
Three different alternative ways to use the output from the basic receiver of Typical component values are given
Fig.1 — or those of Fig.3, 5 or 6 — if you don't have a pair of high-impedance and almost any triode valve, or any
headphones. valve wired as a triode, can be used.
ELECTRONICS Australia, May 1997 63
For example, the 12AT7 and 12AU7
range of double-triode valves, etc., are
all satisfactory (using only one half of
BRACKETS
the valve, of course). With these 25mm HIGH &
valves, filament voltage can be either 25mm LONG

12.6V at 150mA or 6.3V at 300mA.

High tension with these TV type of
valves needs to be around 60 to 90
volts for satisfactory operation. Battery
operation is not really practical as the
plate current drain will be around
20mA or so, and the 10 or so 9V tran-
sistor radio batteries that would be
required to obtain the necessary high
tension voltage are expensive!
Other triodes, such as the battery How to make your own very simple adjustable series capacitor, to allow a
types, including the 2V and 6V series longer antenna wire to be connected to the receiver's tuning circuit without
of battery valves like the A609 can also loading it down too much. A fixed mica or ceramic capacitor of about 200pF can
be used. Pin connections for some typ- be used instead, if you wish.
ical valves that can be used in this cir-
cuit are at the end of this project which a multi-element valve, such as The grid leak type of detector is sen-
(Fig.9). Just make sure that you use the the 1T4 pentode, is now used as a pen- sitive, but it `loads' the tuned circuit,
correct filament voltages and currents. tode rather than wired as a triode. The resulting in relatively poor selectivity
A 6U7 pentode from the octal era sensitivity of this type of detector is (the ability to resolve different signals
can also be used. Just connect the considerably increased by using a pen- close to each other). The linearity is
screen grid to the anode to convert it tode valve. As before no feedback or poor, as is the signal handling capaci-
into a triode and supply the filament regeneration is applied as yet. ty. This means that it is easily over-
with its 6.3V at 300mA. Filament voltage is still 1.5V DC, loaded by a strong signal, which can
The valve used in the prototype was whilst 18 to 27 volts DC (two or three completely drown out a weaker signal
a 1 T4 miniature seven-pin battery pen- 9V radio batteries) are satisfactory for adjacent to it. Note also that if the
tode, wired as a triode, (grid 2 on pin 3 the high tension (HT) requirements. plate voltage is made too high, the no-
connected to the anode). The output is Battery life will be several months of signal current can increase beyond the
to a crystal earpiece, or high impedance intermittent use, with the filament ratings of the RFC, headphones, or
headphones, or some low impedance drawing 5 OmA at 1.5V and the anode transformer and they can be perma-
stereo type headphones (using a match- current about 3mA at 27V. nently damaged. -
ing transformer), or even to an external Fig.3 also shows how a radio fre- Try experimenting with lower val-
amplifier using any of the circuit quency choke (RFC) can be used, giv- ues for the grid leak resistor (down to
arrangements shown in Fig.2. ing more stable operation of the circuit 100k) and lower values for the associ-
Fig.3 gives the same circuit in especially when used on short wave. ated condenser (to say 100pF). Also
try connecting the grid leak resistor to
the cathode or earth side of the valve
RFC instead of the coil. The result should
(IF USED) be much the same.
By reducing the R and C values, the

L1
(SAME COIL
2
1
2nF
PHONES
>2k0
detector turns into a so-called `power
grid' detector. The advantage is an
AS IN FIG 1) 2.2M
increased overload point, but at the
SHORT 0 + 27V
expense of increased distortion,
ANT
increased loading of the tuned circuit,
1,5N"--"#7
and a decreased audio high frequency
LONG 220pF response.
o ro O + 1.5V
ANT
500pF SWITCH The values given for the coil will
result in operation on the AM broad-
EARTH 0 O COMMON cast band. For operation on the short
wave bands, a different number of
( PIN CONNECTIONS SHOWN FOR 1T4 VALVE)
turns are needed. (See the section
.FIG.3 called `winding the coils' in part 2).
Series aerial capacitor
How to use a multi-grid valve like the 1T4 as a leaky-grid detector. Although not A series-pass capacitor is needed to
shown, there is a third grid in this pentode valve, connected internally to the fil- prevent the aerial from loading the
ament (pins 1 and 5). The optional RF choke can be used as shown, to improve tuned circuit too much. A small tuning
performance and stability. capacitor scrounged from a junked
64 ELECTRONICS Australia, May 1997
The sensitivity and selectivity (tuning
sharpness) of the leaky-grid receiver HEADPHONES
can be improved dramatically by (REGENERATION) RFC >2k0
adding some positive feedback or (IF USED)
200pF
'regeneration', by means of a second
coil L2 coupled magnetically to the AO
)I
MDT +45V
tuning coil. The 200pF variable capac-
itor is used to adjust the feedback so L2
that it isn't enough to cause oscilla- inF
tion or `howling
E Vi
1 n
AM/FM radio is perfect, if you use the 1.5M
FM tuning section (this is the one with %.0 220
500pT pT o O+2V
the least number of plates). Li
Alternatively, try a standard broadcast j
tuning capacitor. The adjustment isn't 0 COMMON
too critical and, once set for your par- Li: 110T #30G ECW ON 30mm DIA FORMER
ticular length of aerial and location, L2: 30T #36G ECW ON SAME FORMER
Vi: A609
shouldn't need altering. FIG.5
For those not wanting to go to these
lengths, any small mica or ceramic
capacitor of value to 200pF or so will cuits can be amazing, with after-dark — although one that tends to cause
work instead. The object of it is to broadcast band reception of England interference to other receivers.
reduce the aerial coupling a bit, which and the Continent, and daylight recep- If there is enough interest, a simple,
reduces the loading on the tuned cir- tion of interstate broadcast radio sta- mains powered, regenerative all-band
cuit and increases selectivity tions not uncommon during radio's receiver will be described in a future
although at the expense of volume. early years. article. The simple receiver about to
Fig.4 shows how to construct a suit- Note that this type of detector is be described can also be modified into
able small value capacitor from scrap very different from the `reflex' type, a reflex receiver that can operate a
metal, and how it's connected. as reflex detectors use the valve twice loudspeaker on local stations, still
first as an RF amplifier before using the one valve.
Regenerative detector detection, and then as an audio ampli- In Fig.5, we have the basic circuit of
Now let's have a look at making the fier after detection. a regenerative detector. It is shown
basic grid leak detector a bit more Also note that the regenerative based on an A609 triode valve,
efficient. To do this we add a con- detector about to be described is dif- although a 1T4 pentode wired as a tri-
trolled amount of positive feedback, in ferent from a superegenerative detec- ode by connecting grid number 2 to
the form of regeneration. This forms tor, which is actually a regenerative the plate will also work satisfactorily.
the basis of the regenerative detector, detector adjusted to oscillate, and then The circuit is almost the same as the
which was in use almost since radio `quenched' at a high frequency of previous one for the grid leak detector,
began right up until after World War 20kHz or so to enable it to be operat- but with regeneration added via feed-
2. The results from such simple cir- ed as an extremely sensitive detector back coupling coil L2 and its
adjustable 200pF series capacitor from
the valve plate.
RFC In this circuit, the regeneration
ANTENNA (IF USED) increases the effective Q (quality) of
dååå` the tuned circuit. This occurs because
220pF PHONES maximum regeneration occurs only at
2nF
-I I---
f
yT4 >21(0 the frequency to which it is tuned. The
i250pF values for components are almost the
0 + 27V
1.5M
same as for the grid leak detector.
Obviously, the amount of regeneration
1 , • 1,5 7
must be able to be controlled some-
o~ o Q+ 1.5V
25T 30T 60T oft SWITCH
how and is usually held to a point just
500pF before the valve goes into oscillation.
2 This point also varies with frequency,
250pF r so the tuning of a regenerative detec-
0 COMMON tor is a two-handed affair!
NOTES: 1. THE DOTS SIGNIFY THE START OF EACH COIL Fig.6 gives the circuit of a regenera-
WINDING tive receiver using a pentode battery
2. THE CURVED ARROWS REPRESENT THE MOVING FIG.6
(FRAME) SIDE OF THE VARIABLE CAPACITORS valve, with separate windings for the
aerial, tuned and feedback coils.
In the second of these articles, we'll
look at winding the coils and actually
The circuit of a complete one-valve regenerative receiver, using a 1T4 pentode. building the practical regenerative one-
Although still very simple, this type of set is capable of surprisingly good per- valve receiver shown in the photo.
formance. Full construction details will be given in the author's next article. (To be continued.)
ELECTRONICS Australia, May 1997 65
Special `nostalgia' project:

BUILD AN
ONFVAF RADIC
Here's the second of two articles designed to help you build an authentic one-valve radio: a
regenerative circuit with surprisingly good performance. In this article the author covers wind-
ing the coils, assembling the components and getting it all going. He also explains how to
operate it to get the best results.
by PETER LAUGHTON
To guide you in building the receiver, 1/2" hole for the headphone socket and a the three 9V 'B' batteries.
Fig.7 gives details of a typical layout and smaller one for the power switch. These My coil was wound on a section of
placement of parts. Note, however, that items were then mounted on the front cardboard mailing tube, but you could
the placement of parts is not critical and panel, and some L-shaped brackets made also wind it on a 125mm length of 50mm-
almost any layout that will accommodate from scrap tin plate to mount the tuning diameter PVC pipe if you prefer. Either
them can be used. capacitors on the base, in the correct posi- way, use the information in Fig.8 as a
Start by obtaining two flat pieces of tions. (Old fruit tins can be recycled here ! ) guide. I used some enamelled copper
wood. I used five-ply, but other materi- Next came the valve socket, mounted winding wire from a defunct video
als like chipboard or MDF will work. on the baseboard using a couple of one- recorder head motor, but there are many
My front panel was 10" x 6" and the inch long 1/8" machine screws with other such sources around to buy or
base was 10" x 8" (this is supposed to be extra nuts used to space it up and allow scrounge some small diameter wire.
an old time project, so no metric dimen- access to the connection lugs (which (Firms like Dick Smith Electronics will
sions are given; but multiplying the were bent outward at about 45°, to make sell you rolls of it.)
inches by 25 and calling it mm would be soldering easier). Several coils were wound and tried,
close enough). The two were glued The aerial/earth terminal block was with wire from 1mm in diameter to 30
together and then nailed, giving an L- then screwed to the back of the base- gauge (very fine). All worked satisfacto-
shaped chassis with the 10" x 6" piece board, and the 1.5V 'D' battery holder rily, and if you can get hold of some old-
becoming the front panel. up the other end behind the power style `Litz' type wire, slightly better
Next the holes were drilled for the three switch. Then a couple of small brackets results will be obtained on the broadcast
tuning capacitor spindles, along with a were cut from the same fruit tin to hold band with better results on short wave.
Make sure that all the windings are
wound in the same direction. The dots on
the circuit diagram in Fig.6 indicate the
start (or finish if you want) of each wind-
ing. Just keep the windings in the same
direction and enjoy winding the coils.
To wind on the turns, start by drilling
two holes in the end of the tube, about 8
to 1 omm apart. These will be to anchor
the wire. Thread one end through both
holes such that the wire reappears on the
outside of the tube, then wind on about 25
turns. Drill another two holes as before,
and cut off enough wire to feed through
the holes. This is the aerial winding. (A
small piece of Sellotape helps here to
hold the winding in place).
Now drill two more holes adjacent to
these last ones, and once again thread the
wire through them. This time wind on 30
turns, and drill two more holes to act as
anchor points. Make a small loop in the
wire, to form a tapping, but don't cut the
wire short. This centre tapping will be
used later to `reflex' the receiver. As this
is the main tuning winding, wind on
Another view of the author's prätotype, showing the general layout he used. another 30 turns, making 60 in all. Then
62 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1997
 ON /OFF PHONE SOCKET TUNING REGENERATION AERIAL TRIMMER
Fig.7: The author's
IIJIII OII wiring in detail, for the
radio built using a 1T4
miniature valve. The
exact layout is not criti-
cal, especially if you
build the set for the AM

\\ broadcast band.

'D' CELL
(1.5V 'A' SUPPLY)

3 x 9V BATTERIES (27V 'B' SUPPLY) *VIEWED FROM ABOVE E ANT

drill another two small holes and anchor place of the valve by soldering short It probably sounds complicated, but it's
the wire as before. lengths of wire to its terminals and poking really quite easy and after a few minutes
Finally, drill two. more holes and wind them into the filament holes on the sock- of use it becomes second nature.
on the feedback winding of 30 turns. Drill et. For the 1T4 these are pins 1 and 7. If If you can't get the set to squeal at all,
a final two holes and anchor the wire. the bulb just glows red, that's OK; if it then try reversing the connections to the
Don't worry unduly if the wire blows then you have a problem but regeneration winding (5. and 6 on the cir-
breaks as you are winding it on; sec- luckily bulbs are cheaper than valves! cuit in Fig.6). There really isn't much that
ond-hand wire tends to do this as it If all was well, turn off and fit the valve. can stop it from working apart from flat
may be kinked, etc. Just solder it back Then connect the wireless to a aerial at batteries or faulty headphones.
together and keep winding. least 10 metres long, and a decent earth The same basic circuit can operate from
The actual construction takes less time not a mains earth if you can avoid it, as the broadcast band up to the VHF
to do than to describe. Also, a few more these can have a small voltage drop across (144MHz) bands. Indeed 70 years ago the
or less turns don't matter, as the tuning them and cause hum in the headphones. only type of receiver that could be easily
capacitor generally has enough adjust- Use a wire clamped to a water pipe and cheaply built to operate above
ment range to compensate. (scraped clean first), if you possibly can. 30MHz was the regenerative type like
There are several, ways to mount the To start with, set the aerial trimmer to this. All that's needed to adapt the receiv-
coil on the baseboard, from some small maximum (closed) capacity and the er to shortwave listening is to use a dif-
tinplate L-brackets to a piece of timber regeneration capacitor to minimum (fully ferent coil, and perhaps add a small 'fine
the same diameter as the coil and screwed open). Then slowly turn the regeneration tuning' capacitor in parallel with the main
to the baseplate. Try to keep large bits of control until the set breaks into a squeal tuning capacitor to make tuning easier.
metal away from the windings though, as (oscillates), and back it off a bit until the
the coil's efficiency will be decreased by squealing stops. Now operate the tuning Different coils
any in the vicinity. capacitor to look for a station, whilst at the Winding a coil for covering the short
Finally the other miscellaneous com- same time adjusting the regeneration con- wave bands up to about 15MHz is quite
ponents are fitted, and everything wired trol as necessary to ensure that the set is easy. The former can be increased in
up using Fig.7 as a guide. Note that the not oscillating, but as close as possible to diameter, to improve its efficiency, while
1.5M grid-leak resistor and its bypass the point where it would. (That's the con- at the same time the number of turns in
capacitor are wired directly in place dition of maximum gain and selectivity.) the windings are reduced. Broadly speak-
between pin 6 of the valve socket and When you find a station, adjust the aer- ing you reduce the number of turns in
the tuning capacitor stator lug. ial trimmer for maximum volume (or each winding to increase the frequencies
When finished, leave the valve out of minimum interference from adjacent sta- tuned, and by about the same factor
its socket and connect the 1.5V and 9V tions) and then just nudge the regenera- keeping the ratios between the three
batteries up. To test that the wiring is OK, tion control a bit to get maximum sensi- windings the same as before.
connect a 2.5V torch bulb temporarily in tivity without oscillation. I used a former 2.5" (60mm) in diam-
ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1997 63
 ONE-VALVE RA
eter, made from postal tube. It has an POSTAL TUBE, STIFF CARDBOARD,
PLASTIC PIPE, ETC.
found that for best efficiency, the wind-
50mm
aerial winding of three turns of 26swg ing is wound with the smallest number
wire, a main tuning winding of four of turns that will allow the detector to
turns of 18swg wire spaced 2mm apart oscillate over the whole band. Try
between turns, and .a regeneration (reac- 25 TURNS between 1/4 to 1/3 the number of turns
(AERIAL WINDING)
tion) winding of four turns of 26swg on the main winding. It's well worth the
wire. All of the windings are wound in time to experiment with the number of
the same direction as before and con- turns, and of course this is easy to do
nected as for the broadcast band coil. 30
TURNS
125mm
when you wind the coils yourself.
Incidentally if anyone has some of the 60 TOTAL If the regeneration isn't smooth
(MAIN TUNING
Denco range of tuning coils, then the WINDING) enough, try using a smaller value of
green range will work very well with 30
TURNS
regeneration capacitor, say 100pF.
these sorts of receivers. Generally, if you use more turns on the
Here are a few notes to keep in mind regeneration winding, then use a smaller
when winding coils for other frequencies. 30 TURNS value for the regeneration capacitor. This
REGENERATION
When altering the reaction (feedback) WINDING) is because it's a series resonant circuit.
winding, keep in mind that too large a On the main winding, to keep the fre-
winding (too many turns) can give just as quency coverage similar if all you have is
much trouble as too small a winding. A a smaller value variable capacitor (say
large winding will tend to `kill' or `damp- 300pF instead of 500pF), then just add 20
MOUNTING FEET
en' the oscillation, generally over only to 30% more turns to the coil.
some of the wavebands. Too many turns If you wish to wind coils for coverage
on this winding will also mean that the Fig.8: Winding details for the broad- of the short wave bands, then you may
receiver is difficult to keep from oscillat- cast band coil. A loop through two need to reduce the value of the main tun-
ing and may be unstable. adjacent holes is used to anchor the ing condenser. This can be easily accom-
On the short wave frequencies, it's ends of each winding. plished by connecting a fixed 500pF (or
wise to use the RF choke in series with 470pF) ceramic or silver mica capacitor
the headphones, as this will make regen- from an old valve radio. in series with the 500pF tuning capacitor
eration smoother. However if you do It was customary in the 1930s to make unit. This will drop its value to 250pF,
use an RFC, then the value of the feed- the reaction winding with about 2/3 to which will restrict the tuning range a bit.
back capacitor (regeneration control) 3/4 as many turns as the main winding. I For operation on the higher short wave
will have to be reduced. It's easy to suspect this was done to allow for reli- bands, say above 10MHz, the main tuning
make a small-value capacitor by remov- able oscillation with the relatively low- capacitor can be reduced to 200 or 300pF,
ing about half of the plates from a old gain valves available then. With the and the regeneration capacitor reduced to
broadcast tuning capacitor, removed types of valves available today, it will be say l OOpF. This will enable you to
increase the number of tums on the coils,
giving a smoother control. The grid leak
capacitor can be reduced to lOopF or less
and the grid leak resistor can be increased
to 5MS2 or greater. A variable resistor
could be used for the grid leak, and its
adjustment, whilst not critical, can affect
the overall `tone' or sound of the receiver.

Smoother regeneration
Try connecting a 250kS2 variable resis-
tor in series with the screen grid. By-pass
this with a 0.1 uF capacitor to reduce the
electrical noise that's generated when
operating the potentiometer. This is
shown in Fig.9. The effect of this is to
give more stable control of regeneration,
but it also adds another control. (Four
hands are needed now!)
Ideally, the regenerative detector
should go into and out of oscillation
smoothly, with no effect on the frequency
of that oscillation. It would not be affect-
ed by hand capacity, would give the same
value of regeneration regardless of the
frequency used, and not be affected by the
A closer view from the rear, showing more of the wiring detail and also how the aerial swaying in the breeze (changing
valve socket is mounted up from the baseboard. aerial capacitance to earth and therefore
64 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1997
its loading). But in a practical design, RFC
these requirements are often conflicting. (IF USED)
Regardless, it is best to wind the `tick-
ler' or feedback winding of the tuning coil
at the ground or cathode end of the main
tuning or `grid' winding.. Use as few a 2 1T4 1nF ~
r—N
number of turns as necessary to get the 3
detector to reliably oscillate over the 0 + 27V
250kSZ
whole tuning range desired.
If the valve breaks into oscillation sud- 0.1 uF
1,5 7
denly as the regeneration is advanced
i.e., is uncontrollable try altering the o lro 0+1.5V
value of the grid leak resistor to a higher SWITCH
or lower value. Also, operating the valve
with too high a plate voltage or, in the
case of a pentode, too high a screen volt-
age will cause this problem. 0 COMMON
When connecting an aerial, the tighter
the coupling (or higher the induced signal)
the, more regeneration will be needed to Fig.9: With pentodes, smoother regeneration control can be achieved by
using a pot in series with screen grid.
achieve good selectivity. So try changing
the number of turns on the aerial coupling
winding. A small series aerial condenser,
as mentioned before, can also be used in 3 5
the aerial circuit to reduce these effects. G2 ' G3, F-

If you are using an aerial whose length 2 ,

4.6
Gi
is approaching resonance at the frequency ess
you are listening on, then the absorption
of energy from the detector will increase
A609 1T4 or 1L4
and it may not be possible to get any (6V at 60mA) (1.4V at 50mA)
Note that some A609s have
regeneration. This should only occur with pins 1 and 2 interchanged.
(inspect through glass)
really large aerials, say over 50 metres
long. In any case, using such a long aeri-
al with these simple detectors will result G2• G
H14•
5 H2
~►•q
in overload from local stations, unless 3 6(N.C.)
3J 1.7
you live in the bush and don't have any G1
(Top cap)
G1
2
powerful radio stations nearby. H1 H2
•
2
8
K1
3.21‘
Overloading problems from strong (N.C.) K
1‘1
1111111
1 A2
.11P"
Heater C.T
local stations can be sometimes fixed by
6U7 (G) 12AT7, 12AX7, 12AU7
connecting the aerial to a tapping on the (6.3V at 300mA) (12V at 150mA or 6.3V at 300mA)
aerial coil, or even a separate smaller
winding (i.e., fewer turns) wound over the
main aerial winding. This reduces the aer- Fig. 0: Base connection diagrams
ial coupling and makes the coupling from for the various valve types that can This shot shows how the capacitor
the aerial to the grid of the valve `looser' . be used in the receiver. All are spindles are extended through the
Several other effects may be noticed. shown viewed from below. front panel — see text.
The first of these is drifting due to the
presence of your hand. This is caused by effect, as the aerial coupling may be too brought out through this panel with insu-
your body's capacitance and manifests `tight' or the aerial too long. RF filtering lated extension shafts (say nylon, ebonite
itself by not being able to keep the station of the headphone leads with small series or Bakelite). This panel must be connect-
in tune when you move your hand away RF chokes and a l nF capacitor across ed to a good earth connection.
from the receiver. them can help. If this is too difficult, then lining the
Several things can be done to minimise Sometimes hand capacity effects are inside of the cabinet with aluminiun foil
this effect. The easiest is to make sure that caused by leakage in the RF choke, and and connecting it to the earth terminal can
the set has a good RF earth path. Check one with more windings or a greater help. If you are using an audio amplifier
whether the earth isn't efficient by moist- inductance can also help. Just make sure with the receiver, then connecting a RF
ening your finger and placing it on the that the DC resistance of it isn't too high, choke in series with the power supply to
radio's earth terminal. Any change in the or too much high tension voltage will be it can also help.
signal strength or drift is evidence of an dropped across it. It is easy to make up insulated exten-
inefficient earth connection. The cure to If all these measures fail, then screen- sion shafts for the tuning capacitors. All
this may mean a separate metal earth ing of the front panel of the receiver is that's needed is a small length of stiff but
stake, driven into a moist position and necessary. A separate metal (galvanised, flexible plastic tubing as used in the fuel
connected to the receiver. copper, aluminium, or a piece of unetched system of diesel vehicles, and an alumini-
Altering (usually reducing) the value PCB laminate etc) shield can be made up um screw or bolt of the same diameter as
of the small aerial coupling capacitor and fitted l0mm or so behind the front the shaft of the capacitor.
mentioned above can also prevent this panel. The three tuning controls can be Usually, most shafts on older type of
ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1997 65
 ONE-VALVE RADIO
capacitors are.1/4 inch, and modem tubing This is because the detector `pulls in' or transistor radio was also tried, with the
is the metric size of 6mm, which is slight- `blocks', because the signal controls the oscillator winding becoming the aerial
ly smaller than 1/4". Warm the end of the detector's oscillation frequency. This can winding and the original aerial winding
tubing up with some hot water and force it sometimes be remedied by increasing the the main tuning winding. (The oscillator
over the end of the capacitor shaft. Cut it regeneration slightly, or loosening (reduc- winding is the one with the least number
off to say 20mm long, and warm the open of turns). Another 20-odd turns were
end in hot water. Then force the bolt or added to the end of the rod for the feed-
screw into it, cut the head of the bolt off, back winding.
attach a knob to the end and your non-con- If enough interest is shown, an article
ducting shaft extension is finished. may follow giving details of an audio
amplifier, based on the same range of bat-
Operating tips tery valves. A further refinement may
one
As mentioned before, operatingp g a at ere current at well be an RF stage, givinga TRF or
regenerative receiver sometimes calls for h` ,-:--r.:.:::::::'.:~;~:::: tuned radio frequency receiver of the type
three hands, with possibly a extra one for that was top of the line and all the rage in
adjusting the volume control if you are the 1920s. We could also try reflexing of
using an audio amplifier! That said, it's the single valve to give loudspeaker
not difficult and after a few minutes use, c ne gang used) reception of local stations from one valve.
you should find it easy. Old style no s each
I begin by turning the regeneration con- Calibration
trol until a hiss or even a whistle is heard There are several `frequency standard'
enough oflIZ:400rt radio
ra0W001 shortwave stations on frequencies from
in the headphones. Then I move the tun-
ing capacitor very slowly, whilst keeping u b imper ce headphon s 3MHz to 15MHz. As these are very stable
the regeneration control just on the border and on known frequencies, they can be
of oscillating. When you pass a station, used to calibrate the receiver. Be aware
the receiver will you
ou then back Sii
t` though that the calibration of your receiv-
off the regeneration until the whistle corn nents er will vary a little, depending on the
stops, and rock the tuning control slightly mall cor pone► amount of regeneration that is being used
t e roa and the length of the aerial.
either side of the station. When it's tuned
in, some slight adjustment of the regener-
ation may be necessary, then a final touch Performance
of the tuning. ing) the `tightness' of the aerial coupling The perfoiniance of such simple sets
If you have an aerial tuning capacitor by opening the plates of the aerial cou- can be quite outstanding. Indeed, world-
fitted, then a slight adjustment of this to pling capacitor (reducing its capacitance). wide reception of broadcast stations was
bring the volume to its loudest level is Note that increasing the regeneration, as commonplace in the 1920s using almost
worthwhile. A slight readjustment of the well as preventing blocking, will tend to identical circuits.
regeneration control may be then neces- reduce the sensitivity for weak signals. The performance of the set shown in the
sary. It sounds complicated, but it will photos is amazing, considering the small
soon be second nature. Refinements number of parts used. It's superior to that
It's not good practice to operate the A slow motion dial can be added to the of a radio based on the ZN414 IC radio
receiver with the regeneration control tuning control to make it easier to operate. chip, and, in terms of sensitivity, is much
causing the detector to oscillate, as this If you wish, one can also be added to the better than that of a typical $5.00 Japanese
will cause interference to adjacent radios. regeneration capacitor as well, but it's not transistor radio except that we are
The radio is capable of receiving both really necessary. using headphones and not a loudspeaker.
SSB and CW signals as well. To tune in Instead of a slow motion dial, a small If you happen to live within 7km or so
these types of transmissions, the regenera- variable capacitor of about 50pF or so can of a AM broadcast station, then this
tion is advanced until it just starts to oscil- be added in parallel with the main tuning receiver could give loudspeaker reception
late. This will be noted by an audible capacitor. This will give a `bandspread' of the station if a suitable speaker cou-
`hiss' or even whistling in the headphones. action, or spread out the range of the main pling transformer were used.
At this point the SSB signal can be tuned tuning dial. To operate this way, set the At the writer's own location on the
in with the tuning dial, and the regenera- main tuning dial to approximately the set- south coast of NSW, about 120km south
tion adjusted to peak the signal strength. ting you wish to use, and the operate the of Sydney, daylight reception of all the
Both controls need to be adjusted together bandspread dial instead of the main tun- Sydney AM radio stations was possible,
as they interact with each other. ing dial. The reaction control should be with some interstate stations quite clear in
If you operate the detector into regener- operated the same way as before i.e, the headphones at night. Some NSW
ation too far, as well as causing interfer- follow the main tuning dial across the regional stations were audible during day-
ence, the battery and valve life will both band, keeping the receiver just on the light, such as Dubbo and Kempsey.
be reduced and the detector will not be verge of oscillating. All the local AM radio stations were
operated at its most sensitive point. A small variable capacitor of 20pF or crystal clear, with no sign of interference,
Note that when listening to a CW sig- so can also be put in parallel with the and it was easy to differentiate between
nal, there will be a point where the signal regeneration ccapacitor to give improved stations. there was no overlap of any of
seems to disappear into a zero beat, and a control. (Now six hands will be needed ! )
low pitched beat note can't be obtained. An old ferrite rod aerial from a dead (Continued on page 87)
66 ELECTRONICS Australia, June 1997
 its most sensitive point for every station
One-Valve Radio not just an average for the whole range
(Continued from page 66) covered, as is the case for a modem
receiver design.
them, which was really surprising consid- I'd like to end with a quote from a
ering there is only one tuned circuit 1920s Wireless World magazine: `Be a
involved. They are between 20 and 30km good radio neighbour and don't let your
away from me. The aerial is an `inverted receiver howl (or oscillate) as it spoils the
L' about 10m on one leg and 30m the radio reception for others around you'.
other leg. In actual fact, the local stations
were almost too loud for comfortable lis- References
tening with the headphones, and the If you can get hold of any of these
regeneration control had to be backed off books, they'll provide interesting further
to reduce the volume a bit. reading:
Whilst it was once possible to 'hear the Newnes Television and Short Wave
World' with this type of receiver, Handbook, published by George Newnes
remember that there probably were no Ltd 1934.
more than 1000 radio broadcasting sta- RCA Receiving Tube Manual series RC-
tions in the whole world in the 1920's. 20-1953.
Now we have 1000s just in Australia, and The Radio Amateurs Handbook, pub-
interstate broadcast band reception on lished by ARRL America (almost any
such a simple set is more a matter of luck year).
and conditions, rather than design limita- Fun With Radio, by Gilbert Davy, pub-
tions of the receiver... lished by Edmund Warden Ltd 1971.
However, given a reasonable aerial (say Fun With Electronics, by Gilbert Davy,
greater than 30m and as high as possible) published by Kaye and Warde Ltd 1972.
and some skill, a lot of fun and enjoyment The Oscillation Valve, by R.D. Bangay,
can be had from such a modest receiver. published by The Wireless Press, London
The fun is in getting the best from the 1920.
receiver. In most modem receivers the Philips `Miniwatt' Technical Data Book,
gain is set and all you can do is reduce it, 7th edition 1972.
but with the type of set just described, you Radio TV & Hobbies, November 1950,
control the gain and can set the detector to page 74. ❖