This was a very intresting program to Me. I will see it again for more details. So I still building the low volt regen. I like the last conclusion. Regens are the best receivers in the World. Thanks to share and teach. One more thing. I am LU7AMQ here in argentina. So.... 73'S!
Mike, this regens series you're doing is GREAT !!! As winter sets in here my head is spinning with project ideas. Can't wait for you to delve into that little broadcast beauty behind you !!! AWESOME STUFF 👍
As a kid, many of us dreamed of building the one tube regenerative receiver in Alfred Morgan's, Boys First Book of Radio and Electronics. That excitement lives on.
I love your videos and have learned a lot from them. Thank you for making them! You mentioned Chappy Happy...I also like his videos and hope he will start making them again.
Great video Mike, as always - even three years after you uploaded it 🙂. Around 16:55 you discuss the interstage transformer. The primary and secondary impedances you mention, and the values on the R29 schematic, give a 1:3 impedance ratio. In most writing I've seen about regens though, and in your own videos on the low-voltage regen, it's the turns ratio that's 1:3 so the impedance ratio is much higher. Typical valve interstage transformers in the '30s also seem to have had turns ratios of 1:3 or 1:3.5. Is the R29 set a special case, and if so can you recommend a source for that transformer please? The turns ratio would be a bit unusual - only 4:7 or about 1:2. Thanks.
Think the R-390 was actually classified when it first was released...think the product detector accessory made it a bit better on SSB. Thanks for sharing Mike!
Have you ever seen the pics of R390s by the scores, on pallets, In the open awaiting destruction..my emotion: sad, angry and confused all at the same time...
I had one of those converters that worked off the 455 kHz IF. It worked OK but did add noise. Ultimately I did a 6BE6 SSB conversion in mine. Did it on a 51-J3 as well. Not great but better than a diode.
Only three hours earlier I was looking at a schematic from 1940 and could not understand what the 100 ohm center tap potentiometer did in a directly heated radio. Thank you very much for all this information.
I love your videos Mike and you have inspired me to get back to my teenage hobby of building Heathkits and other things. I have a 1926 era radio like the one on the shelf behind you. Has been sitting on the shelf for years. Never knew if it was worth the effort to try to as you said "power it up". Originally it had a plug in metal horn type speaker but that was lost over the years. Looking forward to following your next video to power that radio up. Mine is a Polle Royal with 5 201A tubes.
Ha Ha Weighing in at 85 pounds in the Collins camp the Mighty R390A that can brush off a EMP pulse with ease .And in the Armstrong camp coming in with a lot of ( positive feed back ) the little hot rod the Rejen R29 And in my Estimation ( my thoughts only) its virtually a tie .dont get me wrong I would jump at the chance to own a R390A. But on -cost -Easy build and -size and - performance the R29 ticks all the boxes .A very Fascinateing and Enjoyable video. And have just subscribed.
The ability of the components to withstand some level of EMP is assured with the old R390. Early solid state radios sometimes used tubes in just the front end for the same reason. The modern car is protected by good shielding - to some level.
"The R390 was designed to be placed on one frequency, and left there forever". Ummmmm. I dunno..I wasn't present at the design of the radio..however I was a morse intercept operator in asia during the sixties, and scan, and roll the dial, and search we did.. eight hour shifts were short duty..12 on 12 off was more the norm, and if you weren't copying a man, you were searching for one.. That old dial was tight, and many suffered from what was known as R390 wrist.. but she was a grand old box.. Oh, by the way, I like regens and other simple radios also..thanks for the video..it's always been a puzzle how a regen can perform as well as it does, given it's simplicity..
grs6262 I bet that you could hear morse as you fell asleep. I know supermarket cash-out staff who say that the same thing happens with the constant beep of scanning product for pricing. However when I say that I got that effect when learning morse code, they say "What's morse code?"
@@MauriatOttolink @MauriatOttolink ''very astute observation--yes, code in sleep--code in horns honking..code in darned near everything one would hear--even birds chirping--some guys came close to nervous breakdown--others went ahead and had the breakdowns-- the thing that most bothered me was that i dreamed of typing, servicing and labeling the skeds that we copied--just copying what was sent wasn't all that was required--there was a ton of bookkeeping and explanation required of the intercept op----all of the extra paperwork had to be performed while the station was still sending---then there was the second station, the one your control was talking to, which also must be copied--one station in one ear; the second station in the other ear--that i dreamed of it is a bland description--i had nightmares of a sort-- after a few months on the job, things settled down, we gained experience and became better at our jobs--we became seasoned ops--but the first few months were a real experience
Well, something (or someone-hope not an NSA security monitor☻) made hash of the above post...I guess I might be able to get by with merely saying, it was an involved and intense occupation😏
Hello Mike! Again you've created a great video on regens, a lot of very useful tech information for builders. Great set of schematics. Hey, I know a couple of drawings there! I take of my hat for your work!
1:12 I burst out laughing! What a great piece of video. You are the best! Now... My week is much better on a Wednesday night. Let me finish the rest of the video. I just aquired this weekend an Air Champ AC-100 almost complete with the shortwave coils. Missing the "telephone" earpiece. A dynamic headset with a 1,000 to 3,000 ohm impedance should work, no? I have a crystal earpiece but it's very faint. I have about 25 feet of antenna wire and a ground on the kitchen faucet. It uses a 3Q4 with a D-cell on the filament and 22.5 volt plate battery. I used 2 then 3 9 volt batteries. Slightly better with 27 volts, but still very faint. I see your video suggesting an inductive plate load. I haven't yet tried that. Many beats so I suspect it's pretty sensitive. I can get it to oscillate. I get about ten stations. It's largely unintelligible though except for 3 or 4 stations. Any ideas? Try another tube? Do you have a good headset to sell me or recommend one? I love the simplicity and..... Integration, synergy? of regen. I have a Vectronics VEC-102 I play with occasionally. It's pretty amazing. One day I'll run a good random and a ground and I'm sure it will really wake up. Thanks and God Bless!
Wow nice work! A single 3Q4 regen will need a good antenna and a sensitive headset. I do not think that you are far off from success and that is enough voltage with a good headset. One of my first regens was a 3V4 with about 80V on it. I think you need one more stage ( an audio amp) for your headset so you can hear more and figure out how the changes make improvements.
What about ditching the two high voltage B+ and use two KORG 6P1 Dual Triode flat tubes, B+ can be 48V, Heater can be 2V and give off very little heat, and you might be able to use 3X KORG 6P1 configured as a double balanced mixer like the SO42P but using vacuum tubes as the front end and a TRF as the demodulation stage with an Intermediate Frequency of 455KHZ or if you don't like the flat vacuum tubes then what about the 3X 12AT7 vacuum tubes configured like the internal circuit of a SO42P.
When I was a kid in the 60's and reading every electronics hobbyist magazine I could get my hands on, regenerative radios seemed to have a bad reputation. At best they were hopelessly obsolete, at worst they were polluters of the RF spectrum. If you had to build one, at least you should put an RF stage before the detector. I never agreed with those who knocked them, and I'm glad to see what a comeback they have made with experimenters. Keep 'em coming!
Oh fear of some new threat is good magazine copy - radiation from your regen, harmonics from your 100 mW transmitter - Ha Watch out or the snooper truck will get you!
I am very amazed at the flexibility of the regen vs the R390. Shows there is something to say in the old saying that simpler is better. Not always true, but obviously true in this case. Thank you for sharing this gem! Now then, you built that other regen and never fired it up?!?! That had better be the next video you show us since you let THAT cat out of the bag!
Regenerative DC-3 at less than 40 Dollars. That gives you the parts. And run it on a bit higher voltage on the plates. And take your time on building it into a nice metal chassis with a front panel all aluminum and find an old Vernier dial for another 20 or so dollars.
wow i thought that was a 30s built regen you used.. very sweet. a power supply video for regens would be cool. maybe a homebrew bench supply variable...
By the mid 1920's, TRF sets had replaced the regens, and the Superhet was coming on strong. Tech was fast then. I actually believe that the rate of adoption of new technology was faster than with cellphones in the 90's.
Many ways to go here! A 12SA7 Pentagrid could do it alone - or just a dual Triode with one section as the oscillator and one as a product detector ... Maybe a single balanced affair with a dual diode or triode... with a separate oscillator...
@@MIKROWAVE1 Sounds most interesting Mike. I'd love to see and hear you design and build a valve DC that I'd know I'd build too.,,and then do some comparisons against your in-house Regens. Thanks again for the channel Mike...an oasis of calm in the midst of all the nonsense...
30 years ago I built an amplified crystal radio and could not believe the clear sound of the local station compared with any other radio in the house. Noise, hiss and all kinds of distortion just vanished. Until that point AM was that bad setting on the dial where you never wanted to be.
Bravo profesore.
Svaka čast kad tebe gledam i slušam ne spava mi se.kod nas je sadašnji ponoć. 73 milan i Cooking recepti.
This was a very intresting program to Me. I will see it again for more details. So I still building the low volt regen. I like the last conclusion. Regens are the best receivers in the World.
Thanks to share and teach. One more thing. I am LU7AMQ here in argentina. So.... 73'S!
Very nice Julian! The R390A is my everyday receiver to be sure - but the Regen and other simpler vintage receivers are fun to use.
Great Video and Information !!!
Mike, this regens series you're doing is GREAT !!! As winter sets in here my head is spinning with project ideas. Can't wait for you to delve into that little broadcast beauty behind you !!! AWESOME STUFF 👍
Steven Litkey , I hope he puts a link to the new broadcast regen set in this "SEE MORE" area!
Great build. Excellent demonstration plus thoughtful commentary. Very informative. Thank you OM.
As a kid, many of us dreamed of building the one tube regenerative receiver in Alfred Morgan's, Boys First Book of Radio and Electronics. That excitement lives on.
I have that coil at 2:31. It was in an old diy radio. I put together my first regen. My frequency range is real short. I will figure it out yet
I love your videos and have learned a lot from them. Thank you for making them! You mentioned Chappy Happy...I also like his videos and hope he will start making them again.
Great video Mike, as always - even three years after you uploaded it 🙂.
Around 16:55 you discuss the interstage transformer. The primary and secondary impedances you mention, and the values on the R29 schematic, give a 1:3 impedance ratio. In most writing I've seen about regens though, and in your own videos on the low-voltage regen, it's the turns ratio that's 1:3 so the impedance ratio is much higher. Typical valve interstage transformers in the '30s also seem to have had turns ratios of 1:3 or 1:3.5.
Is the R29 set a special case, and if so can you recommend a source for that transformer please? The turns ratio would be a bit unusual - only 4:7 or about 1:2. Thanks.
Great video. I keep learning from you. Big thanks.
Think the R-390 was actually classified when it first was released...think the product detector accessory made it a bit better on SSB. Thanks for sharing Mike!
Have you ever seen the pics of R390s by the scores, on pallets, In the open awaiting destruction..my emotion:
sad, angry and confused all at the same time...
@@grs6262 Yes, I have seen the terrible photo! I THINK it was actually somewhat near me here in Virginia at one of the Navy DRMOs. What a waste! Sad!
I had one of those converters that worked off the 455 kHz IF. It worked OK but did add noise. Ultimately I did a 6BE6 SSB conversion in mine. Did it on a 51-J3 as well. Not great but better than a diode.
Only three hours earlier I was looking at a schematic from 1940 and could not understand what the 100 ohm center tap potentiometer did in a directly heated radio. Thank you very much for all this information.
Great Adrian. Those pots allow the hum to be balanced out instead of modulating the signal or adding to the the audio at 60 Hz.
I love your videos Mike and you have inspired me to get back to my teenage hobby of building Heathkits and other things. I have a 1926 era radio like the one on the shelf behind you. Has been sitting on the shelf for years. Never knew if it was worth the effort to try to as you said "power it up". Originally it had a plug in metal horn type speaker but that was lost over the years. Looking forward to following your next video to power that radio up. Mine is a Polle Royal with 5 201A tubes.
Wow pretty fancy radio! Good luck bringing her back to life!
Incredible sensitivity on that regen. Nice comparison.
I used the 40M and 80M sets in the AWA contest this year and can report that I heard ALL.
Ha Ha Weighing in at 85 pounds in the Collins camp the Mighty R390A that can brush off a EMP pulse with ease .And in the Armstrong camp coming in with a lot of ( positive feed back ) the little hot rod the Rejen R29 And in my Estimation ( my thoughts only) its virtually a tie .dont get me wrong I would jump at the chance to own a R390A. But on -cost -Easy build and -size and - performance the R29 ticks all the boxes .A very Fascinateing and Enjoyable video. And have just subscribed.
The ability of the components to withstand some level of EMP is assured with the old R390. Early solid state radios sometimes used tubes in just the front end for the same reason. The modern car is protected by good shielding - to some level.
"The R390 was designed to be placed on one frequency, and left there forever".
Ummmmm. I dunno..I wasn't present at the design of the radio..however I was a morse intercept operator in asia during the sixties, and scan, and roll the dial, and search we did.. eight hour shifts were short duty..12 on 12 off was more the norm, and if you weren't copying a man, you were searching for one..
That old dial was tight, and many suffered from what was known as R390 wrist.. but she was a grand old box..
Oh, by the way, I like regens and other simple radios also..thanks for the video..it's always been a puzzle how a regen can perform as well as it does, given it's simplicity..
Wow that was hard duty. My wrist hurts too when I play with the R390 too long! It is my main station receiver.
grs6262
I bet that you could hear morse as you fell asleep.
I know supermarket cash-out staff who say that the same thing happens with the constant beep
of scanning product for pricing. However when I say that I got that effect when learning morse code, they say "What's morse code?"
@@MauriatOttolink I used to do some CW contests and yes it is like the brain is still going full blast- beep beeep
@@MauriatOttolink
@MauriatOttolink ''very astute observation--yes, code in sleep--code in horns honking..code in darned near everything one would hear--even birds chirping--some guys came close to nervous breakdown--others went ahead and had the breakdowns--
the thing that most bothered me was that i dreamed of typing, servicing and labeling the skeds that we copied--just copying what was sent wasn't all that was required--there was a ton of bookkeeping and explanation required of the intercept op----all of the extra paperwork had to be performed while the station was still sending---then there was the second station, the one your control was talking to, which also must be copied--one station in one ear; the second station in the other ear--that i dreamed of it is a bland description--i had nightmares of a sort--
after a few months on the job, things settled down, we gained experience and became better at our jobs--we became seasoned ops--but the first few months were a real experience
Well, something (or someone-hope not an NSA security monitor☻) made hash of the above post...I guess I might be able to get by with merely saying, it was an involved and intense occupation😏
Many years ago I was such! I built these Regens around amping up the performance of MK484(ZN414 ) Rcvr Crkts produced a couple successful models
That was a big fad device for a while! I also remember the 703 IF amp and later the CA3028 diff amps.
Hello Mike! Again you've created a great video on regens, a lot of very useful tech information for builders. Great set of schematics. Hey, I know a couple of drawings there! I take of my hat for your work!
any suggestions for books which may include the strange use of transistors in clever ways, I agree about mr.chappy... great artistic circuits
1:12 I burst out laughing! What a great piece of video. You are the best! Now... My week is much better on a Wednesday night. Let me finish the rest of the video.
I just aquired this weekend an Air Champ AC-100 almost complete with the shortwave coils. Missing the "telephone" earpiece. A dynamic headset with a 1,000 to 3,000 ohm impedance should work, no? I have a crystal earpiece but it's very faint. I have about 25 feet of antenna wire and a ground on the kitchen faucet.
It uses a 3Q4 with a D-cell on the filament and 22.5 volt plate battery. I used 2 then 3 9 volt batteries. Slightly better with 27 volts, but still very faint. I see your video suggesting an inductive plate load. I haven't yet tried that.
Many beats so I suspect it's pretty sensitive. I can get it to oscillate. I get about ten stations. It's largely unintelligible though except for 3 or 4 stations. Any ideas? Try another tube? Do you have a good headset to sell me or recommend one?
I love the simplicity and..... Integration, synergy? of regen.
I have a Vectronics VEC-102 I play with occasionally. It's pretty amazing. One day I'll run a good random and a ground and I'm sure it will really wake up.
Thanks and God Bless!
Wow nice work! A single 3Q4 regen will need a good antenna and a sensitive headset. I do not think that you are far off from success and that is enough voltage with a good headset. One of my first regens was a 3V4 with about 80V on it. I think you need one more stage ( an audio amp) for your headset so you can hear more and figure out how the changes make improvements.
What about ditching the two high voltage B+ and use two KORG 6P1 Dual Triode flat tubes, B+ can be 48V, Heater can be 2V and give off very little heat, and you might be able to use 3X KORG 6P1 configured as a double balanced mixer like the SO42P but using vacuum tubes as the front end and a TRF as the demodulation stage with an Intermediate Frequency of 455KHZ or if you don't like the flat vacuum tubes then what about the 3X 12AT7 vacuum tubes configured like the internal circuit of a SO42P.
As usual I know nothing about these devices! Of course the whole audio world is several MEVs more nuts than the Regen world.
When I was a kid in the 60's and reading every electronics hobbyist magazine I could get my hands on, regenerative radios seemed to have a bad reputation. At best they were hopelessly obsolete, at worst they were polluters of the RF spectrum. If you had to build one, at least you should put an RF stage before the detector. I never agreed with those who knocked them, and I'm glad to see what a comeback they have made with experimenters. Keep 'em coming!
Oh fear of some new threat is good magazine copy - radiation from your regen, harmonics from your 100 mW transmitter - Ha Watch out or the snooper truck will get you!
@@MIKROWAVE1 Ha! As I said I never bought into it. My latest regen uses a 24 detector and a 27 audio stage.
Oh Boy... Do you ever produce some knock out videos! And here's me with a shelf of Icoms and Yaesu stuff.
Thank you...
Looking forward to hearing the Broadcast Regen behind you Mike. I've just dug a 1920s Regen out of a SK garage. Will be resurrecting shortly.
Done! Watch for the video.
I am very amazed at the flexibility of the regen vs the R390. Shows there is something to say in the old saying that simpler is better. Not always true, but obviously true in this case. Thank you for sharing this gem!
Now then, you built that other regen and never fired it up?!?! That had better be the next video you show us since you let THAT cat out of the bag!
So if you have not seen the old regen come alive, do watch the video. It lives!
What regen kit would you recommend that is available now that costs less than $70 ??? I am retired and on a fixed income. Thank you !
Regenerative DC-3 at less than 40 Dollars. That gives you the parts. And run it on a bit higher voltage on the plates. And take your time on building it into a nice metal chassis with a front panel all aluminum and find an old Vernier dial for another 20 or so dollars.
wow i thought that was a 30s built regen you used.. very sweet. a power supply video for regens would be cool. maybe a homebrew bench supply variable...
By the mid 1920's, TRF sets had replaced the regens, and the Superhet was coming on strong. Tech was fast then. I actually believe that the rate of adoption of new technology was faster than with cellphones in the 90's.
I built a regen and the only thing that worked was the delux front panel led
Mike - just a thought. Could you make a video discussing Regens vs Direct Conversions. I find DC outstanding on CW. A valve DC would be fun.
Many ways to go here! A 12SA7 Pentagrid could do it alone - or just a dual Triode with one section as the oscillator and one as a product detector ... Maybe a single balanced affair with a dual diode or triode... with a separate oscillator...
@@MIKROWAVE1 Sounds most interesting Mike. I'd love to see and hear you design and build a valve DC that I'd know I'd build too.,,and then do some comparisons against your in-house Regens. Thanks again for the channel Mike...an oasis of calm in the midst of all the nonsense...
@@MIKROWAVE1 hvala profesore best 73 milan samo napred...
Was using my Regen this evening. 1938 three valves. Compared to my Yaesu 857 it's far clearer / more natural sounding and less noisy.
30 years ago I built an amplified crystal radio and could not believe the clear sound of the local station compared with any other radio in the house. Noise, hiss and all kinds of distortion just vanished. Until that point AM was that bad setting on the dial where you never wanted to be.
All of those stages add gain - and distortion and noise, unfortunately.
So funny and true!
Sorry, read title as "Reagan nuts"...
had to agree.
:D
Thanks! Now that is all I see too! Well there you go again...
Hi.
Gotta love that clear musical regen sound!
ARC5 owner, please help. KN4ECM
I looked for your email on QRZ yesterday.