Garry Nichols
2009

Comments

A few notes on my J310 Regen.
1) I came up with an idea on how to spread out the vernier dial so I could have a bigger scale. I took off the original dial plate and used two of the 3 screw postions to mount a longer pointer made out of solid hookup wire.
2) There was not much reduction offered by the single vernier, so I stuck a "bigger knob" onto the front of the original knob with double sided foam mounting square material. This is the "heavy duty" or "permanent" kind made by Scotch. Don't use the "removable" -- it's too flexible.
3) I cover the bottom of the BCB by adding the second variable's section with the test clip shown.
4) All listening was done with only the ferrite bar antenna from a rocking chair on in a second floor room of a wood frame house with "aluminium" siding.
5) This set has posed the following problem for me:

When tuning very weak stations (only) I can never find a point where the signal is completely clarified. There is always a bit of a "gurgle" to the audio. My understanding is that regens tend to "lock" onto a sig. I think that which ever sig is stronger, the station or the oscillating detector, is "pulled" to the other's frequency. So I am wondering if weak sigs don't allow this effect to take place. With the sidebands of an AM sig constantly changing frequency (slightly), maybe that is why my set never tunes to complete clarity with a weak signal. It is definitely not a tuning rate problem. For a while I was using a drive that had a 96:1 reduction and the cap only tuned part of the band! Reducing the source bias or the B+ does not seem to cure this -- I just loose sensitivity. I substituted another J310 and there was no change. Any thoughts or guesses on this that anyone might have would be appreciated.

My second entry -- a Minimalist Crystal Radio setup:

1) The antenna was about 27 ft of insulated wire that ran 5 ft to the window and the rest sloping at about 45 deg to a brick on the lawn (with insulator).
2) The "ground" was a 3 ft run to a two draw steel filing cabinet beside the desk on the second floor. A very noticable improvement.
3) The coil is a Rook using #21 enameled.
4) The crystal earplugs were just purchased from Mouser and had to be tapped on the desk quite strongly before each use. Otherwise at least one was not sensitive or completely dead. The resurrection by tapping was dramatic and they worked fine after the "treatment", sound great and are quite comfortable. Parallel resistance did not seem to offer an advantage -- it just changed the tone a bit.
5) The diode is a 1N34A that had the highest back resistance of the handfull that I have.
It would seem that almost everyone can do a bit of DXing with practically nothing, provided the "nothing" is carefully chosen and used!

Thank you,
Garry Nichols





JFET Radio











Crystal Set





Log

2009 Radioboard Listening Contest -- two logs below					
					
Garry Nichols  8264 Sugarland Drive  Manlius, NY 13104  (315)682-3251
			
					
Single J310 Regen and only a ferrite bar antenna on rig.
 Number	Date	EDT	CALL	kHz	Location
1	27-Jul	PM1002	WSYR	570	Syracuse, NY
2		1004	WHEN	620	Syracuse, NY
3		1005	WMAL	630	Washington, D.C.
4		1007	WSM	650	Nashville, TN
5		1010	WSCR	670	Chicago, IL
6		1013	WGN	720	Chicago, IL
7		1019	WHCU	870	Ithaca, NY
8		1032	WFIR	960	Roanoke, VA
9		1036	WMVP	1000	Chicago, IL
10		1100	CFTR	680	Toronto, ON
11		1101	WLW	700	Cincinnati, OH
12		1103	WJR	760	Detroit, MI
13		1106	WBBM	780	Chicago, IL
14		1115	CFRB	1010	Toronto, ON
15		1148	WFAN	660	New York, NY
16		1204	WLS	890	Chicago, IL
17		AM1206	CHML	900	Hamilton, ON
18		1206	WCBS	880	New York, NY
19	28-Jul	PM  857	WQEW	1560	New York, NY
20		903	WFED	1500	Washington, D.C.
21		920	WBAL	1090	Baltimore, MD
22		922	KYW	1060	Philadelphia, PA
23		933	CKLW	800	Windsor, ON
24		936	WSB	750	Atlanta, GA
25		940	CHWO	740	Toronto, ON
26		1023	WBZ	1030	Boston, MA
27		1027	CP24	1050	Toronto, ON
28		1026	WTAM	1100	Cleveland, OH
29		1030	WWVA	1170	Wheeling, WV
30		1034	WHAM	1180	Rochester, NY
31		1038	WNSS	1260	Syracuse, NY
32		1041	CKPC	1380	Brantford, ON
33		1043	WFBL	1390	Syracuse, NY
34		1050	WCKY	1530	Cincinnati, OH
35		1107	WWL	870	New Orleans, LA
36	29-Jul	PM  833	WGY	810	Albany, NY
37		835	WWLZ	820	Horseheads, NY
38		839	CINW	940	Montreal, QU
39		844	WDCX	990	Rochester, NY
40		846	KDKA	1020	Pittsburgh, PA
41		854	WDFN	1130	Detroit, MI
42		859	WBBR	1130	New York, NY
43		902	WTIC	1080	Hartford, CT
44		903	WBT	1110	Charlotte, NC
45		932	WHAS	840	Louisville, KY
46		935	WBEN	930	Buffalo, NY
47		1000	WTLA	1200	N. Syracuse, NY
48		1005	WPHT	1210	Philadelphia, PA
49		1100	KMOX	1120	St. Louis, MO
50		1118	KXEL	1540	Waterloo, IA
51	30-Jul	PM  929	CIGM	790	Sudbury, ON
52		954	CKDO	1580	Oshawa, ON
53		959	WKBW	1520	Buffalo, NY
54		1004	CBE	1550	Windsor, ON
55		1058	WCDL	1440	Carbondale, PA
56		1106	WRVA	1140	Richmond, VA
57		1107	WOWO	1190	Ft. Wayne, IN
58	31-Jul	PM  900	CJYE	1250	Toronto, ON
59		908	WFNN	1330	Erie, PA
60		922	WABC	770	New York, NY
61		928	CHOK	1070	Sarnia, ON
62		932	WHKW	1220	Cleveland, OH
63		934	WEBO	1330	Owego, NY
64		955	WTDY	1670	Madison, WI
65		1000	WQLR	1660	Kalamazoo, MI
66		1039	WAKR	1590	Akron, OH
67		1107	WHK	1420	Cleveland, OH
68	1-Aug	PM 1032	WAAM	1600	Ann Arbor, MI
69	2-Aug	PM  308	WSEN	1050	Syracuse, NY
70		312	WSFW	1110	Seneca Falls, NY
71		337	WOLF	1490	Syracuse, NY
72		338	WSIV	1540	E. Syracuse, NY
73		339	WMCR	1600	Oneida, NY
74		846	WHTK	1280	Rochester, NY
75		900	WXXI	1370	Rochester, NY
76		937	CKNX	920	Wingham, ON
77	3-Aug	AM  559	CFRA	580	Ottawa, ON  
78		604	WOR	710	New York, NY
					
Tuggle tuner with minimal outdoor antenna, filing cabinet ground.	
Number	Date	EDT	Call	Freq	Location
1	7-Aug	PM  900	WQEW	1560	New York, NY
2		902	WFBL	1390	Syracuse, NY
3		907	KDKA	1020	Pittsburgh, PA
4		918	KYW	1060	Philadelphia, PA
5		931	WWVA	1170	Wheeling, WV
6		933	WKBW	1520	Buffalo, NY
7		936	WHEN	620	Syracuse, NY
8		937	WSYR	570	Syracuse, NY
9		937	CFRB	1010	Toronto, ON
10		946	CHWO	740	Toronto, ON
11		952	CP24	1050	Toronto, ON
12		954	WAAM	1600	Ann Arbor, MI
13		959	WTAM	1100	Cleveland, OH
14		1005	WBBR	1130	New York, NY
15		1025	WMVP	1000	Chicago, IL
16		1028	WPHT	1210	Philadelphia, PA
17		1100	WBBM	780	Chicago, IL
18		1106	WBT	1110	Charlotte, NC
19	8-Aug	AM1025	WSIV	1540	Syracuse, NY
20		1026	WOLF	1490	Syracuse, NY