TheRadioBoard

Yup It is a UX201A but I did go and check. It may be using less but I am using it more. I have my 6SL7 regen working to darn near perfection so I put a crystal in my spotter (7400 chip osc. )push the button and zero beat it on freq. Then I make a qso an shut it off. If I have used it on freq already it is just turn on and go because its TX is a 50l6 rockbound rig. I might be on 15 minutes at best. With this rig I have spent hours playing adjusting fiddling etc. I can almost do the CHU time signal by heart for the whole day. Last night I was not quiting till I could copy a Qso or station with a sign off. As luck would have it first station I copied was W1AW so I would be a long while waiting for their sign off. There was a lot of QRM for a while and with no audio amp like a twin triode it is not as easy to flollow the signal thrugh the smoke. I hunted around for one in the clear and finally copied F5IN calling CQ DX . I listened to him call for a while and then quit for the night. By then the set was getting quiet. My batteries are not bouncing back well either. I need a better 6 volt set up. Right now I am using a camera battery from an old retired video camera. (Tape style) So I have no doubt your assesment is right. It just seemed so to me. You seem to have a lot of knowledge on these style radios. I would be interested if you have a 201 or 201 A circuit you like. This one was more or less what I thought I would like to build revamped till i got decent perfomance. My other regen thugh is like having a Collins R390 compared to this little deal. It is however period correct for my 1920s station and it does work sufficiently well to use in a QSO which is what I wanted. I pitched the idea of a vintage ham station to a member of the local museum board during a speaking engagement thursady to a WI group. They have actvity weekends four times per year and I already do a fiddle making deal for them every Labour Day so I gave it a shot. The idea was very well recieved. i will pursue it further next week. Maybe I can get a special call for operating there. People dont realized Ham radio was around when folks still used horses. We have a decent museum . They even have a 500 HP Goldie Corliss steam engine so technology from the past is welcome. They even sometimes have a vintage parlour radio display (non working)
Don VE3LYX

Hi Don,

My favorite 1920's radio receiver circuit is the Browning-Drake, which was very popular with radio kit builders through most of the 1920s. Here are a few links with information about this radio:

http://www.io.com/~nielw/browning_drake/BD_Rcvr.htm

http://www.oldradiobuilder.com/BDR.html

http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jimlowe/Browning%20Drake.htm

http://antiqueradios.org/gazette/bd1.htm

http://antiqueradios.org/gazette/bd2.htm

http://antiqueradios.org/gazette/bd3.htm

http://antiqueradios.org/gazette/bd4.htm

http://www.oldradiobuilder.com/Nielsen% ... Drake.html

http://www.clarion.org.au/browning-drake/BuildBD.htm

http://www.clarion.org.au/browning-drak ... gDrake.htm

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30353/article.html

Yup, it seems to be popular among vintage radio builders, even today! It had a tuned RF amp, neutralized, of course. Triode RF amps have a nasty tendency to oscillate due to plate to grid capacitance. A little negative feedback, controlled by a balancing condenser, solved that. Eventually, screen grid tetrodes were developed to better solve the problem, but neutralization is very 1920's! The RF stage was followed by a regenerative detector and one or more AF amp stages. Very nice!

Some other good ideas can be found in the 'Knock Out' receivers booklet, at the link below:

http://oldradios.co.nz/downloads/1920's ... eivers.pdf

Have fun!

_________________
Norman,
Over 30 years
as KA1GUK

Thanks. I have this one working not bad. I made a proper schematic for it but I havent a clue how to post it here. Doesnt make sense to me how it is done.
I am going to check those links out before turning in. I am about to embark on an attempt to build a more exotic regen. Still vntage parts but more an eye to performance than worry about correctness year wise. I have three 56 tubes. One a light bulb glass. Three 58s Three 45s and a good 71A. I have sockets. Some high quality trimmer caps. A three gang variable cap. Some 100K pots. I am thinking a tracking rf stage a regen stage and a identical coil for a transmitter stage. All tuned from the one variable three gang. I am leaning towards the indirectly heated tubes. 56 and 58 . I also have some 6k6 and 6k7s Anyway that is tomoorws work. I will draw schematic and go from there.
Don VE3LYX

Radio is now completley finished and working well. I tried it on the Shortwave broadcast area of 40 meters and couple will actually hurt your ears even though there is no seperate audio amp. I have spent a few hours copying CW as well. S to N ratio must be very good as there is no noise to speak off. Sometimes you wonder if it is working but the stations are there and strong. I have it painted and labeled it as well.
I have to get a 40M ant up so I can put it to work with its mate TX a UX245 TNT. I made them matching.
BTW I visited the Hammond (Transformer co) Museum of Radio in Guelph Ontario last friday. Unbelievable! Thousands (literly No bunk) of radios on display from some of the first ever to the 60s and 70s.. Broadcast Amatuer Military and Marine. No charge. Donation as you see fit. Had no idea it was so extensive.
Don VE3LYX

Automatic break-in
This recver has a couple of neat things I have discovered when using it trying to make a contact on 40M.
If I turn the regen cap to max just under where it blanks out ,which is also it most sensitive spot, when I key by TX it overloads just enough it blanks out and I get performence not unlike automatic break-in . I can stil quietly hear the tx sort of like a poormans sidetone but my ears dont hurt. It pops back to full recieve mode as soon as I stop transmitting with just a slight lag, about a 1/2 second.
I like that.
Also this set has a very very low noise level but I can still hear the signals. Why I dont really know.
Don VE3LYX.