David Newkirk recently put up a nice website on ham radio. The page below provides details on the amazing creation pictured above: The BGCD: "The Byron Goodman -- Clinton DeSoto Regenerodyne." It is a beautiful piece of work, made more beautiful by the metal containers used in construction: pencil, candy and tea tins. The circuit is based on a 1937 QST article.
David's site reminded me of the wonderful writing of his father, Rod Newkirk of "How's DX" fame. More on him in due course.
More on the BGCD here:
http://dpnwritings.nfshost.com/ej/pictures/pictures1.htm?fbclid=IwAR2-lmJ8E1kEBT_jsB3Q8UnPaN0vc472dP783ifABK7eSxgpe5M1Pl0N77g
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I realize people use "regenerodyne" and ustify it by its design, but functionally this isn' very different from Frank Jones' "suoergainer" from about the same time. h
ReplyDeleteHe added a converter stage to a regen detector, simpler than a superhet but less finicky than a straight regen.
The difference is that the supergainer used a variable oscillator into the mixer, and the "IF" was fixed, and the "regenerodyne" used a fixed oscillator and the regen was variable.
I have never thought the difference warranted a name change. Frank Jones name describes how well it works, "regenerodyne" focuses on the regen detector, when both amount to simple superhets. It may make for simpler design by making the local oscillator fixed, but functionally both would have the same gain and other specs.
A direct conversion receiver with a converter ahead of it, a common design in the seventies, is considered a simple superhet, and can be made with a crystal oscillator into a variabke DC receiver, or with a variable oscillator and a fixed DC receiver.
Besides, a fixed regen can be imoroved by putting a crystal filter between the mixer and regen detector, allowing for single signal operation.