Chappy Happy Builds a 25 meter Direct Conversion Receiver using a PAL VFO -- And There Is Distortion of AM SW Broadcast

First, it is a good day when I find a new Chappy Happy project on YouTube.  Thank you Chappy Happy! You make us happy! 

Second, even before I watched the full video, I could recognize the PAL VFO.  This is an old CB device.  You will find them at hamfests.  I picked one up several years ago, knowing that I will someday use it as a VFO or for VFO parts.  It is, after all, an LC VFO, and it is to be celebrated and used.   

Chappy Happy turns his PAL VFO into a simple direct conversion receiver for the 25 meter SW broadcast band.  He is on the west coast of North America and uses it to listen to Radio Japan. He uses a J310 RF amp and an NE602 Gilbert Cell mixer. 

That is great, but there is a big problem in using a direct conversion receiver to inhale AM signals: Unless you can get the frequency AND the phase of the VFO to be exactly the same as the carrier, you will have distortion. You will not have this problem if the signal is SSB, but you will have it with AM or DSB.  

I think I can hear the distortion on the Radio Japan signal.  Can you hear the flutter?  That is what happens with an AM signal being received on a DC receiver.  This is why Doug DeMaw frequently warned that you could not listen to a DSB signal on a DC receiver without significant distortion.  

What do you guys think?  Can you hear the distortion?  Should Chappy Happy turn this receiver into a simple superhet, perhaps something like the Q-31? 

Here is a video of my Q-31 super het for the 31 meter SW band: 

Again, thanks Chappy Happy!  Please keep those projects coming!