N2HTT Builds His First Receiver – A WBR Regen!

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Mike N2HTT. He was building a WBR Regen, and had encountered a problem – the pesky thing didn’t work. That is indeed, quite a problem.  Luckily for me, he quickly discovered that the reason was an incorrectly wired JFET, before I had a chance to confuse him with my impaired troubleshooting skills 🙂

He got his WBR up and running in short order and after casing it up and actually labeling the controls (only very serious home-brewers label their front panels!), reports that it is working well. He’s tickled pink, because it’s the first receiver he’s built – and I’m tickled pink because he’s tickled pink, if that makes any kind of sense. There is a real magic that springs from hearing sounds come out of a speaker or headphones connected to a receiver you built yourself – even more so if you scratch-built it, as Mike did with his WBR. You can read the story of his WBR build here, and this post contains a link to a YouTube video of his WBR. I like how he describes the setbacks he encountered along the way, and how he dealt with them. In fact, looking further at his blog, I realized this was a common theme. Mike doesn’t just tell you what he did, and post a few photos; he effectively describes the odyssey of his life as a ham who is embarking on the task of assembling a station he built himself.  This style of narrative shines through in the 3 posts describing his building of a 2 tube W1TS transmitter for 40M. You can find them here – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Look at this lovely transmitter. It’s a classic home-brew project – it’s got an aluminum chassis, a tube, and a crystal in an FT-243 holder!

N2HTT’s version of the W1TS transmitter. Photo courtesy of N2HTT.

Mike was also featured in Soldersmoke for his Michigan Mighty Mite Build, as part of Bill Meara’s Mighty-Mite Madness, not once, but twice – here and here.

So Mike has got it going on. He’s building things, he’s making them work, and he’s telling us the stories of how he got them to work.

Here’s his WBR, in all it’s cased up glory. Read about it here, and here. There will be a 3rd post too, in which perhaps we’ll see pictures of his other WBR which he put on 80M. Yes, that’s right – Mike didn’t just build one WBR – he built two, thanks to the incorrectly wired JFET (you can read how this story unfolds in his blog).

N2HTt’s WBR Regen Receiver. Photo courtesy of N2HTT

Check out Mike N2HTT’s blog here. Way to go Mike, and thank you for sharing details of your personal journey towards a 100% home-brew station!

 

 

 

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