Many of us in the home-brewer community were really disappointed when Todd VE7BPO recently discontinued his popular and very through-provoking site “The QRP/SWL Homebuilder”. An archive of the site is available for download in pdf form and is a great resource. Though not quite the same as having the site, it’s great to have a […]
Since completing The Sproutie Regen in it’s basic form in August of last year, I have been spending lots of time listening to it, and also some time winding coils for extra bands. On top of that, I wanted to add some extra thoughts and observations on building it and instead of creating a new […]
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about some reduction drives I had acquired, including a classic National micrometer dial and PW gear drive, in nice condition. The PW drive has an output shaft that runs parallel to the front panel. Conversely, the drive in which the output shaft effectively runs straight through is called […]
Since I began posting about regens, it has been gratifying to hear from fellow regen builders, and quite interesting and inspiring to communicate with other hams who are also taken by their charms. The Sproutie has proved to be a great little receiver and it’s a pretty straightforward circuit, but it’s not exactly a minimalist […]
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 […]
I was quite excited when Aaron N9SKN told me he was building a Sproutie. Sometime earlier, I had discovered his website, billed as the “Home Of The 500mA Sidetone Oscillator/Shack Heater” I was searching for information on building HF receivers, and came across Aaron’s build of W7ZOI and K5IRK’s Progressive Receiver, as described in the […]
There are a few things I’ve been wanting to write about here. A couple of fellow builders have regen builds that I’m keen to relate. I have also wound two more coils for The Sproutie and would like to pass the details on, as well as a few thoughts on the subject, and coil-winding tips. However, […]
Followers of Jason NT7S’ blog “Ripples In The Ether” will know that he has been experimenting with the Si5351 chip. This little $1.50 (or cheaper) device is a PLL clock generator which provides 3 independently programmable outputs from 8KHz to 160MHz. While it’s phase noise is not quite as good as the Si570 (the chip […]
Since building The Sproutie a few months ago I have had a great deal of fun with it. It is only the 4th regen I have ever built, but it is the best one so far. One of my main motivations for building it was to own a “serious” regen. I have long thought that […]
About a week ago, Joel KB6QVI, tipped me off to the fact that Cecil K5NWA was selling 7.28MHz ceramic resonators on his online site, The Parts Place. Enthused, we both ordered some, and both our orders arrived yesterday. Joel slipped his into a test circuit, which gave him coverage of 7.015 – 7.236MHz. He used a […]
Dave Richards AA7EE 