Transistor superhet receivers chapter one the transistor superhet of all the many types of receivers that have been designed the superhet, invented by armstrong in 1918, is almost the only type in common commercial use today. The following parts are used in the transistor audio amplifier section. Simple am radio receiver electronics forum circuits. A three transistor receiver american radio relay league. A hobbyists guide to highperformance and lowpowered radio circuits offers complete projects. A diy guide to designing and building transistor radios create sophisticated. Initially connect the circuit as shown in the figure. Bernards radio manuals tested superhet circuits shortwave and communication receivers using micro alloy transistors mats bernards publishers ltd. Learn how to choose components, construct the different types of radios, and troubleshoot your work. The massmarket success of the smaller and cheaper sony tr63, released in 1957, led to the transistor radio becoming the most popular electronic communication device of the 1960s and 1970s. Regency tr1 transistor radio book in color full of facts.
Btw, what i wanted to convey is the single transistor radio is performing well within such a simple circuit. The unique design of the superhet 108 allows you to place the parts over their corresponding symbol in the schematic drawing on the surface of the printed circuit board. Bring the radio near enough to a fluorescent light to hear the hash sound generated by the light. Radio circuits practical analog semiconductor circuits. Uk vintage radio repair and restoration transistor radio rf. I would start by looking at some of the older valve tube radio designs as they are generally simpler and easier to understand. Up for auction in cdrom format is a book entitled radio circuits. Price transistor superhet receivers transistor receivers book 2 by clive.
The output of the if amplifier is applied to the limiter circuit. Simple superheterodyne sw receiver harks back almost 100 years. The elenco superhet 108c amfm radio kit is a superheterodyne receiver of the standard am amplitude modulation and fm frequency modulation broadcast frequencies. Part of the idea of this design also came from a similar transistor version. The servicing of printed circuits 21 siemensediswan sr2,2 21 mullard portable superhet 27 weymouth 6 transistor receiver 27 the teletron transidyne chapter three british receivers the ace courier. Ive seen it on some sw receivers for high end selectivity, but poor quality audio. Oct 17, 2015 this is the main part of the circuit as it tunes the radio to the required local frequency. Aug 17, 2015 1 tube am radio circuit from the 1920s how to make it. Free transistor circuits books download ebooks online textbooks. An outside wire antenna, which captures the various radio signals coming our way. The most important factor in assembling this superhet 108 amfm transistor and ic radio kit is good soldering techniques. The limiter removes the noise in the received signal and gives a constant amplitude signal. Aitendo selling an alldiscrete, 7 transistor am superhet kit.
Absolutely terrific book about superhet and other styles of radio design. Short alignment procedure for superheterodyne radios. The tracking was not very accurate but still worked. The amfm radio project is divided into two parts, the am radio section and the fm radio section. An improved version of the above medium wave radio can be studied in the following paragraphs. Full text of tested superhet circuits for shortwave and communication receivers using micro alloy transistors see other formats no. The output received from the above circuit would have greater content of sawtooth noise compared to the actual fm reception.
They were pretty popular until the superheterodyne took over. Simplest am radio circuit homemade circuit projects. There are lots and lots of superhet circuits available online. Transistor superhet receivers 1961 vintage radio book. There is an af118, but this is not found in transistor radios its a high voltage transistor intended for use in video circuits, but it is occasionally found elsewhere for example, the leak stereo 30 hifi amplifier. Basic semiconductor physics, diodes, the nonlinear diode model, load line analysis, large signal diode models, offset diode model, transistors, large signal bjt model, load line analysis, small signal model and transistor amplification. Rogers circuit diagrams canadian radio corp cdrom pdf. The circuit is the output transistor that provides power gain into a 50 ohm antenna. The following page of a book from the thirties shows a circuit to the right thats strikingly similar to the macrohenrydyne. Feb 01, 2017 everyone should build at least one regenerative radio receiver.
Superheterodyne receiver book page 3 all about circuits. A three transistor receiver the fet as a regenerative detector by walter f. A diy guide to designing and building transistor radios. Mar 25, 2020 simplest am radio circuit last updated on march 25, 2020 by swagatam 73 comments the following circuit was taken from an old electronic book, it is indeed a very nice little two transistor radio receiver circuit which utilizes very few components yet is able to produce output over a loudspeaker and not just over headphones. We pointed out that it consists of just a few parts. To operate the fm radio circuit following steps are to be followed. Valve tube and transistor with informationprojects and technical help. Of good superhet, but after all, you usually get what you pay for. This book is one of the ones that i considered the most fun. To learn more about ramsey electronics ham radio kits, write for our complete catalog.
What is the best and simple circuit diagram for a radio receiver to receive radio waves in citizens band. Some of these circuits can be found on the radio constructors website. Hamer called it an aj6, which i now see stands for all japanese 6. Radio constructor was a british magazine aimed at the radio electronics hobbyist which ran from the 1930s to the late 1970s. Everyone should build at least one regenerative radio receiver.
The electronic diagram of the simplest superheterodyne am receiver in the world, with reproduction over the loudspeaker, is shown on pic. Many of the circuits have no bias for the base of the transistors. Before the complete circuit diagrams shown later in the book can be understood, the advan tages and disadvantages of all the different types of circuits must be. Rf front end circuit from a transistor radio with self oscillating mixer. Superheterodyne receiver book page 2 all about circuits. Up for auction in cdrom format is s book entitled transistor superhet receivers by clive sinclair 1961, 98 pages. A high performance regenerative radio september 30, 2012 august 4, 2015 raycharlesring rf i have built countless regenerative radio circuits throughout the years and some have worked well some havent. Superheterodyne designed to receive standard am and fm broadcast frequencies. Superheterodyne designed to receive standard am amplitude modulation and fm frequency modulation broadcast frequencies.
Thats because a lot of gain exists in the circuit, and unless the placement of parts is done properly. The second one appeared on these forums some years ago. Transistor superhet receivers 1961 vintage radio book cd. Handbook tested transistor circuits american radio history. Build your own transistor radios electronic resource. Highvalue source bias resistor r9 is bypassed only at radio frequencies by capacitor c10 c9 is omitted, and c is increased to 47 f to decouple the stage. I used crystal earphone for the trf and regenerative radio, and they worked amazingly well. The letters w and z should be interchanged on the circuit. The regency tr1 was the first commercially manufactured transistor radio. Pictures 2 and 3 are the complete circuit diagrams of the fm tuner and amplifier. Good oldfashioned discrete transistor superhet kit the. Just build the radio,then later on,revisit all this other stuff,perhaps with the additional insight of having played with a real radio. A high performance regenerative radio circuit salad. It should be noted that several of the circuits probably will not work with modern transistors and will require modification.
Coil is a copper wire wind into fixed number of turns. From my book 210 mhz shortwave receiver and 1 transistor vfos, in which i describe a 5 transistor the audio amplifier excluded shortwave radio for 2. Simple homebuilt radio page projects and schematics. Over time several years these transistors have a tendency to develop internal shortcircuits between the can and one of the other connections normally the collector or emitter. Simple fm radio circuit using a single transistor homemade. A smart technique can be seen employed in the following single transistor fm radio circuit to attribute better efficiency to this simple design. The receiver has very good selectivity, but the sensitivity is the same as for a good one transistor receiver. Diodes and transistors pdf 28p this note covers the following topics. You can calculate the impedance then select a transformer turns ratio so that the primary tuned circuit has a high enough q for good selectivity and its q is not reduced too much by the load of the next stage. Chapter 9 the superheterodyne now that we understand the fundamentals of am and fm, it is time to look at the typical radio receiver. The circuit in the figure below is an integrated circuit am radio containing all the active radio frequency circuitry within a single ic.
How i built a shortwave armstrong fet regenerative receiver. The rf mixer within a superhet or superheterodyne radio receiver is of particular importance. Superheterodyne designed to receive standard am amplitude modulation and fm. Simple superheterodyne sw receiver harks back almost 100. And, be sure to tell us how youre doing with your sr1 receiver. I wondered how many years back reflex radios had been used. Ive been doing some thinking and tinkering with this 5 transistor superhet, mainly with the tracking. A site for the novice or established collectorrestorer of vintage radio sets and electronics. A diy guide to designing and building transistor radios create sophisticated transistor radios that are inexpensive yet highly efficient. Aged nearly 11 at the time my transistor circuit design skills werent quite there yet.
For the radio constructor we have an archive of vintage circuits schematics to build. This book focuses in the superheterodyne design in transistor based radio receivers and covers all aspects of design, servicing and construction. No part of this book shall be reproduced by any means. In addition, circuits are given enabling other units such as beat frequency oscillators, four waveband converter, shortwave aerials, etc. From my book 210 mhz shortwave receiver and 1 transistor vfos, in which i describe a 5 transistor the audio amplifier excluded shortwave radio for 210 mhz.
I have built three radios from this book trf radio from page 57, the regenerative radio from page 90 and 8transistor superheterodyne radio from page 105. Guide to highperformance and lowpowered radio circuits offers. Here are 2 schematics for a 1 transistor superhet receiver. A simpletobuild superhet receiver electronic design. This circuit is required when a phase discriminator is used to demodulate an fm signal. Various scanned technical and historic books that should be of interest to vintage radio collectors etc.
Transistor superhet receivers american radio history. At the risk of oversimplification, a superhet converts whatever incoming radio signal you have selected, 1400 khz, lets say, to an intermediate frequency. The amfm radio kit comes with a training course of 56 pages is divided into 9 lessons. Armstrong in about 1928 and quickly became popular with engineers and consumers alike because of the performance improvements the designs provide. Uk vintage radio repair and restoration transistor radio. Electrical engineering books electrical projects electronic engineering electronic circuit hobby electronics electronics projects ham radio equipment radio design electronic schematics. The next stage is the input of a transistor that has a certain fairly low impedance. This book built the reader up through a series of steps to a fullyfunctional 3transistor medium. Clive sinclair transistor superhet receivers bernards publishers ltd. Oct 10, 2017 when i first read about this in wayne lemons book titled transistor radio servicing made easy i was skeptical, but it works. Early radio receivers worked on a principle called tuned radio frequency trf, patented in 1916. This is a radio circuit usable for a first experiment and not more than that on the superheterodyne heterodyne receiving principle.
The main advantage of the regenerative radio is that a complete receiver could be implemented with a single vacuum tube using headphones and battery power. Click a row in the table below to download the file. The af117 is commonly used in am radio stages, and the af1146 types are found in fm radios. Well, thats what i ended up building, an armstrong type regenerative radio, but unlike the regenerative radio i built in 1958, this time i decided to use 1970s technology instead of 1920s technology and use a field effect transistor fet in place of the venerable old 1h4 thermionic tube that i used as the detector of that early project. Books for radio and electronics experimenters, hobbyists and circuit builders by authors like bradley, warring, morgan and sinclair. This applies as much to transistors as it does to valves. Transistor superhet receivers electronics pdf cdrom ebay. The secret to getting it to drive a speaker would be to increase the supply voltage and add an impedance matching transformer to drive a speaker. The device demonstrated the use of transistors for consumer electronics.
This simplest ever circuit of the reflex superheterodyne radio receiver includes only two semiconductor components a transistor and a diode. A hobbyists guide to highperformance and lowpowered radio circuits offers complete projects with detailed schematics and insights on how the radios were designed. Circuit description the ne602 ic is a combination oscillatormixer. This post documents my build of the 8 transistor am superhetrodyne receiver featured in ronald quans excellent book build your own.
The first transistor is configured to work in the reflex mode. Hope you find them helpful in building your own versions of the simple radio circuits here. For more crystal radio circuits, simple one transistor radios, and more advanced low transistor count radios. The tuning dial incorporates a reduction drive mechanism which is very useful since the receiver covers several mhz. Over time several years these transistors have a tendency to develop internal short circuits between the can and one of the other connections normally the collector or emitter. The repanco transistor car radio the transistor detector. The device has got only one oscillatory circuit in the if amplifier being marked as mft, whose frequency does not need to be set to some specific value meaning the receiver will work ok even if its. First sold in 1954, it was a novelty due to small size and portability.
The modified circuit, using the component numbering of fig. You can also see the one tube radio schematic from my book retro radio to get inspireduse the 6088 tube. The problem was already known about and mentioned in a transistor radio repair book published in the mid1970s. Similarly, i was really surprised how well the commercial 8transistor superheterodyne radio worked. This popular book explains in simple language and in easy stages all the varieties of circuits that are found in radio receivers. As a result, im always impressed by the ingenious circuits designers have come up with to get the job done. Special circuits 246 transistor ignition systemsmeter protection circuittunneldiode fm transmittertransistor testers2diode protective circuitslamp dimmer section 1 basic semiconductor devices transistor circuits for a wide range of applications are discussed in this book, along with many different diode and transistor types. Am superhet radio may 10 th, 20 this post documents my build of the 8 transistor am superhetrodyne receiver featured in ronald quans excellent book build your own transistor radios. Transistor fm superhet receiver phils valve radio site.
The included detailed manual provides easy to follow instructions to learn these techniques and complete this kit. I wanted to see if there was some way to make the tracking more accurate and see if i could find a method for reliably setting up the hardware. This book aims to provide a wide variety of radio and electronic projects, from something that will. Again, try this on a set you can afford to mess up for practice. Once built it can be expected to work immediately without any hassles. This book built the reader up through a series of steps to a fullyfunctional 3 transistor medium. A hobbyists guide to highperformance and lowpowered radio circuits quan, ronald on.
Superheterodyne transistor radio circuit from around 1975 a superheterodyne receiver, often shortened to superhet, is a type of radio receiver that uses frequency mixing to convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency if which can be more conveniently processed than the original carrier frequency. The transistors used in the circuits in this book in transistorised short wave receivers the most important components are, of course, the transistors themselves. The regenerative circuit remained a favorite design for homeconstructed shortwave broadcast radios and amateur receivers throughout the 1930s. To learn more about the hobby of ham radio, write arrl american radio relay league, 225 main street, newington, ct 06111. Full text of transistor superhet receivers internet archive. Full text of tested superhet circuits for shortwave and. Page 5 introduction the elenco superhet 550t am radio is a superheterodyne receiver of the standard am amplitude modulated broadcast frequencies. The unique design of the superhet 550t allows you to place the parts over its corresponding symbol in the schematic drawing on the surface of the printed circuit board during assembly.
When i tune the storebought superhet back and forth, my 1 transistor homebrew superregen receiver picks up a fullquieting spot that goes away when i switch the commercial radio off, 30 feet. The arrl handbook,or rsgb manual,especially older ones,have quite a lot on superheterodynes. New transistor module allows you to switch between the modern integrated circuit ic technology and the original transistor technology. Following the invention of the transistor, the first commercial transistor radio was released in 1954.