Hi all, I'm new to this forum, and relatively new to radio, in that I've been a licensed ham operator for just over a year, and have yet to make any on-air contacts. Homebrew Spirit (and total lack of funds) has kept me from getting any secondhand equipment, but I think I'll be fine with a regen and MOPA, at least for a while.
So, that aside, I'm currently building my third radio, hopefully the first one that works properly. I have a Regenerodyne, but have set it aside for the moment due to unsolvable selectivity problems. The superhet...well, don't ask. Double tuning was no problem, but the IF amp has me puzzled.
So this time, I've chosen the wildly popular 6SN7 regen as my "getting on the air" radio. It's a plug in coil design, for the AM BCB, 160M, 80M, and maybe 40M.
As for parts, I have a decent junkbox at my disposal. So far:
Three octal sockets
1 6SN7
1 12SN7
4 12L6
1 10EM7
Three octal bases (salvage from dud tubes)
1 AA5 tuning capacitor, with two ~25pF sections, 1 ~140pF section, and 1 ~300pF section. This is just eyeballing the thing, no actual measurements.
1 20pF air variable for bandspread, with 6:1 reduction vernier.
All kinds of magnet wire, from my transformer winding hobby
resistors and caps galore
And this schematic:
http://www.qsl.net/ab0cw/6sn7sch.gif
I am planning to leave the RF and detector stages alone, but would like input as far as the Audio section. Will the detector output be strong enough to drive a 12L6, or do I need another stage of gain, available from a 10EM7 or 6SN7 (can get more of anything, given enough time.)
Will I need a vernier drive on the main tuning cap, or just on the 20pF bandspread?
Any other suggestions for a successful radio?
Jake, KI4YAN