The recent CCrane thread got me to wondering again.
What would go into building a good system for receiving
BCB A.M. radio?
A complete system, starting with a directional antenna,
(loop, flag, etc.) A system to seperate stations on the same
frequency. Building a strong front end. Good audio.
Just looking for a discussion regarding design of a great
BCB radio.

Mike

How about doing it in software with a simple direct conversion receiver
and I/Q outputs going into your PC's sound card line ins? Lots of
provision for DSP filtering, lots of available audio b/w etc...

Cheers Bob VK2YQA

amdx wrote:
The recent CCrane thread got me to wondering again.
What would go into building a good system for receiving
BCB A.M. radio?
A complete system, starting with a directional antenna,
(loop, flag, etc.) A system to seperate stations on the same
frequency. Building a strong front end. Good audio.
Just looking for a discussion regarding design of a great
BCB radio.

Mike

"amdx" wrote in message
...
The recent CCrane thread got me to wondering again.
What would go into building a good system for receiving
BCB A.M. radio?
A complete system, starting with a directional antenna,
(loop, flag, etc.) A system to seperate stations on the same
frequency. Building a strong front end. Good audio.
Just looking for a discussion regarding design of a great
BCB radio.

Getting the standard changed to SSB would be a great start, but it'll
never happen.

7 3
Earl
KD5XB
--
Earl Needham
Clovis, New Mexico USA

On 15-Nov-2005, "Earl Needham" wrote:

Getting the standard changed to SSB would be a great start, but it'll
never happen.

7 3
Earl
KD5XB


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even better would be to eliminate all HF broadcasting and move it to UHF FM.
That "might" happen, but not soon.

73, Bill W6WRT

Mike wrote:
"Just looking for a discussion regarding fesign of a great BCB radio."

It has already been done. The SCR 274 N or ARC-5 series included a
receiver which covered most of the AM broadcast band. With a wire
connected to its antenna post, a unique signal appears every 10 KHz
Across the dial. All that`s needed is transistorization. I used one of
the originals with a 12-V dynamotor as a a car radio for years.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

"Bob Bob" wrote in message
...
How about doing it in software with a simple direct conversion receiver
and I/Q outputs going into your PC's sound card line ins? Lots of
provision for DSP filtering, lots of available audio b/w etc...

Ok, how about the Tayloe detector, it has a strong front end and I and Q
outputs.
Anyway to use this to eliminate stations on the same freq. Maybe two
antennas and two
detectors phased or computer manipulated?

Mike

Cheers Bob VK2YQA

amdx wrote:
The recent CCrane thread got me to wondering again.
What would go into building a good system for receiving
BCB A.M. radio?
A complete system, starting with a directional antenna,
(loop, flag, etc.) A system to seperate stations on the same
frequency. Building a strong front end. Good audio.
Just looking for a discussion regarding design of a great
BCB radio.

Mike

"Richard Harrison" wrote in message
...
Mike wrote:
"Just looking for a discussion regarding fesign of a great BCB radio."

It has already been done. The SCR 274 N or ARC-5 series included a
receiver which covered most of the AM broadcast band. With a wire
connected to its antenna post, a unique signal appears every 10 KHz
Across the dial. All that`s needed is transistorization. I used one of
the originals with a 12-V dynamotor as a a car radio for years.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

If you can find a R-390 or R-392 and copy the front-end of that sweet
receiver, - THEN you'd have a fine one.

Dont know Mike

I would suspect by itself I/Q detection/demod wouldnt help in a
situation where AM stations are using the exact same frequency.

Two antennas/RX detect systems could certainly be used if you can get a
usable phase diff between stations and use that for phase cancellation.
(ie not an I/Q RX as such) Could even do that in software and be very
specific as to what phase diff range is cancelled. You'd have to sample
at RF rather than AF though which makes the project more $/complicated.

You could also DSP filter based on audio content. That would be a real
difficult one!

Directive antenna?

Cheers Bob

amdx wrote:

Ok, how about the Tayloe detector, it has a strong front end and I and Q
outputs.
Anyway to use this to eliminate stations on the same freq. Maybe two
antennas and two
detectors phased or computer manipulated?

Mike

Hi Bill,

You might actually be right. I think that's what they are trying to do to
hams with the possibility of BPL.

I think that AM (as it is) should stay that way FOREVER. I am not opposed
to these stations using a parallel form of digital broadcasting (IBOC?) but
to turn the AM-DSB transmitters off I think would be a tragedy. It is the
only form or radio that can be easily demodulated. A grandfather can sit
down with his grandson, a bunch of wire, an oatmeal box, and a few other
cheap components and in a few hours have a working (and demonstratable)
radio - FREE RADIO - and discounting lightning it is 100% safe too! It's
that kind of thing that got me into the hobby - and with the numbers of
licensees dwindling and our RF bandwidth at stake it is high time that we
get the next generation interested.

73!
Paul
KD4GNU

wrote in message ...


On 15-Nov-2005, "Earl Needham" wrote:

Getting the standard changed to SSB would be a great start, but
it'll
never happen.

7 3
Earl
KD5XB


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even better would be to eliminate all HF broadcasting and move it to UHF
FM.
That "might" happen, but not soon.

73, Bill W6WRT

In article , "hossdaddy"
wrote:

Hi Bill,

You might actually be right. I think that's what they are trying to do to
hams with the possibility of BPL.

I think that AM (as it is) should stay that way FOREVER. I am not opposed
to these stations using a parallel form of digital broadcasting (IBOC?) but
to turn the AM-DSB transmitters off I think would be a tragedy. It is the
only form or radio that can be easily demodulated. A grandfather can sit
down with his grandson, a bunch of wire, an oatmeal box, and a few other
cheap components and in a few hours have a working (and demonstratable)
radio - FREE RADIO - and discounting lightning it is 100% safe too! It's
that kind of thing that got me into the hobby - and with the numbers of
licensees dwindling and our RF bandwidth at stake it is high time that we
get the next generation interested.

73!
Paul
KD4GNU

Hello, and I share your sentiments but technology moves on. You either
keep up with it or be left behind. I get nostalgic over old vacuum tube
radios like the Collins KWM types or some Drake models but I wouldn't want
to be stuck in that period. Lots of wonderful things to discover in the
here-and-now, even pour moi (who passed forty about 16 years ago).

There's plenty of electronics out there to interest young minds if you
look for it. Ramsey offers some electronic lab kits I wished I'd had as a
kid. And speaking of AM-DSB wasn't a spark-gap transmitter using morse
code even simpler (well maybe not if you were using a Branly coherer on
the receive end and those transmitting antennas sure seemed to require a
lot of wire and towers)? I built crystal and one-tube radios as cub/boy
scout projects but what I really wanted to construct was a superhet (or
maybe a TRF type) since I knew they could pull in lots of stations without
requiring an outdoors antenna. For simplicity and ease of construction
the majority of those DIY home radio projects excluded the RF and/or IF
amplification required to provide a requisite level of receiver
sensitivity with an internal antenna. Never built a superhet but I
constructed an FM broadcast receiver using a tunnel diode (a componont one
of my later Va Tech EE profs would refer to as an "electronic Edsel") as a
junior high science fair project. Just a few thoughts. Sincerely, and
73s from N4GGO,

John Wood (Code 5550) e-mail:
Naval Research Laboratory
4555 Overlook Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20375-5337