Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

Hi, Jim
I thought I might have found what you were looking for. But, then I
did more digging and the situation seems muddier. The 1968 ARRL
Handbook has a project called "The Junior 'Miser's Dream'". However,
it is a 5-tube superhet receiver. It was based on a May 1965 QST
article subtitled "A Description of the 'Miser's Dream'".

This receiver is also bandswitched, rather than using plug-in coils.
The Handbook project is described as using some of the principles of
the QST article, but with some simplifications and reduced cost.

Most of the information I have seen on regens and super regens use one
to four tubes, depending on whether they use an RF amp stage, solid
state rectifier and dual-function tubes, and whether or not a speaker
was driven. The 1956-1959 KnightKit Space Spanner, for example, used
a 35W4, 50C5, and a 12AT7; but, the 12AT7 is a dual-triode, so that's
actually 'four' tubes and a diode. I don't recall what the famous
Ocean Hopper had for a tube complement, even though my Elmer broke me
in by letting me borrow his for awhile back in the day.

An old RCA tube manual I have shows plans for a four tube regen. See
http://www.mines.uidaho.edu/~glowbugs/12at7_regen.html for a one
tube, plug-in coils, regen. Also, look at
http://www.hvinet.com/rjmattson/56noviceRcvr for a nice regen based
on a 1956 QST article.

This site is a treasure trove of info on old ham radios:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix

Earlier tonight (yesterday evening, rather!) I ran across AA7JC's site
at http://www.lotts.net/ken/ham/. He built a neat little regen, and
he has several mp3 files you can listen to of QSOs. Amazing clarity!

Well, I hope you find what you were looking for, and if you do, I'd be
interested as well. You can email direct, just leave out the **'s in
the address.

73,

Ted KX4OM


On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:31:23 GMT, Jim Flanagan
wrote:

Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

Hi, Jim
I thought I might have found what you were looking for. But, then I
did more digging and the situation seems muddier. The 1968 ARRL
Handbook has a project called "The Junior 'Miser's Dream'". However,
it is a 5-tube superhet receiver. It was based on a May 1965 QST
article subtitled "A Description of the 'Miser's Dream'".

This receiver is also bandswitched, rather than using plug-in coils.
The Handbook project is described as using some of the principles of
the QST article, but with some simplifications and reduced cost.

Most of the information I have seen on regens and super regens use one
to four tubes, depending on whether they use an RF amp stage, solid
state rectifier and dual-function tubes, and whether or not a speaker
was driven. The 1956-1959 KnightKit Space Spanner, for example, used
a 35W4, 50C5, and a 12AT7; but, the 12AT7 is a dual-triode, so that's
actually 'four' tubes and a diode. I don't recall what the famous
Ocean Hopper had for a tube complement, even though my Elmer broke me
in by letting me borrow his for awhile back in the day.

An old RCA tube manual I have shows plans for a four tube regen. See
http://www.mines.uidaho.edu/~glowbugs/12at7_regen.html for a one
tube, plug-in coils, regen. Also, look at
http://www.hvinet.com/rjmattson/56noviceRcvr for a nice regen based
on a 1956 QST article.

This site is a treasure trove of info on old ham radios:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix

Earlier tonight (yesterday evening, rather!) I ran across AA7JC's site
at http://www.lotts.net/ken/ham/. He built a neat little regen, and
he has several mp3 files you can listen to of QSOs. Amazing clarity!

Well, I hope you find what you were looking for, and if you do, I'd be
interested as well. You can email direct, just leave out the **'s in
the address.

73,

Ted KX4OM


On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:31:23 GMT, Jim Flanagan
wrote:

Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

Jim Flanagan ) writes:
Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

People ask questions like this all the time, but they forget that most
construction articles, especially of simple equipment, were pretty generic.
The only difference between that regen over there and this regen over here
would be because someone used what they had on hand, and it was time to run
another regen article. So the coil forms might be a different size or
form, causing the winding information to be different, and they'd use a
different triode (because that's what they had), and the layout would be
different because they had a cake tin instead of a piece of wood to build
it on, but the basic circuit would be the same.

Unless one can recall something specific about it, there really isn't any
way of tracking down the specific one, though every time there are posts
like this people recall the thing they remember that was similar.

In other words, the specific article won't really matter because they
are generic.

Unless that receiver tuned VHF, then it's not a super-regen, but merely a
regen receiver; people often do confuse the two, or forget the difference.

It may be easiest to track down Boy Scout websites or archives to find
the specific pamphlet, because unless someone can definitely remember seeing
the pamphlet and the original article, it will only be a guess. And I suspect
there is bound to be some collector, not likely here, who does have the
pamphlet. People collect all kinds of things.

My guess about the regen is that it's likely to be whatever was included
in the ARRL's "How to Become a Radio Amateur" from that era. I gave my one
and only copy away decades ago, but I gather they always had some sort of
regen in each edition, though I recall by the time I got a copy in 1971,
it was a transistorized version. But from the mid-sixties it would be
a tube-based receiver, and it makes sense that they'd use that receiver in
a Boy Scout pamphlet.

Michael VE2BVW

On 2 Jan 2005 21:13:01 GMT, (Michael Black)
wrote in :


Jim Flanagan ) writes:
Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

People ask questions like this all the time, but they forget that most
construction articles, especially of simple equipment, were pretty generic.
The only difference between that regen over there and this regen over here
would be because someone used what they had on hand, and it was time to run
another regen article. So the coil forms might be a different size or
form, causing the winding information to be different, and they'd use a
different triode (because that's what they had), and the layout would be
different because they had a cake tin instead of a piece of wood to build
it on, but the basic circuit would be the same.


It uses one each of standard 4-pin and 5-pin plug-in coil forms, which
are a little hard to find these days. Everything else can be found in
most any tube-junkie's pile of parts.


Unless one can recall something specific about it, there really isn't any
way of tracking down the specific one, though every time there are posts
like this people recall the thing they remember that was similar.


The article is in the "Radio" merit badge booklet, copyright 1965 by
the Boy Scouts of America. The article is reprinted from the July 1963
issue of QST. The receiver is called the "Novice RS-3". It's a cool
little radio. Built it myself a long, long time ago and it works
pretty darn good.


In other words, the specific article won't really matter because they
are generic.

Unless that receiver tuned VHF, then it's not a super-regen, but merely a
regen receiver; people often do confuse the two, or forget the difference.


It's a regenerative superhet.


It may be easiest to track down Boy Scout websites or archives to find
the specific pamphlet, because unless someone can definitely remember seeing
the pamphlet and the original article, it will only be a guess. And I suspect
there is bound to be some collector, not likely here, who does have the
pamphlet. People collect all kinds of things.


People save all kinds of things, too.


My guess about the regen is that it's likely to be whatever was included
in the ARRL's "How to Become a Radio Amateur" from that era. I gave my one
and only copy away decades ago, but I gather they always had some sort of
regen in each edition, though I recall by the time I got a copy in 1971,
it was a transistorized version. But from the mid-sixties it would be
a tube-based receiver, and it makes sense that they'd use that receiver in
a Boy Scout pamphlet.

Michael VE2BVW


The article has been scanned and sent to the OP. Thus endeth lesson
for today.

Might as well post the scans:

www.icehouse.net/wirenut/tuberecs.htm

Those files will be deleted from my server in 48 hrs or less. Get them
while you can.

On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 14:38:36 -0800, Frank Gilliland
wrote:

On 2 Jan 2005 21:13:01 GMT, (Michael Black)
wrote in :


Jim Flanagan ) writes:
Hello...
Back in 1973, when I was in the process of getting my Novice license, I
built a simple tube receiver from a construction article that came from
a Boy Scout Merit Badge pamphlet on 'Radio'. The radio didn't work well
because I was young (16) and really didn't know what I was doing.
Recently, I have had a desire to rebuild that radio for sentimental
reasons and am trying to find that schematic. The problem is, I cannot
remember the name of the article. My belief is that the article was
originally published in QST around 1965 and was granted reprint
permission in the 'Radio' Boy Scout merit badge booklet.
Does anyone have any recollection of which reciever that I am referring
to. What I remember was that there were 5 tubes (I think) and used plug
in coils for changing bands. It also was a supre-regen type receiver.
If anyone could help me with optaining the schematic for this, It would
be most appreciated.

Thanks and a very happy new year...
Jim
WB5KYE

People ask questions like this all the time, but they forget that most
construction articles, especially of simple equipment, were pretty generic.
The only difference between that regen over there and this regen over here
would be because someone used what they had on hand, and it was time to run
another regen article. So the coil forms might be a different size or
form, causing the winding information to be different, and they'd use a
different triode (because that's what they had), and the layout would be
different because they had a cake tin instead of a piece of wood to build
it on, but the basic circuit would be the same.


It uses one each of standard 4-pin and 5-pin plug-in coil forms, which
are a little hard to find these days. Everything else can be found in
most any tube-junkie's pile of parts.

snip----

Ocean State Electronics has 4 and 6 pin phenolic forms. I am in no
way affiliated with them except as an occasional customer.
http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p86.htm