KCØGXX Kitchen's Regen Project Pages!

Here are two versions of Kitchen's regenerative receiver I built. Go ahead, ask me why I built two? Well, the first one is actually kind of a basic version-cool, lots of fun, but the second one BLOWS IT AWAY!

For the first, I chose to use the guide found on NJQRP website. (go to Regen receiver) They had a great design, and a nice "template" for the components. I made small changes, but kept it pretty much the same as theirs. This rig has amazing sensitivity and fair selectibility. I put in the "optional" fine tuner, and it does make a difference. For anyone who is not familiar with the "nuances" of a regen receiver, you kind of have to "play" with the tuner and regen knobs at the same time to select stations. Lots of heterodynes (howling) then all the sudden the stations "break though".

This rig has picked up Radio Germany, Luxembourgh, China, all sorts of domestic "Praise the Lord" stations (lots on 40 meters!) as well as Ham operators. I figured I'm getting from about 4.5mHz to 9.5mHz. Pretty big bandspread, so it tunes REAL quick! A nice Vernier drive might help, or maybe a different winding on the coil? It uses a small (100 cm) antenna. Anything more actually overdrives it, and only real strong AM BC and others can be gotten. It won't allow the rig to "oscillate" properly, I guess. Too much front end, my ham experts tell me.

Nice "top view" of my regen rig. Note the "islands". The rig was built on two double sided PC boards soldered together. I used small (6x6mm) "islands" or pads to achieve the "Manhattan" style building. You then place component leads on the islands and solder away. Works real nice. Some suggest the use of a punch for nice uniform round islands but my islands worked fine. I then used a nice plastic Radio Shack case for the final result, though I still like to look at all that copper. I guess its the Drake radio in me.

Power is a 9 volt battery. I put the rig through a nice set of powered speakers I had saved from my cassette walkman days. It worked excellent, but I had to remember to change over the stereo jack on the speakers to mono! (Why is only the left side working honey?)

Take a look at the second one.

Things I wish the rig had?
  • 1) AVC (automatic volume control) The regen and tuner can get some nasty howls, and volumes can rise and fall a bit
  • 2) Index/frequency readout (nice to know where you are!
  • 3) Better filtering ability. Hmm, why don't I just use my old standbye Radio Shack DX-398? Well, I didn't build that one!
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