Altoid Tin Receiver

Started by RadioRay, October 05, 2014, 11:04:23 PM

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RadioRay

Lately I have had the itch for building radios in little tins.  The Altoids is the QRP standard tin, so I thought that I'd begin there with the 20 meter RockMite: love it.  I found a cool little regenerative receiver for the 40 meter band.  Old men like me remember 'regen' receivers as being a little bit 'fiddly' but VERY good performers with minimal parts count.  Well, this is no different.  It's two transistors and a smattering of support parts, all operating from a 9 volt battery.  Naturally I put it into an Altoids tin. I've attached a picture.

Does it work?  Well, I copied Gil tonight using this receiver and he is over 800 miles away and was not strong in the big rig, so I was QUITE happy that he was quite readable using the little regen.  No filters in this little beastie, so your 'grey matter must do the filtering for you, like the old days.

The kit is called the 'Sawdust' receiver, available from:
http://breadboardradio.com

They also have a QRP transceiver called the 'Splinter', 650 mWatt for 40 meters with freetuning receiver and VXO to pull the transmit crystal frequency a few KHz. It even comes with a key!  You have NO idea how tempted I am to build one.

http://breadboardradio.com/breadboardradio/Products.html


73 de RadioRay ..._  ._




"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

Lamewolf

Quote from: RadioRay on October 05, 2014, 11:04:23 PM
Lately I have had the itch for building radios in little tins.  The Altoids is the QRP standard tin, so I thought that I'd begin there with the 20 meter RockMite: love it.  I found a cool little regenerative receiver for the 40 meter band.  Old men like me remember 'regen' receivers as being a little bit 'fiddly' but VERY good performers with minimal parts count.  Well, this is no different.  It's two transistors and a smattering of support parts, all operating from a 9 volt battery.  Naturally I put it into an Altoids tin. I've attached a picture.

Does it work?  Well, I copied Gil tonight using this receiver and he is over 800 miles away and was not strong in the big rig, so I was QUITE happy that he was quite readable using the little regen.  No filters in this little beastie, so your 'grey matter must do the filtering for you, like the old days.

The kit is called the 'Sawdust' receiver, available from:
http://breadboardradio.com

They also have a QRP transceiver called the 'Splinter', 650 mWatt for 40 meters with freetuning receiver and VXO to pull the transmit crystal frequency a few KHz. It even comes with a key!  You have NO idea how tempted I am to build one.

http://breadboardradio.com/breadboardradio/Products.html


73 de RadioRay ..._  ._

Hello Ray,

Just read this post.  Somewhere I have an MRX-40 receiver built into an Altoids tin and thing will blow your ears off your head with a medium strong signal !  Was going to build a matching transmitter for it and never got around to it.  I've also built Pixie transceivers into Altoids tins - fun project !

gil

Their The "Toothpick" Audio CW Filter & Amp looks like a great little project as well!

Gil.

RadioRay

I use the NeSCAF filter kit for the same reason and it's actually a very fun and useable combination!  I grew-up on tube type regen receivers for my short-wave listening, so having one that fits in a vest pocket make me smile! I'm seriously considering expanding the tuning range, because this is also a good short-wave broadcast receiver, when you back-off of the regeneration for A.M. reception.

>RadioRay  ..._  ._

"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

Lamewolf

Quote from: RadioRay on January 25, 2015, 06:23:59 AM
I use the NeSCAF filter kit for the same reason and it's actually a very fun and useable combination!  I grew-up on tube type regen receivers for my short-wave listening, so having one that fits in a vest pocket make me smile! I'm seriously considering expanding the tuning range, because this is also a good short-wave broadcast receiver, when you back-off of the regeneration for A.M. reception.

>RadioRay  ..._  ._

I have the NeSCAF too Ray, great little filter - can be adjusted down to where all that comes through is the CW note.  I've even used it on SSB - cuts down on a lot of the white noise !  I wish manufacturers would include something like it built into their rigs, they would be cheaper to produce than DSP and sound a lot better too !