This is only a preview of the October 2001 issue of Silicon Chip. You can view 30 of the 96 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments. For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues. Items relevant to "Build Your Own MP3 Jukebox; Pt.2":
Items relevant to "Super-Sensitive Body Detector":
Items relevant to "An Automotive Thermometer":
Items relevant to "Programming Adapter For Atmel Microcontrollers":
|
VINTAGE RADIO
By RODNEY CHAMPNESS, VK3UG
Beginner’s radios – as they were
All people interested in electronics or Vintage
Radio have to start at the bottom, as an absolute
novice. Gradually, you come to recognise the
jargon and understand the technology. This is
the story of one teenager who become interested
in radio many years ago.
Back in the 1950s, a teenage lad who
lived on a farm near a small country
town picked up a copy of “Radio &
Hobbies”. He read it cover to cover,
understanding perhaps one word in
10 and he was immediately hooked
on radio. A few of the radio suppliers
had adverts displaying a G Marconi
one-valve radio kit for the sum of five
pounds; a lot of money for a young
school boy with no money in the piggy
bank. However, pocket money was
scrupulously saved and the kit was
duly ordered by post.
He anxiously waited for it to arrive.
While waiting he installed a long wire
aerial around 100 feet long (31m) and
strung between the 40-foot (12m)
high 32V windlight tower and the
25-foot (7.6m) windmill tower. The
earth was a rusty old pipe driven into
the ground around a metre deep. The
set arrived and he then feverishly set
about assembling the kit and trying it
out. It didn’t work. Oh dear; doom and
gloom prevailed.
The radio was checked and re
checked to make sure assembly had
been done correctly. The conclusion
was that the valve must be faulty and
it was sent back to the supplier. A
replacement valve was received and
then the set operated as it should.
The lad was now getting really
enthused and he tuned in regularly
each night to see what he could hear.
This is the rebuilt G. Marconi 1-valve set in its cabinet. It
mightn’t look much but it was my first working receiver.
82 Silicon Chip
One night the family had been out and
returned after midnight. Our young
enthu
siast turned on his radio and
heard a weak radio station. What was
so exciting about that when they are
all rather weak on a one-valve set in
the bush? In the 1950s, radio stations
did not transmit 24 hours a day and
most of the Australian stations had
then closed for the night.
He had a book which listed most
radio stations, their powers and frequencies. He came to the conclusion
that he was hearing an extremely
powerful broadcast station in the
Philip
pines. A suitable jig around
the bedroom was called for. I doubt
his parents shared his enthusiasm. A
radio station was a radio station and
as long as Dad (a farmer) could hear
the local news and weather forecasts
on 3WV and Mum and younger sister
could hear all their serials on 3LK, who
cared!
G Marconi’s 1-valve radio
The set was easy to assemble. It had
a “breadboard” layout, using a 9mm
A view of the works of the 1-valve receiver. It was built
using a simple “breadboard” layout
www.siliconchip.com.au
Fig.1: the “G. Marconi” was a basic regenerative radio receiver
employing a single 3V4 valve. Its output was coupled to lowimpedance headphones via an audio step-down transformer.
thick board with all the components
and wiring layout stencilled onto the
board in black paint. The valve socket
had a lug soldered onto each pin. Each
pin, along with a Fahnstock clip (made
out of brass), was secured to the board
with small wood screws. The components and leads were then attached
to the various Fahnstock clips as per
the stencilled overlay. No soldering
was necessary.
Larger components such as the
audio output transformer, tuning and
reaction capacitors and the coil were
mounted separately. The front panel
of the set was printed cardboard. The
instruction booklet consisted of six
pages not including the front sheet
and enough detail was included in the
instructions to help constructors get it
right first time. All in all, it was a very
basic receiver and spartan methods of
construction were used. But it was the
lad’s first radio and it worked.
The circuit (Fig.1) is typical of most
one-valve sets of the era, with a few
departures from the norm. A capacitor was wired directly between the
This is the instruction booklet that
came with G. Marconi kit.
aerial and the top of the tuned circuit
with no aerial coupling winding. A
3V4 valve was used instead of a 1T4.
The 1T4 would have used only half
as much filament current. Expensive
headphones were not included.
Fig.2: the instruction book included detailed
diagrams on the coil winding.
www.siliconchip.com.au
An audio step-down transformer
was used to couple between the valve
and the low-impedance headphone,
a cheap single earpiece unit. It had a
metal band that went over the head
and dug into the side. It wasn’t comfortable but when you are so enthusiastic it doesn’t matter.
Naturally, being so enthusiastic, all
sorts of things were tried (much like
our early experimenters), with about
as much direction as a rudderless ship
and with similar results. Ultimately
the set was rebuilt and now resides
in a roughly built cabinet that housed
the set and the batteries. An on/off
switch was added, an aluminium front
panel and a phone jack so that better
quality headphones could be used. By
that time, slightly more comfortable
headphones had been obtained.
Instead of the Fahnstock clips used
for interconnecting the various parts
of the circuit, our young enthusiast
took to soldering the wires. I can tell
you he didn’t know much about sol
dering – dry joints were rather common. He didn’t know much about how
to make the metal free of oxides, nor
much about how to tin wires. He was
October 2001 83
A front view of miniature 2-valve receiver. The design
appeared in “Radio & Hobbies” in late 1950s and was
capable of driving a loudspeaker.
more aware of how plumbers’ soldering irons were used and things like
Spirits of Salts (hydrochloric acid).
Fortu
nately, he’d read that the use
of such things caused radio wires to
be eaten away so that mistake wasn’t
made.
Receiving faraway stations was of
prime interest but the transmitting
side of radio was intriguing too. It was
known that his radio interfered with
reception on his parent’s set when the
reaction control was turned up and the
set squealed. He’d read somewhere
about how transmitters operated and
how voice and music were impressed
on radio signals. So being a bright
young lad, he tried to make a transmitter out of his-one valve set.
With the set oscillating and a speaker transformer and speaker connected
This is the above-chassis view of the miniature 2-valve
receiver. A 20kΩ potentiometer was used to control the
amount of reaction.
in place of the headphones, he yelled
into the speaker. His cousin wandered
around the back yard with the family
portable radio. He could hear what
was being said around 15 metres away
over the radio – as well as direct! It
was time to swap tasks and our keen
enthusiast then heard his “transmitter” too. Satisfaction!
There were no other radio enthusiasts for miles, so the idea of transmitting again was put on the back
burner until his late teens when he got
involved with the Emergency Fire Services (EFS) and was issued with a real
transmitter. But that is another story.
In recent times I did an overhaul of
that set and it still operates quite well.
Its tuning range is from 590kHz to
2100kHz and its sensitivity is around
3mV for a reasonable level of audio on
received stations. This set does form a
special part in my collection – it was
my first successful set!
Silver fish have eaten part of the
booklet that came with the kit but some
idea of the detail that was included in
it can be seen in the excerpts (Fig.2).
The circuit diagram shows that the
receiver was very simple; ideal even
today for those keen on building
replicas.
I progressed to making all sorts of
things, some that worked and some
that didn’t. During this period I purchased a 1000 ohms per volt multi
meter, and this really did help me sort
out any problems that I had.
A 2-valve miniature
“Radio & Hobbies” had a design
for a miniature two-valve radio in the
Fig.3: the “Radio & Hobbies” miniature 2-valve receiver. A 1T4 valve was used as a
regenerative detector followed by a 3V4 audio output stage.
84 Silicon Chip
www.siliconchip.com.au
mid to late 50s. I’d about done all the
experiments that I could think of with
a one-valve set, so a “big” high performance two-valve set was the ideal
next step. By this time, I had more
experience and had a semblance of an
idea of how to lay out a set. The axiom
of “keep inputs away from outputs”
was gradually seeping into my brain.
As can be seen in the circuit diagram, it uses a 1T4 as a regenerative
detector followed by a 3V4 audio output stage. It was claimed to be able to
drive a loudspeaker on nearer stations.
The Reinartz coil was a commercial
miniature unit. The regeneration was
controlled by a 20kΩ potentiometer
across the reaction winding. When
the potentiometer wiper is at the end
nearest the tuned winding on the
circuit, maximum regeneration and
oscillation is achieved. Conversely,
when the wiper is at the far end, the
radio frequency (RF) energy in the
plate circuit of the 1T4 is shunted to
earth through the 500pF capacitor,
hence no regeneration. In place of a
bulky RF choke in the plate lead, a
cheap alternative was used; a 20kΩ
resistor.
In many circuits, a resistor is more
practical compared to an RF choke and
it is cheaper. An RF choke is essential
where very little DC voltage drop
across the component can be tolerated,
whereas this can be substantial across
a resistor.
Back bias for the 3V4 was obtained
through the 1kΩ resistor and 10µF
capacitor network in the negative HT
line. The total current drain from the
67.5V battery was 4mA and 150mA
from the 1.5V torch cell.
The performance of the set is superior to the one-valve set, as it should
be. The tuning range is 510kHz to
An under-chassis view of the miniature 2-valve receiver. Point-to-point wiring
was used between the valve sockets, the coil and the other hardware items.
2,000kHz. Its sensitivity is such that a
300uV signal is heard reasonably well
with the detector not oscillating. It is
capable of detecting a signal that is one
tenth the level required by the onevalve set for the same performance.
Extra valves do help. If the detector is
oscillating, signals as weak as 3µV can
be heard. This goes to show why very
simple receivers were quite adequate
to hear Morse code signals worldwide
years ago.
I was very pleased with my miniature set which measured 125mm wide,
110mm high and 85mm deep, including the knobs. It was the smallest set
I’d seen and it was complete with the
batteries inside the case.
I built many other simple receivers,
and in the Australian Radio College
instructional kit of the 50s, there were
many projects to build to help aspiring
radio enthusiasts improve their ability.
I remember building a one, a two and a
three-valve receiver. The three valver
was a good performer and even had
shortwave on it, which widened my
horizon of interest in radio.
Like many other projects that I built
over the years, they were stripped
down to make way for the next one,
with the exception of the two above
items which are all that remain of my
early days in radio. I now regret that
I “improved” my little G Marconi set
but at that time very few people were
interested in Vintage Radio – which is
SC
a part of our heritage.
UM66 SERIES TO-92
SOUND GENERATOR.
THESE LOW COST IC’S
ARE USED IN MANY TOYS,
DOORBELLS AND NOVELTY
APPLICATIONS
1-9
$1.10
10-24 $0.99
25+
$0.88
EACH INC GST
www.siliconchip.com.au
October 2001 85
|