AES (www.tubesandmore.com) has some battery powered stuff.
How sophisticated a circuit do wish to try? Kits for tube superhet circuits are a thing of the past.
How sophisticated a circuit do wish to try? Kits for tube superhet circuits are a thing of the past.
I think it is very unlikely. An AM/FM radio would need more that 14 tuned circuits and transformers - lots of precision winding, which is a lost DIY art, and a commercial folly. Such a radio would have been an advanced project to build.
If you are determined and experienced, maybe you could do it. I think you would be best to start with a "donor" radio though.
There were some wonderful designs, and good RF valves are still cheap.
If, on the other hand, you just fancy a dabble, the simplest designs (just for AM) used TRF (Tuned Radio Frequency) designs. These sometimes only had 1 or 2 tuned circuits, so not much winding involved, and not precision. They used a system called "reaction" or "regeneration", (basically positive feedback) to increase Q, and so narrow bandwidth and increase gain.
If you are determined and experienced, maybe you could do it. I think you would be best to start with a "donor" radio though.
There were some wonderful designs, and good RF valves are still cheap.
If, on the other hand, you just fancy a dabble, the simplest designs (just for AM) used TRF (Tuned Radio Frequency) designs. These sometimes only had 1 or 2 tuned circuits, so not much winding involved, and not precision. They used a system called "reaction" or "regeneration", (basically positive feedback) to increase Q, and so narrow bandwidth and increase gain.
Here is one source.
Vintage Components
There are no superhets here, but interesting projects nonetheless.
Vintage Components
There are no superhets here, but interesting projects nonetheless.
Re: Re: Tube Radio Kit
That will not work. The mf bandwidth of an old tube mono FM receiver is simply too small to get a stereo decoder work.
Cheers
It may just be easier to buy an old mono valve tuner on the cheap , restore it , then add a stereo decoder and a valve output stage .
cheers
316a
That will not work. The mf bandwidth of an old tube mono FM receiver is simply too small to get a stereo decoder work.
Cheers
Don't entirely agree. If you can live with a lower channel separation you may actually be able to see the pilot tone survive the IF circuits strong enough to get a decoder to work. I've tried with an old Philips FM-tuner that looked a lot like a tube car-radio but ran off 220V on a built-in PSU. What ever it was meant for in the first place looking like a car-radio (left & right knobs with treads for mounting nuts and the usual for car-radios center scale) I just don't know. Tweaking the IF for a maximum pilot tone output sent the MC-1310 decoder off doing it's job. Don't even THINK Hi-Fi
/Torben
If a mono FM set is acceptable, a super-regen with a single tuned circuit could form the basis for experimentation. Years ago I built an FM receiver using an autodyne frequency change, resistance coupled IF stages and a pulse counting detector, again with a single tuned circuit, so it was considerably simpler than a standard FM superhet.
Mind you, the FM band was a lot less crowded then...
Mind you, the FM band was a lot less crowded then...
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