Garry Nichols
Stations Heard: 78 & 20
A few notes on my J310 Regen.
1) I came up with an idea on how to spread out the vernier dial so I could have a bigger scale. I took off the original dial plate and used two of the 3 screw postions to mount a longer pointer made out of solid hookup wire.
2) There was not much reduction offered by the single vernier, so I stuck a "bigger knob" onto the front of the original knob with double sided foam mounting square material. This is the "heavy duty" or "permanent" kind made by Scotch. Don't use the "removable" -- it's too flexible.
3) I cover the bottom of the BCB by adding the second variable's section with the test clip shown.
4) All listening was done with only the ferrite bar antenna from a rocking chair on in a second floor room of a wood frame house with "aluminium" siding.
5) This set has posed the following problem for me:
When tuning very weak stations (only) I can never find a point where the signal is completely clarified. There is always a bit of a "gurgle" to the audio.
My understanding is that regens tend to "lock" onto a sig. I think that which ever sig is stronger, the station or the oscillating detector, is "pulled" to the other's frequency. So I am wondering if weak sigs don't allow this effect to take place. With the sidebands of an AM sig constantly changing frequency (slightly), maybe that is why my set never tunes to complete clarity with a weak signal. It is definitely not a tuning rate problem. For a while I was using a drive that had a 96:1 reduction and the cap only tuned part of the band! Reducing the source bias or the B+ does not seem to cure this -- I just loose sensitivity. I substituted another J310 and there was no change. Any thoughts or guesses on this that anyone might have would be appreciated.
My second entry -- a Minimalist Crystal Radio setup:
1) The antenna was about 27 ft of insulated wire that ran 5 ft to the window and the rest sloping at about 45 deg to a brick on the lawn (with insulator).
2) The "ground" was a 3 ft run to a two draw steel filing cabinet beside the desk on the second floor. A very noticable improvement.
3) The coil is a Rook using #21 enameled.
4) The crystal earplugs were just purchased from Mouser and had to be tapped on the desk quite strongly before each use. Otherwise at least one was not sensitive or completely dead. The resurrection by tapping was dramatic and they worked fine after the "treatment", sound great and are quite comfortable. Parallel resistance did not seem to offer an advantage -- it just changed the tone a bit.
5) The diode is a 1N34A that had the highest back resistance of the handfull that I have.
It would seem that almost everyone can do a bit of DXing with practically nothing, provided the "nothing" is carefully chosen and used!
Thank you,
JFET Radio
2009 Radioboard Listening Contest Garry Nichols 8264 Sugarland Drive Manlius, NY 13104 (315)682-3251 Single J310 Regen and only a ferrite bar antenna on rig. Number Date EDT CALL kHz Location 1 27-Jul PM1002 WSYR 570 Syracuse, NY 2 1004 WHEN 620 Syracuse, NY 3 1005 WMAL 630 Washington, D.C. 4 1007 WSM 650 Nashville, TN 5 1010 WSCR 670 Chicago, IL 6 1013 WGN 720 Chicago, IL 7 1019 WHCU 870 Ithaca, NY 8 1032 WFIR 960 Roanoke, VA 9 1036 WMVP 1000 Chicago, IL 10 1100 CFTR 680 Toronto, ON 11 1101 WLW 700 Cincinnati, OH 12 1103 WJR 760 Detroit, MI 13 1106 WBBM 780 Chicago, IL 14 1115 CFRB 1010 Toronto, ON 15 1148 WFAN 660 New York, NY 16 1204 WLS 890 Chicago, IL 17 AM1206 CHML 900 Hamilton, ON 18 1206 WCBS 880 New York, NY 19 28-Jul PM 857 WQEW 1560 New York, NY 20 903 WFED 1500 Washington, D.C. 21 920 WBAL 1090 Baltimore, MD 22 922 KYW 1060 Philadelphia, PA 23 933 CKLW 800 Windsor, ON 24 936 WSB 750 Atlanta, GA 25 940 CHWO 740 Toronto, ON 26 1023 WBZ 1030 Boston, MA 27 1027 CP24 1050 Toronto, ON 28 1026 WTAM 1100 Cleveland, OH 29 1030 WWVA 1170 Wheeling, WV 30 1034 WHAM 1180 Rochester, NY 31 1038 WNSS 1260 Syracuse, NY 32 1041 CKPC 1380 Brantford, ON 33 1043 WFBL 1390 Syracuse, NY 34 1050 WCKY 1530 Cincinnati, OH 35 1107 WWL 870 New Orleans, LA 36 29-Jul PM 833 WGY 810 Albany, NY 37 835 WWLZ 820 Horseheads, NY 38 839 CINW 940 Montreal, QU 39 844 WDCX 990 Rochester, NY 40 846 KDKA 1020 Pittsburgh, PA 41 854 WDFN 1130 Detroit, MI 42 859 WBBR 1130 New York, NY 43 902 WTIC 1080 Hartford, CT 44 903 WBT 1110 Charlotte, NC 45 932 WHAS 840 Louisville, KY 46 935 WBEN 930 Buffalo, NY 47 1000 WTLA 1200 N. Syracuse, NY 48 1005 WPHT 1210 Philadelphia, PA 49 1100 KMOX 1120 St. Louis, MO 50 1118 KXEL 1540 Waterloo, IA 51 30-Jul PM 929 CIGM 790 Sudbury, ON 52 954 CKDO 1580 Oshawa, ON 53 959 WKBW 1520 Buffalo, NY 54 1004 CBE 1550 Windsor, ON 55 1058 WCDL 1440 Carbondale, PA 56 1106 WRVA 1140 Richmond, VA 57 1107 WOWO 1190 Ft. Wayne, IN 58 31-Jul PM 900 CJYE 1250 Toronto, ON 59 908 WFNN 1330 Erie, PA 60 922 WABC 770 New York, NY 61 928 CHOK 1070 Sarnia, ON 62 932 WHKW 1220 Cleveland, OH 63 934 WEBO 1330 Owego, NY 64 955 WTDY 1670 Madison, WI 65 1000 WQLR 1660 Kalamazoo, MI 66 1039 WAKR 1590 Akron, OH 67 1107 WHK 1420 Cleveland, OH 68 1-Aug PM 1032 WAAM 1600 Ann Arbor, MI 69 2-Aug PM 308 WSEN 1050 Syracuse, NY 70 312 WSFW 1110 Seneca Falls, NY 71 337 WOLF 1490 Syracuse, NY 72 338 WSIV 1540 E. Syracuse, NY 73 339 WMCR 1600 Oneida, NY 74 846 WHTK 1280 Rochester, NY 75 900 WXXI 1370 Rochester, NY 76 937 CKNX 920 Wingham, ON 77 3-Aug AM 559 CFRA 580 Ottawa, ON 78 604 WOR 710 New York, NY
Crystal Set
Tuggle tuner with minimal outdoor antenna, filing cabinet ground.
Number Date EDT Call Freq Location
1 7-Aug PM 900 WQEW 1560 New York, NY
2 902 WFBL 1390 Syracuse, NY
3 907 KDKA 1020 Pittsburgh, PA
4 918 KYW 1060 Philadelphia, PA
5 931 WWVA 1170 Wheeling, WV
6 933 WKBW 1520 Buffalo, NY
7 936 WHEN 620 Syracuse, NY
8 937 WSYR 570 Syracuse, NY
9 937 CFRB 1010 Toronto, ON
10 946 CHWO 740 Toronto, ON
11 952 CP24 1050 Toronto, ON
12 954 WAAM 1600 Ann Arbor, MI
13 959 WTAM 1100 Cleveland, OH
14 1005 WBBR 1130 New York, NY
15 1025 WMVP 1000 Chicago, IL
16 1028 WPHT 1210 Philadelphia, PA
17 1100 WBBM 780 Chicago, IL
18 1106 WBT 1110 Charlotte, NC
19 8-Aug AM1025 WSIV 1540 Syracuse, NY
20 1026 WOLF 1490 Syracuse, NY