Trying to build a radio receiver out of household items, garbage, and other junk. The goal is to have everything from scratch except tubes. I have a vast(ish) collection of vacuum tubes, and I have wire. I know how to make capacitors from aluminum foil and other materials, so I have that covered. The tube I will be using is a type 19 double triode, direct-heated cathode. I need only four resistors and a potentiometer for the circuit, but they are a 400 ohm, 100k ohm, 250k ohm, and 3M ohm, with a 50k pot. (see schematic for more details.)
Got the parts to make capacitors, and I have wire for winding the coils, and wire for connections. Going to mount components on a piece of board. ITS A BREADBOARD RADIO!!!!
Anyway, just need to be able to make resistors now, plus a power source, which I could make easily enough. (100VDC for the plate, 2VDC for the filament)
That's what I was thinking. My dad bought me some resistors, so I just need to make capacitors. I have a 50 volt power supply to use for the B+ if needed, but I am thinking about making a slightly more advanced version after talking to some other radio amateurs. They all said that these radios were very crude and emitted lots of energy from the regeneration, and they said I should add an RF stage before the detector. I have revised the circuit several times since then/
Good on the resistors. B+ for that circuit should work down to 22 volts or the 50V supply that you already have. The type 19 can handle more than that. A 1.5 volt lantern battery for the filament will be good depending on the current 0f 0.26ma. Oh yes, from my years building these circuits in the past, they will emit a signal back to the antenna when in regeneration but should not be a major issue in general usage. A pre RF stage would take care of that but your circuit would not really need it and still be a great performer depending on the frequency/band of choice. I am thinking of making a single tube transmitter/receiver using a 6SQ7 dual triode so I might make a project for HaD as well someday. Been a Ham for 50 years and it has been a fun ride :-) de wa4jat
Ah, yes. Even though I am still in my teens, I have familiarized myself with most of the aspects of vacuum tube circuitry. There is a schematic for a two-triode transceiver in the shortwave-craft book, and it uses two type 30 triodes, which I had one except I burnt it out because I was stupid 3.5 years ago when i first started on my journey into tubes. I put 6.3 volts on the filament instead of 2!!! I was lucky my other two tubes at the time didn't burn out from that. Super lucky to still have them today. Those were my first three tubes, and eventually I learned not to put voltage on a filament or heater without first finding its datasheet. DE KK7MPR, ham for about 1 year so far. Do you happen to know Morse code???
On the 6SQ7, I looked up the datasheet, and you might be able do this: On RX, use the triode as a regenerative RF input stage to amplify incoming signals, and the diodes (both of them, for maximum rectified RF current) to detect it and turn it into a (weak) audio signal, which could probably be hooked up to an external amplifier or a crystal earphone. For TX, the diodes would probably be mostly useless, for you cannot use them for power rectification, as they are connected to the triode's cathode. The triode would then act as an RF oscillator, straight to antenna. You would need a solid-state power supply in order to make it one tube.
Sounds like you are well on your way with the caps and the resistors should not be a big issue. A pencil lead trace on paper for the 3Meg grid leak is pretty standard. The lower resistance values might take some tinkering but in the end I think you will get it done. The B+ voltage for the type 19 tube could be just a stack of 9 volt batts in series as the current for that circuit will be rather low.
That's what I was thinking. My dad bought me some resistors, so I just need to make capacitors. I have a 50 volt power supply to use for the B+ if needed, but I am thinking about making a slightly more advanced version after talking to some other radio amateurs. They all said that these radios were very crude and emitted lots of energy from the regeneration, and they said I should add an RF stage before the detector. I have revised the circuit several times since then/