Photo, WS1K

Jon, WS1K, sent me these pictures of a very nice find: A regenerative receiver that he found under a dealer’s table at an antique show in Brimfield, MA. He originally thought it was the receiver from the 1950 ARRL handbook, but after finding this site, he realized that it was closer to the Boys’ Life set that I wrote about earlier.

Photo, WS1K.

Pictures of his receiver are shown here. In addition to the receiver, he got the AC power supply to replace the A and B batteries. It also came with a schematic diagram, which is shown here:

From the way this schematic is drawn, it looks like whoever drew it copied it from the actual constructed radio, rather than vice versa. This circuit is very similar to the 1950 Boys’ Life set, but there are a few variations. For example, the component layout is different (it’s basically a mirror image of the BL set). It also has plug-in coils rather than the fixed coil in the BL set. (Jon believes the coils are for the broadcast band and about 5-6 MHz.)

Unlike the Handbook version, this set uses a transformer to couple the two stages, just like the BL version. It does have a few minor differences, however. For example, the BL version uses only two of the terminals on the regeneration control. Jon’s version uses all three. Both circuits have the cathodes of the tube hooked to one filament pin. However, the BL version calls for the connection to be made to pin 8, whereas Jon’s version calls for the connection to be made to pin 7. There’s no electrical difference, but the use of the different pin indicates that the builder probably wasn’t using the BL schematic. Jon’s version also has another variable capacitor, presumably for fine tuning.

As you can see in the schematic, the hand-drawn diagram of Jon’s set is entitled, “Dan Drummond’s Set.” Despite a little bit of sleuthing, neither of us was able to figure out who Dan Drummond was.