1958 Boys’ Life 3-Transistor Regen

 

1958JanBL1958JanBL1The January 1958 issue of Boys’ Life magazine carried the third part in a series about shortwave listening, and included the plans for the three-transistor shortwave receiver shown here. The construction article was authored by Howard McEntee, W2SI, who was also the designer of the magazine’s 1956 CONELRAD receiver.

The shortwave set covered 1.25 to 18.5 MHz with four plug-in coils, meaning that it could tune the top of the broadcast band, several shortwave broadcast bands, and the 160, 80, 40, and 20 meter ham bands.  It employed a 2N1114 as the regenerative detector, followed by two CK722‘s for audio amplification to drive a pair of headphones.  It was powered by four penlite cells, which were said to provide several hundred hours of use.

Tuning was accomplished with two variable capacitors, one for broad tuning, with another for bandspread for carefully tuning a crowded band.  A third variable capacitor was used to adjust regeneration.

The article cautioned that this set wasn’t necessarily for beginners.  It advised that those who had never built a radio before should start with a more simple set and then graduate to this one.  “Real care is needed in wiring, for a wrong connection in some parts could mean immediate ruin of over $10 worth of transistors, the finished job shoujld be checked and rechecked, before the power is turned on.”

 

1958JanBL2

 



2 thoughts on “1958 Boys’ Life 3-Transistor Regen

  1. Tom Calantonio

    Back in 1958 when I was a Cub Scout in elementary school I read about this three transistor regen. I was very interested but understood little . Over the years I became a ham and built and collected a number of regen radios. This 1958 Boys Life radio was always on the back of my mind.
    I located a copy of the January 1958 Boys Life and made a bunch of copies of the article. I will say this little circuit was a challenge to get oscillating. I finally suceded and I wound a coil for the broadcast band. I am located near Washington,DC. I get all the east coast blow torches on AM and as far west as KMOX in St.Louis,Mo.
    Om CW it does a good job as on SSB plus shortwave broadcast. 55 years later I was able to relive a youthful dream. Tom WB3HLH

  2. Pingback: 1958 Boys’ Life Shortwave Receiver: Part 2 | OneTubeRadio.com

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