Seventy years ago this month, the February 1953 issue of Radio-Electronics carried this circuit for a simple three-tube regenerative receiver for the shortwave bands. The magazine lamented that many younger hams and SWL’s grew up in an era of chrome-plated super-dooper receivers, and didn’t realize that for about $15, they could construct a receiver that would outperform communications receivers selling for nearly $100.

With plug-in coils, the set tuned 3.5 – 30 MHz, using three 1T5 tubes. The first served as RF amplifier, the second as regenerative detector, and the third as audio amplifier. The construction details were rather limited, but the magazine did warn that such a receiver was susceptible to hand capacitance, which could be minimized by a metal chassis and an RF choke added at a strategic location in the circuit.