On 2/26/2014 11:09 AM, Alejandro Lieber wrote:
On 2014-02-18, gareth wrote:
There was a time, back inthe 1920s and 1930s, that any active device
(valves in them thar days, tubes for the leftpondians) would cost nearly
a week's wages for the average working man, and so it was good economical
sense to try and use it as many ways as possible simultaneously.

Times have changes, and active devices with performance into the tens
of MegaHertz are now ten-a-penny, so what is achieved by competitions
such as the "Two Transistor Challenge" where it is the costs of switching
(manual, relays) which would be the major outlay?


I remember my first home build radio: a earphone with just a 1N34 diode
in
parallel, an outdoor antenna and a good ground. Lots of listening hours of
a nearby AM 1230 KHz transmiter.

With a single FET regenerative receiver I could listen shorwave radios
from all over the world.

I like to work with very simple electronic equipment: I am reading and
replying to this news group with a 20 MHz 80286, 1 MBy memmory and all
programs in a 1.44
diskette (no Hard Drive).

Alejandro Lieber
LU1FCR
Rosario Argentina


I can understand this. Back in Junior High (middle school nowadays), my
parents got me an electronics projects kit. It used a 1T4 for the
active element; a D cell provided filament voltage and a 45V battery
(looked like a long 9V battery) provided the plate voltage.

I built all kinds of things from the examples, including regen
receivers. I spent hundreds of hours with it - probably one of the best
money my parents spent to keep me out of trouble . It was advanced
enough to keep me occupied, yet simple enough that it taught me a lot
about how more advanced (at least to me, at the time) circuits work.

I still like the simple electronics. However, simple receivers like
that just won't work for me now. Something about the 5KW AM transmitter
in my back yard...

There is a lot to be said for simplicity!

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Jerry, AI0K

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