After using enough sophisticated receivers it was time to try something 'simpler.'
JFET Regen Project
Out of curiousity I had to build one of these to experience it. After reading descriptions provided by Chuck Kitchen I took the plunge. On the front note the several controls - from left to right: RF Gain, Regeneration, Main Tuning, Fine Tuning, Audio Gain. In practice the user must adjust all these controls to tune in a signal. After building it, I literally thought it was not working. Then much later I picked it up, turned it on, adjusted the controls - and out of noise came signals! In its current form it receives about the 40 meter band: CW, CHU time signals, AM broadcasts, whether data and with care amateur SSB.
The receiver literally has more wires and more controls than stages. The design is based upon a design by Chuck Kitchen from his QEX article. I began with a schematic from W5JH, and the I built. There is an NPN RF stage, a JFET detector, an NPN audio buffer stage, and a LM386 amplifier IC to drive conventional headphones. The first two stages are on the left, constructed manhatten style. In the upper right next to the battery is the IC audio amp wired on perf board. Below this is the first audio stage built with ugly construction. All are attached to a wood board, both for mounting convenience and stability. The regen coil is wound on a large pill bottle and attached also to the wood base. To accomodate the controls a large tin was used.