Radio Kit - 2 Tube Regenerative Radio

Radio Kit - 2 Tube Regenerative Radio

Radio Kit - 2 Tube Regenerative Radio image 1
Customer image:<br/>"Completed radio all hooked up."
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Radio Kit - 2 Tube Regenerative Radio image 1
Customer Images:
Customer image: "Completed radio all hooked up."
$54.95
In Stock
Quantity in stock: 6

This radio kit will cover the AM radio band along with the SW radio band. Power for this receiver is 1.5 V DC for the filaments and 45V DC for the plate current. A D cell and five 9V transistor batteries wired in series will work to power this radio. A 2000 ohm headset or an audio amplifier is required. Requires two T-1T4_DF91 tubes (not included).

SKU:
K-925
Item ID:
005339
UPC/EAN:
609722133173
Type:
RoHS Compliant
Filament Voltage (Uf)1.5 VDC
Headset / Amplifier Resistance2 kΩ
Plate Voltage (Ua)45 VDC
Packaging Information
Packaging Dimensions8.6 in. × 7.8 in. × 3 in.
Weight (Packaging)0.9877 lbs.
PDF: InstructionsAll Models
PDF: Layout and SchematicAll Models

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Specifications, Files, and Documents

PDF: Instructions Instructions419.77 KB
PDF: Layout and Schematic Layout and Schematic131.78 KB
Questions? Contact us at [email protected], or give us a call at 480-820-5411

Product Reviews

3.70 out of 5 based on 10 reviews
Gregory Deal - March 11th, 2024
5 out of 5

Excellent kit! Ready to start the build.

RBT690 - January 7th, 2024
2 out of 5

I recently finished my 2 tube regenerative radio. While the price was certainly reasonable, and the instructions were pretty good, construction was such that I can’t recommend this kit, especially for beginners.

The main reason is because the fiber board front panel and chassis panel, which have a white coating on one side, were poorly drilled at the factory. It was obvious from all the breakout on the backside of these panels that the factory failed to use a backer board while drilling to prevent the effect. Dull drill bits could be a culprit as well.

So it was off to the home center store to get some replacement material. My material is thicker which meant the shaft of the regeneration pot was too short to hold a knob. I simply cut the hole so it was larger than the pot and mounted it to a separate piece made out of thin hobby plywood.

Positioning the rest of the holes on each new panel for drilling was a bit tricky because the panel pictures listed in the instructions weren’t quite to scale. The fact that there’s not a lot of component placement space didn’t help either but after test assembling the coil, regeneration pot and tuning capacitor, it was apparent that I came close enough and wouldn’t have to remake the panels again. On the other hand, I was off enough that I wasn’t able to use the supplied heavy paper front panel decal.

As far as coil winding is concerned, I recommend that beginners practice by building one or more simple radio kits that require winding the coils on cardboard tubes. In my experience, cardboard is more forgiving as the surface isn’t as smooth as PVC. I found that this little bit of grip from the rougher surface means it’s less likely that while winding the wire will loosen up and unravel. PVC is obviously much stronger than cardboard and thank goodness for that because since the surface is so smooth, I had to pull fairly hard on the wire in order to keep the windings from loosening up. Don’t feel bad if you mess up and have to start over. This was my first one wound on PVC. I had to start over so many times, I lost count, and that was when winding with a special winding jig I made!

I believe the supplied tube sockets were poor quality. The screws used to mount them had heads that were too large for the metal frames. This resulted in interference with the body of the socket. I wasn’t aware of a screw with that size and thread count that had a smaller head so I ordered some replacement sockets.

I want to caution those who go ahead and order this kit about a possible wiring problem. If you draw an imaginary line through the mounting screws, you see that moving counterclockwise, the plans have pins 1-3 one one side of each socket and pins 4-7 on the other side. I made sure the gap between pins 1 and 7 was positioned where it needed to be and began wiring. The result was a non working radio that had no plate current. After considerable time troubleshooting, I discovered that the replacement sockets have solder pins 7, 1 and 2 on one side and pins 3-6 on the other side. Except for the frames, the replacement sockets I ordered appeared identical to those originally in the kit. I think I may have discarded the kit supplied sockets so I don’t know if the solder pin scheme matches my replacement sockets or those outlined on the plans.

After rewiring, the radio worked. Utilizing a Tecsun AN48X amplified loop antenna, the radio picked up our 4 local AM stations, 2 stations 30 miles to the north and one 50 miles to the east. Volume on all of these was extremely low, even compared to a single tube regenerative set I built years ago. This made the search for local stations seem like a DX session. The next step is to try a passive wire antenna. The radio also picks up nothing below 1050 AM. Best I can tell I have the correct number of winds on both the ticker and main coils. Unless I find some other problem, I’ll eventually try soldering a capacitor across the tuning cap to see if that brings any reception on the low end of the AM dial.

Mwsims - August 27th, 2023
5 out of 5

This radio kit is an exact copy of a kit that was designed and sold by a radio guru Mike Peebles. This is a good thing because on his website it states as of 2020 he is not accepting orders. The instructions and kit are complete. This radio does pick up Broadcast and shortwave to just above 7.5 MHz. If it doesn’t work then you have to recheck your work. You can use a crystal earpiece, 2000 Ohm headphones or an audio amplifier. Not all 2000 Ohm headsets are the same so you need a good one. I have several and 1 of them is what I would say is a good one and it is loud with this kit. The other most important thing is you have to have is a good long wire antenna and good ground. Using a ground plug in the round plug in an outlet can give you lots of interference from other appliances in your home. An audio amplifier will really bring out a lot of signals if you don’t have a good 2000 Ohm headset. All in all it’s a good kit with good instructions if you do your part with a good antenna, good ground and good headset.

Erik J. - December 27th, 2022
3 out of 5

The instructions are fairly straightforward. They substituted .047 capacitors for the “503” (.05) capacitors the instructions call for. Not enough hookup wire either. Tube socket pins didn’t line up well with what the diagram showed, which made it so some of the leads of the components needed to be extended.
Had to drill a missing hole in the base, and re-drill some of the other holes so everything would line up.
Purchased the sold separately tubes from AES. One is microphonic, but seems to work OK.
All in all, it’s fun to play with together, just a bit disappointed on the quality VS the price.

ray hinkley - July 27th, 2022
5 out of 5

this is the third kit that I have built .The only problem I have had is winding the coil ,the third time is the charm .I think the tickler coil should be closer to the main coil for better results .It is a great kit ,now how about a two tube amp to compliment it.

Built it for fun - March 28th, 2021
3 out of 5

I wasn't too thrilled with the quality, which other people have said as well. Holes were not drilled properly, the instructions weren't clear, plus the layout for the foil ground plane and the front label were printed undersized. I had to fiddle to get everything together and wired however when I powered it up it immediately worked. Performance is OK and all bands work.

William44 - August 23rd, 2019
4 out of 5

I had no problem with any of the parts or the wooden pieces. My only complaint is the drawings. The coil drawings are way too dark. Drawing the coil as black and the windings as dark grey in the coil winding instructions - I could barely make anything out. Using black and various grey tones for all the drawings is dumb. Just make it simple and make everything black and white. Thank God they included the schematic.

Sterling - July 31st, 2016
5 out of 5

This was a fun kit to build... a couple of notes to really make this kit sing... you need a long wire... like 75 to 100 feet to hear the short wave bands. Also, these are battery tubes... so don't expect that orange glow... you can see it if you strain your eyes in a dark room, but don't expect that glow to double as a night light. I did add a couple of improvements to make tuning easier: I added a Philmore vernier dial to the tuning capacitor to reduce the speed of tuning - these can be very expensive - almost half the cost of the radio, but we'll worth it! I will also be replacing the 50 ohm regen control pot with a 10-turn 100 ohm potentiometer. Also kind of expensive, but it makes tuning a lot easier. Another thing about battery tubes... you don't have to wait for them to warm up... they started working instantly like transistors.

Gedson - December 1st, 2014
1 out of 5

The wooden chassis and front plate are very poor quality. They are no where near rectangular and the cut is extremely rough. As for the construction, it is not too difficult and goes together rather easily. I was disappointed with the sensitivity of the completed product. I built a similar two tube (also 1t4's) radio when I was about 10 or 12 years old that had much better sensitivity. This was to be a nostalgic return to my childhood, but found it quite disappointing.

Max Jakobsen - August 12th, 2014
4 out of 5

Fine kit but there is missing an alligator clip.