Until I saw your answer, I took the first stage of my amplifier circuit and changed the collector resistor (in the common-emitter amplifier) to 120K from 18K. I noticed alot more gain, and the quality seemed somewhat better. But after a minute or two, the quality begins distorting (must be because of the coupling capacitor. So I added a 62K resistor from collector to ground, and everything seems OK.
Now the station is in pretty clear, but I still get background hum in the speaker, no matter what decoupling capacitor I use across te battery.
I also tried adding a 10K resistor from the collector of my detector (shown way above) to ground, and the selectivity has improved dramatically.
HOWEVER, I still want to somehow or another get C.T.V. in (air channel 9). But it is 60km away from me, while CH (air channel 11) is less than 10.
For some odd reason, picking the perfect resistor between base and ground allows me to partially receive C.T.V.
I do realize that the resistor between base and ground is the resistor that controls sensitivity, but if I make it too low, I won't receive anything.
Is there anyway to determine the optimal resistor value?