Looking for a 'mono' or 'stereo' FM receiver? Click here...

[patrickcambre]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and want to first...say hi!

Well, I just finished the makings of a great FM 'Stereo' Receiver...uisng the Philips' TEA5711T (receiver and decoder) IC, along with the TDA7050 mono/stereo audio amplifer IC. With just these two chips...although they are very small...I have managed to get the unit up and running. What a wonderful sound...that STEREO! I even have some nice pictures of it...in case you want to see what it all looks like...put together.

I have the PCB layout and all the components I used for the project. Although it is also an AM receiver, I did not venture out to add components for that. Since my main interest lies in FM, I just used the chip for the FM portion. You may want to make it both AM and FM...all left up to you, my friend!

If you are interested in making this great little project, I can also tell you how to get in touch with Philip's Semiconductors, in order to get 'free'sample chips of both IC's. They had sent me 5 each. Remarkable...that Philip's Company! So generous are they...in catering to hobbiests and college students. I guess we come under that heading!

Also, if you go to my website, which is at...

**broken link removed**

And then scroll down until you see the words...The 'Radio Shack Special' Project...you will have ALL the complete plans/pictures of a remarkable one transistor FM mono receiver. Many visitors have already made it, as you will see all of their 'maiden voyages' below the Radio Shack Special LINK.

So happy to share my wonderful and exciting experience with you all!

And also, I just wanted to say hi, from the cajun boy down here in Louisiana!

Hoping to hear from you, my friends...should your interest be peeked into making either project...or both!

...and do have a very rewarding week ! ! !

...a friend, Patrick

 

[mstechca]

:lol:

You are lucky phillips did 3/4 of the work for you by embedding most of the circuit into IC's.

I made my own superregen receiver with transistors and diodes as my only semiconductors. I didn't even have to use a bigger IC.

now what is even more interesting is that I am going to incorporate an easier way to change channels. Rather than tuning the trim capacitor (FM dial), I will have one lonesome little push button which allows me to go up the FM band a little bit, but this will require a commonly available IC.

It is best to learn all aspects of electronics because some chips will eventually become not available (I think the MC1488 and MC1489 chips are now distinct or obsolete).

 

[Roff]

:lol:

You are lucky phillips did 3/4 of the work for you by embedding most of the circuit into IC's.

I made my own superregen receiver with transistors and diodes as my only semiconductors. I didn't even have to use a bigger IC.

now what is even more interesting is that I am going to incorporate an easier way to change channels. Rather than tuning the trim capacitor (FM dial), I will have one lonesome little push button which allows me to go up the FM band a little bit, but this will require a commonly available IC.

It is best to learn all aspects of electronics because some chips will eventually become not available (I think the MC1488 and MC1489 chips are now distinct or obsolete).

Patrick has already been through that phase.

 

[moody07747]

Re: Looking for a 'mono' or 'stereo' FM receiver? Click here

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and want to first...say hi!

Well, I just finished the makings of a great FM 'Stereo' Receiver...uisng the Philips' TEA5711T (receiver and decoder) IC, along with the TDA7050 mono/stereo audio amplifer IC. With just these two chips...although they are very small...I have managed to get the unit up and running. What a wonderful sound...that STEREO! I even have some nice pictures of it...in case you want to see what it all looks like...put together.

I have the PCB layout and all the components I used for the project. Although it is also an AM receiver, I did not venture out to add components for that. Since my main interest lies in FM, I just used the chip for the FM portion. You may want to make it both AM and FM...all left up to you, my friend!

If you are interested in making this great little project, I can also tell you how to get in touch with Philip's Semiconductors, in order to get 'free'sample chips of both IC's. They had sent me 5 each. Remarkable...that Philip's Company! So generous are they...in catering to hobbiests and college students. I guess we come under that heading!

Also, if you go to my website, which is at...

**broken link removed**

And then scroll down until you see the words...The 'Radio Shack Special' Project...you will have ALL the complete plans/pictures of a remarkable one transistor FM mono receiver. Many visitors have already made it, as you will see all of their 'maiden voyages' below the Radio Shack Special LINK.

So happy to share my wonderful and exciting experience with you all!

And also, I just wanted to say hi, from the cajun boy down here in Louisiana!

Hoping to hear from you, my friends...should your interest be peeked into making either project...or both!

...and do have a very rewarding week ! ! !

...a friend, Patrick

you have to get away from Radioshack :lol:
their prices are really high

try jameco.com
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/st...splay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1

i just used them yesterday...
I was able to cut costs by 50% useing them compared to the shack

 

[audioguru]

Hi Patrick,
That's a nice little radio with the Philips IC. It has everything in it to make a real radio. :lol:

Don't you think it works a lot better than a simple super-regen? :?:

 

[mstechca]

Let me add a new term to the site. AGUS - It stands for AudioGuru's Unreal Superregen.

LOL

I can't see what is so UNREAL about a superregen. mine seems to work as well as the majority of the radios out there on the market today. :lol:

 

[audioguru]

MStechca,
I don't know how many billions of "radios" have been sold for $1.00 or $2.00 at dollar stores (with headphones and a battery that cost much more) using Philips' IC. My wifey got two of them for free by subscribing to a newspaper. Maybe that junk is what you are comparing your super-regen with. :cry:

A "real" FM radio has a tuned RF amplifier with AGC, a mixer, a multi-tuned high gain IF strip and an FM detector. They have a very low distortion audio amp. They work much, much better than a super-regen. :lol:

 

[audioguru]

PS. The Philips IC that Patrick recently used makes a "real" radio. It isn't the same one as in the cheap ones.

 

[Roff]

I went through a phase (many years ago) where I was highly enamored with regen and superregen receivers. They have a neat minimalist quality that is appealing - sorta like something for nothing. Audio quality is another issue.
Mstecha, have you looked into reflex receivers (Google)?

 

[audioguru]

superregen receivers.... have a neat minimalist quality

Like their manual sensitivity control, difficulty in tuning FM broadcasts due to the lack of an FM detector and overload from strong local stations.

I thought poeple listen to FM instead of AM because of the fantastic audio quality. How come nobody sells a super-regen?

 

[Roff]

superregen receivers.... have a neat minimalist quality

Like their manual sensitivity control, difficulty in tuning FM broadcasts due to the lack of an FM detector and overload from strong local stations.

I thought poeple listen to FM instead of AM because of the fantastic audio quality. How come nobody sells a super-regen?

You're absolutely right. My interest was in the electronics, not in the audio. In fact, I never made an FM receiver. You couldn't get transistors with the required Ft when I was playing with those types of circuits. I'm not even sure I got a superregen to work. My first regen receiver used a CK722.
My point was that there are other reasons to build a receiver besides being able to get fantastic audio quality. Do a search on crystal sets if you have doubts.
I suspect that, if Mstecha were honest with himself, he would admit to the same motives and stop trying to convince us that superregen makes an altogether satisfactory FM (or any other type of M) receiver.

 

[audioguru]

Hi Ron,
I remember the CK722 germanium transistor from old Popular Electronics magazines in the library. I was only 8 years old when it was introduced. I got my 1st transistor radio a few years later.
I discovered that it worked much better with two 9V batteries in series instead of only one, and I am lucky it didn't smoke or blow-up! :lol:

I built my second FM transmitter that I forgot about with a tunnel diode way back in the early 60's.

My passion was live music but I didn't hear the same from recordings with all the extra hiss and distortion, and missing ultra-highs and deep lows. Therefore I got interested in electronics and sound systems to make recordings playback sound better.
My friend always bought the latest Shure phono cartridge and gave me his hand-me-down. So my system was almost always State-of-the-art. :lol:

 

[patrickcambre]

Hello all who have replied back...

Hello all,

Yes, I read each reply, and thank you for taking the time to give your own view!


your friend, Patrick

 

[mstechca]

I suspect that, if Mstecha were honest with himself, he would admit to the same motives and stop trying to convince us that superregen makes an altogether satisfactory FM (or any other type of M) receiver.

I'm honest with myself, but it can make a stisfactory receiver. It all depends on how you build it. Sure there will be lots of noise when no station comes in, but when a station comes in clearly, practically no noise occurs.

and for the superhet, I think that if the station doesn't come in, no signal will be heard. This could be a disadvantage when you want to determine the frequency of this "no signal", especially when you want to compare the strength of a station.

 

[audioguru]

for the superhet, I think that if the station doesn't come in, no signal will be heard.

What are you talking about? A cheap, toy superhet?
On a properly designed superhet radio, if a station doesn't come in then the station doesn't exist. Its sensitivity and selectivity is far better than a super-regen. The super-regen will overload with strong local stations while a superhet will be fine, so it will be the super-regen that has stations that don't come in. :lol:

What about the lowpass filter on your super-regen that filters-out the squegging frequency? It also filters-out more than half the sound. A superhet doesn't have an audio-band lowpass filter. :lol:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

A superhet doesn't have an audio-band lowpass filter. :lol:

Yes it does :lol:

An AM detector itself uses a lowpass filter to remove the IF frequencies and leave the audio frequencies, at the same time it reduces the higher audio frequencies as well - AM is only a low bandwidth system, and it's advantageous to filter out the higher frequencies which can only be noise.

 

[audioguru]

Hi Nigel,
You're correct. A lousy-sounding AM radio also begins cutting off audio frequencies above only a couple of KHz. Some AM stations over here transmit wideband audio, maybe to 10kHz for radios with switchable bandwidth. But a good FM superhet radio is flat to 15kHz. :lol:

MStechca's super-regen has a squegging oscillator operating as low as 100kHz. Its unbuffered lowpass filters begin cutting off audio frequencies above only a couple of KHz. Its narrow-band AM and broadcast band FM would sound about the same: lousy. :lol: