Stuff We Like Very Much

A few things that nearly held our attention for a while:

• The Receiver - From the EBU Technical Review, a guide to radio from the crystal set to the tranny. A tranny here means a transistor radio, not its modern usage.
• Classic Radio Press Adverts - We scoured the trade press for adverts like these. The PYE Utility and PCR Receivers, built under war-time economy measures, were a great listen.
• Eddystone Shortwave Manual 1947 - Some sound listening notes in spite of the date. They were just getting to grips with VHF back then.
• Receiver Dynamics - US Military radio performance review.
• 50 Years at BBC Woofferton - One of the sites that sent the BBC around the world.
• Daventry Calling The World - The most evocative name on the dial.
• Restoration Of Valved HF Communications Receivers - Chris Parry does what it says on the tin.
• An Old Logbook - The memory list from our classic AR7030 back in the day.
• Stephen Paul McGreevy's VLF Booklet - Nature's radio stations on very, very long-wave.
• Comprehensive Shortwave Broadcasting Schedule - Every station from 198KHz to 29,999KHz. Download!
• Murphy Radio Design - From the days when a radio was seen as a piece of furniture, soak up the style of the cabinet-makers art.
• 7 Valve Receiver With Regeneration - Improve a standard design with positive feedback for better selectivity and even more gain.
• A Single-Ended Amplifier using the classic 2A3 Triode Valve. With a history going back to the 1930's, big bucks are paid for today's designs.
• A Regenerative Receiver using a single transistor.
• Improved Shortwave Regenerative Receiver - Better design is always good, but so much is down to the operator's skill.
• The Introduction of FM Radio in the UK - Anthony C Davies traces the origins of VHF sound broadcasting in Britain, the background to the choice of wide-band FM and the subsequent technical developments.
• Radio Bygones - A sample edition from May 2003 looking at a German TRF. A great read.
• Practical Radio Circuits - Raymond Haigh looks at making radios from crystal sets to what we might call a modern set.
• Denco Coils - So many trips to R. F. Potts in Derby to buy these B9A plug-in coils. My TRF attempts never got above 1.6MHz but if you took out the tuning core, it made it up to the 1930 Net on Top Band.
• How to Build Advanced ShortWave Receivers - R A Penfold decides the tone of this page is too low-tech and takes the higher ground. The problem with building proper receivers is the expectation is so high. When your set has just one valve and you're listening to Australia, there is always a sense of quiet wonder.
• BBC Tatsfield Receiving Station - Circa March 1961, the BBC listened to the RF and audio quality of their stations and insisted short-comings were fixed. I wonder what they would think of DAB?
• Infinite Impedance AM Detection - Time was when AM Radio was all you had, so you tried everything to get a better sound. Shame you can't do this with DAB...
• Ferrograph Series 2 Manual - The tape machine of choice for copyright infringement by recording off the radio way back when.
• Vortexion WVB - Our studio recorder for so many years. Hard to believe this free-hand drawing was the basis of the design.
• Clarke And Smith - Unsung heroes of British electronics, worth a click for the picture of police comms in the 1940s. So much was achieved so quietly, we never knew they were there.

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