Medium Frequency TRF Receiver

Introduction

This series of experiments was initiated in 2006, stalled, and was finally completed 16 months later with the inspiration provided by work regarding zero power receivers web-published by Wes, W7ZOI in late summer 2007.

Described is a complete receiver, built and presented backwards from the audio stage to the antenna. The design goals were to build a Tuned Radio Frequency broadcast band receiver with one RF amplifier, a high performance detector and a simple, headphone-level audio stage.

Receiver Block Diagram



The receiver block diagram is shown to the left. The antenna is a ~ 1 meter long whip purchased from Radio Shack in the USA. A single cascode bipolar junction transistor amplifier boosts the RF voltage and drives an envelope detector which is terminated by a JFET source follower. The source follower connects to a 10K volume potentiometer which controls the AF signal voltage into a headphone-level audio amplifier. Like most of the projects on this site, the intention is to  present some circuits and ideas for experimentation. This receiver is designed for local broadcast band AM radio reception, however, the various circuits could be used in or titleered for DX receivers as well.
A Supplemental Page can be found here

Audio Stage



The AF amplifier is a superb design by Rick, KK7B and is featured in many projects in EMRFD. This audio amplifier uses one 5532 op amp and has low noise and high gain. The 220 pF feedback capacitors can be increased to boost the low frequency response. I have built 6 or 7 versions of this stage and have used feedback capacitors up to 560 pF for this purpose. In the audio path, polyester film capacitors were used to try to improve the audio quality. Additionally, the value of the 15 uF capacitor connected to pin 2 is flexible. The quiescent current draw of this stage at 12.2 VDC is 12. 3 mA. Some builders may have to increase the 100 uF filter capacitor on the main 12.2 volt line to overcome motorboat oscillation. None occurred in my breadboard version. I suggest using this audio stage instead of the LM386 or discrete component final audio amplifiers in all projects which call for a headphone-level audio power amplifier on this web site.


Close up of the KK7B audio amplifier breadboard from the 10K potentiometer to headphone jack

Cascode BJT RF Amplifier and  High Performance Detector



Above is the combined RF amplifier, detector and JFET source follower schematic.


Cascode BJT RF Amplifier



To the left is a simplified RF amp diagram taken from the schematic above indicating the measured DC voltages for reference purposes.

T1, the output transformer was wound on an FT-50-43 ferrite toroid. An FT37-43 would also be suitable. Number 28 gauge enamel coated magnet wire was used for the 30 turn primary and 26 gauge wire was wound over top to make the secondary 12 turn, center-tapped winding. The 26 gauge wire was used for the secondary winding because it provided good anchoring of the transformer by the center tapped ground connection.

You may consider substituting a 22 to 100 ohm resistor for the ferrite bead on Q1. It suppresses VHF oscillations.

Detector


To the right is a photograph of the detector from the Q1 transformer through to the JFET source follower. Schottky/hot carrier diodes or germanium diodes such as the 1N34A with a low forward voltage drop are strongly recommended. I have found there to be significant variation in sensitivity between different types of these diodes. The 2 germanium diodes I used were matched as described on this web page. A number of detectors were built and tested for this receiver, however, the design shown had the best audio quality when compared to the others. The virtues of this detector include low noise, high bandwidth, high sensitivity and low distortion. although a little complex, this is a detector worthy of consideration in your AM receiver projects. The center-tapped Q2 transformer secondary and the 2 diodes provide full wave detection. This serves to reduce distortion somewhat and cancel even-order harmonics in the carrier signal. You may eliminate one of the diodes and convert the Q2 transformer secondary to a conventional, single link.

A 470K ohm resistor and R1 form a voltage divider that sets the detector bias voltage ( V Bias). Some measured R1 values and corresponding bias voltages are shown in the schematic. I chose an R1 value of 100K for my final version. You may have to increase or decrease the R1 value to suit your local detector sensitivity requirements. You could also substitute a bias potentiometer for front panel adjustment of the receiver sensitivity. In this detector, changing the R1 value also changed the detector frequency response. I built a separate voltage divider with roughly the same V bias consisting of a 68K and a 15K resistor and swapped it for the 470K and 100K pair. Interestingly, the 470 K and 100K pair had better low frequency response and slightly higher sensitivity than the 68K and 15K voltage divider.
Diode detectors are best driven with a high impedance source and followed by a high impedance load. Q3, a simple JFET source follower provides a high impedance load. You might want to substitute a "popcorn" MPF102 for the high Idss J310 indicated in the schematic as a J310 is not really required here. If you substitute a MPF102, please increase the source resistor from 2K7 to 4K7 ohms.

Front-end Band Pass Filter and Antenna



In late summer 2007, Wes, W7ZOI conducted experiments with zero power receivers (crystal sets and such). He wound some inductors using ferrites with an unloaded Q of over 270 at MF! Please check out Wes' web site. His work with high Q ferrite inductors illustrates the importance of quantitative measurement and also provided the following revelation; we really do not have to resort to large, air core, Litz wire coils to build high-performance inductors at MF! The early prototype front end for this project was built using FT50-61 ferrite cores, however after Wes emailed me his work on zero power receivers, I had to get some FT-114-61 ferrites for the front end of this receiver. The next day, I emailed Mark Laurain from Amidon Associates Inc and ordered some FT-114-61 ferrite toroids. The arrival of these ferrites prompted me to finish this project and put it up on the web.


The schematic on the right is the final band pass filter used for the front end. I initially tried using just L3 for the front end, but I was unable to just tune a single station. In my city, there are 2 powerful AM radio stations at 630 and 1150 KHz. With a single inductor, I could peak one of the stations, but the other could be heard in the background. Thus, the double-tuned band pass filter presented was designed and built. Now only one station can be detected with this circuit and tuning is sharp. Most builders would use a dual-ganged variable tuning capacitor, however, I elected to use 2 separate variable capacitors. Considerable flexibility with this circuit is possible. You will have to experiment to best determine your local sensitivity versus selectivity needs and to suit the variable capacitors you have available. Large AM receiver capacitors are getting hard to find. I obtained the 2 variable capacitors shown in the photographs below from 2 old receivers found in a second hand store. One of the receivers was a Marconi tube radio that was in poor condition. I paid $5.00 for both radios and harvested the 2 beautiful variable capacitors as well as some other parts such as knobs, switches and terminal strips. Never pass up on an old, derelict radio as a potential variable capacitor source!



Shown above are 2 photographs of the band pass filter breadboards. The 2 variable capacitors had a variation of ~ 24 to 500 pF. There is considerable interplay between the 2 capacitors. For my QTH, it was better to peak C2 first and afterward to peak C1. Consider that L1 and L2 have a hot end and a grounded end. The antenna is connected to the the hot end of L1. Predictably, when substituting the L1 center tap as the antenna connection, the selectivity of the L1-C1 tank is increased and the sensitivity or received signal strength is reduced. This also occurs when testing the various tap points on L3 to feed the RF amplifier-detector stages. In the final circuit, I settled on Point C, 20 turns from ground. Using Point D, reduces sensitivity and increased selectivity. The opposite is true when using Point B. You the builder, have to determine which L1 and L3 connection points to use based on your own experiments and local factors. You may also change the receiver sensitivity by making changes such as increasing or decreasing the 270 pF coupling capacitor value, the emitter degeneration on Q2, or the detector bias.

Band pass Filter Analysis


It is impractical to sweep a BCB band filter using variable capacitors, so some analysis using GPLA, a program that ships with EMRFD was used to plot and better understand the double-tuned band pass filter response. A worst case inductor unloaded Q of 200 was used, but I imagine that the actual Q of L1 and L3 is much higher. For the source impedance, 100K ohm was used conjecturing that a short whip antenna at 1150 KHz would have a very high input impedance and not load down the L1 inductor. In reality, it is likely the antenna input impedance might be closer to 1 Megohm, however, I am using the worst case scenario. If the filter performs better than simulated - all is great! Higher source and load impedances and higher unloaded Q inductors would decrease the bandwidth of this filter which is desirable.
Note that I am concerned that L2 at 5 uH may may overcouple the 2 tank circuits. I did not see a double humped response on GPLA analysis, however, experimentation with L2 may be in order for the more astute homebuilder. You might consider lowering the L2 value to 3 or 4 uH and performing some testing. The load impedance for L3 was rather arbitrarily chosen. Considering that various taps on L3 may be used, the XC of the 270 pF coupling capacitor and the input impedance of the RF amplifier, I just chose 47K as the L3 load impedance. Below are 2 screen captures of GPLA plots. The top graph is the double tuned band pass filter and below it is the single tuned band pass filter consisting just of L3 and C3.
These graphs lead to 2 main conclusions:

1. The final band pass filter design appears to be reasonably sound.
2. We can understand why I could not tune in a single radio station with just L3 and C3 as the band pass filter; the filter skirts are not very steep and the second unwanted station was also amplified and detected.







Varactor Tuned Front-end Filter

On November 11, 2007, I decided to investigate whether or not variable capacitance or varactor diodes could effectively replace the air variable capacitors in the band pass filter. In my parts cabinet were several MVAM -109 which is an obsolete but still readily available part. Another varactor, especially designed for tuning AM receivers is the 1SV149. This varactor is manufactured from Toshiba and is also appropriate.

While not comparable to the Q of 300 or greater of a good quality air variable capacitor, varactors are smaller, cheaper and can be easily ganged together so that only 1 potentiometer is required to tune the front-end filter. To the right is a photo of the varactor tuned front-end filter breadboard.

To the left is the schematic of the varactor tuned front-end band pass filter. The air variable capacitors were unsoldered from the original filter breadboard and a small board drilled and fitted with two 250K potentiometers was soldered to it. L3 was also modified to have taps at 10 and 15 turns from ground. I conjectured that since the varactor diodes have less Q than their air variable cousins, it would be wise to tap down on L3 to try and increase the selectivity of the L3 tank circuit. In the end, I used the tap at 10 turns from ground for my receiver as signal strength was still acceptably strong. You may choose to use the tap at 15 or some other point to suit your local selectivity/sensitivity requirements.

I was able to tune in single stations as I previously did with the air variable capacitors. Tuning is "touchy". Ten-turn pots would be a better choice, however, are not very frugal for such a project. You get used to tuning with conventional potentiometers after a few minutes or so. I measured the reverse voltages required to tune the 2 main local AM radio stations and they are tabled in the schematic. The L1 tank requires slightly more capacitance to resonate than the L3 tank. Thus it takes a little less applied reverse voltage to the varactor pair resonating the L1 tank compared to the varactor pair resonating the L3 tank .A side view photograph of the varactor breadboard is shown directly below. The component leads have been kept long so that I can recycle parts from experimental project to project as possible. This helps contain costs. Shorter lead lengths and proper lay out should be pursued in any final projects you build.

Single Varactor Tuned Front-end Filter


Tuning with a single potentiometer ganged to both varactors is easy to do after learning from the experiment above. All that is required is a method to compensate for the differences in capacitance between the the 2 LC tanks. I placed a high-Q (Q=300) variable trimmer capacitor in parallel with L1. By listening to the receive signal strength and tuning in one radio station using the potentiometer, I was able to peak CV for the strongest signal. I did this for both 650 and 1150 KHz and actually unsoldered CV and measured its value with a capacitance meter. The CV value was ~ 6 pF for both frequencies. I decided to replace CV with a fixed 5 pF silver mica capacitor and left it there in my final filter version. Your results will probably be different.  I suggest just leaving CV and using this trimmer cap to peak the signal once you have tuned a desired radio station with the main tuning potentiometer. An alternative to using CV is to vary L1. You could try compressing the number of L1 windings to allow tracking of the 2 LC tank circuits.

For the varactors, I used back-to-back VVC diodes as opposed to just a single varactor to resonate each tank. This was done in an effort preserve the highest varactor Q possible. The RF voltage of the AM RF signal may be high enough to forward bias a single varactor during a portion of the AC signal and degrade Q. This does not happen when back-to-back diodes are used. Almost all high-grade FM tuner schematics I have seen use back-to-back varactor diodes in their various ganged, tunable band pass filters. The major drawback of back-to-back diodes is your tuning range is reduced because you now have 2 capacitors in series. Experimentation may be required to achieve the BCB band-spread that you desire. You can add another pair of varactors in parallel or add some parallel fixed capacitance or even change the L1 and L3 inductance values for example.

This receiver tunes nicely and sounds fabulous. Last evening I was able to tune in 5 different AM stations, however, other than the local 2 radio stations, the others were quite faint. This is not bad considering this receiver has only 1 RF amp and a 1 meter long antenna. This band pass filter could be adapted as a pre-selector for AM radio reception. To match 50 ohms, lower L1 and L3 tap points could be chosen or a few links of wire may be wound around the inductors.

In the photograph below, you can see the 5 pF capacitor soldered in parallel with the MVAM-109 pair associated with L1. The antenna also connects to the ungrounded end of the 5 pF capacitor. Below in the last photograph; since only one potentiometer is used for tuning, a large knob was screwed on to the pot control shaft to make tuning a little easier. The solder-laden 220 ohm resistor is the connection point for the regulated 12.2 VDC. The 220 ohm resistor on the left has been cut from the 12.2 VDC connection point so 0 voltage goes to the left potentiometer.




Final Thoughts


I emailed Wes, W7ZOI and asked him why it is better to inductively couple a tuned circuit which use air variable tuning capacitors. Wes wrote his answer in the form of a complete web article entitled Coupling Methods in the Double Tuned Circuit. Big thanks Wes! From his summary, when the inductors used to resonate each tuned circuit are constant, and inductive coupling is used, the coupling of the resonators will remain constant as the variable capacitors are tuned across the band. Please download and study his web article for it not only discusses coupling in the double tuned circuit, but provides some insight into using his LadBuild and GPLA software from EMRFD.