Hi:

This question may have been discussed before but my search didn't show anything.

I'm curious if anyone has has scored 100% on all three tests? Maybe I should be asking how many have
scored 100?

No reason, except personal curiosity. It seems to me like this would be quite an accomplishment.  

Thanks,

Joe

Congratulations Geoffrey. Don't listen to the naysayers, there's always someone who'll try to reduce
you. In this hobby there seem to be more than a few.

To paraphrase Richard Feynman, "if you're not completely confused when you start, then you're not
doing it right".

Joe

KG6WOU,
Thank you for the suggestions.

It's the Ramsey SR2C.

There's plenty of noise to prevent me from hearing but also the volume (db) is very low. I switched from a speaker to an earphone and am now able to hear most stations as long as the signal is strong.

You're right about there not being a meter with this receiver, but it does have an LED which seems to be a fair indicator of signal strength. It gets brighter as the volume gets louder.

My antenna is a 24 guage wire which is about 50 feet long and is raised to about 20 feet in the air. It's grounded to a metal rod stuck in the ground. I really  didn't know how to connect the ground to the receiver so I followed the technique I used with a crystal receiver and
connected it to the metal part of the receiver.

I didn't understand how to adjust (align?) the shielded-can inductors, so it's possible they could use more tweaking. I didn't receive any signal for the first couple of hours, so I was happy to finally hear something. Except for the frequency in the oscillator circuit I've left them alone.

I know this receiver isn't well thought of around here but it's the first one I've built, and I've enjoyed it quite a lot. So far, I've listened to stations in Taiwan and Cuba and one using a slavic language which I wasn't able to identify. I've also listened to some
CW which came in very clear. I've learned a lot about how receivers work too so for the money it's a great little receiver.

Thanks again,
Joe (KE7RTV)

I'm new to the hobby and I just built my first receiver from a Ramsey shortwave kit.

After some initial difficulty it works pretty well, but I'm still having a couple of problems:

The first is that once I get a strong signal I can't hold onto it. Sometimes it will hold for a minute or two but it always drifts off.

The other problem is that the volume for most signals is too low to be easily heard. This may be related to the first problem but even when the signal is strong the volume isn't very high.

I know it's hard to do an online diagnosis, but I thought maybe someone can at least point me in the right direction.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joe  
 

I would disagree with the comment that people reach
the Extra level without any human contact. I don't
think that ever happens. What is happening is that the
type of human contact is changing from
the mentor/ newbie style of the pre-internet
days, to the email/forum style everyone is now using.

When you consider how limiting the mentor/newbie
style relationship is, then it seems that everyone
would welcome the new changes. These days, anyone with
an interest in amateur radio has acccess to the most
experienced people in the world, and it can be had at
any time day or night.

Amateur radio greatly benefits from these new changes
because the hobby is now truly open to
everyone, and not just to the people who are
comfortable attending club meetings and working
in a mentor style relationship. There is certainly
nothing wrong with clubs and mentors, but they're
not for everyone.

How did you tune your receiver? Am having a similar
problem with the ten tec 9 band receiver. Lots of
squeals and noise and a few barely audible signals
but nothing to listen to. Like you if I touch the
the metallic part of the pot I get strong local AM.
Any suggestions?

 Just out of curiosity, did you try to help that
guy who asked such a dumb question?

Joe

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I'm building
the ten tec 1253 regen.

I've been thru my work several times and the tests
suggested by the manual worked ok. I'm using a 75
foot antenna in my attic.

As per the manual, I've only built it to receive on
band 4, (for a test)  but reception is quite poor. It's almost as if the antenna isn't connected, but I'm sure it is.

The 10K pot, I think, is for tuning, and it's worked
a little, but not  well. I've turned it from both full
clockwise and full counter- clockwise.

About my comment last night, the 10K pot has a metal
case and if I touch it with the metal end of a  screw
driver then reception is quite good for some strong
Am stattions and also a couple of stations out of
Salt lake City (I'm in Reno) so I do believe something
is working correctly, I just don't think it's receiveing like it should.

I've spent a lot of time tinkering with the regen and
the rfgain and I've had some slight success but mostly
reception is poor.

Sorry this isn't more technical but it's about as
technical as I can make it.

any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

thanks again to all.


desertjoe

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I'm building
the ten tec 1253 regen.

I've been thru my work several times and the tests
suggested by the manual worked ok. I'm using a 75
foot antenna in my attic.

As per the manual, I've only built it to receive on
band 4, (for a test)  but reception is quite poor. It's almost as if the antenna isn't connected, but I'm sure it is.

the 10K pot, I think, is for tuning, and it's worked
a little but well. I've turned it from both full
clockwise and full counter- clockwise.

About my comment last night, the 10K pot has a metal
case and if I touch it with the metal end of a  screw
driver then reception is quite good for some strong
Am stattions and also a couple of stations out of
Salt lake City (I'm in Reno) so I do believe something
is working correctly, I just don't think it's receiveing like it should.

I've spent a lot of time tinkering with the regen and
the rfgain and I've had some slight success but mostly
reception.

Sorry this isn't more technical but it's about as
technical as I can make it.

thanks again to all.

I built a receiver on a breadboard which uses a trimmer pot. This is my first homebrew. It doesn't work very well, but I am able to pull in a few signals.

I've noticed that when I touch the pot effectively turns my receiver into something like a crystal receiver, at least the behavior is the same as my old crystal sets.

My question is this; will someone out there tell me
what's going on? My reception for the homebrew it'self is poor so is this combined with the pot problem an indicator of a problem?

Thanks for any explanation.

DesertJoe KE7RTV

I'm new at amateur radio and I wanted to comment on
this thread because I've had the same experience as
the original poster. I've been to two meetings of my
local group and I was totally put off by the
unfriendliness of the members.

I know I could have broken into a conversation and
introduced myself, and probably they would have been
quite nice to me. Perhaps that's what I should have
done. But, instead of that I just said the heck with
it and left with no intention of going back. It seems
like there should have been a greeter or someone who's
job it was to make the newcomer feel welcome.

I'd be the first to admit that I'm not the most social
person and perhaps to them I seemed unapproachable.
I don't  know, but it seems to me that the onus here
was with the club members so I don't think I'm
completely wrong in saying they should have made the
effort to get to know me.

Anyway, I'm back to my solitary tinkering which has
been more than a little satisfying. I'm glad I at
least made the attempt to join the club, if for no
other reason than to understand that the much
ballyhooed friendliness of hams is a myth.

Desertjoe KE3RTV