A do-it-yourself collection of innovative high-quality projects for electronics enthusiasts Build Your Own Transistor Radios pushes the envelope of DIY radio designs. Ronald Quan an electronics engineer with more than 65 patents presents a range of projects suitable for advanced beginners & more experienced engineers that go far beyond the standard crystal sets of the past. This book covers traditional radios -- TRF (Tuned Radio Frequency) reflex regenerative & super-heterodyne topologies
- as well as front-end circuit designs for SDR (Software Defined Radio) the emerging future standard for radio technology. Using widely available materials & the book's easy-to-follow plans you can make radios that run for years on a single battery (even an organic potato" battery or minimal solar cell array). Other projects include simple TRFs with enhanced reception performance; reflex radios that amplify both audio & radio frequency signals in a single unit; a "green" superheterodyne receiver comparable in quality to commercially manufactured sets but with vastly extended battery life; & other high-performance low-power-consumption designs. Provides practical circuits for the hobbyist that use easily available off-the-shelf parts Bridges theoretical knowledge with intuitive explanations & practical examples Presents explanations of circuit designs & an introduction to signal theory--no advanced math training necessary! Gives alternative circuitry choices & recommended parts hacks Covers fundamental radio circuit design principles you can apply to other radio types such as ham shortwave & longwave Comprehensive coverage: Overview of Various Radio Circuits; Calibration Tools & Generators for Testing; Parts & Improvised/ Hacked Parts for Building the Radios; Building Simple Test Oscillators & Modulators; A Low Power TRF Radio; Reflex Radios; Low Power Regenerative Radios; Superhet Radios; A Low Power Superhet Radio; Exotic Superhet Radios; Inductorless Radios; Software Defined Radio Circuits; Oscillator Circuits; Mixer Circuits & Harmonic Mixers; Sampling Theory & Sampling Mixers; IQ Signals; IF Circuits; Detector/AVC Circuits; Amplifier Circuits; Resonant Circuits & Band Pass Filters; Image Rejection; Noise"