100-Radio-Hookups-EICO-1924

100 RADIO HOOK-UPS
The detectors to be considered by the layman in selecting
a set may be roughly placed in two classes ; the crystal
and the audion or vacuum tube. The first is the
cheapest and will bring in the clearest signals, but only
over a comparatively short range. The latter is very sensitive
to signals from stations at a distance and will
bring them in much louder than a crystal set. The
greatest judge here is the pocketbook of the reader.
Whatever you buy, however, be sure that it is of the best,
as cheap instruments are sometimes worse than useless.
A word regarding regeneration will not be amiss hers.
When a vacuum tube or audion is used in a receiving circuit,
there is set up, in the plate circuit of the tube, a
current which will actuate the phones. If now this current
is fed back into the grid circuit, a great increase in
volume will be found. This same effect, because of the
characteristics of the audion, may be obtained by tuning
the plate circuit of the tube to the same value as the grid
circuit. This method of producing regeneration is usually
known as the tuned plate circuit. Many variations of
the above two methods are in use today with greater or
less satisfaction and some of them are shown in the following
pages. The super -regenerative tuner designed by
Major Armstrong, the inventor of the regenerative circuit,
works on somewhat the same lines.
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