3.15.3 FM Receiver with one Transistor and Audio Amplifier
We have made this receiver on the experimental plate, and it was playing for days in our lab. Its electronic diagram is given on Pic.3.46. Regretfully we had to disassemble it, since we needed the plate for one of the devices described later in this book. This, too, is a reaction-type receiver, where the BF256 transistor, coil L and capacitors C, C* and C2 form the Hartley oscillator. Its frequency is being adjusted by means of the variable capacitor C to be equal to the frequency of the station that we wish to listen to. The LF signal is being taken from the R1 resistor, and led into the audio amplifier. * The coil L is self-supporting (doesn't have the body), made of 5 quirks of CuL wire, its diameter being from 0.8 to 1 mm. It is spooled on some cylindrical object (pencil, pen etc., the best thing is the round part of a 9 mm drill), in one layer, quirks put tight to each other, as shown in the left, framed part of the picture. When the coil is finished, it is taken off the cylinder and stretched a little, so that the quirks do not touch each other. Its final length should be about 10 mm. The mid coil leg, which is to be connected to the left end of the C3 capacitor, is made by taking off couple of millimetres of the lacquer from the wire, approximately in the middle of the coil. This place is then tinned and a piece of thin wire is soldered to it. The other end of this wire is soldered onto the PCB, on its place, to be connected to the left end of C2. * For the variable capacitor C the one from the Pic.3.8 (legs FO and G, G goes to Gnd). If you are using some other capacitor, that has bigger capacitance, and you cannot achieve the reception of the full FM bandwidth (88 til 108 MHz), try changing the value of the C*. Its capacitance is to be determined experimentally, usually being about a dozen pF. 
* HFC is the high-frequency choke. Together with C2, it makes a filter that prevents the HF current to flow through the R1, simultaneously allowing for DC and LF current to go through. The muffler is, in fact, a coil that has 16 quirks of 0.6 mm CuL wire, spooled on a round part of a 3 mm drill. * This receiver works well even without the external antenna. It can, of course, be connected to it, as shown in dashed line. Instead of antenna, a 50 mm piece of wire can also be used.
