Regenerative receiver based entirely on the LM386

I got a tip the other day that there is an interesting circuit over at the RadioBoards Forum where an LM386 IC is used as a regen receiver for the medium wave band. It is the user ‘Selenium’ who has come up with that circuit. I think it is quite an amazing application of this IC – so here it is:

LM386 as a medium wave regen receiver by user Selenium on RadioBoards Forum

Interestingly, both the + and – inputs are tied together (pins 2 and 3). It is also quite unusual to connect pin 7 to anything but capacitors (for bypass or extra input as I have done), so that may change the bias of the input stage. Further, the smaller the impedance from pin 1 to ground, the larger the gain (here 10 uF in series with 1k for low frequencies and 100 pF for high frequencies).

If you want to read more about the regen circuit, go to the RadioBoards Forum here.

Sverre Holm, LA3ZA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Norway. Contact him at [email protected].

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