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The Superheterodyne Radio (Patreon)

Published:
2018-12-24 17:10:35
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Here's a little Christmas present for you! I've just wrapped this up (PUNS!) and it's ready for your enjoyment. Go on. Open it!

I worked to get this done for public release Christmas Morning, so you'll not have a ton of early viewing time. My apologies there. But I hope you like it! This is such a cool concept to me, and I think it deserves some more attention.

Files

The Superheterodyne Radio: No really, that's it's name

You can support this channel on Patreon! Link below The superheterodyne receiver may seem like a radio with a silly name, but in fact it’s a completely logical name that describes the key action these radios take to become excellent radios. The superhet solved a tricky problem in a clever way, and using our friend Algebra (as well as wave phenomenons) proved to be the most effective way at tuning in a radio signal. Technology connections on Twitter (I’m just as weird on the social Internet as I am here on YouTube): https://twitter.com/TechConnectify The TC Subreddit (warning: I’m not good at Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/r/technologyconnections Technology Connections 2 (my second channel where I upload weird stuff from time to time) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClRwC5Vc8HrB6vGx6Ti-lhA You can support this channel on Patreon! It has been amazing what Patreon has done for this channel, but also for me (your dorky host) personally. Through the support of people just like you, Technology Connections has become my job and I am so excited and thankful for it! If you’d like to join the fine folks in a pledge to help the channel grow, please check out my Patreon page. Thank you for your consideration! https://www.patreon.com/technologyconnections And thank you to the following Patrons! Charlie Quigley, Dakota Williams, Adam Erickson, Kevin Terrell, Tommi Hares, Trevor Smith, Callum Brieske, Tomas, Chuck Floyd, Emil Gilliam, Andy Copsey, Bitcore, Filip, Per 'Zapro' Jensen, Ward Sutherland, Örn Arnarson, Alberto Amatucci, etho624, Tomasz Kolinko, Carles Codony, Samuel Plainfield, Jason McMillon, Michael Pacheco, Jason Ganiatsas, Mike Gerow, Marc Schroth, Andrew J Thom, Samuel Blakey, Mrpirate707, Frank Harris, Joseph Spiros, Patrick Meister, Sergey Kiselev, Clara Latter, Ashley Grant, Scott Emmett O'Donnell, Tianyu Ge, jeekl, rozboris, Paul Fisher, Stephen Vrazel, Applied Science, Peter ford, Sophie Haskins, James Id, Brendan Sheehy, Jay Foreman, Rich Theobald, Kyle Olson, Bryan Reid, Quinton Wilson, Jeremy DeGuzman, Sean Spark, Lucas Hartbarger, Taylor Cuzela, David Lastres, Granger Meador, Jeremy Kitchen, Jason Wellband, Shane Belaire, Paul Emmerich, Matthew Rossi, Paul Craigie, Alex Smith, Nick, Tyler, Paul Williams, Steven Hidy, Fredrik Grufman, Kollin O'Dannel, RJ Kent, Yona, Kevin Strehl, Tony DeSimone, Mike Bailey, Maggie Brown, Howard Kraut, T.J. Steckbeck, Pavlo Pravdiukov, Marco Anastasi, Peter Byrd, Trix Farrar, Matthew Razza, Mitchel J. Mullin II, Jakob Strande Langgaard, Jan Staval, Paul Walton, Matt Falcon, Steven First, Denver Alexander, Conor Hennessy Sykes, FinaleGrande, Christopher Dickey, OnlyOneSolutionTBHFam, Tim Juchcinski, Wayne Marsh, Ernie Smith, foophoof, Stein Strindhaug, Brady Brown, Giacomo Scaparrotti, Winfield Trail, Marc Ethier, Joseph Hill, John Semander, Bill Basch, Robert Toth, blouerat, PK, Richard Lindsey, Lars JJ, Patrick Musson, Matt Taylor, Johan Schoeman, Thomas Jew, Josef Citrine, Marcus Schwartz, Ryan Cozzubbo, Christopher Bassett, Julian Rapoport, Ed Hall, Jason Portwood, Jesse Cardone, Michael Snowden, Drew McClain, Boh00711, Jon-André Haraldstad, The8TrackKid, Daniel J Schless, Sebi Jecklin, Casey Kikendall, Craig Leverenz, Charlie Hankin, Andres Plaza, Revenge, Matthew Baron, André, Gerald Monaco, Tab Patterson, Jason Weathered, h.drew foy, Gantradies, Chris Hartl, Steve Stone, Brian G. Shacklett, Colton Aubrey Hooke, Paul Mills, Christopher Luna, Kotanu, Brendan Terrett, Techmoan, Mike Mason, Elijah Reeds, Christopher Jett, Justin Talbot, Steven Metcalf, Lolucoca, John McLusky, Ashleigh R, Stephen Bell, Logan Beenken, Eric Wood, Stephen Pick, BlancoGrande, Matthew Giraitis, James Ryan, Robert Joscelyne, Francis Fisher, Kedar Deshpande, Lukas Komischke, Dave Anderson, Felix Freiberger, Don’t see your name? Don’t worry! To keep this little perk alive, the $5 patron shoutout is now on a rotating basis! If you’re not here, you should be here in one of the next two videos. If you’ve slipped through the cracks, don’t hesitate to send me a message via Patreon and I’ll fix it!

Comments

MrHammond

Funny that the radio is called "Transitone", but is in fact a tube radio, not a transistor radio ;-)

Waffles

Nicely done!

Marcin Wichary

This was very good (“something all physicsy,” ha!). BTW your panning shots are so good.

Anonymous

I learned about the heterodyne effect from boats and airplanes with multiple engines generating beat frequencies when not in perfect sync. While usually not altogether unpleasant, (It adds some charm to the sounds of bombers in old WWII movies and the like, IMO) it was always better to eliminate or at least minimize them since they can cause extra vibration damage over time. Thanks for another fun video, and I hope your {INSERT HOLIDAY NAME HERE} and following non-specific calendar-based celebration are quite pleasant!

Bill Basch

I've repaired antique radios for the last 40 years and the issue is the capacitors 99% of the time, occasionally a tube goes bad but that is actually fairly rare, the poor tubes get all the blame, but the paper, wax and electrolytic capacitors are pretty much nearly always the REAL culprit! - By the way, it's the capacitors in newer stereo equipment as well, such as the late 70's silver face audio components. So don't just plug in that old radio, amplifier or other vintage electronics gear - replace the caps first, then you don't smoke the hard to find tubes, transistors, transformers, tweeters, etc. needlessly! Some parts that folks are blowing up this way are not available at all.

Technology Connections

Did you notice that there were new caps in the shot below the chassis? :) This was the first antique radio I ever messed with, and it was the first to be re-capped, as well. All with basic capacitors from Fry's, but then again it's essentially an All-American 5 so there weren't many to begin with. It's been working pretty good ever since!

Bill Basch

Next time, order the caps from Digi-Key, a fine Minnesotan company - you can get high end Japanese caps for the price of Chinese crap at Fry's - I have no connection to Digi-Key other than LOVE for this company - because Digi-Key is the best place on planet earth to buy capacitors, please allow me to make the case: ● They have the largest selection of capacitors, in stock, in the world, no one else is even very close. Just shy of 1 MILLION different capacitors, WTF? ● You like same day shipping? - How about SAME HOUR shipping, that is what Digi-Key gives you that no one else does, and it's no extra charge. ● They have the most fine grained capacitor filters, with 25 different drop down menus, allowing you to quickly zero-in on all of the critical fields that matter, at other sellers, you don't have a way to narrow down the exact capacitor you want with nearly as much precision filtering. ● No one is an authorized seller for more premium capacitor brands, including the big 4, Nichicon, Rubycon, Chemi-con, and Panasonic. ● With counterfeit capacitors from China at EPIDEMIC levels, you only have 3 places who are authorized for the great brands of caps, Digi-Key, Mouser, and Newark/Element 14, and of the three, Digi-Key is the biggest, fastest, cheapest, and most reliable, and if you are buying your capacitors elsewhere than those three, you are almost certainly buying counterfeits or else Chinese junk caps. Chain of custody is critical in 2018, folks! ● After over 40 years of Digi-Key orders, I have never had an order come in incorrect or late, unbelievable. If other companies were only this reliable. They even take PayPal. Why can't other companies do everything 100% right, 100% of the time? <a href="https://www.digikey.com/products/en/capacitors/3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.digikey.com/products/en/capacitors/3</a>

Paul Schuur

Thanks for another great video -- I never heard of this technique and it's awesome!

Technology Connections

I've never ordered from Digi-Key (only Mouser) but am likely to check them out if I go on another radio adventure. That said, it's been a while since I've been embarking on this sort of project. Not sure when I might start up again. The Silvertone AM/FM radio in the set was another one I restored. I really like that radio but it's FM reception is frustratingly weak. Also it doesn't have a dial light, which is frustrating because of the lost charm potential. I've also re-capped an Admiral console, but I ended not keeping that radio because it had too many problems. It was a slug-tuned set and two of the slugs were broken. It was also in craptastic shape and not really worth restoring. My Zenith Trans-Oceanic that a friend gave me hasn't been restored. Perhaps I'll make a video out of that some day. My Philco 37-610T (which is by far my favorite radio) was given to me by the same friend who gave me the Zenith, and surprisingly it was already re-capped. He didn't even know that. However, it's gone through two tubes believe it or not. I replaced the one, and now I think the output tube is dead. I haven't tested it yet, though. I just know it's dead as a doornail right now.

Ewen McNeill

Thanks for the fun science tour for Christmas morning (it’s Christmas already, here in the future :-) ). I too like the old schematics, and enjoyed just as I was thinking “cycles per second” to explain beat frequencies in came the schematic with its 445kc! Merry Christmas, Ewen.

Paul Fisher

One thing you missed is why they developed the Superhet design, the Superhet was developed as earlier radios had upwards of 4 tuning knobs to lock in on the frequency to set each individual local oscillator in the radio so a channel could be heard, it was quite common place until the development of the superhet to write down the tuning information for each knob to just listen to one station. The reason the multi oscillator design was preceding as oscillator circuitry was in its early stages and to tune in the high frequency as you put it, was to slowly step down the frequency to be able to be listened to. The superhet was developed to reduce complexity in the design and make it easier to tune stations, but in saying that the multi-stage mixing was commonplace on a number of radios to get better signal resolution and that the multi-stage mixing process was more used on FM modulated signals due to the higher frequencies involved but as technology progressed and oscillator design moved to a crystal basis a single IF frequency was used.

András Bíró

Although nowadays tuning done in software, super heterodyne is still used: e.g. I work for Silicon Labs, and some, if not all of our radios are definitely superhet. The demodulation is much more advanced (and purely software), and it can differentiate between image and carrier, making image rejection even better (look for IR calibration if you're interested)

L0j1k

Amazeballs vidya!

winfel

On a sidenote: In German, a capacitor is called "Kondensator", interesting to know that that terminology was also used in English once.

Alex Ilyin

It's also called Condensator in Russian