It seems to be the way that one project leads to the requirement for another!
I am repairing a 'volksempfanger' people's set for a friend and he wants to be able to use it with a CD player or other external input.
I've read most of the past threads on the Minimod and it seems to be very well respected. It's only short range but that's fine: I'm quite happy to have it coupled directly to the aerial input if necessary.
I'm not a particularly keen constructor (I'd much rather repair something) and I don't like things with coils:- I don't trust all that RF stuff!!
This design by Ian Liston-Smith appeared in the Winter 2011 BVWS bulletin and looks pleasantly simple and the only coils can be purchased for very little money.
As he has previously posted a pdf of the complete article, I hope it's OK to repeat it here.
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...2&d=1491335051
Apart from some capacitors which should arrive next week, I now have everything else to build it. I had contacted Ian in the hope that a PCB might be available but sadly not, so I will build it on a piece of 'perf' board.
I've built several things, some quite large, on Vero board over the years but never used 'perf' board before.
I find the layout seems to sort itself out as I build, so if I build several of them, they will all be different!
The first question that has arisen is that of the FET connections. These are devices I know next to nothing about but it would seem that the drain & source are named from an electron flow point of view. My conclusion is that the source is the more negative one akin to the emitter on a NPN transistor and the drain is the more positive. Would that be correct? They are not marked on the circuit diagram.
I'm using a BF256 and I can't find a definitive pin out for it. David G4EBT had exactly the same problem in this thread:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...t=98221&page=6
and I'm not really sure what the conclusion was!
So if anyone can shed some light on what the correct connections actually are, I would be most grateful! Google comes up with all sorts of variations
That will do me for tonight,
All the best
Nick