so I was experimenting with my homemade superregen radio yesterday, and it was acting funny.
What I ultimately want to do is run my radio using a wall adapter as a power supply, and connect the output directly into my laptop.
I am only partly successful.
When my laptop is running on batteries, it generally emits a very high pitched sound (that I can hardly hear), but when my radio is connected to my laptop through the microphone socket, I hear the laptop sounds quite well, AND it even overrides the faint stations. In all tests, the laptop is at least 12 inches away from the radio.
another thing I find crazy in another test, is this:
My antenna was about 1 meter long of thin wire connected to a thick antenna stick (about 30 cm long), and that stick was on my bedroom floor. the radio was on one end of my bed. The laptop was at the other end. The AC adapters of both devices were connected to different wall sockets, and no cables were touching each other. Remote radio reception was O.K., but I think there is still some interference on my end that can be removed.
then, I extended the length of my antenna to about 3 meters. I hooked it up to a non-conducting screw on my room light, but the radio itself was in the same location. Reception was somewhat worse, and there was more noise.
In both cases, the antenna was pointing in the same direction.
In another test, I had the antenna pointing in a different direction (away from all sources of noise, and farthest point away from the local station tower). this time, I get no remote station signal.
so I think the problem narrows down to the wire connecting the radio to the laptop.
the output of my receiver is connected to an audio output through a 1500uF coupling capacitor.
I experimented with capacitors and 1500uF is the best for volume.
Please help.
What I ultimately want to do is run my radio using a wall adapter as a power supply, and connect the output directly into my laptop.
I am only partly successful.
When my laptop is running on batteries, it generally emits a very high pitched sound (that I can hardly hear), but when my radio is connected to my laptop through the microphone socket, I hear the laptop sounds quite well, AND it even overrides the faint stations. In all tests, the laptop is at least 12 inches away from the radio.
another thing I find crazy in another test, is this:
My antenna was about 1 meter long of thin wire connected to a thick antenna stick (about 30 cm long), and that stick was on my bedroom floor. the radio was on one end of my bed. The laptop was at the other end. The AC adapters of both devices were connected to different wall sockets, and no cables were touching each other. Remote radio reception was O.K., but I think there is still some interference on my end that can be removed.
then, I extended the length of my antenna to about 3 meters. I hooked it up to a non-conducting screw on my room light, but the radio itself was in the same location. Reception was somewhat worse, and there was more noise.
In both cases, the antenna was pointing in the same direction.
In another test, I had the antenna pointing in a different direction (away from all sources of noise, and farthest point away from the local station tower). this time, I get no remote station signal.
so I think the problem narrows down to the wire connecting the radio to the laptop.
the output of my receiver is connected to an audio output through a 1500uF coupling capacitor.
I experimented with capacitors and 1500uF is the best for volume.
Please help.