Simple VHF FM Aircraft Receiver

VHF FM Aircraft Receiver is a supererogation receiver developed for listening to FM transmitters but also tunes the aircraft band and the top portion of the FM broadcast band. Receives both AM and FM (107mHz to 135 MHz). You can use this receiver with the any FM transmitter. The receiver is amazingly simple using only one transistor for the receiver section and one IC for the audio section. This circuit is a self-quenching regenerative RF receiver also known as a super regenerative receiver. A superregenerative receiver performs two basic functions. 

 

First it feeds back a portion of the received signal from it’s output in phase to its input; and second a super audible quenching oscillator drives the amplifier through the point of oscillation and maximum sensitivity and then quenches the oscillation repeatedly. This keeps the feedback from driving the circuit into self-oscillation and allows the signal to be regenerated over and over again. In this version of the circuit, both functions are performed by the circuitry associated with Q1. The rest of the circuit, shown to the right of L3 in the schematic, comprise the audio amplification circuit and are centered on the LM386 Audio Amp IC. In this configuration the LM386 is set at a gain of 200 and feeds it’s output to a standard 1/8-inch diameter stereo phone jack. The audio can then be heard by plugging any standard stereo headset into the jack.