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The
OZARK PATROL |
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A demo of the radio. Sloppily tuned. I was trying
to tune everything and nothing just to show what it is capable of.
The antenna is 100' of hook-up wire going up to the attic. An
outside antenna would work better. |
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In conclusion, the Ozark Patrol is a great little
regen kit that performs well with headphones or an added amplifier
for speaker operation. |
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A few tips |
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| Tip 1: |
The instructions say to connect an
antenna to the radio. What kind of antenna? It's just a
piece of wire! How long should it be? 65 feet is a good
length for reasons we won't go into here. If this isn't
practical, just try to get as much wire in the air as
possible, preferably outside. |
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| Tip
2: |
This radio needs
an earth ground to work properly. Without the earth ground
the signals are weak. If you can't easily connect to a ground
you can pick one up using an old computer or printer cord. Cut the blades off
with a hacksaw, leaving the ground prong. Make sure you
have the correct color wire, and cut off the other two wires. Now
just plug it in, and you have a ground wire.
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| Tip
3: |
You've just finished the radio,
you've turned it on and you hear... nothing. Or, you hear
one station, and that's it. Look out the window. Is the sun
up? Some of the shortwave bands are basically stone dead at
certain times of the day. Try again around 7PM.
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| Tip
4: |
You tune in a station, move your
hands off the knobs and, "Vweerp!" the station vanishes. You
put your hands near the radio and "Vwoop!", it comes back.
This is caused by "hand capacitance." Basically, the radio
is emanating an electrical field and your hands are
disturbing it. I
was able to cure this by putting a small value capacitor
between the antenna and ground lugs. I don't know why this
works, but it does. The value I used was 100 pF. |
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This older radio just happens to have
a pine base that is the exact same size as the one on
the Ozark Patrol. Notice it has warped. It
was sitting on a shelf. Air couldn't get under it, but the
top side was free to absorb moisture from the humidity in
the air, causing it to warp.
Give the base a coat of polyurethane, lacquer, or paint before
assembling the radio.
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| Tip
5: |
Consider putting some feet on your Ozark patrol so
that air can circulate under it. This may sound like a crazy
reason for adding feet but you'll be glad you did years from
now, when you find it stashed on a shelf and
the base hasn't warped.
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| I ended up painting the base, but I
had to take it apart first. I considered replacing the base
with Masonite, but it would be front heavy and tend to
topple over if the batteries were removed. |
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| Tip
6: |
If you're assembling the kit and see
that one of the knobs arrived with a big scratch on the
front, don't fret. The silver inserts on the knobs have a
clear piece of protective plastic covering them. The scratch is in
the plastic. Just peel it off. |
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| Tip 7: |
Never
use
DURACELL AA alkaline batteries. They leak. The
company knows they leak, and has known for years but won't fix
them. These DURACELL batteries in the photo above ruined a remote
control toy tank. The corrosion travelled from the
battery contacts to the circuit board and dissolved the
traces on the board. |
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| Tip 7a: |
I use
RAYOVAC batteries but all you really need for this
radio are those "Sunbeam" batteries from the
dollar store, and you get eight in a pack for a buck. |
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| Tip
8: |
There are several types of LM386
amplifier kits on ebay, as well as some that are already
assembled. If you get the type above, the jack is the INPUT,
not a headphone jack.
You don't need the jack, you can hardwire it. |
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| Tip
9: |
The dial scale is somewhat accurate,
but if you have another shortwave receiver you can use it to
set the tuning knob. Tune the second radio to the frequency
you're interested in, then advance the regen control on the
Ozark Patrol till it over-oscillates. Tune the Ozark Patrol
till you hear a pop in the second receiver. Carefully adjust
the tuning till you hear a steady hiss in the second radio,
then set the knob on the Ozark Patrol.
I've found that it drifts slightly throughout the day. |
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| James
Surprenant (AB1DQ) built his into a cigar box! See it |
here. |
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| Photo
of the 1942 two tube Ocean Hopper on the previous page is
courtesy of Rob Cascisa, RMC Engineering Service, LLC |
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