Another Simple MK-484/TA-7642 Radio

Post by Pete Higgins Sat May 23, 2015 11:14 pm

Some weeks back I was cleaning out the garage and came across a stack of Proto-boards and a MK-484 TRF radio I.C.
This find brought back memories of all the pleasure I got in the early 50s building an Allied Radio Knight Kit Crystal
Radio and their 3-Tube Regenerative Receiver that was part of my Knight Radio Lab 10 in 1 Kit.

Californias May Grey and chilly temperatures combined to make an opportune time for an indoor project. I did a
search on MK-484 and found the comprehensive tutorials by Dan McGillis and others using this device. The bug bit
and, to my wifes consternation, garage cleaning was put on hold and a MK-484 radio was born.

The resultant radio is not an original design by any stretch, borrowing heavily from all the good ideas found here.

I wanted to use parts that I had in bench stock without spending a lot of money and waiting for online orders to arrive.
Over the years Ive pretty well exhausted my supply of mechanical tuning capacitors so I decided to try varactor diode
tuning. Luckily, I had several ferrite bars, a pair of NTE-618s and a fairly large assortment of 10-Turn potentiometers in
bench stock.

For those not familiar with proto-boards, they are ideal platforms for prototyping (building) circuits. They have spring
clip sockets that your parts just push into (no soldering). The ones I have provide two power buses across the top and
multiple power buses (5) adjacent to each component section. The component sections are laid out in rows of five
interconnected spring clip sockets (labeled a, b, c, d & e), a space and then five more rows of interconnected sockets
(labeled f, g, h, i & j). The space is dimensioned to allow plugging an IC like the LM-386 into columns e & f,
leaving 4 connection points available for each IC pin. Column spring clip sockets are not interconnected (except of
course on the power buses).

I hand drew a schematic of what I thought I wanted to build. One of the things I really liked about the Knight Kits was in
addition to a schematic they always included a pictorial. I recreated the hand drawn schematic in a program called Corel
Draw. Corel Draw is a vector based graphics program that easily lets me move parts around. Eventually, I drew up the
proto-board pictorial and added the various stages in layers. Jim, thanks for showing me how to post images. I left the
Google drive links so folks could zoom in on the higher resolution images.
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the radio I built.

2. New bias Ckt & Loopstick MK-484 Schematic.JPG (133.75 KiB) Viewed 4238 times
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4AMQ ... authuser=0

Figure 2 is a pictorial of the parts layout on the proto-board.

 4. New bias Ckt & Loopstick MK-484 Protoboard.JPG (233.43 KiB) Viewed 4387 times
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4AMQ- ... sp=sharing

Figure 3 shows the tuned frequency vs. varactor diode voltage.

Frequency vs Voltage.JPG (21.4 KiB) Viewed 4388 times

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4AMQ- ... sp=sharing

The coil primary is 68 turns of #24 AWG enameled copper magnet wire wound over a layer of black electrical tape on an
~3 7/8 X ~3/8 round ferrite bar. The bar had one end painted yellow which I assume identifies the mix but Im not sure
what that is. The coil secondary is 36 turns of #22 AWG enameled copper magnet wire also wound over a layer of
electrical tape on top of the primary. Both coils are centered on the ferrite bar. Wire size was primarily chosen so I could
tell the coil leads apart; the #24 was green and the #22 was red. The primary measured 323.5 uH and the secondary
measured 75.8 uH on a B&K Precision Model 885 LCR/ESR meter.

Using an alignment tool to tune the radio or adjust the volume really started driving me nuts but those little trim pots
didnt have a long enough slotted shaft to attach a knob. I cut a nail to length and filed a flat on the end of the nail (think
screwdriver blade) so that it fit in the adjusting shafts slot. Using a Double Hand Holder with Alligator Clips to align
the nail & pot, I soldered the nail to the pot. Ive done 6 so far this way without any apparent heat damage to the pots. I
use the nail head as a knob but once the shaft is extended you could always cut off the nail head and attach a small
plastic knob.

In operation the radio has surprisingly good selectivity and receives a lot of AM broadcast stations (I listed three that
gave their call signs in English while I compiled the tuning voltage). I have noticed that strong local stations can be
heard in the background over fairly wide areas of the tuning range but once youve tuned to a station it drowns out
background reception. Also, at full volume the MK-484 audio output is strong enough to overdrive the LM-386 causing
significant audio distortion. Backing off the volume slightly clears it right up and is still loud enough for comfortable
listening anywhere in my office.

I wound a tapped coil to move the frequency coverage up but didnt achieve very good results. I did get WWV on 2.5
MHz but didnt ever hear the 5 MHz broadcast. Even then I had to use my ICOM 750 to tell when the low frequency
WWV signals were receivable at my location. For extending coverage into the higher frequencies Im intrigued by using
an NE-602 as an LO/Mixer and the MK-484 for the IF strip. I ordered 10 NE-602s @ $ 0.88 ea. delivered so it could be
awhile before I finish the garage!