The Wadley Loop and it’s inventor Dr Trevor Wadley
September 25 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Talk at the Ballasalla clubhouse on 25th September 19:30
Dr Trevor Wadley and the drift-cancelling Wadley loop.
The Wadley Loop was incorporated in numerous receivers by Racal, Realistic, Yaesu with its FRG- 7 and FRG-7000 and the locally made Barlow-Wadley manufactured in New Germany, Natal.
Dr Wadley, born in 1920 of a family of 12 children, excelled at maths and science at Durban High School, and after obtaining his degree, worked for the South African Corps of Signals during the war on radar systems. Post war he went to work for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research working on an underground communications system for the Chamber of Mines and also conceived a variety of RF instruments including the Tellurometer ( for distance measuring), Ionosonde (Height of ionised atmospheric layers and thus MUF) and the drift-cancelling receiver utilising the Wadley Loop.
What is the Wadley Loop? There is no feed back so it is not strictly a loop, but effectively a triple-conversion superhet. Whereas a full coverage receiver of the time would require much band-switching and a super-stable local oscillator, the Wadley loop gave continuous tuning over the full HF range. I’ll explain how it works and it’s strengths and weaknesses.
John GD0TFG