AGC in Transistor Broadcast Receivers

This paper is an attempt to derive just what kind of an age characteristic can be expected of a particular design and why this is obtained. To do this the paper examines the processes used for agc in transistor broadcast receivers, their limitations, their application to typical receivers, the results obtained and the various circuits that can be used to develop the age. This information is presented in such a form that it should assist a designer to go from a performance specification to a circuit arrangement specification or vice versa and to avoid incompatibility between these two sets of specifications. It is shown in the paper that certain circuit arrangements have very definite advantages and that it is possible to design receivers with extremely large signal handling capabilities without the use of variable damping elements and with age figures of merit of the order of 100 db.