Wadley Loop

The Wadley Loop circuit was designed by Dr. Trevor Wadley in the 1940's and was first used for a stable Wavemeter.

In a normal superheterodyne radio receiver, most oscillator drift and instability occurs in the first convertor stage. In theory, if one can eliminate this instability, the receiver will be stable.

Of the three principal methods of such control, the Wadley Loop seeks to cancel any tendency for the oscillator's frequency to drift. It does this by mixing the received frequency up to a high IF frequency (more than 10 MHz) and then uses the same oscillator to generate a lower frequency. These signals are then remixed to generate the second IF frequency.