been thinking about putting together a DC receiver for 40m, maybe 80m too if i can figure out the switching. saw some designs online but they all seem to use different mixer chips and im not sure whats still available. anyone done one recently that actually works decent? not looking for contest station quality just something that can pull in the locals and maybe some dx on good nights

I built one using the SA612 mixer about 2 years ago and it worked pretty well. The key is getting a good audio amp after the mixer - I used an LM386 but probably should have gone with something with more gain. Also make sure you have good shielding between the oscillator and mixer or you'll get all kinds of birdies. What kind of antenna you planning to use with it?

yeah the SA612 is good but getting harder to find. i ended up using a couple 2N2222s in a gilbert cell mixer on my last build and it worked ok. not as good as the IC but cheaper and you can actually buy the parts lol. main thing is keep that local oscillator stable or youll be chasing the signal all over the place