Page "Regenerative circuit" Paragraph 17

At the time the regenerative receiver was introduced, vacuum tubes were expensive and consumed lots of power, with the added expense and encumbrance of heavy batteries.

So this design, getting most gain out of one tube, filled the needs of the growing radio community and immediately thrived.

Although the superheterodyne receiver is the most common receiver in use today, the regenerative radio made the most out of very few parts.