Crystal Radio
Mar 16, 2021 11:50:17 #
When I was a kid, I built a crystal radio, and it picked up a lot of stations (on Long Island, NY). It didn't cost $60, though. Up here in the mountains, it's hard to get stations on a real radio.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/392656589303?norover=1&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&siteid=0&ipn=admain2&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-157687-929634-7&mkcid=4&placement=529728&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpMCZ2JS17wIVH18VCB2PigYkEAEYASABEgIRZvD_BwE
EDIT: This is more like it, except for the shipping charge.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mars-Crystal-Radio-Kit-Restoration-Hardware-New-2-in-boxes/284220871849?hash=item422ce254a9:g:KzMAAOSwcMNgT4tg
https://www.ebay.com/itm/392656589303?norover=1&mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&siteid=0&ipn=admain2&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-157687-929634-7&mkcid=4&placement=529728&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpMCZ2JS17wIVH18VCB2PigYkEAEYASABEgIRZvD_BwE
EDIT: This is more like it, except for the shipping charge.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mars-Crystal-Radio-Kit-Restoration-Hardware-New-2-in-boxes/284220871849?hash=item422ce254a9:g:KzMAAOSwcMNgT4tg
Mar 16, 2021 11:56:00 #
Mar 16, 2021 12:00:10 #
bobmcculloch wrote:
Built one when I was a kid, never got it to work,
I built one (or two) also. It only received the most powerful stations in the area.
Mar 16, 2021 12:04:22 #
A friend built one when we were lads and we would sit in his attic for hours taking turns listening to static...although it was quite a fun time.
Mar 16, 2021 12:40:31 #
I made a couple from the Quaker Oats cardboard cylinder and they worked well - picking up WLW which was only 40 miles away.
There is no substitute for an outdoor antenna for fringe area reception.
There is no substitute for an outdoor antenna for fringe area reception.
Mar 16, 2021 13:09:30 #
fjdarling
Loc: Mesa, Arizona, USA
Those kits remind me of a 1-transistor radio kit from Heathkit I built when I was about 8 years old. I'm pretty sure I damaged the transistor during soldering. The "razor blade radio" I also made didn't work much better. Couldn't hear the stations very well through the static, even with a long wire antenna on the roof. Those kits remind me of that fascinating period.
Mar 17, 2021 06:45:39 #
jerryc41 wrote:
When I was a kid, I built a crystal radio, and it ... (show quote)
Brings back the memories. I built one when i was a kid growing up in India. Still remember the crystal part no. OA79 made by BEL (Bharat Electronics Limited, India). It was a very simple circuit. Had a ferrite rod that I used inside of a copper wired coil wound by hand on a tubular cardboard . Had to move the ferrite rod to a particular position inside that coil to get a good reception through the earphone. Also needed a simple outdoor wire antenna on my roof top and a good earthing that i had to dig outside my house deep enough put in charcoal and salt with an iron rod and attached a wire to the rod and connected to my circuit. Successfully was able to receive the local radio station.
Mar 17, 2021 07:12:29 #
jerryc41 wrote:
When I was a kid, I built a crystal radio, and it ... (show quote)
I built one at age 14, I remember winding the coil using cotton covered wire on a tp roll and having a "cat whisker and crystal all mounted on a board, antenna was a wire running about 40'ft from the rooftop on a 2 story house to a pole strapped to a fence post at the back of our lot, it took longer figuring out how to get the slack out of the wire by myself, finally did it using a pulley and clothes line, used insulators from some old house wiring I found in a junk box and a lightening arrestor from Walter Ashe Radio supply.
Was funny when dad got home from work, he didn't say a word, he just inspected the job, shook his head and grinned, went in the house and got comfortable before supper. After all that work the radio only picked up a few stations and not very well, the antenna did last for a few years after I replaced the cotton rope with a small dia. wire rope, I used it to listen to shortwave radio.
Mar 17, 2021 07:15:52 #
jerryc41 wrote:
When I was a kid, I built a crystal radio, and it ... (show quote)
I had several like this one as a kid back in the 50's. They were cheap and worked by attaching the gator clip to something metal. No batteries. This is a stock picture.
Mar 17, 2021 08:31:17 #
When I was a kid I made them with my Dad. The first used a "cat's whisker" to change locations on the crystal.
Later we upgraded to a crystal set with a diode. As I recacall we wrapped copper wire around a tube (empty toilet paper roll) and twisted the wire at intervals. A wire was connected to a medical forceps (Dad was a combat medic) with the other end into the "circuit." The antenna consisted of multiple wires running back and forth on 2" plastic cylinders at each end of the ceiling. I have no idea how it worked but as a kid growing up in Detroit it was a source of many hours of enjoyment.
Later we upgraded to a crystal set with a diode. As I recacall we wrapped copper wire around a tube (empty toilet paper roll) and twisted the wire at intervals. A wire was connected to a medical forceps (Dad was a combat medic) with the other end into the "circuit." The antenna consisted of multiple wires running back and forth on 2" plastic cylinders at each end of the ceiling. I have no idea how it worked but as a kid growing up in Detroit it was a source of many hours of enjoyment.
Mar 17, 2021 08:34:11 #
had one in my youth and listen to Komets hockey on WOWO while in bed and as far as my parents knew asleep.
Mar 17, 2021 08:47:25 #
Mine only picked-up a nearby 50 thousand watt clear channel station. It was a lot of fun and I didn't need to spend my hard earned money on any batteries. It was a gift from my dad. It came fully assembled.
~Lee
~Lee
Mar 17, 2021 08:53:07 #
Did you have a long wire antenna strung outside? : )
It's funny I can remember that.
It's funny I can remember that.
Mar 17, 2021 09:29:59 #
I had a Gilbert made in the shape of a satellite. It needed a ground and had an earphone with it. I grounded it to a metal clothesline; the support was set into the ground. It had a tuning screw which looked like one of the antennae. From Louisville, I could get WLS in Chicago, and WLW in Cincinnati, and of course, WHAS. Occasionally, I could get bits and pieces of WSM in Nashville.
Mar 17, 2021 10:22:44 #
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