Crystal Radio

[Big Man]

When my Dad was a boy in the 1930s, he built a crystal radio. The hanger where he attached the antenna is still on the side of upstairs porch at the house where I live now. When I was a boy in the 1960s, my Dad showed me how to build a crystal radio. About two or three years ago, I helped my grandson build a crystal radio. While the one we built was from a kit, and not from "scratch" like the ones my Dad and I built, it was still a lot of fun. What was even better, was building the radio with my grandson and running the antenna from the same hanger that my Dad used so long ago.

Anyone else ever build a crystal radio as a child?

 

[1930artdeco]

Yep, always was amazed that sound came from that simple little contraption. But be careful, you get him hooked and he may start buying up antique radios and restoring them and collecting them. Oh wait that is a good thing.

Mike

 

[emigran]

Never built one myself but in "58 (international Geophysical Year) I was given a crystal radio for Christmas in the shape of the Sputnik Russian space ship... I was amazed that all I had to do was alligator clip it to the radiator and I got radio broadcasts...
I recall I also got a "Gilbert" fancy schmanzy microscope set as well...
Haven't thought of it since then no doubt... thanks for the memories... !!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Oatmeal box" crystal sets were so popular in the twenties that you could order a pre-wound coil on a Quaker Oats box direct from the Quaker Oats company. These coils are easily distinguished from the true home-brew coils by the fact that the wiring is *under* the Quaker Oats label.

You could order a pre-mounted crystal detector from ads in comic books as late as the 1970s. The Philmore company, which made a lot of crystal radio parts and sub-assemblies for the comic-book-ad market, was still in business thru the 1990s, and their stuff is still easy to find if you poke around a bit.

 

[Trapped in T-wilight Zone]

I built one when I was about ten years old (early '60s). I still have a few parts from it.
Being the really strange kid I was, I tuned the crystal until I found classical radio station KKHI 1550 AM. Many years later, they celebrated some anniversary and I realized I was one of their first listeners. Eventually, they lost their lease on the station and its license because "Talk Radio" had become so popular that advertisers decided the (San Francisco) Bay Area needed a tenth talk station more than one good classical station.

 

[emigran]

Bump... more stories please...

 

[Angus Forbes]

I built a series of crystal radios in the 1950s. Lots of fun. Some of them had plug-in coils configured (very approximately) for various shortwave bands. I could easily receive Radio Moscow, VOA, BBC, and a few others, as these stations were very powerful in those days. The selectivity of these radios (capability of separating stations on nearby channels) was not good, so listening on the AM broadcast band was a little boring, as the local AM market was dominated by a 50,000 watt station. A little later, still in the 50s, I added a two-transistor audio amplifier. Raytheon had released a relatively low-priced germanium transistor called the CK-722.

Today with shortwave the problem is a lack of programming -- there's not much on except for religious broadcasters of various stripes -- BBC, etc, are long gone, at least gone from the capability of a simple crystal radio.

Emigran -- I see that you live in NJ. In the 1960s I belonged to an organization called the Newark News Radio Club, which published a newsletter for SWLs (ShortWave Listeners). By then my receivers were much more sophisticated.

 

[ChrisB]

Crystal radios can be simple or quite sophisticated. Mine is a double tuned circuit, a mixture of antique parts and new. For those interested in the technical details, this site gives design theory:
http://www.bentongue.com/xtalset/1nlxtlsd/1nlxtlsd.html. A good pair of "sound powered" headphones will make a big difference in the sensitivity. With this set, I can can distinguish stations 20 kc away from WABC, not bad selectivity. At night, with a 100 ft wire antenna, I can hear hundreds of stations, some thousands of miles away.

 

[emigran]

Angus
Ah yes the Newark Evening News... only paper I ever knew back then
And when I was in High School one of my best friends named SHORTY ( for short wave radio obviously never realized it until now)would invite me to his home for supper and SW radio broadcasting all over the USA and sometimes Europe... I thought he was a genius... what fun. It was like being in a Mr. Wizard show...!!!

Just went to my 50yr HS reunion and was disappointed Shorty couldn't attend...

 

[Angus Forbes]

Hi, Chris. The Ben Tongue web site is amazing. Your radio is amazing, a work of technical art. I can envision a carefully designed double-tuned circuit as almost a tunable IF stage, with the resulting selectivity.

My SW crystal set was the simplest imaginable design, just a single tuned circuit and a germanium diode (1N34A?), with a random-wire antenna, and that's about it. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun for an eight-year-old guy some 60 years ago . . .

 

[Angus Forbes]

Hi, Emil. Good memories, I'm sure!

 

[newsman]

View attachment 44319

Crystal radios can be simple or quite sophisticated. Mine is a double tuned circuit, a mixture of antique parts and new. For those interested in the technical details, this site gives design theory:
http://www.bentongue.com/xtalset/1nlxtlsd/1nlxtlsd.html. A good pair of "sound powered" headphones will make a big difference in the sensitivity. With this set, I can can distinguish stations 20 kc away from WABC, not bad selectivity. At night, with a 100 ft wire antenna, I can hear hundreds of stations, some thousands of miles away.

There is an expert on the lounge for everything.

Radio is a really amazing topic.

I run a j3 key on 50mhz. Putting the ham in am radio!

 

[newsman]

Today with shortwave the problem is a lack of programming -- there's not much on except for religious broadcasters of various stripes -- BBC, etc, are long gone, at least gone from the capability of a simple crystal radio.

Have you seen the book WRTH? It's a directory of global broadcasting and a very interesting book.

It covers station formats and frequencies world-wide. Some of them you can get on the internet. Some of them you can hear with the right gear.

 

[vitanola]

Built my first crystal set when I was seven, a simple two slide set right out of Alfred P. Morgan's "The Boy Electrician". My second set used an "Uncle Sam Coil", a factory made red, white, and blue three circuit variocoupler from the 'Twenties, tuned with a a couple of Workrite variable condensers. I was lucky enough to have my late Uncl Bohdon's junk box from which to draw. He had been a Ham in the late 'Twenties. When he died young his radio things were packed away into the attic above the kitchen wing of my grandmother's house, where zi discovered them. Piles of coils, condensers, and transformers, but no tubes. A wonderland of stuff for a kid!

 

[Angus Forbes]

Newsman -- Yes, I remember getting the WRTH -- good resource. Also the "Passport to World Band Radio," which was similar. Haven't seen either one for quite some time, though. The RF noise level where I live now is so high that only the strongest stations break through, even with a good receiver, so I don't really listen much anymore.

 

[Angus Forbes]

Vitanola -- interesting about the junk box. When I was a kid, I too had access to my Dad's. He was licensed (radio amateur) circa 1933. When he passed away, I applied through the FCC's so-called "vanity" program, and today I have his callsign. He and I had the same first and last names (different middle names), so we have held this call sign continuously since it was first issued in the 1930's. His first receiver was a Pilot Wasp (I think that's what it was called -- maybe regenerative?), for which I still have some of the plug-in coils. A few other bits and pieces from the 30's as well . . .

 

[emigran]

I now have a "Smart' TV and a wireless keyboard with which to go "online"
Slightly different meaning today...eh... MEH...!!!