Topic: build a diode radio( AM)

[strynboen]

in mid 1970" i build a lot of diode radioes..lost interest vhen i faund the fm band...and lost mine diagrams and books...but faund this on youtube,,vho are the exact same..but vith less adjustings..but can be easy build more komplex.. but this is the most simpel i have faund

[demon78]

A long time ago in a land far away I got a little rocketship crystal radio for a friends child basically a diode with a tuning wand as part of the nose of the ship and an ear bud oh yeah a clip for the antenna any how I'm walking along in front of aircraft servicing by the hanger and one of the radio officers spotted it and said hey mac whats that so I says it's a diode radio, any how he say's that's cool can I try it, so I said sure if I get it back it's a birthday present. He took it out on one of the training flights and he and his fellow radio officers R/O's found that if they hooked it to the trailing antenna and let it out to 350+/- feet they could listen to the professional baseball game out of San Francisco  like they were there, maybe a thousand miles away from RCAF st Comox. I had a hell of a time getting it back after that.
Bill the demon.

[rickman750]

I built loads of crystal sets back in the mid '60s. One even used a cat's whisker detector.
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/radio_history/radiohist/cats-whisker-crystal-detector.php

Now I feel real old.

[mick7504]

I built loads of crystal sets back in the mid '60s. One even used a cat's whisker detector.
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/radio_history/radiohist/cats-whisker-crystal-detector.php

Now I feel real old.

Them were the days.
I can remember the ol' mate wiring in a transistor with a 9 volt battery to give it some grunt.

There was copper wire strung from the gutters to the fence posts to pick up short wave and long wave.

[Don R]

 My Dad drove a truck and was on a trip so my uncle helped me build a cats whisker radio, we ran the antenna wire out the window and from a tree to the clothes line pole. It worked until laundry day when it got in the way.

[strynboen]

i used 2 tansistors..ac 128,, and used 1,5 volt to power it..it gave so ,i drove a littel speaker..but i have also a set of those 6000 ohm headsets..vho just need a diode and antenne vire to start take  transmittings inn..radio moscau..nevs in english..and the  overhorisont radar in vhite russia vas strong signals...like the nabo"s elektric animal fence..THAC....THAC...

[demon78]

Used to love dxing am radio I guess I'll take time  to string a long wire this summer for listening in the winter.My kids were in the local Air Cadet squadron and used to DX for radio stations through out the world, any how one day I went to the mail box and there was a letter addressed to my youngest daughter and it had different stamps on it from Russia and I said to myself "what the hell" so when she got home from school I handed her the letter and said Ok what's going on so she opened it and it was from radio Moscow with a reception card in it, you know fill out and send back I'm sure the mail people had something to talk about for a while.
Bill the demon.

[BobbyR]

I built one when I was a kid out of the kit. It was great and I built one from parts with my Son. He was more taken with is IPOD.

When you think of it, these are perfect as part of emergency supplies. It takes no power or battery to run one. You can make one to receive almost any Am frequency.

Like Bill I have always loved DXing.

[1080]

We had a few crystal radio's. My big brother would play around with them for hours.
Best antenna was the phone dial stopper. I always remember them as sounding better than a lot of Portable transistor radios.
Sharing a few photos of whats left of the crystal radio ( void of some parts ) & one of the first smallest AM radios of the 70's.