[Thursday] Learn about Crystal Radios from the ground up

[Ken Carr]

Even hardened adults like our NEWSM volunteers maystill be enchanted by the allure of a crystal radio.
It requires no battery or mains electricity. The onlyenergy that allows it to receive a radio station isthe fractional microvolts that remain of the originaltransmitted signal when it finally reaches yourhome. I recall when back in about 1960 a friend ofmine showed me what looked like a transistor radio; but,without any battery. We attached one of its leads to theground stake of an abandoned telephone pole and tookturns listening through an earphone to several stations coming in with clear signals.
We old adult wireless volunteers have been trying to reviveone of the many crystal sets at the museum. It canbe frustrating when such a simple circuit presents somany roadblocks to success.(our rural area is also a factor)
There are entire clubs and websites dedicated tobuilding and modifying crystal radios. I highly recommend one amazing and quite enjoyable book onthe subject: The Voice Of The Crystal: How to Build Working Radio Receiver Components Entirely From Scratch, by H. Peter Friedrichs.This book is a treasure! Even people who have minimalinterest in radio will be fascinated. There is an ancillary website that complements the book. It will give you a peakat Mr. Friedrichs’ genius.
Main website: http://hpfriedrichs.com 
Voice of the Crystal page: http://hpfriedrichs.com/mybooks/votc/bks-votc.htm 
Photographs of models described in Voice of the Crystal: http://hpfriedrichs.com/mybooks/votc/bks-votc-gallery.htm 




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