Did Your Interest in Radio Start with One of These?

spongella

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May 12, 2012
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Central NJ
crystal radio.jpg
 
No, my interest in radio started long before that when I built a cereal box crystal set that used a
"cats whisker" to detect a signal with a galena crystal.
I didn't use the cereal box but I did build a crystal set that worked when I was 12 years old in 1956. It was an electric shop project.
 
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I didn't use the cereal box but I did build a crystal set that worked when I was 12 years old in 1956. It was an electric shop project.
I built my first one when I was 7 or 8 from an article in Popular Mechanics magazine. It took most of my meager savings at the time to buy the parts, and waiting for them to come in the mail was unbearable! ;)
 
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Do you remember the good ol' days when a "diode" meant one of these things?

old-vacuum-tube-az1-dual-diode-rectifier-used-in-the-power-supply-EHXBNP.jpg
Oh definitely! A few years ago I found a box with several new 6V6's in it while cleaning out my storage shed, probably spares for an old amplifier I used for years. The one in your photo looks like an old AZ1 dual diode. I think that's the European socket version though, so it may have had a different designation.
 
Wile in cub scouts I built one that used a Gem razor blade and a safety pin instead of the crystal and cats whisker. The true definition of crude, but it actually could pick up a couple of stations.
 
I built my first one when I was 7 or 8 from an article in Popular Mechanics magazine. It took most of my meager savings at the time to buy the parts, and waiting for them to come in the mail was unbearable! ;)

Wile in cub scouts I built one that used a Gem razor blade and a safety pin instead of the crystal and cats whisker. The true definition of crude, but it actually could pick up a couple of stations.
In the '60's Popular Mechanics published an article on how to build a "Foxhole " radio using a razor blade and a pencil lead. Didn't work for me though.
 
In the '60's Popular Mechanics published an article on how to build a "Foxhole " radio using a razor blade and a pencil lead. Didn't work for me though.
I remember that, but I don't recall if I tried it or not. By the mid-60's I was a Vietnam vet and newly married, so I may have had other things occupying my time by then... :)
 
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