Crystal Radios: No Batteries? No Problem!

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(To those who swear I've covered this topic before: I have; I just wasn't satisfied with my original video)
Remarkably simple and requiring no power source, crystal radios were the primary means of listening to commercial radio broadcasts until the late 1920s and early 1930s, when they were largely superseded by more sensitive tube-based heterodyne and regenerative receivers. However, they continue to be built by hobbyists and are a popular project for teaching children the basics of radio technology.
Huge shout-out to Julian Horn and United Nuclear for their invaluable assistance in putting together this video. Check out United Nuclear's fascinating catalogue at: unitednuclear.com
Medical Coils/Batteries Video: • Medical Coils: Zapping...
0:00 Introduction
0:52 Spark Gap Transmitters
2:02 Coherer Receivers
3:05 Magnetic Hysteresis Detectors
4:38 Reginald Fessenden and the Dawn of AM Broadcasting
5:06 Parallel Tuned Circuits /LC Resonators
6:29 Rectifying/Envelope Detectors
7:23 Hot-Wire Barretter
8:19 Electrolytic Detector
9:18 Early Crystal Detectors
9:50 Crystal Radio Basics
12:17 Cat's Whisker Detectors
12:56 P/N and Metal-Semiconductor Junction Diodes
14:39 Later Crystal Detectors and Diodes
16:26 1923 Ariel Crystal Set
17:11 Self-powered Crystal Radios
17:50 Crystal Radio Optimization and Range
20:52 Foxhole Radios
22:27 Obsolescence of Crystal Radios
23:05 1950s Miniman Rocket Radio
24:18 Outro
SOURCES:
web.archive.org/web/201212282...
earlyradiohistory.us/1917de.htm
eng.libretexts.org/Bookshelve...
www.radiomuseum.org/r/graves_...
www.electronics-notes.com/art...
www.electronics-notes.com/art...
www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/ar...

Опубликовано:

28 май 2024

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Комментарии : 499

@Woffy. 2 месяца назад

As a lad during a very hot summer I visited my younger cousin Adrian, I showed him how to build a Crystal set from scrap wire etc. He told me just before his death that he was so fascinated by this magical thing we had built that he went on to study Radio, I only just found out his job was designing receivers for military satellites. Great channel, old school just the way we like it. I wish you were my teacher.

@foxxy46213 2 месяца назад

That is so cool. You showed him something interesting that shaped his whole life. amazing how one little thing can change someone's whole life.

@Woffy. 2 месяца назад

Everyone should make a crystal set it is truly magical to a young mind, thank you Foxxy for your kind words, I only learnt of some of Adrian's achievements in "special radio stuff" when he was gone apparently he developed some funky modulation thingy. We built that crystal set in the mid 60's I can see us now unravelling toilet roll for the cardboard tube to make the coil. His last call to me was to tell me he remembered the set and he wanted me to know how much it meant to him. He died a few days later.

@foxxy46213 2 месяца назад

@@Woffy. No worries, I love stuff like that an how one little thing or moment can change absolutely everything. I've not thought about them since I was a kid an stuffs more freely available in the net so might have a go an make one from some scrap

@Woffy. 2 месяца назад

Go for it, I think I will do the same. @@foxxy46213

@kayakMike1000 2 месяца назад

Sorry for your loss. Sounded like a great engineer.

@darrylday30 2 месяца назад

Built one at the age of 10 from a library book. My dad had all the parts in little glass jars hanging from the ceiling. 40 years later I found myself teaching basic AC electricity to aircraft maintenance apprentices. I am grateful.

@Woffy. 2 месяца назад

" From little Acorns grow great Oak's " Your memory of a special moment ......... What I like about this channel are the long lost memories it restores. It really is a pleasant few minuts in my day.

@jgharston 2 месяца назад

Yes: Ladybird Book How To Build A Radio, also around age 8 or 9 or so.

@travisadkins5498 2 месяца назад

Love this story!!❤

@3DJapan 2 месяца назад

I had a Radio Shack kit as a kid to make one. That's how I learned that a microphone and speaker are the same thing.

@paulmaxwell8851 2 месяца назад

I received a cheap crystal radio kit for Christmas in about 1966. I had to wind the coil, assemble the parts etc. It didn't work. My grandfather, an aviation radio technician, came over, found the problem and replaced the 1N34 germanium diode. Presto! It worked! I thought he a was a genius. I spent many, many nights listening to radio stations thousands of miles away when I should have been sleeping.

@briandawkins984 2 месяца назад

You sound like me I got a crystal radio set about 1968. I didn’t sleep much after that. I was 10.

@rodchallis8031 2 месяца назад

It's like the Crystal Radio is The Spirit of Radio.

@davidmacphee3549 2 месяца назад

Rush, My home band in Toronto

@RambozoClown 2 месяца назад

Great video. As a kid I read about trench or foxhole radios, and was amazed when I built one and it worked. Razor blade, pencil lead, coil wound on a toilet paper core, the whole shebang. I even surprised my dad.

@foxxy46213 2 месяца назад

Same way I saw them. But had no clue on how to build one an even my library had no info...or I wast just young an looking in wrong place. But I did remember that in one film they put the set in a helmet to amplify it...an I do that now with my phone in a bowl😂

@spvillano 2 месяца назад

@@foxxy46213mom grew up during the Great Depression and WWII, she told me about listening to a few crystal radios, whose earpieces would be put into a glass bowl so that those gathered around could hear the news.

@blueeyeswhitedragon9839 Месяц назад

I won the "Rocket Crystal Radio" in a newspaper contest and loved the way it picked up our local AM radio station and played music, battery free, while Imwas in bed getting ready to go to sleep. The good old days.

@kr6dr 2 месяца назад

Discovering the 1N34 Germanium diode at Radio Shack was the greatest thing in my young life. Crystal radio was so much easier without the cat whisker and potted diode.

@tomweickmann6414 Месяц назад

Wow. Someone out there remembers Radio Shack. I practically lived there as a kid, using my evil genius 🤣 to build spy transmitters. Did you also read Poor Man's James Bond? Bet ya did.

@carlosanvito 2 месяца назад

It was the early 1960s. My grade school teacher gave us an assignment to pick up a book at the bookmobile and write a report. None of the books interested me, except for a book by Alfred Morgan, called the Boy's First Book of Radio and Electronics. I was instantly hooked. I built one of the crystal radios and was fascinated that I could actually do that. Fast forward, that interest resulted in me studying electrical engineering in the early 70s which led to a fabulous career. All that, thanks to the humble crystal radio. Too bad kids don't do things like that anymore.

@boxcarz 2 месяца назад

Oh, THAT Alfred Morgan? I have one of his other books, "Things a boy can do with electrochemistry!" It's one of my favorites among my collection, which I admit is partly because it casually mentions going down to the "general store" and picking up some asbestos paper for one recipe like it's nothing at all. Ah, the 50s.

@oldbatwit5102 2 месяца назад

@@boxcarz In the late sixties, as a thirteen year old, I would regularly visit the local chemist to buy sulphur, potassium nitrate, charcoal, magnesium and a bunch of other stuff. It was like a toyshop for me. Oddly, I had to sign for the magnesium but not for anything else. I also had no problems buying matches, 20 boxes at a time, meths, lighter fluid, fireworks etc.

@20chocsaday 2 месяца назад

I failed.

@ScriptCatz 2 месяца назад

I’m 16 and do all sorts of junk like that! I’ve admittedly never made a radio but I’ll dick around with high voltage electronics and old 80s computer systems

@rihardsrozans6920 2 месяца назад

Kids still do all kinds of neat stuff you old fart

@chrisgraham2904 2 месяца назад

I built my first crystal radio at 9 years old in 1962 as a project in Boy Scouts. Even then, I was amazed at the technology that performed without batteries or plugged into a wall receptacle. Stringing an antenna wire across the length of my bedroom ceiling and hooking the ground clamp to the hot water radiator, I was tuned into the local rock-n-roll AM station, listening through a single piezo earpiece. My mother, who came from London, England, remembered well her family's first crystal radio that required manipulation of the "cat's whisker" to maintain a broadcast signal. Knowledge of crystal radio technology will be valuable information to have after the zombie apocalypse.

@chrisgraham2904 2 месяца назад

To add to my comment: I just checked and am very pleased to see that AMAZON does carry a number of kits, with all the parts, for building a crystal radio, starting at around $20. That's definitely going to be a stocking stuffer for my grand daughter this year for Christmas and we'll build it together.

@shmehfleh3115 2 месяца назад

My grandmother lived in a relatively small rural community in Illinois, about 30 miles away from St. Louis. Her farm, as well as the rest of the town received its electricity from a diesel generator located in the nearby firehouse. It was only run for a few hours each day, during which everyone ran their washing machines, vacuumed, listened to their radios, or did whatever else required electricity before it was shut off again. I don't think her community was tied to an official 24/7 energized grid until after WWII, and my grandfather, who was a lineman for most of his career, helped do it.

@Ed_Stuckey 2 месяца назад

I built my first crystal set at about seven years of age. That was ~1950. It was like magic. I've been interested in all things electrical and electronic since.

@Albertkallal 2 месяца назад

I had many crystal radios as a child - several from Radio Shack. But, out of of all the ones I ever used? That rocket radio blew them all away!!! - don't know why, but wow oh wow - they work beyond well...... And they were dirt cheap - available at the downtown Army and Navy store. I used take my to school, and just clip the alligator clip to the school chain link fence, and it worked rather well. (Grandin School) At home? Just clipped to the heater vent by my bed - listened to CFRN and Irv Shore in the morning. And to not be puny? That CFRN signal was crystal clear. Very cool, and no batteries. Loved that Rocket radio as a child - and it worked really well.

@Ni999 2 месяца назад

Can confirm. 👍👍

@gtracer6629 2 месяца назад

I had one of those rocket radios in college. I would clip the wire to the radiator in my room. About the only thing I can pick up was the compass radio station what was still kind of cool cuz it had no batteries or anything.

@-danR 2 месяца назад

Yes, the rocket radio. My Dad gave me one as a present around 1960, not quite the same design, but prob. the same guts. It wasn't just an intriguing curiosity, it was quite practical as a radio. Every night I lay in bed listening to the local station in Vancouver playing BBC's The Goon Show. So instead of wasting a pointless hour or so sleeping, I was getting an education...

@briandawkins984 2 месяца назад

I also grew up in St Albert until Gr. 4. I attended Sir Alexander Mackenzie. I had a crystal rocket radio when I was 7. I could pick up CHED, CFRN, CJCA amongst others. Those little radios made in Japan? Were impressive considering their simplicity. I would wind the antenna lead around my bed frame. That improved reception capability.

@Albertkallal 2 месяца назад

@briandawkins984 Great memories, thanks for sharing. As noted I had a number of crystal radios but those rocket radios worked the best.

@timd1833 2 месяца назад

In 1958, I was 7 years old. My brother-in-law's step-father had a small plastic box with a wire coming out of it with an alligator clip on the end. Also had another wire with an earphone coming out of the other side. He let me listen to it. He opened the back of the plastic box and there was hardly anything in it. Fascinated me! We had a radio at home but it had to be plugged into the wall and turned in different directions to pick up various stations. I wasn't allowed to touch that radio. The crystal set had only one dial, 1-10, and turning it slowly would change the stations. I credit Mr W for getting me interested in electronics, building Heathkits in high school, electronics in the service and then a career with 2 electronics companies. Retired now!

@enilenis 2 месяца назад

I love old vacuum tube radios with large components. You can figure out what everything does, just by looking at it, with no schematics. The orange glow. The warming up of the circuits. Massive mechanical parts. Pure nostalgia.

@briandawkins984 2 месяца назад

If it doesn’t warm up, glow orange and produces heat it just ain’t steam radio😊

@eyerollthereforeiam1709 2 месяца назад

I love your opening gags, but THAT ONE IS THE BEST!!!

@stevebailey325 2 месяца назад

Im 65, but boy, that song brought back some great memories. From what i remember, i saw Rush about 3 times. 😅

@eyerollthereforeiam1709 2 месяца назад

@@stevebailey325 I'm not a big one for concerts, but I wish I had seen them at some point.

@cougarhunter33 2 месяца назад

@@eyerollthereforeiam1709Same. One of my chief regrets is not seeing them a few years before they retired when the were doing the Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves concerts

@chihuahuaphil 2 месяца назад

@@stevebailey325 Saw them 4 times, which is about 40 too few!

@filmclipuk 2 месяца назад

Quite! it's the Spirit ;-)

@Evergreen64 2 месяца назад

I hear your "Spirit of Radio" sir. Longtime RUSH fan here. Great video!

@frankschuler2867 2 месяца назад

Funny story. I built a crystal radio for a science fair project as a kid in the 80's...got a blue ribbon! I still remember being fascinated by the ability to build a radio with just a few components and some blocks covered with aluminum foil (you'd slide the blocks over one another to act as a variable capacitor). I still remember Dad having to visit multiple Radio Shack locations to find the right components. I wish I still had it. It was little more than a handful of wire stuck to a block of wood using thumbtacks to complete the junctions.

@shawn.the.alien423 2 месяца назад

When I was in Junior High back in the '90s, I had a teacher (Mr. Dollar) who did an exploratory class on radio, and something we got to do was build crystal radios from kits. It taught me a lot about the basics of radio. I have two nephews that, when they get old enough, I'm gonna find some kits and teach them what I learned

@thevoiceharmonic 2 месяца назад

I built my first in 1972 when I was 13 and then a proper kit 2 years later. I set up massive aerials on my farm, one 300 foot long. My father got a terrible fright one dark windy night when my aerial came out of the sky and took his hat off! I had 3 aerials of different lengths and had to incorporate a volume control. I climbed a lot of trees

@briandawkins984 2 месяца назад

My dad wouldn’t allow me to erect a long wire antenna for fear of a lightning strike.

@gregmark1688 2 месяца назад

That box of flashcubes makes me kinda crazy, for some reason. I built my first crystal radio sometime around 1970. This is absolutely the best explanation of their operation I have ever heard.

@DavidFerree54 13 дней назад

My older brother got a little crystal radio for Christmas when he was about 10 years old. It was in a little red rocket ship looking thing. He eventually took it apart and hooked up an antenna to it and was receiving AM signals from all over the country. Years later when he was 14 and I was 13 he had progressed in his electronics tinkering to the point that he used that same little crystal radio as the guts of a broadcast station in our room with a horizontal wire antenna on top of our house. We had a radio show every evening, with me playing records (single 45s) and talking. The kids at school the next day always gave me reviews on our shows. Later still he did things like going through a local computer manufacturer's dumpster to retrieve mistakes they had thrown away and building super computers out of the parts. He joined the Air Force at 17 and his job was repairing guided missile systems. All from getting a toy for Christmas.

@misterpancakes 2 месяца назад

Huh I remember seeing this in Masters of the Air the other day when they crafted one in a POW camp, great timing!

@12Q46HPRN 2 месяца назад

I came to the comments to mention the same thing and wondered if this video was a coincidence or not . . . .

@megamcee 2 месяца назад

@@12Q46HPRN yep, was just about to do the same

@rog2224 2 месяца назад

Just before and just after the Great War, my great uncle used to bike around places in the Lincolnshire Wolds to log propagation with a crystal set. He'd post off the logs to some magazine (when he told me, he was in his early 80s and no longer remembered the name of it), as part of a data collection initiative of how weather and time of year affected domestic and international radio.

@souta95 2 месяца назад

I know the ARRL did something collecting reports like that at one time, but I don't know if they had people in England sending in reports. The ARRL's magazine is still being published, it's called QST.

@user-pd5ot4zd4b 2 месяца назад

Love it, Spirit of the Radio, Eh Canida?!. I'm glad crystal sets are having a bit of a moment again. Still remember by pals RadioHack 101 project kit back in the 70's and grounding to a radiator, wire in a tree, sharing the earpiece. Good times.

@kensmith5694 2 месяца назад

Yes, I am seeing a lot of youtube videos about making them. I even made video to try to help them out on the topic of the 1N34 diode that normally was used as the detector. You can't get real 1N34 diodes easily these days.

@Woffy. 2 месяца назад

Making the detector is the magical bit but as mentioned in the video there are a number of solutions one being carbon and razor blade or a salvaged point contact signal diode. Have fun. Best @@kensmith5694

@briandawkins984 2 месяца назад

I had a three transistor radio shack p box I listened to the fall of South Vietnam and the watergate scandal on VOA. Great stuff.

@jp-um2fr 2 месяца назад

England. What an excellent video. I built and did terrible things to crystal radios, some of which actually worked. With a roughly 200 ft aerial at 30 ft, I could even use an old extension loudspeaker. I learned more about the history of crystal radios, etc. watching your videos, than all the books I ever read. Well done that man, I'll put you up for a knighthood (but don't hold your breath).

@MikeinVirginia1 2 месяца назад

I was in Cub Scouts in the early 60's, and I built one to get an Arrow Point (the symbol for completing an activity). I bought 100 feet of Belden hookup wire and ran an antenna in my back yard. It didn't work. Then I moved it to sit on our washing machine in the garage. I connected the ground to the cold water pipe. It worked! I was so impressed I later became an electrical engineer and worked in the radio industry. And it all started in Cub Scouts!

@mattheide2775 2 месяца назад

Great video.Ispent some time as a radio operator 30 years ago. With the right atmospheric conditions a 10kW AM radio signal can travel around the globe easily. That is why AM radio stations transmit directionally at night here in the US. I used to only have an AM radio in my car and I would tune into some stations from Cali and Texas for fun. That radio had an excellent analog tuner with very fine adjustment. It was a stock radio from a 73 VW bug😊

@jsnsk101 2 месяца назад

strange far off late night am stations were always fun on a drive waiting for them to announce their town

@williamlyerly3114 2 месяца назад

Received the Heathkit crystal radio kit in the 1950’s for Christmas. Lived in South Carolina - AM was predominant Father helped me build - was ~8yo. Great memory.

@jamesslick4790 2 месяца назад

In the 1970's I put together a crystal radio kit (from Radio Shack..Natch..) AND an AM transmitter (Also from RS.) Both worked, No great distances covered, but they were FUN. Been into radio of all kinds ever since!

@wutzerface77 2 месяца назад

Loved this channel before but throw in a Rush reference... now you're God tier

@bellofbelmont 2 месяца назад

In the late 1960's the "party line" (shared landline connection) to our farm was replaced by underground cable which left almost 2 kilometers of overhead, insulated, soft iron wire in an "L" shape unused. So I connected my crystal set! I could listen to 2GZ Orange NSW Australia from about 130km (80miles) away. :-) .. Jim Bell (Australia)

@sovietunion8304 Месяц назад

That’s awesome

@JamesHalfHorse 2 месяца назад

At an AM station I engineer for I occasionally do tricks like putting some headphones on someone, touch the jack with my finger sometimes touch a ground and you can hear the broadcast in a similar principle to how a crystal radio works. l can also hold a curly bulb near the tuning coil (matches the transmitter to the antenna) and it will blink along with the modulation. Visitors think it's neat. Former engineer and mentor has some radios from the 20s when they were still experimental in his collection. They are beautiful both in looks and design for their time. I can sit for hours and talk with him about a 75 year career in radio learning as much as I can and do whenever I can while I still can. The engineers and teachers like him that really know this stuff that were there through most of its important evolutions and really know the history are a rapidly dying breed.

@ThomasGrillo 2 месяца назад

Back in the early 70s, I had a crystal radio kit from Radio Shack. After assembling it, I was hearing an AM station through it's earphone. Very cool. Thanks for sharing this.

@oconnorsean12 Месяц назад

My entire family loves your channel! Especially my 20 something children who are fascinated by the technology that I grew up with 😀

@UltimateSeduction 2 месяца назад

Build my first short wave crystal receiver 45 years ago when I was 7,thanks for this! ❤

@Borsia 23 дня назад

I had a crystal radio as a child, around 1958, that looked like an egg with a knob on one end that you turned to tune, a wire with an alligator clip that I clipped to the steel frame of the bunkbed and a earpiece. I loved that thing and could get all of the local AM stations. Thanks for reminding me of it 🙂

@ai4px 2 месяца назад

I love the intros you've been doing..... Rush, spirit of radio. Pun intended.

@kenbakker3241 2 месяца назад

They are also Canadian, eh!

@ai4px 2 месяца назад

@@kenbakker3241 Did you know the way they came up with the name Canada? They started pulling letters out of a hat. First letter was "C", so the man pulling the letter says "C" eh. "N" eh. "D" eh. and a nation was born.

@hagen-p 2 месяца назад

When I was 12 years old, German Yps-Extra Nr.1 came with a germanium diode detector receiver. I used it a lot for listening to Sci-Fi radio dramas. Good times, nice memories.

@bok.. 2 месяца назад

Your description of Semiconductors was very good!

@joewoodchuck3824 4 дня назад

I was building these in the 1950's. Led to a great career. Always a hobby as well to this day.

@ricdintino9502 2 месяца назад

Nice intro. I first saw Rush in 1977, likely before you were born.

@hookeaires6637 2 месяца назад

My first radio as a kid in the 60’s was a crystal set. Built it myself (grandfather helped). It was magic.

@Jeremyak 2 месяца назад

That's really cool they can be powered by the radio signal itself, it reminds me of "the thing" which was a soviet listening device that was activated by a directed radio signal which made it nearly impossible to locate with standard bug sweeping technologies. The very definition of elegant design.

@jackmambawitsin 2 месяца назад

You have a great teaching style. You explained the theory around that circuit in such a way my squishy brain actually understood it 😊 I can tell you love your work and it shows, thank you.

@Gr0g234 2 месяца назад

I was literally watching your videos and then videos about crystal radios all week, this is freaking me tf out lol

@jimpalmer1969 27 дней назад

My parents bought me a crystal radio similar to the rocket ship radio at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. I went on to build other crystal sets including the foxhole radio using a blue raiser blade. When my son was in the Cub Scouts I out together a project for the boys where they built a crystal radio set on a board. I found a forum on line for crystal radios. The guys on the forum were so generous they mailed me the ear pieces, geranium diodes and variable capacitors needed so each boy had their own set. Pass it on.

@charlesdudek7713 2 месяца назад

When I was in elementary school my older brother had made a crystal radio mounted in a cigar box. He showed it to me and after checking it out I made my own. I would regularly fall asleep at night listening to radio stations and I remember a feeling of satisfaction listening to stations on a radio I had made myself.

@tfrowlett8752 2 месяца назад

I loved your video on practice bombs, I was lucky enough to find an 8.5lb Mk2 practice bomb in an antique store

@umbrellacorp. 2 месяца назад

I grew up in the 80's and 90's but I would of loved to live in those olden days 1920's. Life seemed so easy and comfortable back then.🥰👍💯

@Erintel 2 месяца назад

THANK YOU FOR THE HISTORICAL TUTORIAL. WHAT A GIFT OF NATURE! UNDERSTOOD AND ENABLED BY CLEVER PEOPLE, SHRINKING THE WORLD. EXCELLENT EDUCATIONAL APPROACH.

@silvertube52 14 дней назад

As a boy I had a crystal radio. I lived in Michigan and loved that I could get stations from Chicago and New York.

@tamasmihaly1 2 месяца назад

Look at whose channel is blowing up. Congrats my friend. You’re awesome.

@Valery0p5 2 месяца назад

Such a simple and elegant device. I didn't know about the variable capacitor models!

@jjmcrosbie 28 дней назад

Thank you for a clear and educational video. I live in France. France no longer has medium wave AM radio transmissions, so I was unable to test the crystal set which I had made for my grandson in Perth, Australia. He should get good reception as he lives just 7km from a 50kW transmitter! Like some other responders, I was given a crystal set when I was 12, in 1953. I eventually left school to study electrical engineering at university and ended my career as a head of a section of electronic engineers, having worked my way through the various levels of electronic engineering.

@InvestigationsDepartment 2 месяца назад

I find your radio related videos to be interesting and a good contribution to the youtube community. Thanks!

@stuartchapman5171 2 месяца назад

Built one from a kit, early 70's, loved it, started my passion for audio tech. Although an amateur, I've installed PA at Notting Hill Carnival, amongst countless parties, festivals, set up SW stations for sonic art projects, built and sold countless experimental fx, mixer, tape devices. I'd like to say it's kept me out of trouble, but I'm too honest, lol.

@jerryocrow1 Месяц назад

Fantastic presentation. Simple, basic, understandable, and for kids today, a look into the past. WOW.

@ianbennett5245 2 месяца назад

Knowing what was coming, I hit "Like" as soon as Rush kicked in.

@DiddleWithCare 2 месяца назад

As a kid I had a crystal radio kit from Radio Shack. My dad strung a 1000ft wire between the house and a barn, terminating in my bedroom. I could pick up overseas stations, well, crystal clear.

@johnlineberger9560 Месяц назад

Built the Radio Shack version at 10. Pure magic.

@tissuepaper9962 2 месяца назад

You're a very brave man to speak about amateur radio and semiconductor physics on RU-vid. There are lots of experts around just *dying* to correct miniscule mistakes and criticize simplifications made for clarity to a lay audience. Good video.

@pancudowny 2 месяца назад

Looking at the Rocket Radio, it's easy to imaging a discreet pocket-sized crystal radio in the form of a fountain- or clip-style pen, with the wires being disguised as the strap/chain for a pair of eyeglasses/sunglasses.

@gardeningfromscratch. Месяц назад

With the advent of all radio stations migrating to digital, these crystal radios without an AM transmission to receive will just become curiosities for the museum. Even SSB is totally undecipherable by these simple tuned circuits, however FM stations can be slope detected but I've never seen a crystal set that works at VHF where FM stations can be found. I remember building a crystal set nearly 70 years ago to listen to Radio Luxemburg, happy days :) .

@y_x2 Месяц назад

Very complete description of all old technology. Thank you

@spaceshantynow1851 2 месяца назад

Great explanations of how crystal radios work! Thank you!

@caseynimmo4440 2 месяца назад

Wonderful explanation of the resonate tank circuit.

@imark7777777 2 месяца назад

Both videos still stand well on their own this was a nice update.

@NephilBlade 2 месяца назад

Something this simple "wows" me more than the more complex things. To get something that works with so few components is amazing.

@AndyPanda9 2 месяца назад

I grew up in the 50's and used to build these radios with enameled wire wound around toilet paper tubes. An open safety pin to spring load the point of the pin against the crystal. The earplug used a crystal as well to convert the electrical vibrations back into mechanical vibration of the earplug diaphragm.

@StrangePsyDays 2 месяца назад

I literally had the weird feeling that I was going crazy and that I must have imagined it was you that covered this subject before.

@ferretyluv 2 месяца назад

You can’t literally have a feeling.

@KR72534 2 месяца назад

We are all crazy for enjoying this.

@StrangePsyDays 2 месяца назад

@@ferretyluv I phenomenoligically had a feeling?

@arnenelson4495 Месяц назад

Had one as a kid, it was great fun at night to pull in distant stations.

@robertlear2712 Месяц назад

When I was a kid in about 1960 I got a crystal radio kit for my birthday that was from Radio Shack. I was amazed that I could hear radio programs through headphones with no power but it did have to be attached by wire to a pipe in the ground outside my window for the electrical ground.

@damienmcleod2622 27 дней назад

I made a several crystal radios as a kid. It was a lot of fun.

@bobingridshaw5361 2 месяца назад

An absolutely supurb description of early equipment and theory of operation! Thank you!

@_c_y_p_3 2 месяца назад

You are awesome. So seriously interesting. Amazing that people have evolved these ideas.

@WilliamRNicholsonLST-1195 2 месяца назад

As a young single digit boy , I had one of te rocket radios. My rocket had the extra wire coming out of it for connection to antenna. My antenna was the wire screen on my second floor bedroom window. I never compared the rocket to te one witout the extra wire however I would assume that less of a signal would be produced witout the extra wire. My crystal radio was quite loud with the simple earpone . The wire screen filtered out flying insects but I soon appreciated it for the long listening sessions at night , listening to a few very good Bues stations from Chicago , only 17 miles away ! My teachers wondered why I was so sleepy in class but I never stopped listening to Lady Day & others like Martha , Aretha & many other soul filled singers of the era. I spent my 1st night in a repeat visit to San Francisco , sleeping in the Billie Holiday Suite in te early 80's. her spirit was still there & Billie & I got along well in the Biblical sense , till the Sun Arose ............. Nick , NavyBlueSmoke , LST-1195

@alastairchestnutt6416 2 месяца назад

Great presentation. Thanks

@SeanBZA 2 месяца назад

Of course, this also needs you to have local AM transmitters, which are vanishing fast, and with the local rise of all the poorly shielded (if they have any at all) electronics, that all emit wideband RF noise, you will not get any signal out of a crystal set these days, unless you are lucky enough to live very close to a transmitter that is still active.

@kensmith5694 2 месяца назад

I happen to have about 4 in my area. There are still quite a few stations but the broadcast rubbish.

@ronjones4069 2 месяца назад

What a great explanation! I learned so much in spite of my 60 years of working with radio circuits. Thank you for this lesson.

@bloguetronica Месяц назад

Very informative! Thanks!

@danev1969 2 месяца назад

As a teenager back in the 1950’s, I built a crystal radio with a cat-whisker detector and put it in a cigar box. I think I had a 4 or 5 foot antenna dragging too. I use an old WW2 surplus headphone and using the coil tuner was able to receive AM radio broadcasts while walking outside. It became my first and cheapest “portable” radio. I lived in San Francisco, so there were many strong radio stations nearby.

@0dbm 8 дней назад

Excellent, thank you for your presentation, I really enjoyed it

@elkneto4334 2 месяца назад

man gilles so cool that your channel took off, so well deserved, such aweseome videos, greetings

@tseckwr3783 2 месяца назад

Great video and history on radio. Thanks.

@brivaneijm Месяц назад

Thank you for sharing! This was a very informative video.

@ok9nja741 2 месяца назад

I've made one of these couple of years ago. It was fascinating to build this very simple receiver with like 5 parts and then actually hear it work.

@patriot9455 2 месяца назад

I used to take crystal radios with me to scout camps, the leaders even listened from time to time. It was a way we, the boys, would be able to listen at night to AM radio stations far from us, especially at camp Philmont

@davida1hiwaaynet 2 месяца назад

Fascinating things. Thanks for sharing this!

@earthoid 2 месяца назад

Great detailed and historical video! You brought back memories of me in the 1950"s moving a cat whisker over a crystal and then being amazed at picking up a radio station.

@AdvantestInc 2 месяца назад

Fascinating deep dive into the history and impact of crystal radios on communication technology!

@markbernier8434 2 месяца назад

I built one of these from a kit as a child. It was of the sliding tap tuner type. I remember having fun stringing antennae allover the yard. I was inspired by a story of an uncle making the cat's whisker type and using a steel bed frame as the antenna. That would have been before the war.

@bradlevantis913 2 месяца назад

Another excellent video. Thanks

@marknesselhaus4376 2 месяца назад

You nailed this video very nicely. I started building crystal radios since the 1960's and had a sizable collection of early 1920's sets. I have been a Ham ( wa4jat ) since 1974 and still enjoy building crystal radio circuits for the short wave bands.

@cmdredstrakerofshado1159 2 месяца назад

LoL so Canadian rocking out to RUSH 🤣

@rodchallis8031 2 месяца назад

Yeah, but not just any Rush song.

@naughtiusmaximus830 2 месяца назад

That was amazingly well done!

@thatwontwork9046 Месяц назад

Your visuals are great!!

@gristlevonraben 2 месяца назад

great great video, i thank you guys for this!

@sharedknowledge6640 2 месяца назад

Great video. I’m just old enough there were still crystal radio DIY kits available at Radio Shack and elsewhere when I was a kid despite battery powered transistor radios having been out for a long time.

@markdraper3469 2 месяца назад

The little set I got in '63 from the Sunset House was egg shaped clear plastic on molded tripod feet. I was able to clip it to a ceiling light and got quite a few stations (it was L.A. of course) but the best reception came from KNX and KFAC.