Mike Peebles "PO-1956" Amplified Crystal Set 

Well done. The way I like my ham. Great job with the radio kit too. You perfectly recreated my dad showing me how to use the AC outlet for an antenna too. Ah. Memories.

While I appreciate humour, I was saying to myself, I hope hes kidding about the antenna and ground. I did jump when the pyros kicked in. I own a big valve radio (I live in Australia by the way) and I used a wire between the 2 concrete chimneys of the house down in through my bedroom window. I used a separate pipe for the ground, not the cold or hot water pipes. It was pre FM days but at night in Melbourne Victoria where I live, I could pick up Sydney radio stations 1000 kilometres away in NSW. I rang the DJ at one station telling him I could hear his broadcast. He acknowledged this by telling his listeners that a 12 year old boy was listening in Melbourne. The down side was the telephone bill. I played dumb because local calls were 10 cents a call but STD calls ( Subscriber Trunk Dialing ) were very expensive at the time, unlike today with VOIP. I still have that radio and I finally told my parents at 21 years of age at my 21st birthday. As you can imagine, my father said you cheeky little shit. I knew I never made a call to Sydney back then. I now own a $10.000 Primaluna valve amplifier which is just the most beautiful piece of kit I own. It uses wound in house Toroidal transformers for mains power and output to the speakers and has 4, 8 and 16 Ohm taps. It is running 6 12AU7s in the preamp section and 8 EL34 power tubes at the back in Push/Pull configeration which gives me 100 watts per side. I bought a Cambridge phono stage for my brand new Technics SL 1200 MK 2 ( I was a club DJ for many years ) and a Pioneer CDJ to play CDs. My cartridge is an Ortofon Black Moving Magnet with a Shibata eliptical stylus fitted. None of this gear has ever been in a club by the way. Vacuum Tube amplification is now big business. It's a shame that Russia invaded Ukraine because many tubes with familiar names like Mullard and Telefunken are being made there. Brian May from Queen uses valve amplifiers as do many other brilliant guitarists. I saw Queen with Freddie out front....yes I am a gay guy and with Adam Lambert too. The music today Pffft! I miss the days of valve amps. There was a magic to it all but at 62, I have to be real. I loved my crystal sets. These sets were well hidden in POW camps during WW2 to see what was happening during that terrible time. My late uncles had one but never talked about the war and we knew not to ask what they saw there. I love your channel. Cheers from Australia, Andrew Collins.

Great video!!! I am an engineer from the 50'. Also was an AM and FM working man. Cheers Patagonia Argentina

HaHa, Opening the box the first thing you got was a shirt. Almost looked you received the wrong parcel. I am 78 years old. As a boy I often built receivers like this and they worked. Again I am returning to my old hobby, luckily there are still old radio parts lying around here. Thanks for your educational video. Greetings from Amsterdam (Nederland)

That looks like a neat little vintage-style kit, and the video was entertaining, too. 🙂

Very enjoyable and relaxing video, just the right mix of music, talking, and building (and hammering :)).

Great project and video; lot's of fun. AM radios are good nowadays for listening to commercials pretty much.

Cool beans. Love the old style sets. Likely will buy one to keep busy this fall or winter.

After Mike Peebles closed down, I printed out the panels and instructions. I cut my own pieces of wood. I had stock parts on hand and built 90% of his projects.

Nice set. I Built my first crystal radio at 5 years old in 1965.

Some hi-tech you have. I built it without battery amplifier at younger age :) Nice DIY to understand basics.

keep up the great work, i hit all the buttons, still laughing over the box, was impressive at the start, good to see the takes people don't normally see, BIG Thumbs up

I almost never watch a YT video of this type from start to finish. But I enjoyed it so much I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. Your sense of humor is right up my alley. Great Job! K8BZ

I came for the radio, but stayed for the special effects. You, sir, have a great sense of humour.

I used to make my own radio coils with a piece of PVC piping and either some enamelled copper wire, or Litz wire, to put holes in the PVC piping I would use either a small drill bit or a sewing needle that was heated till it was hot enough to melt the PVC piping, sometimes I would glue the base from an old octal valve or tube in one end of the PVC piping after soldering the ends of the coil wires to the pins of the octal base.

Good video. Thanks for leaving the bloopers in that was the best bit!

While he was puttin' it together, I was gettin' a Mr. Rogers vibe!

when i was in grammer school/cub scouts, i built a crystal set with a cat-whisker diode and a coil wound on an oatmeal box. i thought i had done something, but when i got it assembled, i found out the closest radio station was 20 miles away! it did pick up a very weak signal, but it was not great. my mother bought me a 2 transistor pocket radio that didn't pick up anything. it was many years later when my small town got an a m station, but the crystal set was junk by then.

Reminds me of the adverts in Boys Own Paper for one valve SW radios. Never built one but did own a Dulci crystal set from Gamages of Holborn. In the late 50's there was a lot of Army surplus stuff in Exchange and Mart and shops selling bits stripped out of electrical junk. Market stalls had whacky gadgets guaranteed to bring the world to your living room. None of it worked, nor did the white spot transistors from Henries Radio. As they say, the pleasure is in the making, not in the results.

Awesome work!

Mister, you had me fooled a couple of times ;) Great video!

Wonderful video. ❤

Very good. It’s funny how often that happens.

I actually burst out laughing at the staple gun.

Love how you jack up the humor in your videos! Makes the real story even better! Thanks for sharing!

Hi, in my country we say "que plato!" When something is funny. Something like " what a dish!". Best wishes!

I like electronic projects.........although radios aren't my thing. I'm sure when Radio was a new thing, it was an amazing experience to build a kit and hear things. It's probably akin to when I made my first guitar amp, or built my first PC computer. When it works, it's super cool.

I thought I was a cranky old fart. This guy takes the cake.

Don't forget that specialists are watching!

мне нравится время и конструкции перехода с ламповое на транзисторное радио!-это такой дух эпохи перемен-который захватывает восторгом от открытий и возможностей человека !

Take out the bits relating to creating ariels from the mains wiring. Some fool will do what I did as a kid and and stick two fingers in the light socket to see what it feels like. Later as my interest in electronics continued I would start to replace faulty selium diodes in our Murphy TV, the one with the controls under the famous flip top lid. I discovered how by playing with the rf tuning coils you could pull in other TV stations. One day I had the tv in a room with a Stone floor. It was propped up on a chair with the outer wooden casing off and I was poking around trying to get the vertical control to lock. Suddenly I saw the set starting to topple from chair and went to grab it and I was in bare feet. Luckily as soon my fingers brushed against the steel chassis I felt the same feeling as when I stuck my fingers in the light socket many years earlier. If I had fully grabbed it I would not be hear now. This is the danger of tinkering and not being aware that transformerless equipment can be deadly if the A/C live side is connected to chassis by reversed connection at the plug end. Some muscians have been killed using Audio equipment that did not use transformers. It is very important for earths to always be connected on cookers,kettles and all electrical appliances so that if the live of the mains touches the steel casing it will blow the fuse or trip of your supply.

I really liked it. Built it in 2012

That's how I open packages!

That was the best opening ever i was thinking hes foing to cut something too lol 😂 😂

KYW? You're a local guy. I'm out on the west side of VF. Glad to have found a fellow enthusiast in the general area. Love the video. It is very well done with an excellent balance between humor, explanation, construction, and non-intrusive background accompaniment. Time for me to subscribe and dive into the catalog. Speaking of catalogs, thanks for the link to Peebles. Cool stuff there.

Excellent work making it ✨️also funny 😂😂

LOL Great fun Greetings from the Netherlands! Rob

You're not far from me! I'm in Lancaster county!

What a funny guy i'm subscribing.

What a fun video!

Mike was 10 in 1956, by the way, lots of laughter from your little "peoples" fans!!

I was waiting for the: "FULL WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER" 💥 Oh; wrong show ! ! ! 🤔

goodjob mr

Nice and lot of fun project, congratulations! 😂 Which transistor did you use for replace the original? Greetings from Argentina!❤

I looked at the website but I could not find how you order the kits or prices? Just the instructions?

Nice radio sort of a " modern" Hikers one. On the power outlet, America and Australia terminals are reverse .

The linked catalog says they are "no longer accepting orders."

The only thing that will work in the near future;)

Отлично! Удивлен, что такие наборы ещё пользуются популярностью.

The coil form looks suspiciously like it's the core from the large rolls of commercial TP. (I have a couple of them.) Very good idea on making the coil of wire into a spool! Quite entertaining on the gags. You might like to try 1N60, 1N60A, 1N270, and 1N21 diodes in the set also. BTW MRL (Modern Radio Labs) still has their booklets in print. I bought a full set about 10 yrs back. Mass xtal radio info.

I had that kit before.

18:03 The classic old-school circuit breadboard construction method.

"Ordering Information No-Longer accepting orders" FML!

I like those special effects shots!

You whet my appetite to build something to remind me of my childhood. What a bummer to find that the Mike Peebles website is no longer accepting orders!!

😂😂😂Funny with the glue and staple gun😂

3:12 Better Dark Brandon's garage than Mango Mussolini's sad little bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. At least Joe didn't have to be subpoenaed.

Hey Mike. Nice build! Do you have a link to VR labs' webpage if one exists? :)

13:23 Pardon me! 😮

that was fun! no surprise first strong signal was religious 😅

I'm surprised that you can get such a quality battery holder anymore

👏👏👍

Wonderful humor😂

I recognize that engine idle sound byte It sounds like a 95-99 Vw diesel engine.

Last time that I talked to Mike, was in 2012.

hahahhaha.. always love the vids.

Great comedy.

What did they do? Did they put the envelope at the top and you cut it in two by accident?

Great Radio there :) I still love crystal sets Is this really a vintage radio laboratories Or is peebles active again ? I thought they closed Best tu U

Amplitude is no more, it is no longer transmitted?

when the radio exploded, i expected you to say DOH!

So much work for just American radio programmes. That is truly depressing.

I googled Vintage Radio Laboratories and couldn’t find the site. ???

where we can buy thoses kit :)??

Do they have a kit that doesn’t need batteries?

That is a nicely wound coil. The few I have wound aren't that nice looking. We should also thank the resistor that gave up its life for the diode. Not all heroes wear capes.

The radio would not have blown up if the resistors had not been put in backwards😂

NOS hi impedance head set? Amazing. And, of course, the PO-1956 is sold out; indeed, it looks like the place is out of business?

I thought: "No surely this mains antenna thing is a joke!" Back in the day mains antennas were available in the UK with our 240V mains, but only for mains-operated sets I think and they were mostly useless - and dangerous. Little more than snake-oil products really. In the UK (and most of Europe except Spain) we only have a few AM stations left. Our BBC Radio Four station on 198 kHz long wave is closing in March 2024, and I expect the medium-wave stations (BBC and commercial) won't be far behind... Anyway, joking apart that's a nice little kit. But doesn't the lack of selectivity let the digital sidebands from IBOC spoil things?

Subtítulos!!!! Please😢

25:36 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 funny man.

Minuto, 16:40.....😮🤨😢😮‍💨🥺 😊 😅 😂 😆 🤣 🤗 🤭

I enjoyed, but you might want to put in a disclaimer on the antenna. LOL

hes been watching too much Electroboom

Minuto, 18 . La Carátula NO TIENE GRAPAS.....👹 💀🪓

😂😂😂 15:00 3 stooges time 💥🔨👀

Apparently they're out of business... *NO LONGER ACCEPTING ORDERS*

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👍👍👍👍👍

Not a very good Idea sticking screwdriver into mains plugs.

Усатый д-к.

make it a gag free zone

Меньше болтай больше делайW

Does trump sell one I can listen to while reading classified documents in the bathroom at Mart of Lardo? Will he be able to use one in prison while setting on the stainless-steel toilet. Vote blue so we don't end up tuning into Radio Russia.

28:30 Polskie radio nice ! Polish RF P O W E R

The childish antics is really frustrating to watch, it gives credence to the phrase once a man twice a child. Which is fine for me, watching it is another story. Just don't complain when Gen-Z do their version. Which is always worst, but at least we know now where it originated. Too many 16 year old men, and 68 year old boys walking around these days.