As a teacher, I encourage everyone to pass this on to any child you know. This is the kind of stuff I wish to see kids playing with-like when we were kids ourselves. I think a lot of us come from times or even situations where we didn’t have much. I’m relatively young at 44, but in the 80’s as a kid playing with antenna shapes, lengths, materials and positions was more because we didn’t have cable TV. But it was fun and rewarding. Foxhole radios were an accessible project cause you could ride your bike around to find the materials. A little adventure and discovery would be beneficial to todays kids.
When I was about 12 years old in 1965, I found a book in the library on how to build a Foxhole radio. It was similarly built like this one. The oxide on the razor blade and the carbon from the pencil lead made a crude semiconductor diode. It required headphones with 20000 ohm impedance, which I lucky enough to find. My father was impressed when I had him listen to it.That project made me want to be an Electrical Eng. Because of it, I ended up with a Masters of Science Deg in Electrical Engineering from CMU.
I got three such Magnetic 2000 Ohm headphones - - one from the 1930's, but one side of it doesn't work anymore :-( I think it may be internally shorted
@@Jeffrey314159 I got lucky. I got mine from the garbage pile of a retired ham radio operator; It didn't have jacks to plug it in, but both sides worked.
Read the same book. Did the same thing and later converted to a crystal diode. I was 12 in 1965 as well and made several things including model rockets. I’ like to go back for a day and see that time in life through my eyes as an adult. It was just magical with all that was going on at the time. Thanks for sharing.
This brings back memories when I was a young boy of ten my dad and I made radio and tuned in the cat's whisker to hear a radio station the wire aerial was looped of the clothes dryer in the kitchen now I am 73 and this brings back the memories of my dad helping me, loved it thanks
I like this. No nonsense, no bullshit, no clickbaiting, no stupid intro. Just a genuine how-to video while showing you all the necessary steps and highlighting with captions the important bits. Very neat. I applaud this RUclipsr for being so down to Earth and helpful and providing quality entertainment. A+++
I can't understand why handmade diode working. In case of commercial ones, there are two different alloyed silicon plates, to provide conductivity only through one side. How does that work kind of scares me. sry for bad English))
I am here because of the tv show All The Light We Cannot See. In my teenage years (20 years ago) I liked listen to the radio, but knowing now I didn't liked it enough. Building this kind of radio is cool. And I didn't knew it was possible with materials like this.
I was making these when I was around 10 in the 50s. I used a capacitor in parallel with the coil intended to be resonant in the am broadcast band. I used Galena for the detector. Next came regenerative tube receivers, tech school, ham radio and commercial FCC licenses and a nice career designing and building custom laboratory equipment for a major University medical school. Now retired I still operate ham radio and sometimes scratch build things for the fun of it. I also still have some pieces of Galena just in case ...
joe woodchuck ... You`ll absolutely love this website about radio history. There are so many free PDF books and old magazine issues that it will boggle your mind! Check it out! www.americanradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf_History.htm
@@tomjones239 Looks like a wonderful resource. I wonder who else remembers Whites Radio Log. It was a listing of listenable stations domestic and overseas. I was mostly interested in the shortwave listings, but the domestic stations were also fun.
@@joewoodchuck3824 nice, I like reading these stories. Im 28 now and I had 0 knowledge about electricity as a kid. I just had some fun with magnets, that all. I wanna build some radio soon. Electronics seems awesome.
Like many others here, I also made crystals radios when I was a boy in the early 1950s. First one was a kit that my father bought for me, but then I started to build for my friends. First versions used a galena crystal and a cat-whisker for the detector. But then I discovered solid state electronics in the form of an IN34 germanium diode that was more reliable than the crystal and cat-whisker combo. Went on to build many other electronics projects over the years including two early personal computers when they first came out in the mid 70s.
Incredible diode engineering there! I use to love making crystal sets in my dad's shed. I remember a few experiments I found in old books. One was sheets of aluminium foil between pages of a book to make a variable cap. "Ground" for me was actually ground! Used to hammer a piece of copper pipe into the ground and use that.
we built crystal radio set's for boy scouts when I was a lad.. this was fun to watch and will be a great project for my grandchildren and I to do this summer..!
Fantastic! The parallel L-C circuit with a variable inductor followed by an envelope detector for the shortwave AM receiver.The way you made the diode for the envelope detector was pure genius! 👍👍👍👍🙏
When I was in college I was in jazz band. One day we had to use a very very long wire for a speaker cable and it was coiled in the corner. it ended up picking up radio signals
With a strong enough AM signal, many things will pick up the signal. My friend's house used to have a local radio AM transmitter about 200 feet out from his back yard, before local radio shut down AM. At night, you could hear the radio signal being picked up by things like powered PC speakers (powered up, but not plugged into anything) and the amplified speaker on a tape answering machine (when those were a thing)
This is amazing. This is how people of great knowledge back in the days make discoveries like the light bulb and generating electricity and cars. This is how products start originally before it hits the production line. You are a man of inventions. 👍
Hi everyone I built a radio similar to this from my dads boy scout manual from a long time ago. To date my self it was back in the fifty's and I was only 6 or 8 years old and he helped me put it together. I was so surprised and overwhelmed to hear voices and music from this copper wire and a crystal and a small speaker. IT WAS WAY COOL and I will never forget it. I'm so glad to find this video I'm going to build another
Better radios exist, obviously, but none capture the 'magic' of trapping voices and sounds out of the air as well as this one. Really makes you feel what a mysterious beauty it is to be surrounded all the time by these million voices from nowhere and everywhere, ready for you to catch them.
They actually say ghosts are something similar and just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not there just outside the visible light spectrum
Great video Way back when, when I was an industrial arts teacher, I had my 7th graders make crystal radios. I had the roof of the school loaded with long runs of copper wire. The kids were amazed that they worked with no batteries and from such simple materials. So sad those programs were dismantled as being part of an industrial past, and how even the term technology has been hijacked. I also had a toilet in the shop, and one which had been sliced in half so they could see how it worked.
0:15 This was from a CRT, right? 2:00 I recommend you to solder this, its a better contact. 4:35 Excactly THIS reminds me back in my childhood (mid 90´s), as a built a crystal radio. Today, around 25 years later i still get goosebumps at this moment when the voice comes out of the noise. Greetings from germany
I made one of these when I was in 6th grade. It was a science project. It worked great. Used to listen to baseball games on it. Never need any batteries.
Im in my 70z now and as a kid we all made what was called the Crystal Radios. Fun for a time when the toys everyone now has was called science fiction, Piezoelectric, A world of energys were still discovering. Nice vid and thanks for the memories.
very much like a crystal set i put together on Christmas day 1967; you got 1, count’em 1 crystal, had to wind the coil and run the antenna. it was the deluxe $5.00 model (blue) and came with an single sided headphone. we ran the antenna on the roof - got most am stations in the sf bay area! i was 14. if in tact, it would still work today...
Yep, this was in my Boy Scout Manual in the '60's... my dad was a ham radio operator and had our cub scout den make little radios with diodes and tuners and a AA battery all in a clear plastic case. An on/off switch operated by a tube containing two wires and a drop of mercury, stand the case upright, the mercury joined the power wires, lay it down, the mercury slid away breaking contact! Of all the stuff from childhood that is what I still had!!
I built the samilar radio at 73, using a 1N60 diode, a AM ferrite antenna and a VC parallel each other, then, antenna and earth connection as usual circuit, using a crytal high ohm earphone to connect after 1N60 diode. Moving the ferrite and tunning the VC, then finally, it works.
@@huseyinuguralacatli5064 Yep, you can't really drive a full sized speaker without additional amplification but you can drive a really simple earbud style headphone using just the energy from the radio waves.
Made these in the 1950's. We used to Shellac the TP Tube for strength and after winding the wire to keep the wire fixed. Enjoyed the Blueing of the Xacto Knife blade. Back in the 1950's they sold Blue Razor Blades; that's what we used. You can replace the Knife / Razor Blade with a Germanium Diode, they are still available. The Polarity for the Speaker connection isn't too important; technically it's AC. You could try swapping the leads to see which one is louder. We didn't have Stereo when I was making these, we used Headphones. Could try Ear Buds maybe. Good Job!
When I was in the third grade back in 1959, we build this style radio for a class project. We used the transistor radio earpiece as a speaker. So cool.
One of the first things I built. I used a variable capacitor and a fixed coil. Clipped the aerial to the metal frame of the window and earth lead to the water pipe. I used a crystal earpiece to listen to the radio. I was hooked. Spent 45 years in the electronics industry, now I’m retired.
That's amazing! I thought that diodes would be much more advanced than that. I'm aware the quality will probably not be the same quality as diodes you can buy but still
The heated part of the razor developes a coatinng thats super thin. Thats the insulator in the diode, then the graphite acts at the pos and the metal acts as the neg. At least that what i can assume
Sure brings back fond memories. I used an 1N34 germanium diode for the detector. I ordered it from TV Craftsman in my home town. It took 2 months before I could pick it up. When Radio Shack was still in business, I buy a packet of 20 for $5.
It's kind of cheating to hook it up to an amp, because the amp will contain transistors and high impedance. To see if the home-made rc/diode circuit is really working, you need to use something akin to a crystal earpiece (piezo device).
My uncle was a electrical engineer back in the 40s 50s 60s 70s but in the 50s he had his own radio show in the Chicago area he would teach you how to build a radio on the radio. He also moonlighted as the masked terror the local wrestler.
I had a Remco Crystal Radio Kit about 55 yrs ago that wasn't much different. I remember winding the copper wire, and sanding the insulation off. It had an actual Diode in it. I grounded it using the heat duct, and used the aluminium window frame as the antenna.
Built one as a kid in the '50s. I'm still building radios based on the ingenious early designs of pioneer hobbyists. I restore historic commercial radios too.
I have been building xtal sets for decades. Lately I've been using spiderweb or "pancake" coils. I mostly use homemade or vintage parts. I have a spiderweb coil from the twenties with cotton covered wire that was shellaced. Recently, I heard a station 300 miles away with a headphone that's over a hundred years old.
I made one like this when I was a kid..50 years ago. the trick is the crystal diode and the head phones. It worked with power sorce and it cost almost nothing
There is no way that really worked! Really??? I have to hand it to you, that is impressively basic radio. The fact that you picked up a station at all is a miracle.
The miracle of sound waves and how to access them! So all of that implied empty space around us is not so empty after all huh? Fascinating! What else is hidden in plain sight?
I made one of these. If I remember right it was a bit different, melted lead and dropped a pinch of sulfur onto the molten lead, making a galena crystal. I was in grade school then, early 60's.
Start with asking yourself what exactly is a diode and what does it do. There's a certain asymmetry every diode should have, and there are many ways of achieving this effect that does not rely on any magical quantum silicon stuff. There were diodes long before silicon semiconductor technology.
I remember the crystal radio kits in my younger days. The projects on the now gone electronic mahazines. All the catalogs that sold left over parts from manufacturers like resistors and such. Also buying parts at Radio Shack.
A crystal radio. I built one in sixth grade shop class. It looked nearly identical to this one, except that we didn't create homemade diodes from pencil lead (graphite), which is really fascinating. My radio could never receive more than one or two stations, and that was only on certain days, presumably when ionospheric conditions we're optimal to reflect AM signals. When this occurred, I would often hear broadcasts in French, probably because I was receiving Canadian stations. (I was in the Boston area.)
I made one of these from a kit when I was 11. It worked but would only pick up the one AM station in town. But no batteries I thought it was a miracle - still do!!!. 👍👍👍
I made a version of this fun radio, but it work using direct -coupled 2 transistor to amplify the small signal from an aerial-ground LC tank, and use and earpiece for the transducer in the 1970's
Man I use to make all kinds of stuff like this for example as a kid on Sunday mornings and Saturday mornings before mom and dad would wake up I would spend time building stuff and one time I found a book in my schools library about radios and the history of radios and about 20 different radios you can make with step by step directions in the book on how to make them, well I made a simple fix hole one on a Saturday morning and when Dad woke up I told him to come see and listen and he was impressed when I was 11 I did that and back in 2003 this was. Wish kids these days would make things like this instead of playing video games and non educational activities. Kids need to learn how to build things it will help them alter in life trust me
Cant stress this enough, De-burr any "cut" metal especially when using a drill, IF the metal snags onto the drill bit you will have yourself a Very sharp spinning Razor, you can't pick up sausages with no fingers
Cool trick of flaming a regular X-acto knife blade!!! When I was a boy I tried to make such a radio using on e of my grandfather’s razor blades. Thing did NOT work; I ended up using a 1N34A diode - which DID work.
Well, I did the opposite once; took a length of wire and rewound a television's yoke! The part was unobtainable, and I really wanted to keep that TV going. It actually worked, but it was no fun doing the winding. I did say "once", didn't I? Never again! lol
That’s pretty cool actually I first thought it was fake because you use very simple materials But I looked into it then found out it was real pretty cool I might do that one day
Look carefully at the invaders. They are here with a mission that appears to be for peace. An especially tall alien has a book that has a text on the cover of the book that linguist translated. It simply says, "To Serve Mankind." The book cover says it all. The aliens want to serve us, not destroy us.
Nice crystal set. It would be better if you narrated it so that people who didn't know what you were doing could learn what you are doing. I like that you use scrap wire and homemade diode.
For ground you can also use the center screw on any outlet. I would use that and my window screen for the antenna. It would frustrate my mother because I would fall asleep listening to it and she would not know how to turn it off.
Dumb people don't care about pretty much anything :q Until a huge global cataclysm wipes off their toys made by smart people. Then you will come whining to that dude to make you some crappy radio.
use to make these as a kid, but didn't bother with tuning. Whatever the strongest AM signal was, is what it picked up. I made 'pen radios' by coiling the wire around the ink tube and cramming a diode inside, with a crystal earpiece wired through the top. My classmates actually bought them and I won am entrepreneurial competition at the school with it.
1960's Made radios each week out of old junk parts and winding wire, from one tube AM wonders to FM and multiple band short wave radios. Funny thing I did all this at 5-8 years old, with no father around and no mentor. Was born knowing electrical like I was German scientist in a previous life.
Just saw this today.. nice video. I used to ground cable for a cable company, and they always told us to ground to cold water just FYI, surprised I don't see it mentioned.
I still have my fathers he made in jr high school....he was born in 1927, it's a crystal radio, my uncle put one he made in his Model A ...before cars had radios...lol
A good friend of mine,political refugee who spent ten years in a communist prison in Cuba ,told me that they had a homemade radio and that's how the where able to hear the news and the battery was something like a sand box and urine .
The diode here is called a cat's whisker detector. Two variations use galena (lead ore) or pyrite. A springy wire is used to find a sweet spot on the mineral crystal. The oxide coat on a razor blade works too. My first ones used the iconic 1N34A germanium diode, though. It assures better success. A schottky diode works even better. It has a lower conducting voltage threshold.
How can i be as cool as you. This content should be applauded and set a standard for diy gadgets tutorials. Its impressive that you know how to do this stuff while here i am using a knockoff radio app to scan AM radio. I only wish i could understand wiring and circuit fundamentals
My father grew up in the 20's and 30's. He said he made extra money by building crystal radios from the coils he recovered from the starter motors of Ford cars.
How do you calculate tuning coils? I need it for the 6 GHZ to do transmission tests (just for educational use). Formulas, solutions? Thank you very much.
Even if you are far away. With the right crystal set, with good parts, a good antenna, at the right time of day and year I can hear stations 300 miles away. It's a great hobby
As a teacher, I encourage everyone to pass this on to any child you know. This is the kind of stuff I wish to see kids playing with-like when we were kids ourselves. I think a lot of us come from times or even situations where we didn’t have much. I’m relatively young at 44, but in the 80’s as a kid playing with antenna shapes, lengths, materials and positions was more because we didn’t have cable TV. But it was fun and rewarding. Foxhole radios were an accessible project cause you could ride your bike around to find the materials. A little adventure and discovery would be beneficial to todays kids.
Agreed. To much instant gratification. A little old fashioned hands on { literally } entertainment to get the old grey matter jump started.
When I was about 12 years old in 1965, I found a book in the library on how to build a Foxhole radio. It was similarly built like this one. The oxide on the razor blade and the carbon from the pencil lead made a crude semiconductor diode. It required headphones with 20000 ohm impedance, which I lucky enough to find. My father was impressed when I had him listen to it.That project made me want to be an Electrical Eng. Because of it, I ended up with a Masters of Science Deg in Electrical Engineering from CMU.
In the 60's and 70's one of the books on such a basic radio was from the Lady Bug series. Published in Britain.
I got three such Magnetic 2000 Ohm headphones - - one from the 1930's, but one side of it doesn't work anymore :-( I think it may be internally shorted
@@Jeffrey314159 I got lucky. I got mine from the garbage pile of a retired ham radio operator; It didn't have jacks to plug it in, but both sides worked.
Roy Jackson your channel is so interesting
Read the same book. Did the same thing and later converted to a crystal diode. I was 12 in 1965 as well and made several things including model rockets. I’ like to go back for a day and see that time in life through my eyes as an adult. It was just magical with all that was going on at the time. Thanks for sharing.
This brings back memories when I was a young boy of ten my dad and I made radio and tuned in the cat's whisker to hear a radio station the wire aerial was looped of the clothes dryer in the kitchen now I am 73 and this brings back the memories of my dad helping me, loved it thanks
Awesome
73? wow i thought most people on the internet are below 50
:))
Dude nice!
I did the same, i/m 76. i twas about 8 then
I like this. No nonsense, no bullshit, no clickbaiting, no stupid intro. Just a genuine how-to video while showing you all the necessary steps and highlighting with captions the important bits. Very neat. I applaud this RUclipsr for being so down to Earth and helpful and providing quality entertainment. A+++
Yeah that time youtube is full of crap but this dude keep using the simple yet informative method
This is quality content that we all need
I can't understand why handmade diode working. In case of commercial ones, there are two different alloyed silicon plates, to provide conductivity only through one side. How does that work kind of scares me.
sry for bad English))
@@c0mbo I mean its metal and metals conduct electricity so you know
@@arlynnecumberbatch1056 diode needs to conduct electricity only to one side. If you'll flip voltage around diode it shouldn't conduct))
"My name is John Connor if you're listening to this, you are the resistance"
@@RobBob555 I think you have Mum confused with the word Highland sheep Kilt boy
@@freakyflow kilt boy ?? ooooh sick burn lmfao
@@NostalgicTribe consider it done.
@@freakyflow so i guess you are just into random racism then ??
@@RobBob555 No everyone hates Orr Willie and haggis
I am here because of the tv show All The Light We Cannot See.
In my teenage years (20 years ago) I liked listen to the radio, but knowing now I didn't liked it enough.
Building this kind of radio is cool. And I didn't knew it was possible with materials like this.
I was making these when I was around 10 in the 50s. I used a capacitor in parallel with the coil intended to be resonant in the am broadcast band. I used Galena for the detector. Next came regenerative tube receivers, tech school, ham radio and commercial FCC licenses and a nice career designing and building custom laboratory equipment for a major University medical school. Now retired I still operate ham radio and sometimes scratch build things for the fun of it. I also still have some pieces of Galena just in case ...
joe woodchuck ... You`ll absolutely love this website about radio history. There are so many free PDF books and old magazine issues that it will boggle your mind! Check it out! www.americanradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf_History.htm
I've been building these for decades.
I can hear stations 300 miles away.
I use a headphone that's over a hundred years old that works very well.
@@tomjones239 Looks like a wonderful resource. I wonder who else remembers Whites Radio Log. It was a listing of listenable stations domestic and overseas. I was mostly interested in the shortwave listings, but the domestic stations were also fun.
@@joewoodchuck3824 nice, I like reading these stories. Im 28 now and I had 0 knowledge about electricity as a kid. I just had some fun with magnets, that all. I wanna build some radio soon. Electronics seems awesome.
@@PinkeySuavo Go for it. There's nothing like radio to radio communications, among other electronics fields. Never did get into computers much though.
This was a pretty regular project when I was a kid, elementary school science, cub scouts, etc. It's very cool to see somebody still building them.
Like many others here, I also made crystals radios when I was a boy in the early 1950s. First one was a kit that my father bought for me, but then I started to build for my friends. First versions used a galena crystal and a cat-whisker for the detector. But then I discovered solid state electronics in the form of an IN34 germanium diode that was more reliable than the crystal and cat-whisker combo. Went on to build many other electronics projects over the years including two early personal computers when they first came out in the mid 70s.
Incredible diode engineering there!
I use to love making crystal sets in my dad's shed. I remember a few experiments I found in old books. One was sheets of aluminium foil between pages of a book to make a variable cap.
"Ground" for me was actually ground! Used to hammer a piece of copper pipe into the ground and use that.
I was never able to get a "book" capacitor like that to work. However, I've made a few salt water capacitor that are pretty good
Masters of the Air brought me here
Yeah me too, had to check if it was real.
😂 me too 😂
Naw no way cuz me too 😭
Yeah the Major did bring me here
Me too 😂
we built crystal radio set's for boy scouts when I was a lad.. this was fun to watch and will be a great project for my grandchildren and I to do this summer..!
That's a great DIY project. It actually contains only stuff you can get very easy. Copper wire, razor blade, a pencil and used tp. Fantastic.
"used tp"
Good project for the crapper!
Make a radio while on the toilet
Fantastic! The parallel L-C circuit with a variable inductor followed by an envelope detector for the shortwave AM receiver.The way you made the diode for the envelope detector was pure genius! 👍👍👍👍🙏
When Zombie Apocalypse Coming , But You Know How To Make A Simple Radio
When I was in college I was in jazz band.
One day we had to use a very very long wire for a speaker cable and it was coiled in the corner. it ended up picking up radio signals
did it have no sheath or coating around the wire?
@@Layarion I had a regular black coating of somekind. I remember the teacher saint it wasn't shielded.
With a strong enough AM signal, many things will pick up the signal. My friend's house used to have a local radio AM transmitter about 200 feet out from his back yard, before local radio shut down AM. At night, you could hear the radio signal being picked up by things like powered PC speakers (powered up, but not plugged into anything) and the amplified speaker on a tape answering machine (when those were a thing)
Our band''s guitarist had a cheap wah wah pedal that picked up a local AM station.
This is amazing. This is how people of great knowledge back in the days make discoveries like the light bulb and generating electricity and cars. This is how products start originally before it hits the production line. You are a man of inventions. 👍
He didn't invent this...
Hi everyone I built a radio similar to this from my dads boy scout manual from a long time ago. To date my self it was back in the fifty's and I was only 6 or 8 years old and he helped me put it together. I was so surprised and overwhelmed to hear voices and music from this copper wire and a crystal and a small speaker. IT WAS WAY COOL and I will never forget it. I'm so glad to find this video I'm going to build another
I've built dozens. It never stops being interesting
Better radios exist, obviously, but none capture the 'magic' of trapping voices and sounds out of the air as well as this one. Really makes you feel what a mysterious beauty it is to be surrounded all the time by these million voices from nowhere and everywhere, ready for you to catch them.
After many decades of building these I'm still amazed by them!
They actually say ghosts are something similar and just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not there just outside the visible light spectrum
Great video
Way back when, when I was an industrial arts teacher, I had my 7th graders make crystal radios. I had the roof of the school loaded with long runs of copper wire. The kids were amazed that they worked with no batteries and from such simple materials. So sad those programs were dismantled as being part of an industrial past, and how even the term technology has been hijacked. I also had a toilet in the shop, and one which had been sliced in half so they could see how it worked.
I recently took a class in computers teacher told us some official at the school told that they aren't going to teach electronics anymore.
0:15 This was from a CRT, right?
2:00 I recommend you to solder this, its a better contact.
4:35 Excactly THIS reminds me back in my childhood (mid 90´s), as a built a crystal radio. Today, around 25 years later i still get goosebumps at this moment when the voice comes out of the noise.
Greetings from germany
I made one of these when I was in 6th grade. It was a science project. It worked great. Used to listen to baseball games on it. Never need any batteries.
This is called true diy i love this kind of things
True DIY is when you find the copper ore yourself and smelt it to get the copper wires instead of buying them ;)
@@bonbonpony 😂😂
srose sp Me too.
@@bonbonpony LOL! I see your point. Hahahaha! 😂😂😂😂😂
I've wanted to make one of these as chunky steampunk wall art. I didn't know you had to tie it to a copper pipe, so maybe not.
Im in my 70z now and as a kid we all made what was called the Crystal Radios. Fun for a time when the toys everyone now has was called science fiction, Piezoelectric, A world of energys were still discovering. Nice vid and thanks for the memories.
very much like a crystal set i put together on Christmas day 1967; you got 1, count’em 1 crystal, had to wind the coil and run the antenna. it was the deluxe $5.00 model (blue) and came with an single sided headphone. we ran the antenna on the roof - got most am stations in the sf bay area! i was 14. if in tact, it would still work today...
Yep, this was in my Boy Scout Manual in the '60's... my dad was a ham radio operator and had our cub scout den make little radios with diodes and tuners and a AA battery all in a clear plastic case. An on/off switch operated by a tube containing two wires and a drop of mercury, stand the case upright, the mercury joined the power wires, lay it down, the mercury slid away breaking contact! Of all the stuff from childhood that is what I still had!!
It will probably still work
it's the kind of stuff we used to make in High School back when there was a shop class. 🖖Now the only shop classes that exist are in prison.
Cheaper than school. ;)
Lots of our kids end up in prison eventually... so it all works out.
@@101perspective Yeah but what happens when they take away their phones? 🤯
@@MadScientist267 they improvise
I built the samilar radio at 73, using a 1N60 diode, a AM ferrite antenna and a VC parallel each other, then, antenna and earth connection as usual circuit, using a crytal high ohm earphone to connect after 1N60 diode. Moving the ferrite and tunning the VC, then finally, it works.
How radios were secretly made in ww2 pow camps to hear the news.
Garbage the feral barn cat no shit the radio is older than ww2
@@user-ct1pu2by2e this is work with no batterry
@@huseyinuguralacatli5064 Yep, you can't really drive a full sized speaker without additional amplification but you can drive a really simple earbud style headphone using just the energy from the radio waves.
@@alzoron Need piezoelectric speaker for just radio waves sound
@@user-ct1pu2by2e why do you come across like a dink, he tell's you that is how they made radio's in pow camps, are you that stunned you clown.
Made these in the 1950's. We used to Shellac the TP Tube for strength and after winding the wire to keep the wire fixed. Enjoyed the Blueing of the Xacto Knife blade. Back in the 1950's they sold Blue Razor Blades; that's what we used. You can replace the Knife / Razor Blade with a Germanium Diode, they are still available. The Polarity for the Speaker connection isn't too important; technically it's AC. You could try swapping the leads to see which one is louder. We didn't have Stereo when I was making these, we used Headphones. Could try Ear Buds maybe. Good Job!
When I was in the third grade back in 1959, we build this style radio for a class project. We used the transistor radio earpiece as a speaker. So cool.
Thankyou
This video will be going into my Zombie Apocalypse playlist of you don’t mind
How are you going to watch RUclips tutorials if the internet is down and you need a radio
One of the first things I built. I used a variable capacitor and a fixed coil. Clipped the aerial to the metal frame of the window and earth lead to the water pipe. I used a crystal earpiece to listen to the radio. I was hooked. Spent 45 years in the electronics industry, now I’m retired.
I made one of these radios in 1973 at age 11. It’ was very simple, but different in design as in the video shown.
Made one of these when I was a teen. Good times and memories. It was like magic when WLS Chicago came in through the earpiece.
I used to listen to Howard Cosell on WLS with my xtal radio when I was a kid.
"Speaking of Sports"
i'm not a smart man Jenny, but I know what love is...
Aaron Brooks why? its not even forest gump scene
That's my ex name😭😭
Buhabahah....😂this was my joke of the day
i want you to show me
I have you beat. I am a complete idiot and have no idea what love is.
I made one of these for my sixth-grade science project. It worked. I heard "Silly Love Songs" by Wings, on WNBC (660 AM).
dude, you made a diode out of a razor blade and a safety pin, you are god.
Wait so the pencil and the metal piece works as a diode?
Albin9000 yup
That's amazing! I thought that diodes would be much more advanced than that. I'm aware the quality will probably not be the same quality as diodes you can buy but still
The heated part of the razor developes a coatinng thats super thin. Thats the insulator in the diode, then the graphite acts at the pos and the metal acts as the neg.
At least that what i can assume
Well however it works, I'm gonna try to make this whenever I can
Sure brings back fond memories. I used an 1N34 germanium diode for the detector. I ordered it from TV Craftsman in my home town. It took 2 months before I could pick it up. When Radio Shack was still in business, I buy a packet of 20 for $5.
Now diodes are about a dollar to 2.50 each
I'd like to know how his diode works. Quite interesting
Shawn Murphy probably like a diode
Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor
Non-linear characteristic could demodulate the signal.
It's kind of cheating to hook it up to an amp, because the amp will contain transistors and high impedance. To see if the home-made rc/diode circuit is really working, you need to use something akin to a crystal earpiece (piezo device).
@@eventhisidistaken
That's mostly to allow the video to pick up. Energy from the waves would probably be enough to get sounds to earbuds though.
My uncle was a electrical engineer back in the 40s 50s 60s 70s but in the 50s he had his own radio show in the Chicago area he would teach you how to build a radio on the radio. He also moonlighted as the masked terror the local wrestler.
Who is here after the morse code video?
the old grandpa doing the Morse code in the speed of light? If yes, me
:O
Me, youtube recommendation is weird
Is it the grandpa rapping in Morse code? Me
yeah thats me
I had a Remco Crystal Radio Kit about 55 yrs ago that wasn't much different. I remember winding the copper wire, and sanding the insulation off. It had an actual Diode in it. I grounded it using the heat duct, and used the aluminium window frame as the antenna.
*_“John has a long mustache.”_*
Answer: "The soup is in the canal."
The chair is against the wall....
Built one as a kid in the '50s. I'm still building radios based on the ingenious early designs of pioneer hobbyists. I restore historic commercial radios too.
I have been building xtal sets for decades. Lately I've been using spiderweb or "pancake" coils.
I mostly use homemade or vintage parts. I have a spiderweb coil from the twenties with cotton covered wire that was shellaced.
Recently, I heard a station 300 miles away with a headphone that's over a hundred years old.
Need to learn this before everyone will be petrified.
I made one like this when I was a kid..50 years ago. the trick is the crystal diode and the head phones. It worked with power sorce and it cost almost nothing
I was there for a few stations in the early 1950s !
There is no way that really worked! Really???
I have to hand it to you, that is impressively basic radio. The fact that you picked up a station at all is a miracle.
The miracle of sound waves and how to access them! So all of that implied empty space around us is not so empty after all huh? Fascinating! What else is hidden in plain sight?
With the right parts and a good antenna I have heard stations over a hundred miles away
My dad used too do this when I was very young like 1974 amazing thankyou
If you're 1974 years old, you were not that young.... (PUNCTUATION!!!!) 🤬
I made one of these. If I remember right it was a bit different, melted lead and dropped a pinch of sulfur onto the molten lead, making a galena crystal. I was in grade school then, early 60's.
Yes, sulfur and lead will make a detector. I haven't tried that yet
Used the same, and with a pinch of silver, imitating Steel Galena
Did you just make your own diode??
I think the safety pin + pencil graphite + burned razor blade are supposde to act like a diode
If you think this is impressive, then take a look at Jeri Ellsworth's videos about cooking transistors at her home kitchen ;)
Its a old Engineer TRICK from the 1950s to make a Diode using a razor blade and grahite as a semiconductor
How it works as diode?
Start with asking yourself what exactly is a diode and what does it do. There's a certain asymmetry every diode should have, and there are many ways of achieving this effect that does not rely on any magical quantum silicon stuff. There were diodes long before silicon semiconductor technology.
I remember the crystal radio kits in my younger days. The projects on the now gone electronic mahazines. All the catalogs that sold left over parts from manufacturers like resistors and such. Also buying parts at Radio Shack.
A crystal radio. I built one in sixth grade shop class. It looked nearly identical to this one, except that we didn't create homemade diodes from pencil lead (graphite), which is really fascinating.
My radio could never receive more than one or two stations, and that was only on certain days, presumably when ionospheric conditions we're optimal to reflect AM signals. When this occurred, I would often hear broadcasts in French, probably because I was receiving Canadian stations. (I was in the Boston area.)
Wow!
Amazing!!
I made one of these from a kit when I was 11. It worked but would only pick up the one AM station in town. But no batteries I thought it was a miracle - still do!!!. 👍👍👍
Made one something like this when i was a kid. 'Cat's whisker' from Radio Shack...
I made a version of this fun radio, but it work using direct -coupled 2 transistor to amplify the small signal from an aerial-ground LC tank, and use and earpiece for the transducer in the 1970's
You are really a genius sir !👍👍
Man I use to make all kinds of stuff like this for example as a kid on Sunday mornings and Saturday mornings before mom and dad would wake up I would spend time building stuff and one time I found a book in my schools library about radios and the history of radios and about 20 different radios you can make with step by step directions in the book on how to make them, well I made a simple fix hole one on a Saturday morning and when Dad woke up I told him to come see and listen and he was impressed when I was 11 I did that and back in 2003 this was. Wish kids these days would make things like this instead of playing video games and non educational activities. Kids need to learn how to build things it will help them alter in life trust me
Cant stress this enough, De-burr any "cut" metal especially when using a drill, IF the metal snags onto the drill bit you will have yourself a Very sharp spinning Razor, you can't pick up sausages with no fingers
2:24 Love that little butain torch.
Real footage of the first ever radio being invented - Restored, Remastered, & Colorized
Why "invent" a radio if there weren't any radio broadcasts? 🤔
Cool trick of flaming a regular X-acto knife blade!!! When I was a boy I tried to make such a radio using on e of my grandfather’s razor blades. Thing did NOT work; I ended up using a 1N34A diode - which DID work.
I will memorize this, just in case there is an apocalyptic event. Very neat science experiment for kids, instead of the usual volcano 🌋
Watch Dr Stone
Well, I did the opposite once; took a length of wire and rewound a television's yoke! The part was unobtainable, and I really wanted to keep that TV going. It actually worked, but it was no fun doing the winding. I did say "once", didn't I? Never again! lol
That’s pretty cool actually
I first thought it was fake because you use very simple materials
But I looked into it then found out it was real pretty cool I might do that one day
I've been doing it for decades. Still fascinating
"The space aliens have landed! I repeat, the space aliens have landed!"
Look carefully at the invaders. They are here with a mission that appears to be for peace. An especially tall alien has a book that has a text on the cover of the book that linguist translated. It simply says, "To Serve Mankind." The book cover says it all. The aliens want to serve us, not destroy us.
Nice crystal set. It would be better if you narrated it so that people who didn't know what you were doing could learn what you are doing. I like that you use scrap wire and homemade diode.
For ground you can also use the center screw on any outlet. I would use that and my window screen for the antenna. It would frustrate my mother because I would fall asleep listening to it and she would not know how to turn it off.
Nice video, brought back memories, I was making these when I was 5 years old......55 years ago
durmoch durmoch i care
Mark Olsen are you serious or you are joking?
Dumb people don't care about pretty much anything :q
Until a huge global cataclysm wipes off their toys made by smart people.
Then you will come whining to that dude to make you some crappy radio.
Does it work??
@@RaZZ999 shut UP
the diode is the graphite to carbon steel junction and the diode serve to demodulate the audio from the carrier. i made one also about 55 years ago
When I was a kid I literally used a cat whisker
Realistic Speakers, with a galena crystal?
I have a bunch of cat whiskers, could you elaborate what you mean and how you used it?
Wizzle first tell us, where is that cat?
you are literally talking shit.. wipe your chin !
What did you whisk the cat into? Pie?
I built this in 1959 and listened to Wolfman Jack broadcast R&R from northern Mexico!
all your videos are great. thank you
+Gor O, Thanks! It is a hobby that I'm trying to improve.
you already have a awesome style (maximal simplicity with great result)
what is music
use to make these as a kid, but didn't bother with tuning. Whatever the strongest AM signal was, is what it picked up. I made 'pen radios' by coiling the wire around the ink tube and cramming a diode inside, with a crystal earpiece wired through the top. My classmates actually bought them and I won am entrepreneurial competition at the school with it.
Awesome man
I made one of those in 5th grade for a science project
steven west in fith grade science all we did was copy down definitions from text books BORING
1960's Made radios each week out of old junk parts and winding wire, from one tube AM wonders to FM and multiple band short wave radios. Funny thing I did all this at 5-8 years old, with no father around and no mentor. Was born knowing electrical like I was German scientist in a previous life.
Just saw this today.. nice video. I used to ground cable for a cable company, and they always told us to ground to cold water just FYI, surprised I don't see it mentioned.
I still have my fathers he made in jr high school....he was born in 1927, it's a crystal radio, my uncle put one he made in his Model A ...before cars had radios...lol
where can I find all the science explain for each material and the reasoning behind ?
I N T E R E S T I N G
i'm gonna try and make one of these for my grandpa for christmas, hopefully i do well:)
A good friend of mine,political refugee who spent ten years in a communist prison in Cuba ,told me that they had a homemade radio and that's how the where able to hear the news and the battery was something like a sand box and urine .
Dime mas o.o una caja de aren y orina????? Pa la batería????
That's hard core af
Thank you,
Ever since I heard about crystal set radios, I have wanted to make one,
So cool
I have been building them for decades. Fun hobby
The diode here is called a cat's whisker detector. Two variations use galena (lead ore) or pyrite. A springy wire is used to find a sweet spot on the mineral crystal. The oxide coat on a razor blade works too. My first ones used the iconic 1N34A germanium diode, though. It assures better success. A schottky diode works even better. It has a lower conducting voltage threshold.
How can i be as cool as you. This content should be applauded and set a standard for diy gadgets tutorials. Its impressive that you know how to do this stuff while here i am using a knockoff radio app to scan AM radio. I only wish i could understand wiring and circuit fundamentals
My father grew up in the 20's and 30's. He said he made extra money by building crystal radios from the coils he recovered from the starter motors of Ford cars.
Very nice my brother
The name McGyver comes to mind. Mister Wizard is another one.
Instructions unclear, Aliens invaded my HomeTown.
And I overheard North Korea planning to nuke Wadia.
Can i use pvc pipe instead of paper?
+Attila Rivera Yes
Attila Rivera sure, if you can find a plastic pine tree
Ponk 80
Ok Pork 80.. yo quise decir cano de pvc... cano=pipe.
Ok?
It's called a detector radio. You need a good, long aerial for that but it will work.
You are make the WW2 Radio
How do you calculate tuning coils? I need it for the 6 GHZ to do transmission tests (just for educational use). Formulas, solutions? Thank you very much.
That's the best homemade radio rheostat that I've ever seen.
Enamel wire from a yoke is very useful.
suddenly you heard astronomia in your home made radio
seeing as no one has told you yet, thank you! For uploading gold! Keep it up 👌
it really looks like a cheat code in a videogame
like,
"do that, do that and do that, connect to the water pipe and damn ! radio"
Nice. You can take a crystal diode and put ear plug (hearing device ). If you are near a radio station it will play forever
Even if you are far away.
With the right crystal set, with good parts, a good antenna, at the right time of day and year I can hear stations 300 miles away.
It's a great hobby