I was always amazed of the sound quality of crystal radios. The legendary 77 WABC from New York City had excellent sound quality in the 1970's, it sounded like an FM station on a crystal radio.
The crystal set was the very first recever i ever built although mine was posh I installed a coil pack with a selector control i could listen to a wide variety of bands. I have very fond memories regarding this circuit its cheap, easy especially if your financially embarrassed 😆 im seriously tempted to build another one inspired by your videos keep them coming 73 2E0HYP
I don't know if other people noticed but the Fidelity on a crystal set is much higher than on many receivers. As you were tuning across the band some signals approached FM quality.
Another great video; on an interesting topic. I've added a six position switch on mine and have several different makes of Germainuim diodes to choose from, plus a cat's whisker type crystal ore holder for checking various rock crystal ores. And with a short wooden post, I can slip on various home wound coils for receiving shortwave and other bands, like CB and still Keep the AM coil mounted. My coils copy the same windings used in old TRF, regenerative and reflex radio designs near the antenna section. So as you reduce the number of windings on the larger coil, it moves up in frequency. 3:14 turns gives part of shortwave. I use super glue to hold the windings in place once the coil is made.. And as the ear piece out put is high impediance, a high impediance amp helps , so a small guitar amp works fine or one meant for a telephone amplifier. And as you say, using a small transformer allows low impediance amps to also work. Thanks for all the other great ideas on attenuation and mods I can try out. Wonderful video as always.
Awesome vid. I'm going to do some of the mods you suggested to my crystal set to see if it will make it better without the booster and amps. Very helpful info. Thanks.
You are lucky in the land down under that you still have music on the AM radio. United States AM band is nothing but a vast wasteland of network talk shows. Any AM radio station these days is very few and far between. JW Miller sold a hifi xtal radio. The December 1956 issue of Popular Electronics carried this ad for what was probably one of the most expensive commercial crystal set ever marketed, the J.W. Miller Company Model 585 High Fidelity Crystal Diode AM Tuner Kit, which was also available assembled as Model 595. The set was said to have received “overwhelming acceptance by the most critical audiophiles,” since it contained nothing to cause distortion. With a strong AM signal, it probably did provide the best possible fidelity. Its high Q coils gave it very high selectivity. Indeed, it was equipped with a vernier tuning dial.
Thanks Randy. I think improvements on the plain diode envelope detector are possible. More on better detectors here: sound-au.com/articles/am-radio.htm
Great vid but cud I ask you something I built the airband reicever regen project you did worked fust time too However bought v3 airband kit of amazon and works but only if i turn that regen on lol mad it is would it be because regen is radiating and what would u suggest to get out one working normal thank you
Hi, sorry I don't know the kit so can't help. There are some good regen forums on Facebook where you might be able to find people with experiences of it.
I was always amazed of the sound quality of crystal radios. The legendary 77 WABC from New York City had excellent sound quality in the 1970's, it sounded like an FM station on a crystal radio.
The crystal set was the very first recever i ever built although mine was posh I installed a coil pack with a selector control i could listen to a wide variety of bands. I have very fond memories regarding this circuit its cheap, easy especially if your financially embarrassed 😆 im seriously tempted to build another one inspired by your videos keep them coming 73 2E0HYP
I don't know if other people noticed but the Fidelity on a crystal set is much higher than on many receivers. As you were tuning across the band some signals approached FM quality.
Another great video; on an interesting topic. I've added a six position switch on mine and have several different makes of Germainuim diodes to choose from, plus a cat's whisker type crystal ore holder for checking various rock crystal ores. And with a short wooden post, I can slip on various home wound coils for receiving shortwave and other bands, like CB and still Keep the AM coil mounted. My coils copy the same windings used in old TRF, regenerative and reflex radio designs near the antenna section. So as you reduce the number of windings on the larger coil, it moves up in frequency. 3:14 turns gives part of shortwave. I use super glue to hold the windings in place once the coil is made.. And as the ear piece out put is high impediance, a high impediance amp helps , so a small guitar amp works fine or one meant for a telephone amplifier. And as you say, using a small transformer allows low impediance amps to also work. Thanks for all the other great ideas on attenuation and mods I can try out. Wonderful video as always.
Awesome vid.
I'm going to do some of the mods you suggested to my crystal set to see if it will make it better without the booster and amps.
Very helpful info.
Thanks.
Would love to see the AMATEUR RADIO RECEIVER project please VK3YE?😎
You are lucky in the land down under that you still have music on the AM radio. United States AM band is nothing but a vast wasteland of network talk shows. Any AM radio station these days is very few and far between. JW Miller sold a hifi xtal radio.
The December 1956 issue of Popular Electronics carried this ad for what was probably one of the most expensive commercial crystal set ever marketed, the J.W. Miller Company Model 585 High Fidelity Crystal Diode AM Tuner Kit, which was also available assembled as Model 595.
The set was said to have received “overwhelming acceptance by the most critical audiophiles,” since it contained nothing to cause distortion. With a strong AM signal, it probably did provide the best possible fidelity. Its high Q coils gave it very high selectivity. Indeed, it was equipped with a vernier tuning dial.
Thanks Randy. I think improvements on the plain diode envelope detector are possible. More on better detectors here: sound-au.com/articles/am-radio.htm
You always know you have enough selectivity when you can no longer hear Sheena Easton.
It only happens when you tune from "9" to "5".
Muito maçã gostei muito top parabéns
Fantastic job 73 from kb2uew
Slide the ferrite too for signal strength
I heard Red Symons and Tony from 3AW!
Great vid but cud I ask you something I built the airband reicever regen project you did worked fust time too However bought v3 airband kit of amazon and works but only if i turn that regen on lol mad it is would it be because regen is radiating and what would u suggest to get out one working normal thank you
Hi, sorry I don't know the kit so can't help. There are some good regen forums on Facebook where you might be able to find people with experiences of it.