swamp_thing Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Must be getting old. I find myself embarking on a new (read that old, but recurrring) hobby again. This time it is crystal radios, transistor sets and small tube stuff. I decided that I can only spend so much time tinkering with guns and needed to branch out some. Put up a nice 320 foot long wire antenna and cobbled together a set or two to listen with. It is rather neat to listen to broadcasts from hundreds of miles away without so much as even a battery in the set. I am sure that some of us did this when we were young. Funny how as time goes on we sometimes revert back to the simple things that brought us much joy. I haven't done this since I was in grade school. In just a few nights of listening I have already logged over ten DX stations. This is going to be a great indoor activity. Anyone got an old high impedance set of crystal earphones around they might want to part with? swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Do you think Radio Shack sells those earphones? You could look at Ebay too. 320 feet of wire! How many miles away do you pick up? I have a Philco radio, one of the first portables ever made, that my grandpa had. Once in a blue moon I turn it on. The vacuum tube radios pick up stuff a lot further away. Neat hobby. How is it it doesn't need batteries? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted January 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Tony, the headphones are old vintage stuff, and yes, you can find them from time to time on Ebay, but of course they are costly and you take a gamble on them. It would be nice to find an old set from someone that I could feel comfortable dealing with, thus the question about them. Old sound powered headphones or handsets like those used by the military are usable as well. As for how does a crystal set work without batteries, here is a brief explaination. The radio signals picked up in the long wire antenna, coupled with the use of an earth ground creats a very small amount of current. With the antenna and ground I have I have measured this current at 2 to 26 millivolts. This current, along with the carrier and radio signal is passed through a crystal diode which seperates the radio frequency signal from the carrier. It is passed through the very high impedence headphones. Of course, it is more detailed than this, but I wanted to give a general idea. It is the small current that operates the set. That is why ordinary headphones like for a walkman will not work. It takes a very sensitive set of phones unless one incorporates amplification. True crystal sets never use power sources. As for distance, I live in eastern Georgia and have received Nashville, New Orleans, Ohio, Des Moines Iowa, Radio Canada International and several others. We have no local AM stations in the area, so long distance DX'ing is easier here. It is a good way to pass away a lot of hours. I do dabble with tube sets as well. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlunity Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Swamp. I recall using a little white earplug with a crystal set, would that work for you?? I think I saw some" earplugs" in a bin at a local electronic store. If you think it would serve, I wil look around. Karl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 You're fortunate not to have any local stations interfering. My brother before he died used to do alot of AM DXing and complained about the interferance from Mexico. Most radio stations in Arizona turn their power down at night because of the FCC's agreement with Mexico but it seems Mexico doesn't keep their end of the deal. My brother was very fluent in Spanish and would occasionally get a South or Central American station. He had an old Panasonic radio with a directional AM antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted January 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Karl, the little earphones do work If they are high impedence crystal earphones. They are available from a few sources but are not as good as the earphones or sound powered units. I can order the little earphones from Ocean state electronics rather cheaply and will get a few. Still will be looking for the other styles though. I do thank you for the offer though. If anyone stumbles across any info on the headphones or the sound power units, please let me know. Thanks folks. To guest, local stations can be a real problem and makes using a crystal set much tougher, but they can be tuned out with additional circuitry. Just makes the radio more complex. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerfive Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 Maybe 320 ft. already is and you've done this...... I don't want to get into the math, too tired for that right now. I'ts been a long time since school and that I took my FCC test. Anyway here goes..... The third harmonic is the most powerful. When you said that you have 320ft. of antenna it made me think. If you figure what the wave length is for the center of the AM band then calculate your antenna to be 3x that you may get the highest coupling. Also polarization, I think AM is verticaly polarized, is your antenna horizantal or vertical? Tinker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted January 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 I believe without looking that the highest coupling is around 340-360 feet but I would have to look it back up to be sure. It is horizontal antenna, elevated about 15 feet in the air. One hundred sixty feet east/west and one hundred sixty feet north/south. Ideally it would be two seperate antennas, but this seems to work out real well for me. I have a crystal set with one transistor amplification, different than the one mentioned above, that I received Beijing, China, China Radio International with this evening. I looked it up on the web and it appears it is multilanginal, with different languages during different times of the day. The antenna is doing it's job. I have also picked up Canada Radio International on the crystal set without amplification. Sure has been a lot of fun and is addicting. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave h Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 God I haven't heard of anybody using a Crystal radio in years ! THis brings back some pleasant childhood memeries !!!! Years ago I got a couple for my Nephews .They were right in to computers & all things tecnical ! It had them stuffed as they could'nt work out why there were no batteries & the radio still worked ! Those units I got from Radio shack & they came with a small ear piece ! On reading this I may just have to go & check out if you can still get them or if I have to get the parts my self ? Wonder if the Kids that work in these stores would know what a Cat's wishker is? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted January 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 You won't find them at Radio Shack any longer. You can look up a place on the net called the crystal radio society, and they sell a remake of the rocket radio. They have a few parts as well. There are many other crystal sites on the internet that do carry parts for them, and it is addictive as you know. Do a search on crystal radios and you might be suprised at what you find. It would be neat if more people got back into the basics on them and started the craze over again. Funny afterthought about what you said, I sent my daughter to Radio Shack for rosin core solder and the guy there did not know what that was. They had it though, and she showed him what it was. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rick Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Use a receiver off of an old rotary dialing phone. Just trace the two wires that go to the earpiece. The old black phones that Ma Bell used to put out are the best. They do better and sound clearer than any headphones I have ever found. You might can take two, cut them off, and make a strap to put them on your head with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzRednek Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 they sell a remake of the rocket radio. Now that Rocket Radio brings back some fond memorys!! About 1959 or 60 as a paperboy, can't remember the number but I had to sign up a certain number of new subscibers to get a Rocket Radio. I wanted it so bad being one order short I turned in a phony order then canceled my parents subscription to cover the extra newspaper. My ol'mam almost kicked my butt after he discovered I cut a hole in the wall so I could hook it up to a water pipe and listen to it in my bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave h Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Now that Rocket Radio brings back some fond memorys!! About 1959 or 60 as a paperboy, can't remember the number but I had to sign up a certain number of new subscibers to get a Rocket Radio. I wanted it so bad being one order short I turned in a phony order then canceled my parents subscription to cover the extra newspaper. My ol'mam almost kicked my butt after he discovered I cut a hole in the wall so I could hook it up to a water pipe and listen to it in my bed. Funny looking back how our Fathers had no sense of humour ! I rode my motor bike into town on my 16th birthday to see about getting a motor bike lisence ! The local Cop made me push the Bike home & wake my father to tell him what I'd done (The death sentance would have been prefrable )After the Old man had kicked my arse from here till breakfast time! He drove me back into Quorn & the Copper had my license writtern out !As he said there was nothing in the law that he could of punished me with worse than what Dad could do to me ! One of my punishments ,along with a long spell on the wood heap chopping wood for Mum ,was the confersation of my Crystel radio for a month !!!! Now that hurt as we still had the old radio plays & serials ! A whole month with out westerns ,the Goon show ect ! Brings a tear to my eye even now ! On the bright side I rang up Tandys today (a electrical supplier like Radio shack & eventualy got one of the Older staff who informed me that they have Crystal radios in stock ) Guess where I'm going this week ??? Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted January 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 This is great to see the interest in the old crystal sets and for the info I have gotten from all of you. I hope that those that take the trip back down memory lane so to speak will recapture the joys we found in these old sets. If you are far away from a station you will need a good antenna and ground of course. Evening and nightime is the best for listening. Enjoy them. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z1r Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 https://www.scitoyscatalog.com/Merchant2/me...Category_Code=R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave h Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 This is great to see the interest in the old crystal sets and for the info I have gotten from all of you. I hope that those that take the trip back down memory lane so to speak will recapture the joys we found in these old sets. If you are far away from a station you will need a good antenna and ground of course. Evening and nightime is the best for listening. Enjoy them. swamp_thing Thank you Swamp thing for bringing back to our attention something from our childhoods that we can relive & enjoy Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamp_thing Posted February 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 dave h, you sir are very welcome and thank you for the kind words. Thanks to z1r for the link, az, tinkerfive and all the others for their responses and participation in this thread. Have fun guys and hopefully some old fond memories will surface for many of us. swamp_thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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