Updated Video: Best/Easiest DIY Crystal Radio - No Batteries, No External Power 2023 (4K) th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html RELATED CRYSTAL RADIO VIDEOS: My New Favorite! Crystal Radio with Antenna Tuner: th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html Crystal Radio, Capacitive Tuning - WORKS GREAT!: th-cam.com/video/VJ80Nm9KSkE/w-d-xo.html Crystal Radio & Resonant Coil Design: th-cam.com/video/Fw9eb-aB-XU/w-d-xo.html Crystal Radio Antenna (Shortwave Also): th-cam.com/video/G8AsgZbncW4/w-d-xo.html My Crystal Radio Does NOT Work (FIXES for common problems): th-cam.com/video/kCxQ8iPQx4s/w-d-xo.html Good Crystal Radio Connection Points: th-cam.com/video/G3qjrReHR1k/w-d-xo.html Crystal Radio, Connect A DC Audio Amplifier: th-cam.com/video/RW3VhnzgjtA/w-d-xo.html Three Upgrades For Your Crystal Radio: th-cam.com/video/LENco3_jV_s/w-d-xo.html Crystal Radio Wiper Upgrade: th-cam.com/video/i1otDz39nlw/w-d-xo.html Popular Crystal Radio Design That's a Waste of Time - And Why: th-cam.com/video/r9Onub2Xpzc/w-d-xo.html New Crystal Radio Design - "Modified-Pickard": th-cam.com/video/_qxHhFKjLAg/w-d-xo.html Crystal Electric Generator RF Energy Harvesting Exp 5 - Full Wave Rectifier: th-cam.com/video/BTu_GJKjOmA/w-d-xo.html
I built TSBrownie's crystal radio as seen on this video as my second attempt. First attempt was built with cardboard tubes for the coils, neither worked. The devil is in the details, check and make sure you are using the correct 1n34a diode, non-Schottky diode. I contacted TSBrownie and sent pictures of my build and was immediately shown my error about the diode. I acquired the correct diode, installed and SUCCESS! Pay attention to the details! Thanks TSBrownie.
Daddy helped me make one of these for a science project when I was in the 8th grade in the early 1960s. We used a Gillette Blue Blade (razor blade) for some reason. He wound the copper coil around a glass Coffeemate jar. The antenna was a bare wire (I think it was bare) that we hung outside the window and the tuner was a piece of copper wire that he had stripped back an inch or so and put a hook in the end that touched the coil. The other end of the tuner was mounted to the board and you moved it across the coil with your hand. We could get 2 or 3 channels, depending on the weather. Daddy was an electrician and, if I'm not mistaken, we got the directions for the radio out of a Boy Scout Handbook. I have looked for years for the Scout Handbook but have never been able to find it. Needless to say, my science teacher was impressed. Thanks for your video.
I'm glad you liked the video. I just googled "1960 wolf cub scout book" and the one I learned from came up. It's $4. There's a picture of a howling wolf standing on a cliff against a blue and yellow background. Their diagram has an error, an extra wire that makes it not work well. I use their same circuit, minus that wire, hence why I call it the "modified boy scout radio". Many people used a heat-blued razor blade and a bit of pencil lead as the detector. The boy scout manual specifies galena, I use a 1n34a diode; they are all doing the same thing, acting as a 1 way valve.
Thank you so much! I will look for the Wolf Cub Scout book online. My brothers were in the scouts and those handbooks had so many neat projects in them----not so much now days, unfortunately.@@tsbrownie
I got a crystal radio kit for Christmas in 1966, and since NBC had radio towers a few miles away, I listened to "The Joy Boys," Ed Walker and Willard Scott. At night, I could pick up a station in Chicago. Local stations in the DC area came in, But NBC-WRC was the loudest.
That you for making the point about the TYPE of earphone required. The newer iPod or stereo earbuds are designed to work with power amplified signals. Key point. Great video and clear instructions!
I will be usuing tumbscrews for the connections. You drill a hole and thread the long screw from the bottom, then screw the thumbscrew from the top. You might even add a washer
@@johnmckee7937 I've put together quite a few videos on crystal radios. Later ones have stuff I've learned over the past decade. I'm a digital guy, so if you see something that can be better, let me know!
Thanks for this great job. There is a resistor (say 47 K ohm) in the circuit but in the circuit diagram used a 1000 pF (1 nF), why omitting the resistor?
What is the Exact wire Gauge you used for the coil in this video? Can i add some antenna coupler coil with longer tube length, but with the same wire Gauge? It's about 30turns of Antenna coupler coil
The details are in the description. I have a newer video on that. th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html And also a video on a dual wiper version: th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html To answer your question, you can use a loose or tight coupling (or make it switchable). I think I was using 0.91mm wire on this one. I have switched to 0.81 because it's more common.
Yes, it matters a lot. Changing any of the dimensions changes the frequency range of the radio. If you get outside the AM band, the radio will work badly or not at all.
Thanks for the beutiful video you have presented. When I was a small kid, my elder brother made a crystal radio with a telephone receiver, which he purchased from the Second Hand Market of Calcutta, and there was a crystal plus a slider. I do not exactly remember what else there was. He made a roof top antenna may be 20 yards or more. We used to listen to local Calcutta station very clearly. Could you tell me how that was done. I am sure there was no diode as 70 years from hence those were unavailable. It seemed to me that was very simple crystal radio. If I get some hints from you I can make that one. I am lying down with femur bone fracture and recovering. I cannot walk very well. I am idle here at home, eager to make one crystal radio with minimum of the materials. One telephone receiver piece will not be a problem. But what will be the substitute for the crystal stone (it looked like to me a very small piece of stone). You may laugh at my idea but I want to work on that if I get some hint from you. I strongly beloeve you would not ignore ot.
The 1N34A diode is best / easiest, but if you want to do it like they used to, they used a piece of galena (lead sulfide). It's a native form of lead. It looks grey with imperfections in it. In my Cub Scout handbook, they had us set the galena in a piece of copper water pipe, then use the point of a bent safety pin to create the point contact. (You can find pictures of this type of thing if you google "galena diode" or "crystal detector".) The best areas in the crystal to try are the imperfections. The rest is built just as I show in this video, but replacing one side of the diode with the copper pipe holder, and the other side with the safety pin. There are other techniques, like the oxidized razor blade, but they are much harder to make work. This website has the pages from the same scout book I used: ewajustka.tumblr.com/post/93165772934/an-attempt-to-build-galena-radio-receiver-using And this one copies the pages and pictures: bizarrelabs.com/crystalradio.htm BUT DO NOT INCLUDE THE CAPACITOR! You need the resistor as I showed and for the reasons I stated in the video. A cap will keep it from working with the modern earpieces. Hope you have a quick recovery!
Great video. But I'm confused, I bought 10 spools of 20 AWG for a group based on your description "(note: I used 0.5mm or roughly 19-20 AWG" but when I look it up, 20 AWG is .8 mm not .5mm. So which did you use? I found a coil calculator and tried to adjust based on 2" PVC (I couldn't find 2.25") and .8 mm (20 AWG) wire. I get about 11 turns per cm. With 16 cm (176 turns) it says 560 microhenries. Do you think this will be enough? Thank you!
Good catch. I said it wrong. 19 gauge is what I typically use and it is 0.91mm with the coating. 20 AWG is 0.81. Here's an updated and much more detailed version of construction which includes all the improvements I've found over the past 8+ years. th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
I have become a fan of you. I find your video is excellent and I can follow you in making a set in the line you have made it here. I have some questions (which might seem idiotic, still I should ask you to get a reply). Others made two coils, primary an secondary.. Why these are so and why you do not make that way. Besides, there is a capacitor made of aluminium foil. What are the justifications for those? I am not an expert in this field and a very simple man with no knowledge of intricacies scientific method, and I do not have any idea of them. Please enlighten me about those, and justification for your method as I am little bit confused going through different videos of different persons, who are knowledgeable, I think. But your explication seem to me better than any other presentation.
2 coils question: I also have a 2 coil radio. It's just more advanced in construction. (th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html) If you use a modern piezo-electric earphone, you need a resistor instead of the capacitor. It's just difference in tech. My designs are modernized versions of older crystal radios using currently available parts and compensating for them. For example, if you use the antique crystal radio earphones, you will use the capacitor between the leads instead of the resistor. That's because the piezo earpiece has lots of capacitance built in compared to the antique ones (because of how they are made). Also I used stainless steel parts instead of brass because it's easier to get for the rod and screws (brass washers are easy and cheap). And the plastic pipe for the coil is much stronger than cardboard tubes.
Why dose it matter if the wires were a little squiggly 🤔 As long as they are firmly wrapped and all touching all the way along 🤔. Is there a technical consequence - that effect’s functioning of the radio . ? Just curious .
It changes the inductance of the coil. Inductance depends on the length of the coil, the turns per centimeter, the diameter. If the wire is not wrapped tightly, the interaction between turns drops, the coil needs to be longer for the same inductance, and the turns per centimeter is lower.
Is there a way I can add human-created captions to your video? I'm happy to volunteer my time writing them. I have some Deaf/hard of hearing folks who follow my blog. I'd like them to be able understand what's happening in your video. Let me know. Thanks! And also, thanks for making this video!
I'm glad you liked the video. Many years ago I captioned about 200 of my videos, including this one, but it seems that youtube has removed them all. They also used to have a way for others to add captions to a video, but that has been removed. The only info I can find says to use youtube's auto-generated captioning. And yes, I know it's not very good, especially with tech terms. I'm not sure what else I can do. I can relate, because I too am losing my hearing and often watch movies with the captions turned on so I don't have to keep going back to listen again. BTW, this is a much updated version of that video: th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
Would an old transistor radio earpiece from those old 1970s/80s or earlier AM radios work (those ivory-colored single ear piece)? What about a speaker from one of those old transistor radios? Someone below mentioned an old razor and pencil..was that in place of the diode? I ask because for something called a "foxhole" radio, I suspect that soldiers didn't have diodes and resistors available, but would have razors and pencils and commo wire. It's been decades since I've thought about building one of these... :)
Any of the earpieces or speakers that use a coil and magnet will not work or will be VERY weak. The earpieces that do work use crystals or piezoelectric elements. The razor blade and others do work. They are more difficult to work and I don't recommend them for the first radio. I actually used galena on my first, and it was the thing that took the longest to make work.
@@tsbrownie Thank you for the quick reply. I am not sure how those old earpieces work, but I'm going to guess they wouldn't be compatible. My typical MO is to try the stuff that makes it more difficult to accomplish, then get mad when I can't get it to work. I need to change that approach. 🤣
@@MTimWeaver We all have to try to walk up the down escalator before we realize it's fun only at first! There is a change to the radio if you use the antique crystal earphones (they are available on ebay). You change the resistor to a small capacitor. The resistor is for the "modern" piezoelectric earphones you get today. Have fun with it.
@@tsbrownie Can we use any of the resistor or there is a typical resistor to be used? And if added a 75 ohms wire, that we use as cables for dish or anoloy TVs and FM radios, will it work?
@@mmallick3224 Something around 10k ohms works best. The details are in the description. I don't know about using 75 ohm dual lead wire. This one will not pick up FM, but there are different types of crystal radios that will.
@@tsbrownie Thanks a lot. I'll surely add a 10k ohms resistor if I get. If not then will a 82k ohms reaistor work? I wasn't available with a 1N34A germanium diode. So, I want to use the primitive one, with an oxidised blade and a grafite from a pencil atached to a safety pin.
The coil should be about 350 to 400 micro-Henries. The value depends on turns per centimeter (wire size), tube size (diameter and length). So you can change the tube size, IF you end up with 350-400 microHenries (there are calculators online). The simple answer is it will probably work, but you will receive less of the band.
Details are in the description: Enameled bell wire (can be from old transformer, solenoid, ...) 0.3 to 1.5mm (note: I used 0.9mm or roughly 19-20 AWG, the number of turns and length of pipe change with wire size.) Bigger wire has lower resistance (better sound), BUT you get fewer turns per centimeter (less tuning).
I have a video on why the common design using a capacitor does not work. Not sure why, but that design is plastered all over the internet; seems people copy but never question or try it. The only design I have built with cap tuning that works well is this one: th-cam.com/video/VJ80Nm9KSkE/w-d-xo.html It is very clear, tuning is sharp, but not as loud.
A crystal radio works a lot better if the coil is resonated with a capacitor ; this increases the detected RF voltage that operates the Germanium diode making thedetected audio much louder in a crystal earphone. A smart phone earphone IS NOT USEFUL
Updated Video: Best/Easiest DIY Crystal Radio - No Batteries, No External Power 2023 (4K)
th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
RELATED CRYSTAL RADIO VIDEOS:
My New Favorite! Crystal Radio with Antenna Tuner: th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Radio, Capacitive Tuning - WORKS GREAT!: th-cam.com/video/VJ80Nm9KSkE/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Radio & Resonant Coil Design: th-cam.com/video/Fw9eb-aB-XU/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Radio Antenna (Shortwave Also): th-cam.com/video/G8AsgZbncW4/w-d-xo.html
My Crystal Radio Does NOT Work (FIXES for common problems): th-cam.com/video/kCxQ8iPQx4s/w-d-xo.html
Good Crystal Radio Connection Points: th-cam.com/video/G3qjrReHR1k/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Radio, Connect A DC Audio Amplifier: th-cam.com/video/RW3VhnzgjtA/w-d-xo.html
Three Upgrades For Your Crystal Radio: th-cam.com/video/LENco3_jV_s/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Radio Wiper Upgrade: th-cam.com/video/i1otDz39nlw/w-d-xo.html
Popular Crystal Radio Design That's a Waste of Time - And Why: th-cam.com/video/r9Onub2Xpzc/w-d-xo.html
New Crystal Radio Design - "Modified-Pickard": th-cam.com/video/_qxHhFKjLAg/w-d-xo.html
Crystal Electric Generator RF Energy Harvesting Exp 5 - Full Wave Rectifier: th-cam.com/video/BTu_GJKjOmA/w-d-xo.html
I built TSBrownie's crystal radio as seen on this video as my second attempt. First attempt was built with cardboard tubes for the coils, neither worked. The devil is in the details, check and make sure you are using the correct 1n34a diode, non-Schottky diode. I contacted TSBrownie and sent pictures of my build and was immediately shown my error about the diode. I acquired the correct diode, installed and SUCCESS! Pay attention to the details! Thanks TSBrownie.
Thank you!
I can build this radio, because the instructions were very clear and to the point. Thank you.
When you build it, make a video and post it here so we can see it!
Will do but it may take a while as I work nights and sleep days.
Awesome video with really clear instructions. Thanks very much good sir 👍🏼
Daddy helped me make one of these for a science project when I was in the 8th grade in the early 1960s. We used a Gillette Blue Blade (razor blade) for some reason. He wound the copper coil around a glass Coffeemate jar. The antenna was a bare wire (I think it was bare) that we hung outside the window and the tuner was a piece of copper wire that he had stripped back an inch or so and put a hook in the end that touched the coil. The other end of the tuner was mounted to the board and you moved it across the coil with your hand. We could get 2 or 3 channels, depending on the weather. Daddy was an electrician and, if I'm not mistaken, we got the directions for the radio out of a Boy Scout Handbook. I have looked for years for the Scout Handbook but have never been able to find it. Needless to say, my science teacher was impressed. Thanks for your video.
I'm glad you liked the video. I just googled "1960 wolf cub scout book" and the one I learned from came up. It's $4. There's a picture of a howling wolf standing on a cliff against a blue and yellow background. Their diagram has an error, an extra wire that makes it not work well. I use their same circuit, minus that wire, hence why I call it the "modified boy scout radio". Many people used a heat-blued razor blade and a bit of pencil lead as the detector. The boy scout manual specifies galena, I use a 1n34a diode; they are all doing the same thing, acting as a 1 way valve.
Thank you so much! I will look for the Wolf Cub Scout book online. My brothers were in the scouts and those handbooks had so many neat projects in them----not so much now days, unfortunately.@@tsbrownie
I got a crystal radio kit for Christmas in 1966, and since NBC had radio towers a few miles away, I listened to "The Joy Boys,"
Ed Walker and Willard Scott.
At night, I could pick up a station in Chicago.
Local stations in the DC area came in, But NBC-WRC was the loudest.
Crystal radios bring back good memories for so many of us.
Crikey, this brings back happy memories as a kid making these back in the 70s , inspired me to make another one , new sub from the UK 👍
That you for making the point about the TYPE of earphone required. The newer iPod or stereo earbuds are designed to work with power amplified signals. Key point.
Great video and clear instructions!
Thank you.
I will be usuing tumbscrews for the connections.
You drill a hole and thread the long screw from the bottom, then screw the thumbscrew from the top. You might even add a washer
Eu sou do Brasil. Parabéns. O senhor é muito inteligente.
I from Brazil. Congratulations. The mister is very inteligent.
What a unique workshop!
I have a townhouse with no extra space and a wife that does not understand guy-clutter. One makes due. ;)
@@tsbrownie I tell them, "It's man jewelry!"
Very nice model thanks sir
Very very thanks sir 🤗🤗
Thank you so much sir . i thank you to my heart.
Most welcome
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it.
New to channel, Great information for people just starting.
Might I suggest video on making ground and antenna for crystal radios?
Thank you. The antenna video is done: Crystal Radio Antenna (Shortwave Also) th-cam.com/video/G8AsgZbncW4/w-d-xo.html
I see your way ahead of me, congrats.
I'm retired from two way communication now.
Built crystal sets as kid and might start again.
@@johnmckee7937 I've put together quite a few videos on crystal radios. Later ones have stuff I've learned over the past decade. I'm a digital guy, so if you see something that can be better, let me know!
Thanks for this great job. There is a resistor (say 47 K ohm) in the circuit but in the circuit diagram used a 1000 pF (1 nF), why omitting the resistor?
Thank you. There shouldn't be any capacitors. At what time in the video do you see the cap?
Very explicativ, sorry my English bot nice video!
Your English is fine. Thank you.
I will be screwing the wiper on a small block of wood that glued to the base, so the angle is not so drastic.
You made the best vidio so far that I’ve seen for making one of these radios. Thanks
Thank you. I need to make an updated version.
Your voice is like the one of narrators from old documentals.
Thanks? I am old and I am narrating.
What is the Exact wire Gauge you used for the coil in this video? Can i add some antenna coupler coil with longer tube length, but with the same wire Gauge? It's about 30turns of Antenna coupler coil
The details are in the description. I have a newer video on that. th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
And also a video on a dual wiper version: th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html
To answer your question, you can use a loose or tight coupling (or make it switchable).
I think I was using 0.91mm wire on this one. I have switched to 0.81 because it's more common.
Does the diameter of the plastic tube you coil the copper wire around matter as the tube I have is about half of yours?
Yes, it matters a lot. Changing any of the dimensions changes the frequency range of the radio. If you get outside the AM band, the radio will work badly or not at all.
I like fox hole radio thanks sir from india
Thank you.
Thanks for the beutiful video you have presented. When I was a small kid, my elder brother made a crystal radio with a telephone receiver, which he purchased from the Second Hand Market of Calcutta, and there was a crystal plus a slider. I do not exactly remember what else there was. He made a roof top antenna may be 20 yards or more. We used to listen to local Calcutta station very clearly. Could you tell me how that was done. I am sure there was no diode as 70 years from hence those were unavailable. It seemed to me that was very simple crystal radio. If I get some hints from you I can make that one. I am lying down with femur bone fracture and recovering. I cannot walk very well. I am idle here at home, eager to make one crystal radio with minimum of the materials. One telephone receiver piece will not be a problem. But what will be the substitute for the crystal stone (it looked like to me a very small piece of stone). You may laugh at my idea but I want to work on that if I get some hint from you. I strongly beloeve you would not ignore ot.
The 1N34A diode is best / easiest, but if you want to do it like they used to, they used a piece of galena (lead sulfide). It's a native form of lead. It looks grey with imperfections in it. In my Cub Scout handbook, they had us set the galena in a piece of copper water pipe, then use the point of a bent safety pin to create the point contact. (You can find pictures of this type of thing if you google "galena diode" or "crystal detector".) The best areas in the crystal to try are the imperfections. The rest is built just as I show in this video, but replacing one side of the diode with the copper pipe holder, and the other side with the safety pin. There are other techniques, like the oxidized razor blade, but they are much harder to make work. This website has the pages from the same scout book I used: ewajustka.tumblr.com/post/93165772934/an-attempt-to-build-galena-radio-receiver-using
And this one copies the pages and pictures: bizarrelabs.com/crystalradio.htm
BUT DO NOT INCLUDE THE CAPACITOR! You need the resistor as I showed and for the reasons I stated in the video. A cap will keep it from working with the modern earpieces.
Hope you have a quick recovery!
Thank you.
Great video. But I'm confused, I bought 10 spools of 20 AWG for a group based on your description "(note: I used 0.5mm or roughly 19-20 AWG" but when I look it up, 20 AWG is .8 mm not .5mm. So which did you use? I found a coil calculator and tried to adjust based on 2" PVC (I couldn't find 2.25") and .8 mm (20 AWG) wire. I get about 11 turns per cm. With 16 cm (176 turns) it says 560 microhenries. Do you think this will be enough? Thank you!
Good catch. I said it wrong. 19 gauge is what I typically use and it is 0.91mm with the coating. 20 AWG is 0.81. Here's an updated and much more detailed version of construction which includes all the improvements I've found over the past 8+ years. th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
I have become a fan of you. I find your video is excellent and I can follow you in making a set in the line you have made it here. I have some questions (which might seem idiotic, still I should ask you to get a reply). Others made two coils, primary an secondary.. Why these are so and why you do not make that way. Besides, there is a capacitor made of aluminium foil. What are the justifications for those? I am not an expert in this field and a very simple man with no knowledge of intricacies scientific method, and I do not have any idea of them. Please enlighten me about those, and justification for your method as I am little bit confused going through different videos of different persons, who are knowledgeable, I think. But your explication seem to me better than any other presentation.
2 coils question: I also have a 2 coil radio. It's just more advanced in construction. (th-cam.com/video/mh5KxCpbQ5U/w-d-xo.html)
If you use a modern piezo-electric earphone, you need a resistor instead of the capacitor. It's just difference in tech.
My designs are modernized versions of older crystal radios using currently available parts and compensating for them.
For example, if you use the antique crystal radio earphones, you will use the capacitor between the leads instead of the resistor. That's because the piezo earpiece has lots of capacitance built in compared to the antique ones (because of how they are made).
Also I used stainless steel parts instead of brass because it's easier to get for the rod and screws (brass washers are easy and cheap).
And the plastic pipe for the coil is much stronger than cardboard tubes.
Why dose it matter if the wires were a little squiggly 🤔 As long as they are firmly wrapped and all touching all the way along 🤔. Is there a technical consequence - that effect’s functioning of the radio . ? Just curious .
It changes the inductance of the coil. Inductance depends on the length of the coil, the turns per centimeter, the diameter. If the wire is not wrapped tightly, the interaction between turns drops, the coil needs to be longer for the same inductance, and the turns per centimeter is lower.
Is there a way I can add human-created captions to your video? I'm happy to volunteer my time writing them. I have some Deaf/hard of hearing folks who follow my blog. I'd like them to be able understand what's happening in your video. Let me know. Thanks! And also, thanks for making this video!
I'm glad you liked the video. Many years ago I captioned about 200 of my videos, including this one, but it seems that youtube has removed them all. They also used to have a way for others to add captions to a video, but that has been removed. The only info I can find says to use youtube's auto-generated captioning. And yes, I know it's not very good, especially with tech terms. I'm not sure what else I can do. I can relate, because I too am losing my hearing and often watch movies with the captions turned on so I don't have to keep going back to listen again. BTW, this is a much updated version of that video: th-cam.com/video/fLVCqZGpv3U/w-d-xo.html
Why not use a small flat file to scrape the coil wire?
A file will work, but the teeth will clog up with the insulation and you have to keep cleaning it.
Would an old transistor radio earpiece from those old 1970s/80s or earlier AM radios work (those ivory-colored single ear piece)? What about a speaker from one of those old transistor radios?
Someone below mentioned an old razor and pencil..was that in place of the diode?
I ask because for something called a "foxhole" radio, I suspect that soldiers didn't have diodes and resistors available, but would have razors and pencils and commo wire.
It's been decades since I've thought about building one of these... :)
Any of the earpieces or speakers that use a coil and magnet will not work or will be VERY weak. The earpieces that do work use crystals or piezoelectric elements. The razor blade and others do work. They are more difficult to work and I don't recommend them for the first radio. I actually used galena on my first, and it was the thing that took the longest to make work.
@@tsbrownie Thank you for the quick reply. I am not sure how those old earpieces work, but I'm going to guess they wouldn't be compatible. My typical MO is to try the stuff that makes it more difficult to accomplish, then get mad when I can't get it to work.
I need to change that approach. 🤣
@@MTimWeaver We all have to try to walk up the down escalator before we realize it's fun only at first! There is a change to the radio if you use the antique crystal earphones (they are available on ebay). You change the resistor to a small capacitor. The resistor is for the "modern" piezoelectric earphones you get today. Have fun with it.
Beautiful video! Can this radio reproduce also fm?
FM radio works on a different physical principle and requires much more complex decoding of the signal. So this type of receiver will not work for FM.
@@tsbrownie thank you!
@@tsbrownie Can we use any of the resistor or there is a typical resistor to be used? And if added a 75 ohms wire, that we use as cables for dish or anoloy TVs and FM radios, will it work?
@@mmallick3224 Something around 10k ohms works best. The details are in the description. I don't know about using 75 ohm dual lead wire. This one will not pick up FM, but there are different types of crystal radios that will.
@@tsbrownie Thanks a lot. I'll surely add a 10k ohms resistor if I get. If not then will a 82k ohms reaistor work? I wasn't available with a 1N34A germanium diode. So, I want to use the primitive one, with an oxidised blade and a grafite from a pencil atached to a safety pin.
Make a video for razor blade diode
I have that on my list.
Where did you find that thin-walled blue pvc pipe?
It can also be thick walled. It is blue pvc water pipe. It is a scrap from a home plumbing job.
@@tsbrownie trying to find thick walled pvc with a 1.5 inch OD.
Can it be a pipe 2 inches in diameter?
The coil should be about 350 to 400 micro-Henries. The value depends on turns per centimeter (wire size), tube size (diameter and length). So you can change the tube size, IF you end up with 350-400 microHenries (there are calculators online). The simple answer is it will probably work, but you will receive less of the band.
What gauge wire is it in AWG, or American Wire Gauge.
Details are in the description: Enameled bell wire (can be from old transformer, solenoid, ...) 0.3 to 1.5mm (note: I used 0.9mm or roughly 19-20 AWG, the number of turns and length of pipe change with wire size.) Bigger wire has lower resistance (better sound), BUT you get fewer turns per centimeter (less tuning).
@Danijelovski Kanal I have a video on that. One has to redesign the coil: th-cam.com/video/Fw9eb-aB-XU/w-d-xo.html
Can we use a small pvc pipe?
It will change the inductance and frequency range. The diameter, length and number of turns are all important.
Why did you omit a tuning capacitor?
I have a video on why the common design using a capacitor does not work. Not sure why, but that design is plastered all over the internet; seems people copy but never question or try it. The only design I have built with cap tuning that works well is this one: th-cam.com/video/VJ80Nm9KSkE/w-d-xo.html
It is very clear, tuning is sharp, but not as loud.
Can you use crazy glue
I think it would dry too fast and be generally too messy to work with. But it might work to add some after the coil is wound. Not sure to be honest.
Coil size? Swg?
Details are in the description.
Sir i can use mobile phone earpices
No.
I guess it doesn't matter what guage the wire is?
Details are in the description. The turns per inch (or cm) matter.
@@tsbrownie I see it, thank you for the quick response. I'm going to try to build this.
I also want to build a one-tube receiver.
@@OneCupOfCoffee204 Good luck and have fun with it.
A crystal radio works a lot better if the coil is resonated with a capacitor ; this increases the detected RF voltage that operates the Germanium diode making thedetected audio much louder in a crystal earphone. A smart phone earphone IS NOT USEFUL
I have tried many versions that use a capacitor and only 1 works as well as this. I have a video on it here:
th-cam.com/video/VJ80Nm9KSkE/w-d-xo.html
You'll have to either amend this video, record it again, or change the narrative, because Radio Shack is gone, as of 2021.
I have faith they will rise again from the dead. ;)
@@tsbrownie They still have their website active, but 90% of averything I searched for was out-of-stock.