During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing simple radios to listen too. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry around in a big pocket. You can modify this design if you want to set it up so that it’s tuneable too!
The first time I tried this, it didn’t work. It was frustrating, but I just went through my materials, blued the razor blade and it worked. The second time I tried to get it to work, I couldn’t get a station, I just got buzz. I played with everything and finally figured out that the ground connection wasn’t very good. When I fixed that, I was able to hear sports talk radio! One of the interesting things is that it works better or worse depending on where you put the pencil lead on the razor blade. If it doesn’t work the first time, don’t give up! Every project you work on can have 100% success as long as you don’t mind mistakes and redoing things!
Download the PDF to get the full instructions! - PDF Link
i cANT GET THE PDF LINK IN MY COMPUTER…
This is great….although I’m not sure where to get one of those old fashioned earphones anymore. Son is a cubscout and one the things he can do is make a crystal radio but I like your version better–it looks much cheaper.
Two questions about the materials needed: Wait make that three:
1. does the razor have to be sharp? Does it have to be that type? (could I use one from a disposible razor instead)
2. those tacks you use….do you think the plastic coated push pins would work or do they have to be the bare metal thumb tacks?
3. about the wire….I thought it was just bare copper wire that was used…would there be a difference in the way it works if we used bare copper?
Thanks…..Ginger
Great stuff,
but couldn’t get the audio to work. For the previous poster - get a crystal earphone from the Xtal Set Society at http://www.midnightscience.com.
Have built three of these so far, and they all work. You need a good clean blade for use with the pencil, try usia wire cat’swhisker with an older rusty blade.
Austin Hellier
Downunder