| © Ned Norris. This article can be | | | | |
| reprinted, used in newsletters or on web | | | | For some fascinating photographs, you might |
| pages as long as it is credited to Ned Norris | | | | want to take a look at With their knobs and |
| of RUSC.com, it appears in its entirety and | | | | dials for tuning in a favorite station they |
| the resource box below is included. | | | | make me positively envious! |
| | | | |
| # # # | | | | There was no simple method for tuning my set. |
| | | | I remember there was a contact of some sort, |
| Crystal Radio Sets are Alive and Kicking | | | | and that by moving this minuscule distances |
| | | | across the crystal you could, with much |
| Author: Ned Norris | | | | patience, tune in a radio station. Usually, |
| | | | it was faint. Fiddle with the contact and the |
| I was brought up under strict conditions. | | | | signal would be lost and found again many |
| Bedtime was at a certain rigid time every | | | | timesbefore a signal strong enough to enjoy |
| night. Lights out meant no reading; it meant | | | | came in. And it would often disappear in the |
| sleep. It certainly did not include listening | | | | middle of a show for no obvious reason. |
| to radio broadcasts. | | | | |
| | | | "He aims and fires, but he misses...and that |
| But as a child of thirteen, I discovered the | | | | was his last bullet. The killer reaches for |
| delights of thecrystal set. It was a | | | | him, the axe raised in his other hand, and |
| frustrating affair. The workings of ithave | | | | ..." fizzle, crackle, silence. Mutter, mutter |
| remained a complete mystery. How, I wondered | | | | (the latter being me)! |
| then, could a lump of gray mineral possibly | | | | |
| capture radio waves and do so without a | | | | Now I understand I needed to pay much more |
| battery? | | | | attention to installing a good antenna - a |
| | | | 50-foot piece of wire outside the house and |
| Now, several decades later, the answers are | | | | as high as possible - and that I needed a |
| easy to find on the Internet - here I quickly | | | | good ground. But as a 13-year-old, I simply |
| discover that crystal sets, and the parts to | | | | wanted to listen under the bed covers in the |
| make them, are readily available today - even | | | | dark to my favorite radio thriller. |
| though they look vastly different from the | | | | |
| crude thing I had. In comparison, today's | | | | It almost didn't matter what the program was. |
| look...well...positively modern. | | | | Each had the compelling signature music, |
| | | | sometimes just single musical notes, the |
| To my amazement, according to Google there | | | | voices with their sense of urgency, the |
| are 81,200 pages that contain the phrase | | | | suspense, the climax, the scripting formula. |
| "crystal set". | | | | I also remember the screech of car tires in |
| | | | chase scenes. It was pretty gripping stuff |
| There is even The Xtal Set Society which | | | | for a small boy. |
| says it is "dedicated to once again building | | | | |
| and experimenting with radio electronics." It | | | | Remember how shoes were always soled in hard |
| advertises books, parts and kits. One kit is | | | | leather? Rubber didn't make enough noise. |
| called the Quaker Oat Box Radio Pack. It | | | | Doors always squeaked; silent ones would not |
| contains one roll of 24-gauge hook-up wire | | | | have been much use on radio. And do I |
| (100 feet), one germanium diode, one | | | | remember correctly that detectives were |
| 47,000-ohm resistor, one alligator clip, and | | | | always men and that secretaries were always |
| one crystal earplug. Sounds just about as | | | | women? |
| basic as my old set...but I don't remember | | | | |
| the otherinstructions that come with this | | | | Today, when I recall those days long ago, I |
| kit: "You will need to provide your own | | | | remember the crystal radio set with its |
| antenna wire and oatmeal box." | | | | finicky connection that would fade to almost |
| | | | nothing at the crucial point in the story. |
| The advertised price is $8.95. Do some | | | | Then it would come back just as the announcer |
| reverse inflationcalculations and you will | | | | was saying something like: "So long! See you |
| know better than I now remember roughly how | | | | next week." |
| much I paid for my set back in 1947. Any | | | | |
| money I had in those days was 'earned' by not | | | | This article is also available as a .pdf file |
| spending my lunch money at school, so I know | | | | at the followingurl: |
| the set I had was dirt-cheap. | | | | |
| | | | # # # |
| Radio Shack sells starter kits too. | | | | |
| Describing a project for | | | | (c) Ned Norris. This article can be |
| | | | reprinted, used innewsletters or on web pages |
| "beginning experimenters" at one reviewer | | | | as long as it is credited to Ned Norris of |
| said "the Radio Shack crystal radio kit Cat. | | | | RUSC.com, it appears in its entirety and the |
| No. 28-178 is a pretty fair starter set. It | | | | resource box below is included. |
| does work, and some simple modifications will | | | | |
| enhance its performance." When he wrote four | | | | Travel back in time to a land where classic |
| years ago, the price was $9.99. After some | | | | old time radio shows live-on to be enjoyed |
| modifications, which he describes, he was | | | | once more by young and old. RUSC is an |
| able to listen to New York, Netherlands | | | | Aladdin's Cave of classic radio broadcasts |
| Antilles, Cuba, Charlotte NC, Chicago, "and a | | | | for you to download and listen to at your |
| few others". What a difference acoil of wire | | | | leisure. |
| for an antenna makes! | | | | |