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Posted: 2/5/2019 7:43:52 AM EDT
These things range from super simple to works of art. None require power or batteries.
The simplest form of radio receiver uses a coil and a crystal touched by a 'cat whisker'. 
Like I said, people build crystal radios that are works of art too... 
You can even build a radio receiver using a razor blade and a pencil. The troops in WWII nicknamed them 'Foxhole Radios' 
There may well come a time when possessing the knowledge to build a radio receiver that requires no power to operate may save your people.... 
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Posted: 2/5/2019 7:44:18 AM EDT
[#1]
No, I can buy radios at the store.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 7:48:10 AM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No, I can buy radios at the store. 
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Posted: 2/5/2019 7:57:39 AM EDT
[#3]
I was around 8 or 10yo and wanted to do it for Boy Scouts—but I couldn’t get anything on it. My scoutmaster proclaimed “ it doesn’t have a battery! How could it work....
It’s so long ago, I really don’t remember specifics. Maybe I got the wrong parts at Radio Shack? Wrapping the tube with copper wire was a major PIA because I tried using toilet paper tube that kept collapsing. We also read a story about some school kid who made one in his school desk & the implication was that he was listening to aliens-the space kind, not “refugees.” I should try again.... |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:05:15 AM EDT
[#4]
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:06:34 AM EDT
[#5]
Yes,yes I have. It was common to do so with the youth of my generation.
Radio Shack even had it in kit form. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:10:07 AM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yes,yes I have. It was common to do so with the youth of my generation. Radio Shack even had it in kit form. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:10:28 AM EDT
[#7]
I built the radio shack kit. No idea what happened to it. I need to get online and find another one.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:10:44 AM EDT
[#8]
I remember the Heath kit also.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:12:41 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I built the radio shack kit. No idea what happened to it. I need to get online and find another one.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:12:52 AM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If society ever melts down and there are no more batteries, be sure and let us know how that works out for you. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
No, I can buy radios at the store. Neat radio though. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:13:12 AM EDT
[#11]
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:20:07 AM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If society ever melts down and there are no more batteries, be sure and let us know how that works out for you. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
No, I can buy radios at the store. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:21:45 AM EDT
[#13]
Back in the 60s.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:42:24 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Back in the 60s. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:49:33 AM EDT
[#15]
I did as a kid, and it worked pretty good. It was a kit that I got for Christmas.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:50:21 AM EDT
[#16]
I built one in Mr. Sweeney's shop class in 7th grade. It worked fine. I could pick up 2 radio stations from town. This would have been around 1966. We made our coil by wrapping magnet wire around a toilet paper tube.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 8:56:06 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Sure. I had one of these: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/70716/150_in_1_kit_jpg-834106.JPG |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:04:22 AM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yes,yes I have. It was common to do so with the youth of my generation. Radio Shack even had it in kit form. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:08:14 AM EDT
[#19]
If you don't mind RF burns, you can demodulate a signal by holding a weed up to a high power antenna. Some idiots in russia or somewhere made a video of just that. Just like beavis and butthead sticking their fingers in the hot grease, they'd hold the weed until it got too painful, lol.
There's youtube video of it I believe. ETA..... https://youtu.be/lMuJKsUjD_o |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:15:26 AM EDT
[#20]
My dad would always tell me how he built one as a kid, and he strung wire back and forth between the trees above his house for an antenna, and could pick up signals from Australia. Seems like a good way to get your house struck by lightning. Kind of want to try building one just for fun.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:19:21 AM EDT
[#21]
I have not, however I did build a functioning desktop railgun type device capable of flinging pennies off into the great unknown.
Unfortunately the bank of capacitors that it required kinda prohibited it being portable, and seeing as how that was 20+ years ago, I'm kinda surprised they haven't downscaled that tech yet. 
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:28:46 AM EDT
[#22]
I built one at school in 7th or 8th grade and the first thing I heard on it was the news that Reagan had been shot.
Yes, I'm freakin old.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:30:32 AM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If society ever melts down and there are no more batteries, be sure and let us know how that works out for you. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
No, I can buy radios at the store. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:32:47 AM EDT
[#24]
There is a foxhole radio sitting on a shelf about twenty feet from me.
It ran 24/7 for a few years until the cat knocked the safety pin off of the razor blade. You would enter the room and hear a tinny sound and when you put the headphone to your ear you'd hear the local radio station. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:37:41 AM EDT
[#25]
Had some kits back in the 70's... Learned a lot.
Also had some chemistry sets that were kick ass as well... |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:45:20 AM EDT
[#26]
Many, and have a nice collection of commercial sets from the 1920's.
Latest find is this 1950's Miller High Fidelity Tuner, its purpose was to eliminate 'hum' from a tube radio receiver, played through a good amplifier of course. Sounds great, receives 10 stations with great selectivity.  Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:51:33 AM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If society ever melts down your little radio isn't going to help much. Lots of people like to spend time and money investing in SHTF scenarios, but rarely does anyone get into the hard stuff, like dealing with the stress of people trying to kill you on a constant and unceasing basis to steal your goodies. Neat radio though. Cool radio, could the potato clock be added in or is that over the top? |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 9:59:18 AM EDT
[#28]
Built one in the early sixties in a cigar box. Used an AM radio channel changer to change stations and an old telephone receiver for a speaker. I remember laying on my bed one Sunday and listening to the World 600 Nascar race from Charlotte.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 10:06:46 AM EDT
[#29]
Yep, in the late 50s.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 10:07:37 AM EDT
[#30]
Yes. I'm trying to remember if I used some galena I found or something else.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 10:23:03 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I built one in Mr. Sweeney's shop class in 7th grade. It worked fine. I could pick up 2 radio stations from town. This would have been around 1966. We made our coil by wrapping magnet wire around a toilet paper tube. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 11:44:05 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
There were a lot of kits available from lots of sources including several from Heathkit. 
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:21:47 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If society ever melts down and there are no more batteries, be sure and let us know how that works out for you. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:34:31 PM EDT
[#34]
6th or 7th grade for a merit badge. Tuned it to KJCK.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:39:50 PM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
who cares wont be no stations on air |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:41:43 PM EDT
[#36]
I'd love to. Read about how PoWs built one in a camp and got their news that way.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:48:31 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Sure. I had one of these: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/70716/150_in_1_kit_jpg-834106.JPG |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:53:03 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
There were a lot of kits available from lots of sources including several from Heathkit. http://xtalman.com/boyrocket.jpg
Probably 1967... |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 12:54:55 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
who cares wont be no stations on air Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
If society ever melts down and there are no more batteries, be sure and let us know how that works out for you. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:01:27 PM EDT
[#40]
I built a Bayou Jumper Paraset that runs on old FT243 crystals.
 Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:03:05 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
<snip> but rarely does anyone get into the hard stuff, like dealing with the stress of people trying to kill you on a constant and unceasing basis to steal your goodies. <snip>
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:03:39 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I remember the Heath kit also. There are a ton of hand crank radios, out there for battery free operation not to mention portable wind chargers and solar chargers |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:03:50 PM EDT
[#43]
27.555 mhz
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:14:27 PM EDT
[#44]
I did as a Cub Scout in the very early 60s. It worked well but my Dad had a fit
over how I'd had it grounded. I'd taken a 2' long piece of schedule 40 pipe and hammered in in the ground outside my bedroom window and ran my ground wire to it. Pops was worried lightning would hit the pipe so out it came. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:26:09 PM EDT
[#45]
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:28:34 PM EDT
[#46]
I had a radio shack project set that included a crystal radio. It was little modules with springs to connect everything. My dad went and got a little bakelite project box and we put it all in that, the radio part. It really worked too
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:37:53 PM EDT
[#47]
Yep, as a little kid back in the 60's - it looked exactly like the first pic in your OP.
It worked until I took the galena crystal out of its holder, dropped it, and lost it forever down a heat register. Later that evening my dad came home with a glass germanium diode with instructions from a guy at Radio Shack to simply put it in the circuit where the cats whisker used to be. At the time I didn't know why, but damned if it didn't work even better than the crystal! Then I had the clever idea to stick a battery inline with the diode and replace the earpiece with a speaker to make it louder - which of course immediately burned out the diode (so my dad came home with five diodes the next time....).
That crystal radio set (along with Radio Shack and Heathkit) is what started my eventual successful career in electronics. |
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:46:12 PM EDT
[#48]
Looks like a fun project with the 10yr old...
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Posted: 2/5/2019 1:56:40 PM EDT
[#49]
I built one in the Boy Scouts around 53 years ago. It worked but the juice was not worth the squeeze.
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Posted: 2/5/2019 2:01:16 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I built one at school in 7th or 8th grade and the first thing I heard on it was the news that Reagan had been shot.
Yes, I'm freakin old. |
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