That is because you could simply use a two-wiper design instead of capacitors and achieve almost the same performance for 10% of the cost of ONE variable capacitor. Also, the Antenna coil spacing should be somewhere between 1/8" to 1/4" for resonance with the 2nd Coil Set. You'll pick up more channels and they will be cleaner (increasing Q).
@@matthewschneider4758 The geometry of his antenna coil locks about right to me. Remember that this is a large diameter coil and the K varies with the ratio of the dimensions. At close distances the the squared and above terms drop away. Moving the coils closer will reduce the Q not increase it.
That's brilliant Gary. Beautiful piece of construction and works really well. Good to see you using a germanium diode as they are the best for a crystal set....and the home made caps are great... (would be good to see how you put them together)
Very well made, I used to make crystal sets many years ago and for a detector I used a old pencil lead wrapped around a long piece of wire and leaning on a old razor blade with little pressure.the volume was not great but it worked.
Nice build!!! I just made a crystal set and added a #30 tube, with a tuning cap, and also includes a variometer tuning coil with a tickler coil. When I remove the 1.5 volt filament battery the set still works , but wont work with out the tube. The set regenerates nicely . So what I ended up with is a regenerative crystal radio. I ordered a 12V audio amp from Amazon and it drives a 1960s 8 ohm speaker. Strange radio, but actually works!!!!😀
Outstanding. I remember seeing crystal kits when I was a kid and none of them worked this well. Nice work! I don't know how I got here but I subscribed
Nice job. I used a guitar amp on my crystal radio, as well. The audio quality was better than a 10 transistor radio, with a wide dynamic range that sounded like the DJ's and bands were right in the room.
Yes, I agree you are correct on the audio quality . The crystal has a wider bandwidth but at expense of the sharp tuning of the super het. I use a trap in front of the set to block nearby stations. It is possible to use multiple traps . The one thing I haven't had much luck with is the slope detect FM.
Those vane caps are just so first principle and robust , would love to see more on their design. looks like they are nut spaced, 3 washers would need less assembly time, hindsight is wonderful. Used to buy valve radios from jumble sales and they all had those vane caps in. wish I had kept them .
Beautiful design and construction. I've built a few crystal sets. So far, my favourite is the " Mystery Crystal Set," an Australian radio first published in 1932, I believe .
In 1959 in Orlando..we had a radio club at School..we built a radio powered xtal radio..used gem diode..was really 2 separate xtal sets..one was for the station.the other is tuned to a super local sta to get rectified power that went to a small speaker with a transistor amplifier.. hard to adjust . very little increase from earphones. I think we were about 1/4 mile from power tower...ha
I still remember the crystal radio that I threw together about 60 years ago. I had a rock sample collection that was brought back from a Florida vacation, and so I used the quartz rock sample as the radios detector.
I built my crystal radio several years ago while studying for my ham license. I included two traps to lockout our local radio stations. I need to get the radio out and play around with it.
Its nice looking and I guess good in your location Where I am, I have stations almost one on top of the other so I need to do better on that if I want to hear only one station at a time. I made a double tuned one with adjustable coupling to get the selectivity I needed. I used the capacitive coupling method.
Update this Crystal Radio is doing well better than I thought it would do I get 2 good stations in the daytime and more than 10 at nighttime like on .740 CFZM in Toronto, Canada , WBZ 1.030 Boston, WHO 1.040 Des Moines, IA and more this is super cool I will try to get QSL cards from some of these stations I also made an Antenna Tuner for the AM band.
There are sites that will give you calculations of capacitance for plate pairs. You just need to adjust for the fact you have many pairs at work. He said he used "flashing". That is aluminum that is about the thickness of the metal in a soda can. You can also get copper flashing and use soldering to attach things.
Years ago, I made a crystal set for a Science Fair...BUT no matter what I did a local radio station KOMA 50.000 watts in Moore OK (OKC) Over took any selection of any other AM stations. ,I heard stories of the broadcast bleeding onto telephone conversations.
I don't see any corrosion on the fasteners , you are a meticulous metal polisher to get those used fasteners so shiney. What metal polish do you use? Oh wait , by scrap you mean left over new stuff . Oops It looks fantastic ! I like what you did with the coupler and band extension. Good job! Thank you for sharing with us. 73s
As everybody else says, it would be nice to get more information on the assembly of the plastic insulated tuning capacitors please. I made one myself but did not think to include the insulators.....it works but have to treat it carefully. Sadly in the UK, we don't have many AM broadcast stations remaining and shortly may have none of any appreciable power. Very sad both in terms of learning/educating the young and in terms of emergency nationwide communications backup. (FM too patchy reception/DAB too power hungry and patchy reception).
Not many venture to make their own moving plate capacitors- very nice work.
My channel has a method to make a cheap and nasty variable capacitor. It worked fairly well.
That is because you could simply use a two-wiper design instead of capacitors and achieve almost the same performance for 10% of the cost of ONE variable capacitor.
Also, the Antenna coil spacing should be somewhere between 1/8" to 1/4" for resonance with the 2nd Coil Set. You'll pick up more channels and they will be cleaner (increasing Q).
@@matthewschneider4758 The geometry of his antenna coil locks about right to me. Remember that this is a large diameter coil and the K varies with the ratio of the dimensions. At close distances the the squared and above terms drop away. Moving the coils closer will reduce the Q not increase it.
Best looking scrap box radio I’ve ever seen. Nice job!
You did a very nice job.
I was particularly impressed with the hand made variable capacitors.
Totally awesome. Bravo !!!
Good job on the handmade variable caps!
Nice build! Those homemade capacitors are ingenious. A schematic would be very useful with number of turns, value of capacitors.
Wow thats one of the best Crystal systems i have seen in a long time sir.
That's brilliant Gary. Beautiful piece of construction and works really well. Good to see you using a germanium diode as they are the best for a crystal set....and the home made caps are great... (would be good to see how you put them together)
Very well made, I used to make crystal sets many years ago and for a detector I used a old pencil lead wrapped around a long piece of wire and leaning on a old razor blade with little pressure.the volume was not great but it worked.
Yes, me too! from memory I think it had to be a "blue" razor blade. The silver ones didn't work.
Greetings from Mt. Nebo, WV. That’s a fine looking radio! 😊 Glad I ran across your channel. 73! de KE8LUC
Nice build!!! I just made a crystal set and added a #30 tube, with a tuning cap, and also includes a variometer tuning coil with a tickler coil. When I remove the 1.5 volt filament battery the set still works , but wont work with out the tube. The set regenerates nicely . So what I ended up with is a regenerative crystal radio. I ordered a 12V audio amp from Amazon and it drives a 1960s 8 ohm speaker. Strange radio, but actually works!!!!😀
спасибо большое, вспомнил свое детство)))
Outstanding. I remember seeing crystal kits when I was a kid and none of them worked this well. Nice work!
I don't know how I got here but I subscribed
Nice job. I used a guitar amp on my crystal radio, as well. The audio quality was better than a 10 transistor radio, with a wide dynamic range that sounded like the DJ's and bands were right in the room.
Yes, I agree you are correct on the audio quality . The crystal has a wider bandwidth but at expense of the sharp tuning of the super het.
I use a trap in front of the set to block nearby stations. It is possible to use multiple traps .
The one thing I haven't had much luck with is the slope detect FM.
This is the best modern build I've seen Gary. 73's🎙KD9OAM🎧
Those vane caps are just so first principle and robust , would love to see more on their design. looks like they are nut spaced, 3 washers would need less assembly time, hindsight is wonderful. Used to buy valve radios from jumble sales and they all had those vane caps in. wish I had kept them .
Expertly made! And you did it all from salvaged material
Beautiful design and construction.
I've built a few crystal sets. So far, my favourite is the " Mystery Crystal Set," an Australian radio first published in 1932, I believe .
Always loved the night time propagation when the band goes long...
The inner levels start to cool off..
Great attention to detail... a credit to you...
In 1959 in Orlando..we had a radio club at School..we built a radio powered xtal radio..used gem diode..was really 2 separate xtal sets..one was for the station.the other is tuned to a super local sta to get rectified power that went to a small speaker with a transistor amplifier.. hard to adjust . very little increase from earphones. I think we were about 1/4 mile from power tower...ha
Very nicely made 👍
I still remember the crystal radio that I threw together about 60 years ago. I had a rock sample collection that was brought back from a Florida vacation, and so I used the quartz rock sample as the radios detector.
Wow!
I wish you would teach me how to do that!
Can you show us what you can get on the LF and ELF bands?
Very nice project, but do I have it right that this is made mostly of scrap? I think I may have heard it was, about a dozen times ;-)
I built my crystal radio several years ago while studying for my ham license. I included two traps to lockout our local radio stations. I need to get the radio out and play around with it.
Fantastic workmanship.
Classy looking receiver! Nice workmanship!
Its nice looking and I guess good in your location Where I am, I have stations almost one on top of the other so I need to do better on that if I want to hear only one station at a time. I made a double tuned one with adjustable coupling to get the selectivity I needed. I used the capacitive coupling method.
Clean build! And handmade capacitors? I’m inspired.
Update this Crystal Radio is doing well better than I thought it would do I get 2 good stations in the daytime and more than 10 at nighttime like on .740 CFZM in Toronto, Canada , WBZ 1.030 Boston, WHO 1.040 Des Moines, IA and more this is super cool I will try to get QSL cards from some of these stations I also made an Antenna Tuner for the AM band.
Nicely done, sir. I've never seen homemade tuning capacitors!
nice job Gary !
I’d like to know more about how you made the capacitors.
Very nice homebrew varicaps❤
I’d like to know more about the home made capacitors. What’s the material for the plates, spacing etc. 73 W9Hz.
There are sites that will give you calculations of capacitance for plate pairs. You just need to adjust for the fact you have many pairs at work.
He said he used "flashing". That is aluminum that is about the thickness of the metal in a soda can. You can also get copper flashing and use soldering to attach things.
That is a really nice design
Well done Sir
Take care, 73
Years ago, I made a crystal set for a Science Fair...BUT no matter what I did a local radio station KOMA 50.000 watts in Moore OK (OKC) Over took any selection of any other AM stations. ,I heard stories of the broadcast bleeding onto telephone conversations.
Nifty bit of building.
my generation made these in boy scouts high school shop...
Hi. What did you use to produce the nice dial scales? And yes, making your own tuning caps isn't that hard, made a few myself.
www.blocklayer.com/gauge-templates
@@garycowger9579 That is a nice little tool. I can see ways to make it nicer but it is still really good.
Very nice set! How did you coat the aluminum plates with teflon?
Nice job.
I may do a ditto it looks so nice.
73 kc2wvb
I don't see any corrosion on the fasteners , you are a meticulous metal polisher to get those used fasteners so shiney. What metal polish do you use? Oh wait , by scrap you mean left over new stuff . Oops
It looks fantastic ! I like what you did with the coupler and band extension. Good job! Thank you for sharing with us. 73s
well made for scrap parts
As everybody else says, it would be nice to get more information on the assembly of the plastic insulated tuning capacitors please.
I made one myself but did not think to include the insulators.....it works but have to treat it carefully.
Sadly in the UK, we don't have many AM broadcast stations remaining and shortly may have none of any appreciable power. Very sad both in terms of learning/educating the young and in terms of emergency nationwide communications backup. (FM too patchy reception/DAB too power hungry and patchy reception).
How do you make the dial legends? Ar they printed on paper or what?
Design and Print Full Scale Custom Gauge Face Templates www.blocklayer.com/gauge-templates
cool
Parts where I find them
A schematic would save all the description 🥹😀
Unuseful without schematic.
If you look carefully, you can see the connections well enough to make a schematic.
If you need a schematic for a detector Radio, you did Not make your homework 😭😭😭
@@UliDeuschle Be nice
Negative Nancy, surprised you didn't moan about a parts list as well.