To RFB, and anybody else who is
interested, I have a few more
comments and questions. I'll
just list them as they come to
mind.
The first thing is, I actually picked
up a shortwave station on a really
minimal Radio Shack crystal radio kit.
I had tuned through all of the stations
on the AM band that this little set had
gotten, and I checked them with a regular
radio, to see what they were. I could
account for all of the stations on the
regular radio except for one. Radio
Canada International (5960 kHz) was bombing in with
probably a 40 or 50 dB over 9 signal on
my shortwave radio, and I was also getting
it on this crystal set, which was designed
just for 540 - 1600. (This was many years
ago.) The Radio Canada signal was so strong,
it was just leaking into the little crystal
radio, and I was hearing it. That was a big
surprise. The antenna was a long wire. I
don't remember how long.
In the 1960s, it seemed that you could get
very small hand held crystal radios that
would get stations, and they only had one
wire on the case. Do you remember this,
or am I wrong? It seems like you could clip
a wire onto just an old telephone dial finger
stop, and you would get a bunch of stations.
There was no other wire coming from the set.
(Except for the earphone, which was probably
a ceramic type.) Anyway, do you have any comments
on this?
I know you have experimented with galena (sp?)
crystals. I know experimenters have tried all
kinds of diodes, even shotky (sp???) diodes.
I'm not sure I have the name right, but I just
want to keep going on with this message. I also think
that there are chips that you can use as crystal
radio detectors that require no bias voltage to
turn them on. So, I guess, theoretically anyway,
you would have a more sensitive crystal set.
However, I believe that there are crystal radio
purists who believe using this kind of chip as
a detector is cheating, or "not cricket," as
they say.
Have you had any luck with DX? (I bet you have.)
Because of severe eye problems, I have lost my
crystal radio log book. But I will list the DX
that I have received in a future message. Or,
at least what I think I have gotten. So far,
I have not been able to crystal radio DX above
740 kHz, because the set starts getting the local
stations at that point.
OK. I'll be right back, I think.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
I just looked it up. I understand
that sometimes this kind of diode
has had good performance. Have you
RFB, or anyone else, tried one.
Also, has anybody made a crystal set
with a diode vacuum tube, recently?
OK. I'm going to get that list of
DX stations next.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
OK. This list is of distant radio
stations heard on my crystal set,
which as mentioned before, is a
radio that has only passive components.
It uses no batteries or A.C. power source.
This was with the 150 foot wire antenna,
which is not up now.
Distance in miles is approximate.
The receiving location is West Hartford, CT
Local stations were already listed, so this
is just the stuff that isn't local, at least,
for a crystal set. I could only hear stations
from 560 to 740 kHz.
560 kHz WHYN Springfield, MA, 5 kW Day, 1 kW
Night, Heard during the day. Not audible
at night. Distance, 26 miles
570 kHz WMCA New York, NY 5 kW Day and Night,
Heard only at night. Distance, 98 miles
570 kHz CHMI,Santa Clara, CUBA (!)
Obviously night reception.
Power unknown, but I believe it
is 30 kW. This one is so easy
to spot because it is a time-tick
like WWV. Distance approx. 1300 miles(!)
There are at least 8 of these stations
Coming from Cuba on the AM band. I have
heard others on good AM radios.
A few years ago, an FM DXer was in his car
in Northern, CT, and heard one on 107.5 MHz
via sporadic E skip!!!
Oh, these stations are known as "radio Reloj,"
which means, "Radio Clock." and you will
hear the time ticks, some voice, and the
letter R twice, in Morse Code.
NEXT
This doesn't count, because the crystal set
was hooked to an external audio amp, but I
will note it anyway, because it did get through
The crystal set, and this was the only station
heard with external audio amplification.
600 WICC, Bridgeport, CT, 1 kW Day and Night, heard
during the day. Distance 46 miles.
640 WNNZ Springfield, MA, 50 kW Day, 1 kW, Night,
Heard at night. Distance 26 miles.
NOT TOO MANY MORE TO GO!
660 WFAN New York, NY, 50 kW Day and Night
Distance 98 miles. With the 150 foot
wire, I can get this all the time.
690 CINF Montreal, QC, Canada 50 kW Full time
Night Time Reception, 261 miles
This station is now off the air and
690 is clear during the night. Canada
can put a new station back on this channel
if they want to, but because of the treaty
that is in place between the U.S. and Canada,
the U.S. cannot put a high power full time
station on here at night. So 690 is very
"DXable." With my Sony 2010, I got the BBC
on 693 kHz really loud one night. But on
the Sony DX radio with sync detection, not
the crystal set, of course.
ONLY A FEW MORE TO GO! I HAVEN"T HEARD ANYTHING
ABOVE 740 THAT I COULD ID. SO I HOPE YOU
AREN'T BORED.
710 WOR New York, NY 50 kW Full Time 98 miles
] Heard at night.
730 WACE Chicoppe, MA. 5 kW and (Get This) -
8 watts, yup that's EIGHT WATTS AT NIGHT.
I heard them during critical hours, when
they are still 5 KW. Distance, 30 miles
ALMOST DONE
730 CKAC Montreal. 50 kW Full Time. My notes are jumbled
on this one. So we'll call this a TENTATIVE,
because I just don't remember.
AND THE LAST ONE! YAY!
740 CHWO, Toronto, ON, Canada, 50 kW Full Time
Heard Booming in loud on the crystal
set just one night. Never heard again.
Distance, 361 miles.
ABOVE 740 kHz my local stations all start to swamp
the set. While I think I may have heard something
in the 780 - 800 kHz range, I could never pin it down.
NOTE: Normally I would not put this huge a posting
on the Part 15 board, because this is not really what
we are doing here. BUT we are all radio guys, and
until a few years ago, when I took the CR-1 crystal
set out of the basement and hooked it up - well -
I NEVER thought DX was possible on a crystal set!
BUT IT IS AND IT'S FUN! MAYBE SOME
OF YOU GUYS MIGHT WANT TO TRY IT SOME TIME!
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
The only time I ever used a crystal set was so long ago that programs like Amos and Andy were on the radio. I was in rural Wisconsin, so I got stations from Milwaukee and Chicago.
Now, fast forwarded to this future we are in, I think about all the stations lurking in wires and metal objects, which sometimes reveal themselves. For example, our telephone line used to pick up the station at 850kHz, and the only problem was we couldn't turn it off.
But maybe there is a type of simple circuit we could use to attach to any and all metal objects to see what kind of radio energy they are holding.
Oh, and for a few days a year ago I started getting a Florida shortwave station at 1mHz right in the middle of the AM dial! I looked it up and it was a station at Okee Finockee (spelling a best guest) operating at 1-million Watts! However they stopped showing up on the AM dial.
There was a folk tale I heard where an FM station that had been off the air for two years came in very clearly one night. The theory was that it had traveled through space for the first year, bounced off a planet, and spent the second year coming back.
Indeed. In fact the early crystal sets used a combination of materials that would act just like how a schottky diode functions. The "rusty" razor blade edges and a safety pin works the same way.
As to the vacuum tube diode use...nope. I always tried to create these with common materials and combinations of different materials within the cat whisker cup for the diode.
Its amazing what dirt can do when combined with other materials.
RFB
A very simple and very effective way to cut that AM RF signal on a telephone line is to wind some of its cord from the wall onto a ferrite core, 4 or 5 turns should do.
Makes an excellent RF choke.
You can find similar chokes on many modern laptop power supply cords (DC side) and on supplied audio cables. That little "hump" thing on the ends of the cables...yep that is an RF choke inside that little oval plastic case. 🙂
RFB
Its possible for that to happen. After all ham's use the moon for "moon bounce" communications on a variety of frequencies.
Or as the more modern terminology puts it..."Earth-Moon-Earth" communications.
That FM signal would be incredibly weak, so weak that it would take an incredibly high gain dish of appropriate wavelength to dig it out of the noise. And it would depend on how far that signal traveled prior to its "bounce" and the distance back.
The signal will weaken as distance increases...and again further weakened by the "bounce" as some of that already weak signal will be absorbed by whatever its bouncing off of, as well as "scattered" by the surface where the signal bounced, and then attenuated even more by the return trip distance.
I cant remember where I read it but there was a report about signals being picked up from Jupiter when NASA discovered a very long "something" hanging around the gas giant. After independent researchers analyzed the sounds, it was determined that what they picked up were reflected signals that originated from Earth back in the late 1930's. The signals apparently were from a rally that was broadcast during the Nazi regime as the audio after it was analyzed said something about "The language of mankind", which the language heard was in fact German.
I put this one in the "tall tail big fish" story category. But who knows....according to estimates, signals sent out back in the 40's were passing Neptune only hours after they were sent out. No telling how far those signals have traveled or if they "bounced" in some other direction from the various stuff out there in the Ort cloud (outer solar system asteroid belt), or if those signals continue to travel deep into inter stellar space.
"Space..the area between the ears....this is the voyage of the tiny flea signal "Boobieprize"....its long hard struggle....to reach new worlds...to resonate alien antenna arrays....to boldly go where no flea signal has gone before"!!!
SWOOOOSH!!!
RFB
"it was determined that what they picked up were reflected signals that originated from Earth back in the late 1930's"
I wonder if it wasn't archive recordings broadcast on MW bands to the Internet for military history education classes. That would make some sense.
The combination of radio folklore, humor, and
actually real radio information has really made my
day.
I'm not kidding, I'm dead serious.
By the way, there is a story of "TV DX folklore,"
where TV station KLEE in Texas(?) had been
off the air for many many years. Yhen some guy
is TV DXing in the U.K., and he gets a
completely clear "KLEE-TV" ID slide, i.e.,
many years later.
That's the story.
And as for this crystal set thing, one of these
days I've got to get that antenna back up.
Two quick things: RFB, thank you for your diode
chemical information, I appreciate it.
And, Carl Blare, do you remember anything about
that crystal set or antenna that you listened to
as a kid?
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
"I wonder if it wasn't archive recordings broadcast on MW bands to the Internet for military history education classes. That would make some sense."
Possible. But apparently the radio telescope was pointed at Jupiter when the signals were detected.
Then again...some appropriate software and computer and one can make a very convincing theorem to safely hang an elephant by its nose tied to a daisy off a cliff..with accompanying HD video and 6:1 digital surround sound to boot.
Latest gig going on now with comet Elenin is signals were detected and decoded as saying "Doomsday near.....must leave nowwwwwwww".
Look it up!! Its absolutely nuts!!! LOL!!!
RFB
It's an interesting memory test trying to figure out where the crystal set came from or what ever happened to it. It must have been store bought or mail-ordered because I remember a round metallic disk similar to a modern watch battery with an embedded crystalized rocky surface for touching with the "cat whisker." Maybe a round oatmeal box was used for the coil, but that might be from another story someone else told. There was a rounded receptacle for placing the crystal, so it was at least to some degree a manufactured product. I think there might have been only one ear piece, rounded with magnet inside and a round metal disc over the magnet which resonated enough to hear low level voice and music.
Could hypnotism dig out more facts about it? Was there ever a crystal radio offer on the radio? I sent for everything, including the 1-square inch in Alaska Deed from Sargent Preston, a gold sheriff's badge from Roy Rogers, stuff from Cheerios, Shredded Wheat and Quaker Oats.
Oh, then I sent away for a few comic book offers.
This has been like hypnotism just recalling this stuff, as I'm remembering two other stories. Stay tuned.
It was totally fascinating looking at the giant polished wood furniture sized radio set with its well illuminated all-band dial and deep-throated speaker grill bringing in mysteries and music from other towns and cities. I was clever to wait until no one was watching and then I pulled the radio away from the wall and peered into the back of it. There was this massive electro-magnetic loudspeaker that could be heard as well from the backside as from the front, and all the large glowing tubes that seemed very curious for their power to present a continuous flow of voice and tunes without actually moving nor any visible commotion going on inside the glass. I sensed that there was a lot more to learn.
Skip ahead to 6th grade when I found out that my best friend also listened to The Adventures of Black Hawk Thursday nights at 8. He agreed to try an experiment that I thought up...... at exactly 8, as the program began, he was going to shout into his radio calling my name, and I'd be at home listening closely to see if I could hear him. At 8 PM I was tuned in and paying very close attention, but I did not hear him. The next day when I touched base he explained what went wrong. He had forgotten to do it.
That's a wonderful story, Carl.
I especially like the part about
observing the vacuum tubes.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2