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 Previous: ARRL's Production and Graphics Departments |  Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: K2BSA--A Huge Success! |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
August 18, 2001
This week, Surfin' takes you to a Web page dedicated to pure and simple radio reception--the land of the crystal radio.
Mom, Dad, and a jolly old elf gave me a Remco crystal radio kit way back when I was a kid. My Dad helped me build the kit, and I helped him hang a 40-foot copper wire antenna from the clothesline pole to my bedroom window.
I remember eagerly trying the radio for the first time and being a little disappointed with the results. Problem was we lived two blocks from the WATR AM radio antenna farm. No matter how hard I tuned that radio, all I could hear was WATR!
Then by accident, I discovered the joys of DX. While I was waiting to go to 8 o'clock mass one Sunday, I plugged my headset into my crystal set and instead of WATR, I could hear cross-town AM radio stations WWCO and WBRY, and (for real DX) WTIC in Hartford 30 miles away! Seems that WATR went off the air early Sunday mornings for maintenance and provided a window of opportunity for AM DXing.
 Cat's whiskers are what radios are made of at the Crystal Radio Resources Web page. |
My crystal radio whetted my appetite for DXing, and I eventually replaced it with a Motorola transistor radio, followed by a Hallicrafters receiver and I forgot all about cat's whiskers and galena. My interest in crystal radios was reawakened recently when K3VSA turned me onto the Crystal Radio Resources Web page. Owen Pool, WB4LFH built the page and it is a treasure-trove of information "providing a 'pretty good set' of resources and ideas for the crystal radio enthusiast."
Owen's resources include plans for building a variety of crystal sets and accessories. To augment these plans are construction tips, antenna building information, a crystal radio DX mini-handbook, band-spreading techniques, and articles about testing and experimenting with crystal radio sets. There are also plans for building a wave trap that is "a real giant killer when you are trying to nose up to a loud local to look for the little guys." Finally, there is a huge list of links to other crystal radio resources.
Did you know about the crystal radio DX contest or the crystal radio-building contest? WB4LFH's Web page will tell you all about both contests and plenty more.
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (514 pieces in 23 years), not to mention the author of five ARRL books and contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles. First licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can remember, however, instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny Way, he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan, send email to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: ARRL's Production and Graphics Departments | Next: Youth@HamRadio.Fun: K2BSA--A Huge Success! |
