[CQ-Contest] Crystal Radios

[Dennis Vernacchia]

Red,

	I bought one last August at a store called Zany Brainy
which is a chain that may be elsewhere besides Southern Cal.
The only thing that was different from the first one I built
as a kid in the 60s was that it uses a glass germanium diode
not  a Cat-Whisker.
	It worked well with the Germanium diode and made a
9 year old very happy and interested in radio.

	I happened to have a Cat-Whisker in my junque which was
one of the last ones available that were put out by Philmore.
Right after I bought it I found out they weren't going to  produce
anymore
as minimum order was 10,000 or some such excuse and they said that
they couldn't make a profit with the slow sales.
	I installed the catwhisker in place of the germanium diode
and the sesitivity of this radio kit dropped so much it was almost
unusable....never figured out why as the circuit was the classic one
in all the books. Maybe I had a bad Cat-whisker unit.....
	Anyway, check your big malls or go on line to see if Zany Brainy
has a web site to order from. The kit was under $20 if I recall.
	If you can't find one, let me know if you want and I will
purchase one for you out here.

73,

Dennis Vernacchia N6KI

On Fri, 26 Jan 2001 17:11:56 -0500 "Gary Letchford" <k0luz at email.msn.com>
writes:
 >
 >This may be slightly off topic,  but since so many of us can remember
 >the
 >good ole days when we received a crystal radio kit for Christmas,  and
 >the
 >experience of building it and then moving the cats whisker around and
 >finding "The Lone Ranger" theme song coming through the headphones.  I
 >promised someone I'd ask the question to some knowledgeable people.
 >
 >I had someone ask me if I knew of a company or whatever that they
 >could buy
 >a crystal radio kit that they could give to their grandson.  Whether
 >it will
 >be as exciting now as it was then is a real question in my mind,  but
 >it
 >might be worth a try.   Who knows....  maybe this recepient will be a
 >contester in a few years!!
 >
 >If anyone has any suggestions,  let me know.
 >
 >73
 >Red
 >K0LUZ
 >
 >
 >--
 >CQ-Contest on WWW:        http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
 >Administrative requests:  cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com
 >

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