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| Thread ID: 109254 | 2010-04-30 03:19:00 | Radio pix for Billy T | John H (8) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 881230 | 2010-04-30 03:19:00 | I understand you are a bit obsessed with old radios, so no doubt you went through the crystal set phase like many of us older farts. Anyroad, I found this pic on the Forest of Dean Family History website and thought it may amuse you as much as some your jokes amuse us. Attached file: Crystal_radio.JPG (www.imagef1.net.nz) (45 KB) |
John H (8) | ||
| 881231 | 2010-04-30 11:52:00 | Hate to say it, but the little boy on the right looks a helluva lot like me at that age. He seems a little surprised by what he's hearing. As an aside, a 1950's kiddies' crystal set sold for $465 on TM this week, I'd look shocked if I sold one for that much too. In fact I have one exactly the same as the $465 job but with a different name on it. Serious case of MMTS. Must tell my kids not to dump it if I vacate my current position. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 881232 | 2010-04-30 12:45:00 | I can't see a cats whisker there for some reason. | Sweep (90) | ||
| 881233 | 2010-04-30 20:43:00 | $465???? Strewth . I wish I knew what became of mine . . . I first heard the Goons and Gerard Hoffnung's "The Bricklayer's Letter" on my crystal set, under the blankets and trying to laugh quietly so I didn't get sprung by the Dragon Lady (step mother) . |
John H (8) | ||
| 881234 | 2010-05-01 06:34:00 | This was the $465 jobbie: Dimensions are 12 x 8 x 5cm so he paid just under $1 per cubic cm. :eek: Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 881235 | 2010-05-01 07:02:00 | @ Billy T That must be a modern version compared to what I had. Coil wound with connectors to which alligator clips were connected. Cats whisker to find the station ( tuning ) Just Googled and note that the above was in the 50's. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 881236 | 2010-05-01 10:08:00 | I have never seen anything like that. Mine was based on a flat board base (pinus radiata if I am not mistaken), with a single vertical faceplate made out of one of those new fangled materials of the time. Sort of brown artificial fibre jobbie. A volume knob and a headphone jack mounted through the face plate, and a coil wound onto something similar to the material that the face plate was made out of mounted on the board base. From what I recall, a bulldog clip was attached to protruding lumps of solder on the coil wire because that is where the stations were located. I can recall a crystal as well, but I can't remember anything else - surely it can't just have been a coil and crystal? Aerial and earth wires through the bedroom window completed the kit so far as I recall. My uncle later made me a one valve amplifier to hook up to the crystal set, and bob was definitely my uncle. Many's the time I woke up in the morning nearly strangled by the headphone cord... I think I got two stations - 3YA and 3ZB, but on a cold crisp night, all sorts of weird sounds came through the ether. |
John H (8) | ||
| 881237 | 2010-05-01 10:35:00 | John H, That is very similar to what I had. Protuding lumps of solder ( I think about six or eight ) and the cats whisker for fine tuning. As I lived in Wellington at the time I used to get 2YA and 2ZB. I even managed to get a station in Chile a couple of times. |
Sweep (90) | ||
| 881238 | 2010-05-01 22:30:00 | Mine had a Kahikatea base (complete with a bit of Anchor logo underneath), a tea chest ply front panel given a gloss finish with Octopus glue, a genuine Red Diamond crystal (from SOS radio beside the Civic theatre in Auckland), headphones and tuning condenser from Lamphouse in Wellington and fahnstock coil clips from a multitude of dead bias batteries. The coil former was a few tooth brush handles and the wire came from a deceased cowshed pump motor. | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 881239 | 2010-05-02 12:01:00 | Memories are so unreliable, except in relation to sporting, drinking or boudoir athletics achievements. :xmouth: Tuning on crystal sets was always by either a tapped coil, a wire/springy metal slider that rubbed on the coil, or a tuning capacitor (the last on the fancier models). The catswhisker was a wire that probed a galena crystal to find the most sensitive spot i.e. maximum volume, but not being frequency selective, it did not tune stations. It was superseded in the early 1950's by the germanium diode, which provided much better sensitivity and eliminated the galena/catswhisker set up pretty much overnight, or as soon as the pocket money could afford the new technology. This little radio was quite unique in its day, imitating as it did the small bakelite radios and the company that commissioned the miniature bakelite case was taking a big punt on the market. It actually started life with a galena/catswhisker and there was a small rod below the tuning knob that you used to adjust the catswhisker, but it soon adopted the new-fangled diode. The manufacturer was Ivory Electrical, hence the brand name Ivalek. Mine is branded Bingo, which seems to be rather rarer that Ivalek, so maybe it is worth more than $465? :D My first crystal set was the standard wooden base, ply panel and coil/capacitor/diode. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
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