What Happened to the Crystal Radio? | The $2.50 Kit America's Boys Built by Hand

Comments · 41

• BE

  @BeyondOfficialHistory · 6 days ago

  When I was 7, I found an old radio in my grandmother’s basement. She told me you could no longer buy batteries or tubes for it, but I could have it to play with. At home, my uncle had just been discharged from the service, and knowing a few things about radio said we could strip it for parts. Borrowing a dollar from my mother, we bought a 1N34 diode and, before the day was over, had a working crystal radio. That was in 1948. By 58, I had my novice ticket. By 63, I had a conditional amateur license because I was stationed in the Arctic and a very long way from any FCC testing office. Later, I upgraded to Amateur Extra. That crystal set and its many variations started it all. My career was in microwave and satellite earth station communications.

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• LU

  @Lucsdeli · 6 days ago

  From NY . I was 11 in 1969 when I assembled my first radio kit.

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• MO

  @Monktiger-f5e · 6 days ago

  i still remember as a boy in fifties,  founding that old crystal radio in basement, I hooked antenna to it, start moving that wire inside, touching a crystal, and suddenly a music was playing, a miracle...

  1

• KO

  @kokokatz6957 · 2 days ago

  I am the Mom who got her BSEE in 1973. I was also the Cub Scout leader (80's and 90's) for my 4 sons and they all built a crystal radio from a kit !

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• BR

  @brianmcgrane3046 · 6 days ago

  I built one in the sixties from a circuit in a library book in Ireland.

  1

• GG

  @GG1Locomotive · 5 days ago (edited)

  Wow! This brought back memories of the summers in the 50's with my buddies listing to our Rocket Radios. I remember hearing WABC out of NYC and WMAL out of Wash DC and other 50K Watt clear channel stations. We used to see who could get the most stations. Who slept, we were up all night listing to our Rocket Radios. When I studied electronics I built radio kits from Heath Kit, Lafayette and Allied to name a few. Those were the good old days. I wish I could get a crystal radio kit now to build just for fun.

• MA

  @marc639 · 6 days ago (edited)

  It was great growing up and being a boy in the 50s we had so much fun for boys in 2026 there's no fun at all No freedom over regulation constant supervision and control

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• RO

  @robertkat · 6 days ago

  The kids have cellphones now..

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• TA

  @talesoftanglewood · 6 days ago

  Good luck with led lights and Bluetooth and wifi generating overwhelming rf noise.

  3

• BI

  @bio-techlarry9602 · 6 days ago

  What happened? Game Boys and Atari, and other electronic games were given to kids to occupy their time.  Now it's cell phones and computers. Where are their parents?

• GH

  @GH-oi2jf · 6 days ago

  I had a crystal radio kit.  It must have been about 1955.  More sophisticated kits from Eico and Heathkit took over that market.  I bought a simple Heathkit for my daughter in the early 1980s.  She was about the same age as I was when I built my first kit (which my father had given me).

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• CL

  @clipperjuan8797 · 6 days ago

  Speaking of crystal radio sets, that is my diy modern mastery. I still make diy crystal sets but I use 1n34a germanium crystal diodes. I make untuned versions as well as using those builds as part of my crystal set feeders