The first radios I ever built....

[W1GUH]

You can see them here. Scroll down to the B&W brochure. The Crystal Radio Kit next to the battery eliminator was the first.

I put it together but couldn't pick up anything. My father had done a few crystal sets & when he checked it out he said the crystal wasn't exactly a good one, so we drove out to a local Radio-TV repair shop for a new one. It worked fine & I could hear the local station, WPON. My father also wrote the Air Champ company to let them know about this. Some time later, can't recall how long, I got a surprise package in the mail. Air Champ had sent me their upgraded crystal set, the Fixed Crystal Radio Kit in the bottom row, between the loudspeaker kit and the one tube radio kit.

This came with no explanation or anything. Guess Air Champ was a real "champ" of a company! That radio worked even better and I fell asleep night after night lisetning to it. That was 1954 when I was in the second grade.

But what I was really lusting after was the Two-Tube radio kit, which I finally got for my birthday in the summer of '55. My first HOLLOW-STATE RADIO!!!
It worked good, too. But it had a problem. It used a 90v B Battery, and those were as expensive as anything back then....3-4 dollars. Needless to say, I didn't get one of those very often. And, invariably, I'd fall asleep with the radio on eventually and then have to wait a few weeks for another baterry. Father ordered 'em from Allied in Chicago. Sure wish I would have known about the "B" Battery eliminator!

Remember my post about the David Seville record, "The Trouble with Harry"? The crystal sets are the radios I heard it on!

A friend found that link for me -- but I also got one of those brochures at Deerfield this spring. Somebody save me the trouble of scanning it.

Also, I practiced a lot of code with that "Western Union Signal Set." Didn't own one, I used them with the Boy Scouts for my First Class. My code practice "oscillator" (not really) was made from a piece of wood, some wire, a flashlight battery and a piece of a tin can. Spent hours at the kitchen table while mom drilled me on the code. I was 11.

[KG4CGC]

Remember when $7.95 bought a week's worth of groceries for a family of four?

[KB3LAZ]

Remember when $7.95 bought a week's worth of groceries for a family of four?

Food is free when it is blood. Well I suppose the damnation of your soul is a cost but..:P

[KG4CGC]

As far as first and built go, when I was 8, I got one of those spring board 30 in 1 electronics kits. Parts mounted on heavy laminated cardboard with the leads attached to springs that you attached point to point color coded wires to. The radio projects were always my favorite! Too bad I didn't know anything about tweaking coils otherwise I could have made it receive more than two stations.

A couple of years later after building a P-Box two transistor radio, I tried doing the same with a handful of parts on a wooden board. Again, too bad I didn't know enough to experiment further with each individual part value.

A couple of years later I built a Heathkit digital alarm clock. My cousin bought it for me from the Heathkit store in Miami when we were there visiting. Yes. I have actually been inside a Heathkit retail outlet!

[NQ6U]

First radio I ever built was one of these:



A Heathkit GR-54.

I was about 14 and, no, it didn't work the first time. My father and I had to go back through it and fix about a million cold solder joints.

[kb2vxa]

My uncle gave me one of those crystal radio kits, the antenna wire wouldn't reach the tree so it ended up in triangle configuration on the side of the house. Soon I was making my own each with some improvement, even making detectors from scrounged galena potted in scrounged lead. The only station I could get well enough to listen to was WOR which eventually led to my sig line.

BTW, my tongue made a good battery tester until...
"I can not shake the taste of blood in my mouth"
I discovered a 90V B battery was just a little TOO much.

"My father and I had to go back through it and fix about a million cold solder joints."
Sounds like the time we replaced the plumbing in grandma's house. Uncle couldn't sweat a joint to save his life, when we turned on the water it looked like he'd installed a sprinkler system.

[w2amr]

First radio I ever built was one of these:



A Heathkit GR-54.

I was about 14 and, no, it didn't work the first time. My father and I had to go back through it and fix about a million cold solder joints.

My wife's uncle built a Heath 21" color TV. I think it took him 5 years to finish .I've never seen so many parts.

[W1GUH]

My uncle gave me one of those crystal radio kits, the antenna wire wouldn't reach the tree so it ended up in triangle configuration on the side of the house. Soon I was making my own each with some improvement, even making detectors from scrounged galena potted in scrounged lead. The only station I could get well enough to listen to was WOR which eventually led to my sig line.

BTW, my tongue made a good battery tester until...
"I can not shake the taste of blood in my mouth"
I discovered a 90V B battery was just a little TOO much.

"My father and I had to go back through it and fix about a million cold solder joints."
Sounds like the time we replaced the plumbing in grandma's house. Uncle couldn't sweat a joint to save his life, when we turned on the water it looked like he'd installed a sprinkler system.

What radio(2) used that 90v (more expensive than gold to a 10 year old) battery?

[kb2vxa]

An Admiral portable that used 1V filament and one 3V tubes with a 7.5V A battery and 90V B battery. At home it plugged in and for running off batteries you plugged the cord into an internal socket. The best part was the loopstick (one of the very first ferrites) in the handle swiveled so you didn't have to turn the whole radio to peak reception. I also used the battery and a couple of NE2 neons to make a rather seldom used CB "goony bird" long before IC chips and noisy microphones so I guess I'm dating myself. Oh, maybe not gold but platinum to a 16yo with working papers. (;->)

[W5GA]

I built an AM radio in HS electronics, and never got it to work. I still have a Heath handheld DMM that I use...dates to the late 70's/early 80's.