Colorado, USA (Circa 1949): My brother and I got Dad to buy us "Cats whisker” crystal radio kits that were said to work without power...
My family moved into the mountains of Colorado west of Denver. We bought a small ranch that did not have power, indoor facilities and had a well with a hand pump outside. My brother and I got Dad to buy us "Cats whisker” crystal radio kits that were said to work without power.
These kits consisted of a coil of wire, a Galena (lead) crystal mounted in a metal housing, earphones, and a "Cats whisker". This whisker was a phosphor bronze piece of wire that was connected to the coil on one end and the other end was placed to make movable contact with the crystal. This served as the diode detector/tuner. You moved the whisker around on the crystal to try to tune the stations. The only other part required was a long (100 feet or so) outside antenna that we strung between some trees on a hill behind the house.
We wired them up and got a few broken pieces of voice from somewhere in the ether. This got us excited and we spent the rest of our time (until we got power at the ranch for a tube radio), competing to see who could get the best reception and the most stations logged. After some experimentation, I ended up using my bed springs for the antenna which worked almost as well as the external antenna and it didn't attract lightning.
This started me out in my career in electronics and I have been hooked ever since this first experiment with unpowered radio receivers...
Postscript: Now I am a 70 year old retired electronic engineer with strong experience in computer design and science, and nuclear physics. I worked on radios before vacuum tubes (crystal whiskers tuning) connected to my bedsprings for and antenna on up to modern embedded computer systems for the NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Teams), etc. I have worked at the NTS (Nevada Test Site), the nuclear laboratories (LASL and LNL). I have designed, fielded and trained people on my systems use in locations all over the world. I designed and operated systems in aircraft (fixed and rotary winged) for 30 years of my career.
I will be happy to share my experiences from over almost 60 years of working on electronics, nuclear systems, etc. with any who are interested.
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