My first radio

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Rikkitic

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#195565 24-Apr-2016 18:59

Here is a little more nostalgia, if anyone is interested. When I was around 12 or so, I had a beach radio. No-one else had anything like it and it made me feel pretty special. It used miniturised valves especially designed for portable operation, probably derived from WWII walkie-talkies. The valves needed bulky dry cells for the filaments. There was also a 90-volt battery for the anodes.

In those days only low-capacity carbon-zinc batteries were available. The anode battery didn't have to supply much current and it lasted for a reasonable amount of time, but the filament cells went flat very quickly, so the radio wasn't actually much good at the beach. A couple of years later I had one of the first transistor radios, consisting of three transistors with earphones. It was kind of like an early Walkman, but it didn't have anything like the same cool factor as the first radio because it couldn't be shared (= shown off) with others. It is interesting how times change.

(These were AM only, of course. Broadcast FM didn't exist yet. I also built crystal sets. But I'm talking here about my first real radios.)

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#1541335 24-Apr-2016 20:03

I remember making one at primary school, wrapping copper wire around a piece of plastic pipe etc

DaveB

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#1541363 24-Apr-2016 21:25

I had one of these Bush radios. This was in 1965-66 and it looks like it had been around since 1959. They didn't update things as often in those days. Although I lived in the UK, I remember listening to Radio Luxembourg in my early teens and I think it was on the Long Wave. The signal used to come and go throughout the evening.

Memories of DJ's such as Tony Prince and Kid Jensen. Radio Luxembourg - the original rock station through an original "radio".

Rikkitic

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#1541383 24-Apr-2016 22:36

I have the same fond memories. We also listened to Radio Luxembourg in Holland, but that was later.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#1541384 24-Apr-2016 22:36

I'm starting to expect a thread in which we discover that your first car was a Model T and you met Eddison in person.

littleheaven

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#1541395 25-Apr-2016 00:10

My first radio was a 1970's red and silver Sanyo AM transistor that Dad got me in the Duty Free when I was about 6 years old. It looked a bit like this: http://m.ebay.com/itm/361267278764 It came with a single-ear earbud headphone. I used to listen to the 1080 club on it every Sunday morning. I still have it, but it doesn't work anymore.

Edited to add: You can buy the Bush radios now - Noel Leeming has them. They look just like the originals, but with updated innards.

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eracode

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#1541405 25-Apr-2016 01:51

When I was a kid in the 1950's I had a 'crystal set' radio which looked almost exactly like this:

http://crystalradio.net/beginners/

It did not need batteries or any power source and pulled in radio stations just out of the ether. Had very basic Bakelite on-ear head phones and you 'tuned' it to different stations by moving an alligator clip to various soldered tags on the main wire-wound coil. There were no dials or knobs.

The most important component was called the 'cat's whisker' which was some form of detector/rectifier/diode - a thin piece of wire in a spring-loaded holder which made adjustable contact with a piece of germanium crystal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s-whisker_detector

I'm not sure where it came from but looked homemade and was already old when I had it. I think it was my Dad's when he was a kid in the 1930's.

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JaseNZ

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#1541440 25-Apr-2016 08:16

eracode:

When I was a kid in the 1950's I had a 'crystal set' radio which looked almost exactly like this:

http://crystalradio.net/beginners/

It did not need batteries or any power source and pulled in radio stations just out of the ether. Had very basic Bakelite on-ear head phones and you 'tuned' it to different stations by moving an alligator clip to various soldered tags on the main wire-wound coil. There were no dials or knobs.

The most important component was called the 'cat's whisker' which was some form of detector/rectifier/diode - a thin piece of wire in a spring-loaded holder which made adjustable contact with a piece of germanium crystal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s-whisker_detector

I'm not sure where it came from but looked homemade and was already old when I had it. I think it was my Dad's when he was a kid in the 1930's.

I made a crystal radio in the early 70's , did not need batteries and I used to use it to listed to the story's on the radio on a Sunday morning. Hahah that's for another thread , bad jelly the witch, flick the little fire engine etc

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding : Ice cream man , Ice cream man

Rikkitic

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#1541443 25-Apr-2016 08:25

Geektastic:

I'm starting to expect a thread in which we discover that your first car was a Model T and you met Eddison in person.

Don't worry, that's coming.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

SATTV

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#1541501 25-Apr-2016 10:21

My first radio was a 5 transistor radio that Mum and Dad bought back from Fiji duty free in 1974

Dad also bought back a better radio and it was powered and had short wave. I used to listen for hours and hours to international radio trying to find morse code etc. ( in hind site the radio did not have side band or Beat frequency oscillator no I never would have found any )

What Now said one day they had plans for a crystal set and I sent a stamped self address envelope to them and several months later got the plans, Dad and I got the parts from a radio repair shop in Hamilton and we made the crystal set, I could get three radio stations, 1ZH, radio Waikato and National radio, All three transmitters were probably less than 5 km from home as the crow flys.

The next gadget we made was a loop antenna to improve weak AM signals, ( basically a 16 turn wire loop on a wooden frame with a variable capacitor ) it worked amazingly well, when my grandfather had a stint in waikato hospital and he was the only one who could get a decent radio recepton, he recons I could have sold a few up there but they put in a piped radio system not longer after.

I loved radio and still do, I have had several radios to do different things over the years, I would love to space doe decent antenna's as a radio is only as good as it's antenna.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

littleheaven

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#1541568 25-Apr-2016 11:55

Mspec:

I made a crystal radio in the early 70's , did not need batteries and I used to use it to listed to the story's on the radio on a Sunday morning. Hahah that's for another thread , bad jelly the witch, flick the little fire engine etc

Michael Jackson reading ET! And a bunch of seriously depressing ones like The Snow Goose, The Happy Prince, and Watership Down (which I am still traumatised about today). Sorry, off topic, but oh the nostalgia :o)

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#1542179 26-Apr-2016 13:24

My first radio was a crystal set which I made at boarding school in the 60's. I used the woven bed springs as the aerial. Used to listen to the space program in the early morning hours under the bed sheets at boarding school. Remember listening to the 69 moon landing. Oh what fun. All very conspiratorial.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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geekiegeek

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#1542196 26-Apr-2016 14:01

First radio I had was at about age 12 in the 80s - no one else I knew had anything like it. My parents brought it for me in Singapore. (This is not the actual device)

littleheaven

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#1542267 26-Apr-2016 15:21

geekiegeek:

First radio I had was at about age 12 in the 80s - no one else I knew had anything like it. My parents brought it for me in Singapore. (This is not the actual device)

Aah, the 80's boombox. I hope you stood outside a girl's window in the rain, playing Peter Gabriel with it raised above your head. I had one that looked very similar. I used to love the little lit-up equaliser bars they'd put on them.

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Dulouz

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#1542289 26-Apr-2016 15:54

littleheaven:

geekiegeek:

First radio I had was at about age 12 in the 80s - no one else I knew had anything like it. My parents brought it for me in Singapore. (This is not the actual device)

Aah, the 80's boombox. I hope you stood outside a girl's window in the rain, playing Peter Gabriel with it raised above your head. I had one that looked very similar. I used to love the little lit-up equaliser bars they'd put on them.

That ain't a boombox, that's a ghettoblaster.

Amanon

littleheaven

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#1542292 26-Apr-2016 15:57

Dulouz:

littleheaven:

geekiegeek:

First radio I had was at about age 12 in the 80s - no one else I knew had anything like it. My parents brought it for me in Singapore. (This is not the actual device)

Aah, the 80's boombox. I hope you stood outside a girl's window in the rain, playing Peter Gabriel with it raised above your head. I had one that looked very similar. I used to love the little lit-up equaliser bars they'd put on them.

That ain't a boombox, that's a ghettoblaster.

You say potato, I say potahto :o)

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

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