Home Radios Crystal Radios Kits Crystal Detector Kits Brass Kits Brass Binding Posts Rotary Switch Brass Brass Galena Cups Parts Electronics Operation History About Us The Crystal Radio Check Out These Sites! The Crystal Radio is a very simple AM band receiver popular in the early days of radio. The receiver gets all of its power from radio waves picked up by a long wire antenna and does not need batteries or household current. The simplicity of the Crystal Radio design made it an ideal vehicle for the expl
To rural area farmers and ranchers, the homemade crystal radio became a prized source of information about markets, weather and news. In urban areas, for the first time in history, large groups of people were instantly aware of events taking place in their home town and around the world. As late as World War II, soldiers in the field were using their razor blades to construct what became known as the ‘Foxhole Radio’ to listen to radio broadcasts for information and entertainment.
The Crystal Radio was developed in a time when something being called ‘store bought’ was still a novelty; a time when most people were of mind that, if you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself. The neat, clean, colorful, and pristine plastic forms that comprise today’s electronic marvels were still years in the future. Nobody knew what a radio was supposed to be made of, what it was supposed to look like, or how it was supposed to perform.