TheRadioBoard

Howdy. I thought it was about time that I posted a few photos of other projects. This is a very successful 'foxhole' set. The 'rock' used as a diode was found locally.



There are a few more photos here:

http://photobucket.com/unclereggie

The wooden box was picked up amongst some junk I bought from a farmer which included a whole heap of ex-military, wartime bits. It already had bolt holes in strategic places, so I speculated that it might have been at one time something very similar. I treated the whole thing with woodstain to 'age' the more modern parts in the restoration. I also wanted to keep the slightly 'rough and ready' look of the original and didn't waste too much effort in refinement.

interesting set
small question though, why the resistor? usually only needed for piezo phones and those look like regular 2K+ phones...

Aha. Well spotted. That's a bit of a 'hack' to be honest so that I can wire it up to other stuff. However, some (old) instructions advise the use of a 10k at that junction in any case.

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Okay, so I went over to your Photobucket page. Would like more info on "Temperence," and What The Heck Is Going On With "Rodney II" ??? Surprised Special Branch hasn't come calling to investigate that one!

73,

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http://kr1s.kearman.com/
http://qrp.kearman.com/

Hahahaha. Don't panic. Curious they may be, dangerous they're not. Temperence came from that same farmer I mentioned and began life as a military set which was ruined. Rodney II was a 1920's radio/gramophone. They were both 'enhanced' for the purposes of the novel. (There's a spin-off play and they both featured on stage. The 'men in black' were indeed very interested in Rodney! A moment where real science crosses into fantasy.)

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Hey Reg.

VERY nice looking set. I LOVE all the bits and pieces and the old cabinet.I'd say she's more of a "kluge" type set rather than a Foxhole though.

Foxholes generally are ultra primitive and will use a razor as a the det.

GREAT work !

K

I like the look and have most of the bits to hand ..can I have some more details .I have used a lump of coke in the past as crystal with a short length of enamel wire as tickler .What is the tuning condensor value ?

krystallo - Thanks. I think I knew that 'foxholes' use razors but it's a term that seems to get used these days to describe any cobbled together set made from bits.

pete_kaye - the plan came from the Ladybird Book "How to build a transistor radio" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Transistor-Radio-ladybird-make/dp/0721403247 The detector was fixed with copper wire to a piece of beer can, and the safety pin has a dressmaker's pin as the contact point. The tuner - I am not sure about. My whole approach is that of a 12 year old boy in the 1920's or 30's ...meaning: I poke about with whatever I can find until things work. (The copper wire around the cork serves no purpose other than strengthening it at the point it is screwed to the base!) I salvage lots of spare parts from dead radios and this tuner came from a cheap portable set. It has no markings on it, but it only had two contacts so it was simple to wire in. The bottle cap was glued to the original knob just for ease of use. In fact, the schematic is very basic but gives a very clear and strong reception. The aerial I used was just a 20 foot length of wire hanging out of the window (earth connected to the central heating pipe). My local station is 666Mhz and it seems to pick up faint stations either side of that.

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