Tommy Tootles wrote:
D Peter Maus wrote:

When I was a kid I used to hook up a high fidelity amplifier and
speakers to a crystal set. With no limit on the bandwidth local
stations sounded great.

I tried that, as well. I didn't have a standalone stereo, or high
fidelity mono, system. But I did have a portable phonograph by
Travler. I put the headphone output of the crystal set into the top of
the volume pot on the phonograph. The impedances were close enough
that it worked pretty well.

Of course that was when stations were required to maintain a pretty
high standard of performance, and bandwith was 50-15k. That made a
huge difference.


Now THAT was some fine listening.

I discovered the same thing when I was restoring a loose coupler crystal
set from the early teens.

Even using some hi-Z magnetic headphones, I was startled by how
"transparent" the sound was.

I guess this is why Heathkit offered a "hi-fi" AM tuner that was a
crystal set (albeit a crystal set with a bit of selectivity).



If you can keep the batteries up, or power from one of the fairly
readily avialable battery recharger/replacement supplies, you can get
the benefits of wideband with selectivity using a TRF like an
A****er-Kent, Freshman, Sun or similar. Takes come careful matching, and
you have to keep the tubes fresh, but it sounds REAL good into a decent amp.

There is a chip...I forget the designator...but it replaces the ZN414
family....an AM TRF on a single chip, running off a single AA cell. It
will run a month, non stop, on a single cell.

A GREAT tuner for AM listening. If you can find an AM station that's
not covered up with digital hash these days.

In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Damn...that goes back some. My first radio was a Remco crystal set.

From there it was a crystal radio made by Bell Manufacturing in St
Louis under the Futura brand.

Then a Trancel 8 transistor. Followed by an onslaught of AM
transistor radios.

The first shortwave was a Hallicrafters S-53A. Followed in short
order by my grandfather's Hammarlund BC-794 (Super Pro).

The Halli, I gave to a kid who's father I worked with to start his
own swl hobby.

The Super Pro got a recapping, and sits on the desk next to my
RX-350, and an assortment of hundreds of others.


It got out of control pretty fast. And thank God, stayed out of
control.
Me too. Mine was a blue color not black but otherwise looked just like
this one.
http://www.peeblesoriginals.com/vintage/Remco-crystal-radio.jpg

Yep, that was it. Mine was blue, too. Still have it somewhere.


My Dad made a sloping wire antenna out the back window. I could pick up
a number of stations very well with it.

I made some minor mods to it to sharpen up selectivity. I was
kind of surrounded by 50k blowtorches, so it was easy to be overwhelmed
by a single signal. My grandfather showed me how to pad the input to
bring some of that overload under control.


Later on I bought a radio kit with a crystal mounted in a piece of lead
for one contact and it had a Cat's whisker contact for the other side.
You had to find a "hot spot" on the crystal for the radio to work, which
was a spot were the crystal operated as a diode. That made it a
challenge to get it working at first because you had to have the radio
tuned to a station and find the crystal "hot spot" to get anything.


I built one of those in the Cub Scouts. Got tired of it pretty
fast, and went straight to the two tube set in the Lions (or was it
Webelos) handbook. That didn't last too long after my mother ran over it
with the Kirby. I was listening to it at the time. She did a lot of ****
like that, too. She killed more model airplanes than Von Richtofen's.
Average life of a modelling project at my house from the time I opened
the box, was about as long as it would take her to go to the closet and
get out the vacuum cleaner.

The S-53A was too big to get into the beater bar. That's when it
finally ended.

Sounds like you had a rough childhood.



Ummmm....it was less than pleasant, yes.



When I was a kid I used to hook up a high fidelity amplifier and
speakers to a crystal set. With no limit on the bandwidth local stations
sounded great.



I tried that, as well. I didn't have a standalone stereo, or high
fidelity mono, system. But I did have a portable phonograph by Travler.
I put the headphone output of the crystal set into the top of the volume
pot on the phonograph. The impedances were close enough that it worked
pretty well.

Of course that was when stations were required to maintain a pretty
high standard of performance, and bandwith was 50-15k. That made a huge
difference.

I made a high fidelity tuner out of a table radio a few years later.
Took the audio directly out of the detector of an AA5, and ran it into
the Aux input of an amp out of a Philco hi-fi set. The speaker was a 12"
2 way from Radio Shack in 27cu.ft box I'd built in the basement.

Now THAT was some fine listening.

There was Olsen electronics stores in the area at the time. I bought a
nice mono solid state amplifier and power supply to drive it along with
speakers. I build the cases for the amplifier and speakers.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

Lindsay whatsher name is underage.She crashed her 2005 Marcedes Benz
car.The cops found Cocaine in her wrecked up car.Paris Hilton's
boyfriend wrecked her Bentley Contintal car.They ought to let me have
them high priced no damn good cars before they wreck em up.I don't drink
and drive,haven't wrecked a vehicle yet,since I first started driving in
1957.
Cooler! Paris,Cooler!
cuhulin

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
In article ,
D Peter Maus wrote:

Damn...that goes back some. My first radio was a Remco crystal set.

From there it was a crystal radio made by Bell Manufacturing in St
Louis under the Futura brand.

Then a Trancel 8 transistor. Followed by an onslaught of AM
transistor radios.

The first shortwave was a Hallicrafters S-53A. Followed in short
order by my grandfather's Hammarlund BC-794 (Super Pro).

The Halli, I gave to a kid who's father I worked with to start his
own swl hobby.

The Super Pro got a recapping, and sits on the desk next to my
RX-350, and an assortment of hundreds of others.


It got out of control pretty fast. And thank God, stayed out of
control.
Me too. Mine was a blue color not black but otherwise looked just like
this one.
http://www.peeblesoriginals.com/vintage/Remco-crystal-radio.jpg
Yep, that was it. Mine was blue, too. Still have it somewhere.


My Dad made a sloping wire antenna out the back window. I could pick up
a number of stations very well with it.
I made some minor mods to it to sharpen up selectivity. I was
kind of surrounded by 50k blowtorches, so it was easy to be overwhelmed
by a single signal. My grandfather showed me how to pad the input to
bring some of that overload under control.


Later on I bought a radio kit with a crystal mounted in a piece of lead
for one contact and it had a Cat's whisker contact for the other side.
You had to find a "hot spot" on the crystal for the radio to work, which
was a spot were the crystal operated as a diode. That made it a
challenge to get it working at first because you had to have the radio
tuned to a station and find the crystal "hot spot" to get anything.

I built one of those in the Cub Scouts. Got tired of it pretty
fast, and went straight to the two tube set in the Lions (or was it
Webelos) handbook. That didn't last too long after my mother ran over it
with the Kirby. I was listening to it at the time. She did a lot of ****
like that, too. She killed more model airplanes than Von Richtofen's.
Average life of a modelling project at my house from the time I opened
the box, was about as long as it would take her to go to the closet and
get out the vacuum cleaner.

The S-53A was too big to get into the beater bar. That's when it
finally ended.
Sounds like you had a rough childhood.


Ummmm....it was less than pleasant, yes.


When I was a kid I used to hook up a high fidelity amplifier and
speakers to a crystal set. With no limit on the bandwidth local stations
sounded great.


I tried that, as well. I didn't have a standalone stereo, or high
fidelity mono, system. But I did have a portable phonograph by Travler.
I put the headphone output of the crystal set into the top of the volume
pot on the phonograph. The impedances were close enough that it worked
pretty well.

Of course that was when stations were required to maintain a pretty
high standard of performance, and bandwith was 50-15k. That made a huge
difference.

I made a high fidelity tuner out of a table radio a few years later.
Took the audio directly out of the detector of an AA5, and ran it into
the Aux input of an amp out of a Philco hi-fi set. The speaker was a 12"
2 way from Radio Shack in 27cu.ft box I'd built in the basement.

Now THAT was some fine listening.

There was Olsen electronics stores in the area at the time. I bought a
nice mono solid state amplifier and power supply to drive it along with
speakers. I build the cases for the amplifier and speakers.


I loved going to Olson. Never knew what was on the floor. And you
could buy a box of crap for a few sheckles, and build amazing things
with it.

Good times.

D Peter Maus wrote:

I hope your mom drove a car better than she drove the Kirby. ;-)


She wasn't allowed to drive, after she t-boned a squad car in front of
the library. She was in an eggshell white '58 Impala convertible with
red leather interior, running a Corvette drive train with 2 4bbl Carter
WCFB's.


It's a long way from Pasadena...




mike

D Peter Maus ) writes:

There is a chip...I forget the designator...but it replaces the ZN414
family....an AM TRF on a single chip, running off a single AA cell. It
will run a month, non stop, on a single cell.

I'm pretty sure it's the MK484, though I can't remember who makes it, and
I've enver seen a good explantion of how it differs from the ZN414 (I assume
there must be some slight difference, or else the company might as well
have just second sourced the '414).

It works so well by having good AGC action, so you get lots of gain between
stations, and then when you're tuned to a station the AGC kicks in and makes
the single coil appear to have far better selectivity.

THe ZN414 came out in the early seventies, and obviously someone decided
there was enough demand to bring out the MK484. Yet in all this time,
I've never seen them actually used in a commercial device. Lots of hobby
circuits, and someone must be using them, but I've never seen them.

When tracking down the IC used in those $1.00 FM radios with the "scan"
and "reset" buttons, one schematic showed an AM section, using the MK484.
ANd that would make sense since it makes an AM receiver comparable with
the FM section, yet all I see are cheap FM only receivers.

Michael

"Panzer240" wrote in message
...
MIne was a secind hand Hallicrafters S-40B. My parents gave it to me for
christmas when I was 11 years old. Got my first call about two years
later,
back in the days you needed 10wpm. Built a Heathkit QF-1 for it when I
went
on the air using a Globe Chief + Heath VFO and the S-40. Actually did DXCC
with it befor egetting a "real" receover an SX-71 !!!

Ah those were the days LOL.



--
Panzer

I used a Drake 2NT with an external vfo as a transmitter and a Swan for rx
for my first ham rig. My first rx was a Knight Kit Star Roamer that I put
together. It was tough to finish, but oh so worth it to a 13 yr old in the
70s
B