Crystal Radio Kit 6 Examples
Crystal Radio Kit 6 includes the electronic parts to build a crystal radio kit. The rest of the build is up to your imagination. To get you started, here are two example ways to build the kit. These are minimal builds, feel free to lay things out using more screws, etc... Please keep in mind that not all the parts shown are included in the kit.
The first example is building the kit with no soldering required. Instead of soldering, we will use alligator clips to connect up the variable capacitor.
Materials required (not included in the kit):
4 inch square board. I used 5.5 inch in the example below because that's what I had handy.
3 - #6 wood screws (length shorter than the height of your board).
6 - #6 washers
3 - alligator clips
2 - 4 inch pieces of hookup wire
30 feet of antenna wire. Almost any non shielded wire will work. The longer the better.
10 feet of ground wire. Almost any wire will work.
Hot glue gun and glue sticks.
Drill
3/32 inch drill bit
Layout the components on the board to give yourself a rough gauge of where the screws will go.
Use the 3/32 inch drill bit to drill pilot holes for the wood screws.
Wind the coil per the instructions included with the kit.
Hot glue the coil and variable capacitor to the board. I've had very good results with hot glue providing an
easy and secure method to hold things in place.
Place 2 washers and a screw in each pilot hole. Screw them in a little but leave them loose enough for now to
place the components between the washers.
Using the photo below and schematic, place all the components.
Use the 2 short pieces of hookup wire to connect the coil to the appropriate screws on the board. Attach the
antenna and ground.
Tighten everything up. Use the alligator clips to attach the variable capacitor to the screws.
Per the schematic and photo below, both variable capacitor pins should be gripped by the alligator clips. Enjoy!
The next example is identical to the first example but the variable capacitor is soldered instead of alligator clips. It is built exactly as the above example just replacing a couple of wires soldered to the variable capacitor.
