A few years ago, I decided to try assembling my own crystal radio. This is a style of radio that needs no power source…no batteries and no plug-in! It’s such a cool part of radio history and technology.

I picked up a diode, some magnet wire, some random copper wire for an antenna, a high impedance earphone, and threw in a resistor (which is not necessary). I sketched a simple blueprint, made a coil around an empty shampoo bottle, fixed everything on a board, ran the antennae out the window, and, viola—I was able to tune in a few stations.

This was a simple and fun project, and I highly recommend it for kids!

Dignum memoria…in an emergency (or just for fun), a high impedance earpiece can be made by using the speaker in a microwave! Here’s someone’s video outlining one way to do it.

Check out the second iteration here: crystal radio II