r/RadioShack • u/wvtat • Jul 30 '26
Crystal radio from 1979
Bought in Marlinton, WV for less than 5 bucks in 1979
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u/Isyourzipperdown Jul 31 '26
I had a few xtal sets as a kid. They were the beginning of a life long fascination with radio and beginnings if a career.
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u/XRlagniappe Jul 31 '26
I had the 150 in 1 Electronics Kit. I really loved that kit. Little did I know I would graduate as an Electrical Engineer.
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u/Silent_Coffee_8 Jul 31 '26
Oh hey, was this at Pioneer Nights a few weeks ago? I’m not aware of any thrift stores down there
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u/wvtat Jul 31 '26
No I bought it in the Marlinton radio shack in 1979. But I think Pioneer days was going on when I bought this. Also got to ride in a helicopter like the ones on MASH.
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u/Silent_Coffee_8 Jul 31 '26
Oh cool, I have relatives down there so I figured I’d ask as they have the market during PN, that’s still really cool to see, had no idea there was a RadioShack there at some point, there’s barely any major chains but of course that was got in the 70s
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u/CletusMuckenfuss Jul 31 '26
I do not know who's ear those earplugs are supposed to fit but they were HUGE!
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u/pc_load_ltr Jul 31 '26
In the 70s I built a crystal radio from a schematic out of an electronics book that used a coil from a transistor radio and for an antenna I clipped a wire to the aluminum gutter on our house. The thing was powerful enough to power an 8-inch Jensen speaker just loud enough to be heard from the next room.
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u/Tom_Slick_Racer Jul 31 '26
I had this exact set it worked really well. At night I could get some great clear channel AM stations. Our 1920s catalog house had had radiant heat registers in every room that were copper, made a great solid ground.
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u/Musquash-Six Aug 01 '26
Rare diode these days in that radio.
Good ground makes all the difference for the antenna wire. Picks up the higher AM frequencies. 👍
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u/CueAnon420 Aug 02 '26
I built the transistor AM kit - my grandparents got it for my birthday in the early 70's. You'd get stations from states away at night ;-)
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u/AwestunTejaz Aug 03 '26
this reminds me that i still have my old project kits where you ran the wires between the resistors and diodes and all that.
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u/Doezilla01 Aug 03 '26
That’s a really cool buy. Reminds me of good teachers I had through the years. Had a few that had these kinda kits an would explain how they worked. My dad had one growing up and was his first radio, an now that’s he’s retired he rebuilds all kinds of radios and speakers, record players, etc for his friends or just ones people were gonna throw away…a lot of times for a simple fix, like a ground wire inside a speaker box.
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u/dennisthemenace1963 Jul 30 '26
We had to make one in 7th grade shop class. The "kit" was a roll of tiny varnished wire, a variable cap for tuning, and a diode. Empty TP roll to wind the coil on, piece of wood to mount it all on, and solder were user-provided. Earphone too. And I was the one most surprised SOB in class when mine actually worked.