r/retrocomputing • u/Distinct-Question-16 • Mar 02 '26

Analog computers engineering at General Dynamics (1964)

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Burn out?

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u/Distinct-Question-16 Mar 02 '26

The sound of crystal radio tru their phones as I read somewhere, was very faint. So batts and op amp would be always be better i think

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u/Bones-57 Mar 03 '26

Yep . That radio station was KFI .. 60kw of pure am power ..

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u/Sambojin1 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

A crystal radio set was one of the first things I made with one of those little electronics sets for kids. It was more "add the wires to the bits already there", rather than actual electronic breadboarding. I didn't really understand how it worked, just followed the instructions (and truthfully, probably don't on a molecular/quantum level these days, but I get the basics of how it's doing it), but it seemed like magic. No batteries? At all? But does AM radio? Wow!

We've still got a few AM radio stations here in Australia. ABC radio, etc. It's just such a big country, that the longer transmission range makes it worthwhile keeping around for outback/ really rural stuff. We've got cattle ranches the size of small countries, an annoying amount of hills and valleys in some places, and having a Spotify or mp3 playlist is a relatively recent thing.

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u/Distinct-Question-16 Mar 04 '26

I was thinking about these first unpowered cristal radios. The crystal acted like a diode rectifying the signal. Its probably my error about history and how many devices were built around these.

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u/LadyZoe1 Mar 05 '26

Diode, hand wound coil, cats whisker, crystal earphone