The End of Hearing: building the implants #1

Apart from the Otomoxer, I need to build a number of working radio implants. This is the physical part of the "Voices inside my head" story, where a possibility of having a radio receiver implanted into the cochlear nerve is discussed.

I ordered sixty germanium OA91 diodes, which proved to work well before. Apart from that I need capacitors and induction coils.



Although previously I had managed to tune in to talkSport at 1089 kHz, the signal was rather weak. This is because I had picked the value of the capacitance imprecisely. Later on I managed to tune in to BBC radio 5 at 909 kHz. I used a pair of 390 pF ceramic capacitors (joint capacitance = 780pF) and a 39 uH inductance coil. This makes the circuit resonate at 912 kHz—almost precisely at the wavelength of BBC 5!

I will assemble 50 "BBC radio 5" receivers and 10 "talkSport" receivers. I hope all these will work in the Rochelle School during the show. One of my concerns is the roof, which is made of tin-clad. This might hinder the reception. Another issue is the antenna—should I organise a more professional one, or stick to the simple wire, which has been working to a better or worse extent all the time now?