The End of Hearing: radio implant working!

The first radio implant was a nice and handy mock-up. Recently, I reconsidered different ways of improving it and also making it work. It received an additional leg (the one coming out of a germanium diode) and is even smaller. But most importantly—it picks up radio signal. It is fixed tuned to 1073kHz (in London you'd hear talkSport radio on these wavelengths). With an amp, antenna and ground it is possible to listen to it using standard headphones.



I am planning to build one hundred of these working radio implants and give them as a reward to people who decide to give me feedback on my project. It will be an unusual opportunity to take away a piece of work shown in the gallery and also a small memento reminding of what my project is about—the emerging end of our hearing.

radio experiment #3

Having done both receiving and transmitting radio signals, I approached a more sophisticated design of a radio receiver with an MK484-1 AM radio integrated circuit, which became the heart of this experiment. I also used an antenna coil with a ferrite rod for tuning, a variable capacitor, a 100k and a 1k ohm resistors, a 0.01 and two 0.1 microfarrad capacitors, and a 1,5V battery. Finally, I also prepared three one-pence coins, which were used to integrate the circuit. To put all these components together I dug out an old Soviet solderer of my grandfather's.



Everything neatly fits into a nice clip-bag and receives 4-5 local AM radio stations.
Shortly after building this receiver I learned that this does not look good in ones hands on any means of transportation in London...

radio experiment #2

Having received a radio signal I wanted to build a transmitter and receive my first radio transmission. I found all necessary instructions at scitoys.com, which is an amazing repository of various interesting experiments that anyone can do using ordinary household rubbish.
Thus, I took on a challenge to build an AM transmitter.

On the contrary to the AM receiver from the radio experiment #1, I needed to use an additional source of power to run the transmitter. I also used some more advanced manufactured components, such as a crystal 3.6864 oscillator and a sound transformer. Last but not least, I needed content for my transmission, distinct enough to be recognised in the overwhelming aether noise and among many faded radio stations.

This is how my AM transmitter looks like.



With an amplified AM receiver and using separate wire antennas, and separate grounds I succeeded in receiving a faded signal. The further from the source of the transmission I moved, the fainter it got, but anyway—I sent it through the wireless, even though it all happened in one room.

Maybe using more power would increase the reception? Maybe the primitive wire antenna was impeding the transmission? Maybe I needed a different oscillator or a better receiver? All this might be solved in next experiments.

radio experiment #1

After coming back from my holidays in Poland and finishing my dissertation, which pushed my interest towards radio communication, I decided to see for myself what radio really is. I decided that my first step would be to build a radio receiver made from really basic parts—most of which one can find in every household. So I used an empty bottle, a crayon, some copper enameled wire, a headphone (which could be an ordinary telephone headset as well), two pieces of copper cables, two wooden clips and a germanium diode, which was the only professional component that I needed.

The outcome of the experiment looks impressive and so does it work. I managed to receive 2-3 radio stations with it depending on the time of day. Most frequently however, I listened to talkSport at 1053 / 1089 AM in east London. Remarkably, the signal is strong enough, that I did not need to use a ferrite rod to improve its quality and legibility. Well done for myself!



Just before taking this photo above, I happened to receive a strange beeping signal from my neighbourhood. It sounded like a coded transmission. I received that with a shortened coil, which is shown in the photo. What could that be???