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???