RADIO ANTENNA CHECKER

With the information on this page, I make the crystal radio antenna checker. It is very easy to make (see the photo). What you need is 2 germanium diode and the cristal earphone (or amplifier with the usual headphone).

The heating pipe is the best antenna in my room. I can listen the radio signal even when the checker doesn't touch the pipe. The window flame works well, too. I can hear faint signals with the shoe rack (metal), the kitchen fan's cover and the umbrella (strongly directional).

Don't try things which is connected to the outlet. The resuly is just noise, and there is the possibility of electrical shock. Also, it is better to avoid the raining or thundering day.

I did the sound walk with the antenna in the NYU area. Here is my un-scientific impression of my 1st sound walk experience. (I try to dig more sometime soon. . . ) The result is so fun. The light pole and the telephone pole work well, and sometime you can experience the signal when the car with a radio is running near you. It seems the electrical wire over the head is related with the signal. I found sometime I get the signal where I can't find anything related to the siganl. (Might be there is the elctrical wire in the ground.)

(2007.Nov)