Aluminum cans, have your favorite beverage and use the can. The variable section of the capacitor can be
aluminum foil or even a slightly larger diameter can.
Germanium diodes look like a ¼” tiny glass cylinder with a wire protruding from each end. This is the “crystal”
for the radio. They will have a colored band on one end. Look for these in old broken transistor radios. Below
left are a couple of diodes photographed with the classroom stereoscope. The below right picture is the inside of
a diode. The “cat whisker” is on the left and the mounted germanium crystal is on the right.
The best place to procure the earpiece is from an old style telephone, not any that are cordless or have built in
answering machines. The low impedance earpiece used with modern portable radios, tape players, and CD
players do not work alone unless you can salvage the impedance matching transformer from the electronic
device. Certain pizo-electric buzzers from computer modem cards work . Some are found to have a high enough
impedance to work in the crystal radio circuit. Two are pictured in the bottom, center in the below, right picture.
HAPPY HUNTING!
Project XTAL Radio – Pictorial Diagram
