Been off work with a nasty cold for part of this week so I have been pouring over a lot of old magazines on line and books on early radio construction. There are lots of circuits that vaguely list the parts required but how would a young radio nut know the size of the output transformers, capacitor values, the number of plates required on a variable cap for the tuners, resistance values, etc.
Trying to put my head in a 20's mode when everything is new and it ain't workin'.
Am I missing something?

Unless they were hams and knew their way around an inductance, constructors were pretty much interested in the broadcast band. Just about everything for sale would have been for that band: coils, variometers, tuning condensers, and so on. For a crystal set you wouldn't need much more, and there were plenty of articles telling you how to wind your own coils. As for tubes, there were only a few types and the most popular would have been '99's and '01A's, so most everything would have been supporting those types. Interstage transformers were all about the same. There were few loose components, maybe a grid leak that you could make if you were broke by drawing a heavy line on a piece of cardboard with a pencil, maybe a cap or two but you could even make those. Values weren't very critical. Boy experimenters lapped up how-to books and pamphlets and there were diagrams in the newspapers. They could make a pretty good set with a lot of it homemade.

The answer it´s that, in 20´s are not to much to chose. a few capacitors and resistors and triode lamps.
Only a band to leasen (OM).

From talking to the WW1 guys when I was a kid, it sounded like they could buy their parts at any drug store. Like was mentioned above maybe not many parts to choose from. They saved their console cabinates with the intention of building a radio to put in it "some day".

Check out this Bureau of Standards crystal set from 1922 which thousands built. A person could make a version of this buying almost nothing. At the least you'd need the wire, the crystal, and the headphones. All the rest of it could be improvised with screws and such from Dad's junkbox and an oatmeal box from Mom's kitchen. You didn't need binding posts: wood screws would do. Sometimes boys "borrowed" earphones, otherwise the most expensive part of the set, by unscrewing the caps and taking them from telephone receivers, thus reducing the cost of a set like this to a dollar or two.

http://www.crystalradio.net/crystalplan ... sb_120.pdf

I have been a great time going thru these mags and seeing simple circuits. I have decided to start with a simple 1 tube and work my way up like maybe a kid back in the 20's did. I have a few parts that I think I can do this with. Not sure but I may have found a new to me aspect of the radio hobby that I will have fun with. Even looking at winding my own variocoupler.

http://www.vacuumtubeera.net/RadioBroad ... azine.html

Thanks to Jon the Grimm for posting this link on another thread.

Congratulations on deciding to build some simple sets from the twenties and work your way up. That's the way a lot of us did it. It's really satisfying to hear a set that you made with your own hands, and the experience of making it work and trying different connections etc. is really valuable. Imagine some boy out on a farm without electricity in 1922 building a crystal set from a plan out of the newspaper, with a wire strung from the barn to the house, and hearing his first signals wide-eyed at the magic. "Mama! Daddy! Come here, quick!"

Hey All,

I agree with WR. A new TUBE radio could cost an average ONE MONTH'S salary (or MORE ! ) in the early 20's.Crystal sets were built by millions in those early days , bringing radio into the home for next to nothing.

The satisfaction of winding your own coil , installing the components with craftsmanship and thought and then getting rewarded with music from far away must have been a real thrill. Few people today have have such experiences, they just buy junk and throw it away when it breaks.

Although my son isn't really much of a "hands on" type now (due to his job), he DID build a crystal set for his school science fair, so at least he has HAD this experience in his life. At the last minute we couldn't get any reception OR build an antenna in the gym ,so I screamed back to the apt. and grabbed a "baby" AM transmitter and cassette player as a signal source. Whew ! I'll never forget it.He won second place for Boston city wide!

K

Kind of Surprised that Canada's version of Radio Shack, TheSource, sells magnet wire.

So does Radio Shack, in a 'combo' pack of 22, 26, and 30 gauge for 8 bucks.

We are getting hosed... $15 for the same thing
Bastards!!!!!!!!

As a kid, I harvested enameled copper wire for coils from old transformers of all types.