Member Amyotte's reflex radio post has piqued my interest in building 1920's-style radios again. I'd like to build one myself, but I'd like to make it as close to 1920's authentic as possible (sans DCC magnet wire wire which seems to be practically unobtanium). Unfortunately, commercial fixed crystal detectors from that era seem to be scarce and expensive, and adjustable types are a bit touchier than I would like fora circuit of this sort. Does anybody know of any vintage plans/instructions for how to build a simple and inexpensive fixed or semi-fixed detector that would work well in a 1920's reflex circuit? Perikon is out, BTW, based on the expense of zincite crystals . Would prefer not to go carborundum, either, as it needs a separate bias battery and potentiometer (and I have heard they aren't particularly sensitive, either).

You should look at Dave Schmarder's site: http://makearadio.com/crystal/index.php

Don't rule out Perikon. I found some zincite and occasionally make some detector "rocks."



You will find a lot more on homebrew crystal radios on other sites dedicated to crystal sets, such as Mike Peebles and Midnight Science.


http://makearadio.com/links.php

Rich

Rich - I ran across a couple of Radio Hookup Books on the net. Don't recall where. The 2 I have are 101 Radio Hookups and 150 Radio Hookups in DjVy format. The DjVu viewer is free and like a PDF reader. There are lots of radio schematics with a good explanations of the parts needed.

PM me your email and I will send them to you if you want.

You can find those, plus a lot more docs, here http://silverslingshot.com/ They're PDF and in the lower right list titled "Great OLD Radio Reference Books."

However the link to "150 Radio Hookups" is mistytped as 150radiohookupseless.pdf
Use http://www.silverslingshot.com/PDFFILES/150radiohookups.pdf

There is also a google docs link (can download from there) to a 1922 book "1920's Home Radio" (How to Make and Use It)

Note that he also has Rider & Beitman's Manuals

Thankyou - not the place I was looking for for the downloads I have - but even more to look at.

This site http://www.tuberadio.it/docs.htm has the two you mentioned in djvu.