A Day Wasted?

Well, I certainly hope not. Most of my day was spent waiting for an incoming paycheque, which would enable me to go to Princess Auto and pick up a desoldering kit and a few other knick-knacks. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't find a desoldering kit, so I was kinda screwed. Since I can't really move forward very much in terms of my vivisection, I decided to do some research instead.

During my crit session with Patrick, he showed me some alternate plans for making a crystal radio.

Simple Crystal Radio

FM Crystal Radio

The FM Crystal radio is intriguing because I thought, as the blog says in the intro, that and FM crystal radio was impossible to make. The fact that it can be made is interesting because it means that I can use both AM and FM radio waves to construct my radio wave power system. Well, hopefully anyway.

Fancy Crystal Radio

This is the original crystal radio that I found. I think it looks really amazing, and I still want to build one. I think that I will, but I might make the one that's simpler first, so that I can learn a bit more before I rush headlong into building a complex radio set. However, if I do make this kind of radio, I want to use a clear panel on the front instead of a black one so that you can see all the guts while it's working. Really, isn't it just more interesting that way?

Short Wave Radio Kit

After reading the Shortwave Uberthread on the General Bullshit forums on Something Awful, I am very interested in what I can find scanning around the short wave radio frequencies. For only 30 bucks, it's not a bad deal, so I think I'll be ordering one up right away.

AM Transmitter for Your i-Pod

This one is really cool because I am also very interested in creating radio waves. This one can be made to transmit AM radio waves to about a block away, which is fairly decent for such a small unit. I think I'd like to make something like this and then stick it in an Altoids tin and carry it around with me, or use it in the car. Illegal? Yes. Fun? Definitely.