As Sverre Holm (LA3ZA), a Norwegian ham radio man once wrote "These tins are inexpensive, well shielded, easy to work with, and least but not least they enable you to make experimental circuits that are sturdy enough that they can be reused later." His blog is here. I found a fellow who made a QRP kit in an Altoids tin the series of 5 videos is on Youtube. I've embedded the whole series below.
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I'd been coming across vintage ads for crystal radio sets (no batteries or transistors) and wondered if a decent small one could be built -- some of the ads were for wrist radios. From my memories of these things (from around 1960), the small ones were about the size of a pack of cigarettes, required an alligator clip and an ear phone, had poor reception and low volume; the larger ones that were assembled at home from hobby kits had better reception, and one expensive kit added some kind of amplifier for a speaker.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that this might also be a decent radio for an emergency kit (they still plan to broadcast emergency instructions via AM, don't they?)
Here are a couple of those vintage ads from comics. I think you'll enjoy them:
Dick Tracy Wrist Radio (No Batteries, No Electricity, No Tubes)
http://monstersizeghost.blogspot.com/2013/01/dick-tracy-wrist-radio.html
Amazing Wrist Radio (Receives Broadcasts Up To 50 Miles)
http://monstersizeghost.blogspot.com/2012/02/amazing-wrist-radio.html
(If you right-click on the ad and open it in a new tab, you'll get the full size, and can save it for your files.)