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| photo via Nuts & Volts magazine |
Frank Hertel recounts the magic of hearing Ecuador on a cigar-box receiver
By Frank Hertel
Published: June 10, 2025
In this letter, the author responds to the story “Double-Hop Dreams and the Mystery of Long-Distance FM.” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
Thanks for a great article.
I was in school, possibly the seventh grade, in 1956—57. Not having any money, and as not many jobs were available for kids, my only personal radio was a crystal set. I was introduced to electronics by my older brother Johnny.
He was attending an electronics school and I followed his interest. Not knowing any theory at the time, I would try different ways of building crystal sets.
One hot summer evening, I was in our attic area and wound a random coil, a 1N34 Diode and a random variable capacitor. Once I connected a long wire horizontal antenna, about 40-ft. long. I could very faintly hear a signal that would fade in and out. A fading signal on a crystal set just gets quieter — no noise level like normal radios.
I suspected it to be a distant shortwave signal, but from where?
Additional story at: https://tinyurl.com/bdfbc3ks
