Freedom to Play: We Made Our Own Fun

A RADIO MADE FROM A RAZOR BLADE

At age 14 I passed my Department of Transport exam, and became an active amateur radio operator. From that time on my friends and I built legitimate radio transmitters and receivers, often from scrounged, begged, traded, or adapted used parts, and talked with other hams all over the world. But the real fun days were those before we became licensed amateurs, when we built our crystal sets and spark coils. A RADIO MADE FROM A RAZOR BLADE When young John Fedoruk found instructions for building simple radios, he began making his own. One of the fun things to do when I was a boy was to make your own radio. Although I did not know how a radio worked I knew they did work. I built a number of them and listened to a number of the local radio stations. I did not have much tuning capacity so I was stuck with whatever the local station had on. For an antenna I used the clothesline and for ground I used a metal rod pounded into the ground. It was forty-five years later that I became a HAM, and you know I am still trying to figure out how radio works. 154 Freedom to Play Razor blade Safety pin Ant 120 turns 2 in form GND Razor Blade Radio, QST, 1944. Reprinted with permission of Steve Ford, Editor, QST. ...