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Building your own radio tutorials can
be found all over the internet I'm sure. In my opinion,
this is best, fastest and cheapest way. With this walk-through
you will be able to build your own radio and change
stations without using any batteries or extra power
sources.
All parts we will need:
-Bottle (Peroxide,
rubbing alcohol or saline solution bottles all work)
-Pen or pencil
-About 50ft. wire (coated
wire such as vinyl or enamel. 18 to 22 gauge. You can
find it in dead devices)
-Germanium diode (or
silicon diode. $1.50 at Radio Shack for a pack of 10)
-Alligator clips (optional
but nice to have)
-Telephone handset (check
your basement, or yard sales)
-Wire for antenna (optional,
about 50 to 100ft. The longer the better)
Take your bottle and make
two holes on the top and two holes on the bottom. A
nail would work. I used a screw driver.
Make the holes around 1/2
to 1" apart from each other. like this:
Now take your wire and thread
it through the top to holes so that about 8" is
left on one end.
Take the longer piece of
wire and start wrapping the wire around the bottle,
keeping it good and tight. After ever 5 turns, make
a loop with the wire. Use the pen to do this with.
Continue winding another
five turns, and another little loop.
Until you reach the end.
Once at the end, thread the
wire through the bottom holes in the bottle. Again,
leaving about 8" sticking out.
Now strip off the wire coding
from the ends that are sticking out.
Strip off the wire coding
from the loops as well, these loops are called "taps".
You can use sandpaper or a sharp knife (I used a sharp
knife). Do not strip off the coding from the wire that
goes around the bottle.
So now you have two 8"
wires sticking out that are stripped and loops that
are stripped. The top 8" wire will be the ground
wire.
Now take your diode and attach
it to the bottom 8" wire. You can just twist it
on and tape it, but I soldered mine. Take a piece of
wire and attach it to the other side of the diode. Again,
either taping it or soldering it.
Hook up the bottom wire (ground)
to a cold water pipe or something that has good ground.
You could even get a metal pole and stick it in the
ground. However you can get that wire grounded, it's
going to work.
To hook up your antenna,
just use an alligator clip (it's easier) to one of the
rings. This wire will be the antenna. You can hook it
into rabbit ears, or just get a very long coated wire
to string up as high as you can. String it across your
roof or into a tree.. The higher and longer the better.
Now take your phone handset
and strip off the end connection. Hook one of the wires
to the ground, and the other to the bottom wire (with
the diode).
As you can see here, I just
took out the phone speaker and soldered it onto two
alligator clips to make it easier. I am also going to
put this speaker inside the bottle soon (I'll update
pictures). I also covered up the diode connection with
heat wrap to make it look 'clean'. You could also use
electrical tape for this.
To change stations, just
move your alligator clip to a different ring.
(If you need a
diode and don't want to buy a whole pack, I'll send
you one for .50c)
Now you can hear Russian
Spy's.
Related Links:
Eavesdropping
on cordless phones
Burke~
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