# Gotta love those crystal radios (blackout story) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470 "2003-08-15T22:22:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/1 "2003-08-15T22:22:21Z")
I had no battery powered radios to get me through the over 24 hours of power outtage I sat through. My only solution: A crystal radio I was able to assemble in my basement (okay, technically diode based). I was able to get in CFRB NewsTalk 1010, a Toronto based station, completely clearly. I didn’t have any of those special low-impedance headphones, but a transducer from a telephone headset worked perfectly. I never would’ve thought I genuinely have a need for a crystal radio in this day and age! ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/2 "2003-08-15T23:44:42Z")
YES! I figured I’d try to help you make this look like a question ---
**Author:** ![NutWrench](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nutwrench/32/20193_2.png) [@NutWrench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutWrench)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/3 "2003-08-16T01:43:53Z")
Spiffy! ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/4 "2003-08-16T01:46:41Z")
Yes…I suppose this should’ve been under IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/5 "2003-08-16T01:48:13Z")
My girlfriend was saying we ought to get a Grundig hand-cranked short-wave radio for emergencies back _before_ the blackout and I’m afraid I giggled at her extensively. Now she is able to say “I told you so, _NOW_ can we get the radio?” Umm, yeah, this thread has MPSIMS written all over it. ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gotta-love-those-crystal-radios-blackout-story/195470/6 "2003-08-17T08:28:59Z")
How about a charcoal-powered thermocouple radio. Then you can also cook all the warm meat in your dead fridge. Did you use just a diode? Or did you make a coil and tuning capacitor? Crystal radio trivia: the resonator is not just a filter which eliminates unwanted stations. It also causes radio waves of a particular frequency to bend towards the antenna, so the antenna actually intercepts more energy than it otherwise would. (With Yagi television antennas the extra elements do something similar, but with a crystal radio, the tuner makes the antenna act as it’s own “director” element.) Stick a diode and headphones on an antenna and ground, and you hear almost nothing. If the tuner was just a filter, wouldn’t you hear all possible stations? It doesn’t work that way. But add a tuner and you can make a single station very loud. Adding an LC circuit increases the “effective aperature” of short antennas.