Introductory Disclaimer: I have not been paid for writing this article, and I own the radio being reviewed.
Scenario: The world has gone mad, it is now TEOTWAWKI and it’s just not a pretty picture folks. And if that wasn’t bad enough, what with the power grid being down, looters and such, and some bozo declaring martial law effectively shutting down all radio, internet, and anything capable of receiving any information except what “THEY” want you to hear … hard to imagine? If you can find a holocaust survivor, or anyone who lived during WWII ask them if that sounds impossible.
There are just two rules one must follow. And if you do, then you will be much better off than those without rules.
Rule # One: Be Prepared. (The old Boy Scout motto). If you’re reading this article, then I need to go no further on this rule.
Rule # Two: See Rule # One.
How to analyze what to do, if you are prepared:
The Four “C’s” help you to fix and deal with a situation when it arises. A big thank you to Dave, at Dave’s Auto Repair, in Utah.
C = COMPLAINT
C = CAUSE
C = CORRECTION
C = CONFIRM
So, what does this mean? Let’s use the situation listed above, it’s well and truly hit the fan, and you just want to know what is happening. Even a simple crystal radio would be a great help just to be able to listen to whatever is out there being broadcast. There’s some comfort in hearing another human voice in times of duress or stress.
Complaint: It’s gone wild west, and the bozo farm has opened all the gates, and the crazies are in charge. “They” have shut down all internet, no ham radio or radio transmissions of any kind are allowed under penalty of death, and I really need to find out what is going on.
Cause: who knows, who cares at that point? It’s been a week, few weeks, maybe months and no one seems to really know what is happening, if anything positive at all. What we really need is the ability to tune into radio broadcasts from whoever is able to transmit. Granted it most likely will be “somebody” we’d rather give a dose of 7.62mm NATO to than someone we really trust and care about; but even the bad guys can be giving information that may be helpful even though the main message is nothing more than bovine fecal content. You may not want to transmit just to keep from getting shot, but it sure would be nice to have ears on a stick …right?
Correction: Franzis Verlag of Germany makes a one-tube regenerative radio kit. There are a lot of radio receivers out there and this example is just one of those many options available. So, why build this one? In its basic form, as supplied by mailorder from Germany, it is an inexpensive kit. An unbuilt kit costs roughly $75 (FRNs). Or, if you’re lucky like me, I paid just a one-ounce of .999 silver round, from an estate sale. Back then, silver was below $30 per ounce.
(NOTE: There may now be tariffs and shipping costs as the supplier is from Germany.)
With the addition of an earpiece (a modification to the radio) and four AA batteries, and one 9-volt battery that can be recharged using something like a small portable battery bank and solar panel, a length of wire that you can wrap on a thread spool and a length of ground wire and you can have a radio that weighs less than two pounds, and is wicked sensitive in use.
For ordering, see the Eight Innovation/Reichelt company website. Note that the currently-produced model has a different-looking front panel, but the function is identical to my kit.
Here are some specifications from the Franzis manual that comes with the kit:
Below 4 MHz is the 75 meter band, which is missing on many shortwave radios. Here, you can find a few interesting stations in the evening. The 49 m band at 6 MHz is densely occupied with numerous European stations. Some frequencies are used successively by different stations. The 41 meter band above 7 MHz is used heavily only in the evening. In the 31 m band around 10 MHz and in the 25 m band around 12 MHz, distant stations are often heard. Often, non-European stations can be received. Between the broadcast bands, there are numerous stations in CW (Morse telegraphy), SSB (single sideband talk radio), RTTY (radio teletype) and weather fax (picture radio). All these stations can only be heard with feedback [BFO function] on. This radio excels at this type of reception. As for the antenna, a 20’ to 30’ length wire and a ground wire are all that is needed for good reception. A very light copper wire could be wound on an old thread spool for easy storage, or one can just keep the antenna up and use it.
There are several YouTube videos as well, but I did not find one that really went into much depth about the radio itself. I may have to make one and post it on my channel.
Confirm: As stated earlier, I bought this kit from an estate sale, the seller was someone I knew, and at the time neither one of us knew what it was worth. The person selling the estate was not a radio nut like me, the package was never opened, and I thought maybe I could barter for it. I offered one ounce of .999 silver round for it, and they were happy to make the trade. This was a few years ago so I suspect that I got the better end of the deal at the time … but if they kept that round then they now have made a good profit. Either way, I’m happy with the radio and had a lot of fun building it.
Over the 50 + years I’ve been involved in ham radio I’ve built a lot of kits as well as built gear just from the schematics and this kit was, for me, an easy two-evening build. The schematics are typical German format, and there is one area which initially caused me some issues regarding wiring up the 6-volt supply. But just a few minutes at my bench and a deeper look into the directions / schematic and I was able to figure out the problem. There isn’t a problem with the kit or the schematics, it’s just the way things were translated into English that caused me to miss a connection. But once I figured it out, it made me wonder why I had not seen it in the first place.
As I said, this hobby kit is an easy build if you have basic soldering skills, some basic hand tools such as flush cut wire cutters, needle nose pliers, and if you take your time.
The main printed circuit board is a small unit, but clearly and well-detailed printing for the location and polarity of the components. Read the instructions carefully and do not be in a rush. This is important because the board is populated closely, so that demands that you keep your solder joints clean and that you do not make any inadvertent bridges in the solder work.
(To be concluded tomorrow, in Part 2.)
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