Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On Sun, 9 Mar 2025 04:55:42 -0400, c186282 wrote:

   Came across old diagrams - Quaker-Oats round boxes wrapped to form
   the antenna transformer/inductor, galena crystals, sharpened point
   contact you had to tweak around by hand looking for the 'sweet spot'.

My uncle had one he'd built as a kid, probably c. 1915, with the crystal
and cat whisker. By my time you used a 1N34, which took all the fun out of
it.

I spent a winter in AZ working my way through radio history. iirc it was a
ARRL publication on vintage radios. It's interesting what you can build
from junk laying around in the desert. Old shotgun shells make nice coil
forms and if you punch out the primer you have a handy way to screw them
to your breadboard. There was a RadioShack/Sears/Music store in Ajo for a
few 20th century components.