CaveMan Radio - (well, kinda...)

Started by RadioRay, May 05, 2013, 01:10:47 PM

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RadioRay

I read apocalyptic novels every so often, so have something other than my usual reads.  In almost all of them, the big thing is EMP or solar flux wiping out all tech toys . . . well - First of all, if you've every traveled into the third world, one of the things that you'll notice after you've been there a while is the almost total lack of junk piles.  Oh - there is often trash around but not 'junk'.  No trashed TV sets, and other items.  Almost anything that can be used for something is in use. 

However, here in the good old USA we have junk piles galore!  As a kid, I used to build my radios from junked TV sets, because there were tons of then.  In today's surface mount world, it's a little more difficult, but it can still be done.  I think of all those 1960 - 1990 electronic wonders "preserved" under mounds of dirt, and I can see some enterprising soul digging them up, post EMP and building what he needs. Much of what's down there is often thrown out, not because it did not work, but because the owner wanted a new one. Alternators, the lead from old batteries . . . who knows.  We could make Baghdad batteries to run our home brewed stuff.  I see this not as a practical matter, but more as grist for the mill of those who write the pupl fiction of the prepper genre.


Taking it even further down the path of technology, there is THIS entertaining site.

http://sparkbangbuzz.com/copper-oxide-te/copper-oxide-gen3.htm

How about a reasonable substitute for a transistor, by using a strip cut from a galvanized bucket?  A microwatt transmitter that covers several miles - suitable to ground wave and community comms . . .  It's a great site and a good read for the science hounds in the group.

> de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

gil

Hence the need to keep a digital multimeter in a Faraday cage.. And radios... I am not knowledgeable enough to design one, but have been thinking about learning some basic schematics, even if I don't grasp all their subtleties. It can always be useful to know how to make a transmitter from junk parts.. One transistor or tube would suffice.. Hell, even a switch in some AC circuit might generate interference in the form of Morse code.. If you're calling for help, you don't necessarily need a receiver, just keep sending.. That said, all you need for a receiver is some wire, high impedance earphones and one diode or crystal.. Doesn't get much simpler than that.. Nothing someone can't remember easily. Every prepper should have those schematics memorized.

Gil.

KK0G

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G