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Back when radioshack existed they used to sell kits where you could assemble a crystal radio out of a handful of simple parts. This was the first real project

Back when radioshack existed they used to sell kits where you could assemble a crystal radio out of a handful of simple parts. This was the first real project my dad and I ever did and I was just a little kid at the time.

jayess 7y ago
Wow, that brings back some memories. I built one of those too. It was a crystal radio with no need for batteries. I used that little radio for years to listen in bed until I fell asleep.
yellowapple 7y ago
One of those kits ended up being a growing up story of mine, and a lesson in unchecked hubris. I was maybe 8-ish years old, and trying to follow the instructions to wire together a crystal radio with one of those Radio Shack electronics kits. My stepdad - who had only recently become such, and to my assumption at the time was just some dumb hick mechanic - volunteered to help me troubleshoot. Being the bratty child I was, and being frustrated by my inability to figure it out even with the "easy" diagram (let alone actual schematics, which might as well have been hieroglyphs to me), I snapped back at him "I'm ten times smarter than you!" and stormed off. Not 5 minutes later he calls me back in, triumphantly presenting a working crystal radio. Turns out my "dumb hick mechanic" of a stepfather was actually once upon a time a technician for Nakamichi, and specialized in fixing their receivers. That little crystal radio was trivial compared to the sorts of circuits he used to repair for his day job. That was 20 years ago and he still gives me shit for it, lol
- nate_meurer 7y ago
  This story just made my evening, thanks.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    Haha, thanks! The tables did turn on that more recently, when he was having trouble with his computer (an ancient-by-today's-standards Dell Optiplex running Windows XP); his power supply died, so I bought him a new one, but after he installed it he wasn't able to boot into Windows anymore. I figured maybe whatever blew the PSU also blew the hard drive (I've seen that happen before), so next time I was at his place he handed me the tower to take home and diagnose/rebuild. As he's handing it to me, it dawns on me, "Well wait just a second..." On the spot, I popped open the case, took a quick look at the hard drive, plugged in the Molex cable, put the cover back on, and handed it right back to him. Hearing the words "Alright fucker, we're even" made my week.

jayess 7y ago

Wow, that brings back some memories. I built one of those too. It was a crystal radio with no need for batteries. I used that little radio for years to listen in bed until I fell asleep.

yellowapple 7y ago

One of those kits ended up being a growing up story of mine, and a lesson in unchecked hubris. I was maybe 8-ish years old, and trying to follow the instructions to wire together a crystal radio with one of those Radio Shack electronics kits. My stepdad - who had only recently become such, and to my assumption at the time was just some dumb hick mechanic - volunteered to help me troubleshoot. Being the bratty child I was, and being frustrated by my inability to figure it out even with the "easy" diagram (let alone actual schematics, which might as well have been hieroglyphs to me), I snapped back at him "I'm ten times smarter than you!" and stormed off. Not 5 minutes later he calls me back in, triumphantly presenting a working crystal radio. Turns out my "dumb hick mechanic" of a stepfather was actually once upon a time a technician for Nakamichi, and specialized in fixing their receivers. That little crystal radio was trivial compared to the sorts of circuits he used to repair for his day job. That was 20 years ago and he still gives me shit for it, lol

nate_meurer 7y ago
This story just made my evening, thanks.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  Haha, thanks! The tables did turn on that more recently, when he was having trouble with his computer (an ancient-by-today's-standards Dell Optiplex running Windows XP); his power supply died, so I bought him a new one, but after he installed it he wasn't able to boot into Windows anymore. I figured maybe whatever blew the PSU also blew the hard drive (I've seen that happen before), so next time I was at his place he handed me the tower to take home and diagnose/rebuild. As he's handing it to me, it dawns on me, "Well wait just a second..." On the spot, I popped open the case, took a quick look at the hard drive, plugged in the Molex cable, put the cover back on, and handed it right back to him. Hearing the words "Alright fucker, we're even" made my week.