I’ve built AM crystal sets before back in the 80s. Fine if you have the space and materials for a high up long wire antenna or something. But absolutely hell if

I’ve built AM crystal sets before back in the 80s. Fine if you have the space and materials for a high up long wire antenna or something. But absolutely hell if you have any local noise sources. I actually had a large inverted V trapped dipole on my property which could be persuaded to tune up on AM broadcast with some effort and pick up all sorts. But ugh you need a decent noise blanker or nulling device unless you live in the middle of nowhere. Add a couple of transistors and some discrete components and you can build a fairly decent FM receiver instead of a crystal set which performs adequately with a couple of metres or so of wire taped to a bamboo garden cane.