Pack 57 Buffalo Den Crystal Radio Project
Several years ago as a Cub Scout parent I came up with a project for the Scouts to build crystal radios. We did this when the boys were Bears.
A popular project from decades past it works only off the energy provided by the radio waves, it still seems magical to me but would it command the same attention of the boys with today’s high tech toys? I would say it worked quite well. So at the suggestion of some, I’m putting this out via the wonders of the high tech internet of today so people can enjoy the high tech of years gone by.
Once assembled, the radio does a good job of picking up strong AM broadcast stations here in the Chicago suburbs. It is not very selective meaning you will hear more than one station if there are multiple strong stations in your area as there are in the Chicago area.
There are many ways to approach this project. In a more traditional approach, building each part of the radio could be done over a series of den meetings. I had no convenient way to store all the parts so this project is designed to be assembled by the boys in about one hour with parents help. To do this, some of the parts need to be set up ahead of time. The instructions in part 1 are made with my non-electrically inclined co-leaders in mind on how to set this up for a den meeting. Parts used are meant to be readily available and sources are provided. Part 2 is meant to be handed out at the meeting as instructions for assembly by a Cub Scout and adult assistant.