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Author Topic: crystal radio: the first real free energy device  (Read 74263 times)

pomodoro

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #45 on: February 28, 2015, 04:11:31 PM »
Since the current is in the microamp level, we are not asking much from the uranium. The question is if the electrons dislodged by alpha particles  can be made to flow in the direction of the RF current only, and they need to keep their energy. Simply dislodging  energetic electrons randomly might increase the conductivity of the galena but will amplify nothing. 
Bill, that site has cool chemicals, UO2 is dirt cheap. Strange how he has no thorium though.

profitis

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #46 on: February 28, 2015, 05:09:50 PM »
Pomodoro:'Simply dislodging  energetic electrons randomly might increase the conductivity of the galena but will amplify nothing.'

Might also be specific to where you prick on the crystal.the uo2 won't dissolve in the mass but rather disperse as colloidal entities.prick one section you might get a galena effect,prick another you might touch a uo2 particle and a galena at same time,maybe get a tri-fold transistor type whacko effect? Exciting 

Pirate88179

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #47 on: February 28, 2015, 09:53:56 PM »
At the mention of Radio Active material I was reminded of the boy who built a reactor out of smoke detectors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

I read the book about him called...(I think)  The Radioactive Boy Scout.  It was a very good read.  If memory serves, he salvaged Americium from 100 smoke detectors that be bought surplus.  He made a wave guide or target guide (or whatever you call it) out of lead and bombarded some uranium with the beta (or alpha?) particles focused by the lead.  In a few short weeks, the radiation levels being put out set off some gov. sensors a good distance away and the entire neighborhood had to be evacuated.

Anyway, it is a great book for anyone that like to read about science stuff.  That kid was obviously very smart....but careless.

Bill

Pirate88179

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #48 on: March 03, 2015, 03:31:50 AM »
TK:

I decided to use a large peanut butter jar at 3.8" dia.  I ran the numbers using your figure for capacitance for this larger diameter and, the answer I ended up with was 20 turns?  That seems like a very small number of turns.  Does the diameter really make this much difference?  I can re-run the numbers using a smaller gauge wire say like 28, which would require more turns I believe.  I will see what happens.

The cool thing about using a peanut butter jar (plastic) is that you can contain the entire radio circuit in side the jar with the windings on the O.D. and hook-up posts mounted in the plastic lid.  I saw someone else do this and this is the only thing I have of a larger diameter right now.

I am not too worried as I have those ferrite rods (.500 dia. x 6" long) that I can slide inside the jar from the top to lower the freqs. I can receive if I get too high.  I just did not think it would look good with only 20 turns.

I know, performance should trump looks...and I agree but...if I can do both that would be better.  I even have some 32 gauge mag. wire and can run the numbers again with that.

Thanks for your help.  As soon as I can afford a slinky, that will be my adjustable antenna.  Perhaps you should alert the Slinky folks about this new use for their old product?

Bill

Magluvin

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #49 on: March 03, 2015, 03:45:14 AM »
If we dont use a detector, can the circuit build higher voltages if let to do so? Just wondering. Seems that the transmitters send out quite a bit of high amplitude signals. Maybe some super fine tuning can produce more out.  Say if the tuned circuit is allowed to build, then take some when it reaches a predetermined higher level.

Mags

pomodoro

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #50 on: March 03, 2015, 09:00:39 AM »
The detector [diode) can charge a capacitor and you can then discharge it at will. The most power would be gained from no detector and a resistor as load across the tuning coil/cap. The value of the resistance for max power needs to be determined experimentally.

Pirate88179

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #51 on: March 04, 2015, 02:31:08 AM »
If we dont use a detector, can the circuit build higher voltages if let to do so? Just wondering. Seems that the transmitters send out quite a bit of high amplitude signals. Maybe some super fine tuning can produce more out.  Say if the tuned circuit is allowed to build, then take some when it reaches a predetermined higher level.

Mags

I was also thinking about something similar for later.  I can hook up my 650 F cap and let it charge for a long time....then use that stored energy.
Maybe I can add a switch and a small amplifier circuit (to run a small speaker) so, when the cap is fully charged, it can run the amp for a while, then switch back to reg. crystal radio power and let the cap charge up again?

Bill

Magluvin

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #52 on: March 04, 2015, 03:38:35 AM »
I was also thinking about something similar for later.  I can hook up my 650 F cap and let it charge for a long time....then use that stored energy.
Maybe I can add a switch and a small amplifier circuit (to run a small speaker) so, when the cap is fully charged, it can run the amp for a while, then switch back to reg. crystal radio power and let the cap charge up again?

Bill

Hey Bill

Was thinking, instead of taking from the tank every cycle via diode and load, let the tank build in potential before taking from it.  Hadnt made a crystal set in 30 years. So it interests me now, how high can that potential be in the receiver tank if left to do so without taking from it till it reaches some higher level. If we keep taking from it, the signal is damped every cycle.  So we make a set without the diode and see how high it can build, if it does.

I did a circuit on sim a while back where I had 2 loads being driven by a driven resonant tank. Each load was rectified with many diodes in series, one load for each cycle. The diodes provided a voltage drop so the low ohm loads only conducted what was left over after the diode drop. So there was some nice current into the loads without 'killing' of the higher level ring in the tank. I have to look through my codes for that circuit.

Mags

TinselKoala

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #53 on: March 04, 2015, 04:18:26 AM »
TK:

I decided to use a large peanut butter jar at 3.8" dia.  I ran the numbers using your figure for capacitance for this larger diameter and, the answer I ended up with was 20 turns?  That seems like a very small number of turns.  Does the diameter really make this much difference?  I can re-run the numbers using a smaller gauge wire say like 28, which would require more turns I believe.  I will see what happens.

The cool thing about using a peanut butter jar (plastic) is that you can contain the entire radio circuit in side the jar with the windings on the O.D. and hook-up posts mounted in the plastic lid.  I saw someone else do this and this is the only thing I have of a larger diameter right now.

I am not too worried as I have those ferrite rods (.500 dia. x 6" long) that I can slide inside the jar from the top to lower the freqs. I can receive if I get too high.  I just did not think it would look good with only 20 turns.

I know, performance should trump looks...and I agree but...if I can do both that would be better.  I even have some 32 gauge mag. wire and can run the numbers again with that.

Thanks for your help.  As soon as I can afford a slinky, that will be my adjustable antenna.  Perhaps you should alert the Slinky folks about this new use for their old product?

Bill
By a curious coincidence, I have an AM station broadcasting at 1480 kHz with its antenna just a few km from my house. The variometer-tuned crystal set in the picture below has 24 turns on the outer coil and 30 turns on the inner coil, and has a 95 picoFarad capacitor in parallel with the coil set. It tunes the 1480 kHz station perfectly at about the midpoint of the inductance range of the variometer.
The wire on the coil set is #30 Kynar-insulated silver-plated copper wire-wrap wire. The inner coil is 1 5/8 inch diameter and the outer is 3 inches. I use the Slinky antenna with another 100 pF capacitor in series with the antenna as a "matcher".

So yes, I think your capacitor-tuned set might work very well with just 20 turns on the large diameter former. You can always wind more turns and put taps in at 20, 30, 40 turns and see which works best. When you get to 20 turns, just make a "twisty loop" in the wire sticking up and continue winding. See the image of the capacitor tuned set below. Once you're finished winding you can strip the enamel from the "twisty loop" and attach a wire to it for the tap.

Pirate88179

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #54 on: March 04, 2015, 04:41:38 AM »
TK:

Thanks.  I thought I was using the calculators incorrectly.  It looks like I may miss yet another day of work on Thurs due to another snow/ice storm so, if so...I will have some time to work on this.  It is bad news as I don't get paid but, there is nothing I can do about it.  (They are calling for 1.5-2" of ice in an ice storm turning to snow with a snowfall of 8-10" on top of that. (Starting at noon on Wed.)

We have many stations here on the am band but, I listen to 930 at work and at home as it is mainly talk radio.  You can also get Coast to Coast at midnight.  I just thought it would be cool to be able to get a station I actually listen to.

Are you using a real earth ground?  Or just clipping to the screw on a switch plate or plug?  I can always run a wire out to my carbon rod from my earth battery for a good ground if need be.  Does a really good ground improve performance?  Or, is one ground as good as another?

Thanks again for the help and guidance.

Bill

TinselKoala

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #55 on: March 04, 2015, 02:06:10 PM »
A good earth ground is best. Your earth battery carbon ground probably will work fine. If you have metal conduits in your home, the outlet coverplate screw might work OK too. The better the ground the better performance you'll get, just like with antenna. The Slinky is a compromise. For the very best performance you'd want an elevated "long wire" antenna in an "L" shape with the lead-in wire connected at the junction of the two straight legs, and a ground that is a copper pipe driven 4 feet into moist soil or something like that. The antenna lead-in should be insulated from contact with stuff like the house frame, etc.
But you can get acceptable performance with other arrangements, like the Slinky and more casual grounds if the stations are strong or nearby.

Pirate88179

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #56 on: March 05, 2015, 01:31:00 AM »
TK:

Thank you.  I figured that this might be the case.  I suppose I should have made one of these when I was a kid but...it's never too late...right?

Do you get better long distance reception at night with the ionosphere skip?  (or whatever it is called)  No matter what happens, this is a really fun project that will help me learn more of the basics.

Weather here is bad and I saw at lunch on TV video of snow in TX!!!  I just got home and we have sleet/freezing rain turning to snow later with a low of 15 F.  I will most likely be snowed in..again but, we will see.

If we have a blackout from the storm, can I run my heat pump from my crystal radio?  (Just kidding)

Thanks,

Bill

pomodoro

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #57 on: March 05, 2015, 05:51:55 AM »
Here are some Current vs Voltage curves of my collection of galena.  Homemade synthetic galena is compared to natural galena and a germanium point contact diode.  The synthetic galena is at the moment not as good as one of the natural samples, although in a crystal radio circuit it gives good audio volume and nearly as current into a load. Compared to a germanium point contact diode, galena is not as good. Although not shown in the graphs, the forward drop is about the same as germanium, but the downside of galena is that it conducts too well in the reverse direction, especially when the voltage gets high enough.  This is not a problem in a crystal radio, since the antenna voltage is quite low, and the galena works just as well as germanium. As you can see, some of the sample start conducting in the reverse direction just below 0V and these samples give less audio volume, as the reverse current ' cancels out 'the audio from the positive side of the radio wave. I'd like to improve the quality of the synthetic galena before doping with the uranium.

profitis

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #58 on: March 05, 2015, 09:25:49 AM »
Nice pomodoro.it would be interesting to see how well pyrites can get catch a signal as compared to galena.I hear MnO2 (pyrolusite) samples also have good ability to catch a radiowave.

pomodoro

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Re: crystal radio: the first real free energy device
« Reply #59 on: March 05, 2015, 12:33:27 PM »
I need to brush up on semiconductors. Here are some questions:
1. PbS( a lump not in a diode configuration) is an insulator until a critical voltage (band gap) is applied, then it becomes a conductor. Correct?

2. The catwisker acts as the p type semiconductor, creating the diode with the n type galena?

3. How is the p type formed, is it an oxide on the metal? It can't be pure metal only correct?

4. Why is a fine point needed, as a thick wire turns the diode into  a normal conductor?

5. Why does some galena conduct well both ways with the same catwisker that works well on another sample.