![]() ![]() A project to make radios with fourth-graders, including printable guides for building.YouTube has many videos of foxhole radios, including this one of a Tunable Foxhole Radio built by 10-year-old based on these plans from Gizmodo.The site SciToys offers several versions of increasing difficulty.MAKE Magazine's Foxhole Radio project with video and PDF plans. ![]() The clearest we were able to pick up ( Albany Magic 590 AM) turned out to be coming from a station 25 miles away from us, in Latham, NY. After some modifications to the original design (like adding a fifty-foot antenna) we were able to pick up fairly clear signals. After a day or so of tooling with it, we decided to start from scratch, using the instructions and parts supplied in the Science Wiz Inventions kit. We were able to pick up static, but the signal was too weak to pick up actual stations. The first design we used was based off of the radio in a Make Magazine video. We ended up using a magnetic copper wire stretching over fifty feet as our antenna, which sacrificed historical accuracy, but it was nonetheless successful. However, after several tries, we were able to get a (faint but audible) radio signal. Our first attempt was met with limited success. We chose this project to demonstrate electrical currents and radio waves. ![]() As impressive as anything else made by the POWs of the day, these foxhole radios are still made by Boy Scouts and hobbyists. While not always successful, these “foxhole” radios, as they were called, would pick up German and occasionally even British stations if they were carefully made. Fairly straightforward and simple to make, these devices harnessed local materials using an impressive amount of understanding of scientific principles, and made them into a working radio set. One of the most resourceful and impressive of these was something called a crystal radio. In WWII, ally POWs invented some ingenious devices while imprisoned. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |