Right out of a WWII B-29

pishta said

Damn, that stuff is so far over everyone's heads, its hard to read! Kudos for the passion! I built my first crystal radio in about 5th grade. A toilet paper roll, some magnetic wire wrapped around it a germanium diode and a ear piece. You tuned with a metal ball on a slide across the wire coil. pretty close to this but the ball was on a rod across the top of the coil. I swear I could pick up KFI AM640 with my braces on! 50,000 watt transmitter about 12 miles up the road.
View attachment 1715866247

Click to expand...

A child friend of mine, Dad was an amateur, lived very close to my hometown small AM radio station. In my younger days it was only 250W I think. Then they upgraded to a "full" kilowatt!!! ---but regressed to the old 250W at night.

They could put a diode across a speaker with a small antenna connected to one end and hear audio from just that. Of course AM stations have a VERY large antenna, and I don't remember what their old tower was. "Tall" for a small kid!!