Talk Radio

Join author of Make: Radio in a live chat

Author

Dale Dougherty
July 26, 2024

Make: Books Editor Kevin Toyama building one of the projects from Make: Radio

Talk Radio

In the early 20th Century, building a crystal radio from a kit was a rather popular thing to do. According to the Wikipedia, a crystal radio “uses only the power of the received radio signal to produce sound, needing no external power.”

Imagine building this kit and picking up radio waves in your living room. That had to seem magical, the opening up of a hidden world.

In a book I have on my bookshelf, “The Voice of the Crystal,” H. Peter Friedrichs (1999) writes:

There is something wonderful, if not mystical, about the notion of snatching electromagnetic waves from the air and listening to them without the aid of tubes, transistors, or integrated circuits.

Friedrichs makes the point that those early radio experimenters got started with crystal radios but they learned to tinker and and acquire other skills that they used throughout their lives. He gives an example of F.B. Lee who in the 1950’s built his own linear accelerator, an “atom smasher.” The authors asks where this machine was built - “at a government research facility or a mega-corporate laboratory or MIT or Berkeley?” No, he answers, “the machine was home-built from glass tubing, copper pipe, gallon cider jugs and an old refrigerator compressor.” He writes:

The curiosity, ingenuity and inventiveness that led Lee to undertake his project was typical of the average radio experimenter in the early days of radio. In those days, parts were expensive, if not unavailable, so experimenters frequently designed and home-brewed many components themselves….The pioneering, do-it-yourself, try-it-and-see attitude used to be a prominent characteristic of the American psyche.

Friedrichs laments the loss of this capability in society, but we know that a resurgence happened, I think, beginning with Make: Magazine, which was first published in 2005. Makers have always existed in some form and not just in America, of course. Radio experimenters are an early version of today’s makers — they are enthusiasts.

We are happy to foster this connection between radio experimenters and makers by publishing “Make: Radio” by Fredrik Jansson. Fredrik grew up building crystal radios and enjoys tinkering with electronics. In the Preface to the book, he writes:

As a kid, I used to take apart radios and electronic devices. I found circuit boards with mysterious small things attached, or — if the radio was very old— electron tubes made of glass with tiny metal structures inside. I wanted to know how these worked and build my own circuits…

Radio, in particular, is fascinating for me, probably because it combines the abstract physics of radio waves (electromagnetism) and practical tinkering with electronics.

When he was tinkering as a child, Fredrik said it was difficult to find components, which made building radios difficult. The components are much easier to source now and we’ve made it even easier with the Make: Radio Companion Kit on Maker Shed.

Fredrik Jansson

Today, Fredrik works as a researcher on the physics of clouds at the Delft University of Technology and develops weather models that run on supercomputers. He has a PhD in Physics from Åbo Akedemi University in Finland and lives in Amsterdam.

He is a licensed radio amateur but his projects in the book do not require that you have a license. Jansson demystifies the world of radio through a dozen hands-on projects, enabling readers to build inexpensive radio circuits such as transmitters and receivers, remote controls, and a working metal detector. Radio concepts are also adapted for the Raspberry Pi Pico, updating classic concepts with contemporary tools for accuracy and power.

We have scheduled a Fireside Chat to talk radio with Fredrik Jansson next Wednesday, July 31st at 1 PM Pacific. Join us as we talk about radio and a variety of experiments that he presents in his book. (Because Fredrik is in Europe, the talk will be at 1pm PT next Wednesday.)

If you’d like to join the live conversation, please register below.

Wednesday, July 31 at 4PM ET / 1PM PT — Register here.

If you have particular questions about radio or for Fredrik, send them to me (dale at make.co).

Fab24 in Puebla Mexico Runs August 3-9

The convening of Fab Lab Network, Fab24, will take place in the city of Puebla in Mexico. It opens with a two-day festival on August 2-3 followed by a weeklong conference. Its theme is Fabricating Equity.

I will be going for the festival and then attending the conference and speaking on Tuesday. If you’re going, let me know and let’s meet up. I’m looking forward to seeing in-person, Camila and Diego Luna of Moonmakers who worked with us during the Covid edition of Maker Camp.

Ricardo Muñoz, known as “Nada que Hacer” on YouTube, is an Ambassador for Fab24 and visits the Fab Lab in Mérida. In an article on the conference website, Ricardo explains how he came up with that name:

My dad is a dentist, but he’s also someone who likes to tinker. And he showed me, as a kid, the true spirit of DIY. He taught me how to weld, how to solder, how to work with wood, plant a garden, paint the house…everything. Whenever any one of us wasn’t doing something productive, he always looked at us and said, “Si no tienes nada que hacer…” (If you don’t have anything to do…) And he would start teaching us something new. He was like, “We have the tools, and you have the time. So, you're going to help me.”

For him, there was always something to do. And I think that's really cool.

Shapeways Shuts Down

A large-scale 3D printing service bureau, Shapeways filed for bankruptcy. Shapeways was one of the shining stars of the early 3D printing market, betting that consumers might rather send their files to a service bureau for printing rather than owning a 3D printer themselves. They also specialized in producing objects in metal and other materials. It also became a marketplace where users could sell design files.

Peter Weijmarshausen founded the company in 2007 in the Netherlands and then moved it to Long Island, NY. Shapeways had raised $107 million over 7 funding rounds from institutional investors (source). It went public in April 2021 and then merged with another company but Shapeways struggled to grow. You can find the details here (3Dprinting.com). Shapeways had a 17-year run.

Peter left the company at some point and went on to found Human Genomics in 2019.

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