Electronic – Making an AM radio with a silicon diode

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I've been working a few days on this and have still come up with nothing. I am trying to make an AM radio using a silicon diode, but all of my attempts have failed. I believe my latest attempt most likely came closest, but it did not work. Does anyone have any plans for making a radio using a silicon diode I can look at? All of the plans I have seen have all used germanium or some other low voltage drop diode. The plans I've come up with have not worked.

Best Answer

There are many plans on the XTAL SET SOCIETY and Ben Tounge's websites, including both biasing of diodes for optimised detection and modeling of crystal radio circuits in SPICE.

Consider also using a Schottky diode (some of the HP types are fantastic for this and 'foxhole' razor blade diodes are essentially the same!) and zero-Vgs MOSFETs as reported about in Bob Cutler's 'High Sensitivity Crystal Radio Set' which is available online at the ARRL.

Of course, if you can get your Q high and tuning not so touchy and your local clear-channel is good enough, maybe that silicon diode is OK.