Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio

News Flash!!!

"Spooky" continues to live!

Many thanks to Mike of Mikes Electronic Parts, who as of October 2015, has a new website that features a Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio Kit with most of the essential parts for this cool project.

The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio and Mrfixitrick are featured in a PC game called "Tesla". The theme is monsters and bats are battled while helping Mrfixitrick find the seven missing parts of the Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio. Intriguing background music. From GODD Games at: www.goddgames.com/tesla.html

Have a look at the Crystal Quantum Radio devices of EJ Gold that helped inspire this instructable: http://www.yoyodyneindustries.com/

"My first observations positively terrified me as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night"
- Nikola Tesla, 1901 article "Talking With The Planets"

The Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio is more than just a crystal radio circuit in a jam-jar. It's a sound maker that plugs in to a computer, and makes awesome spooky sounds by responding to electromagnetic fields or light sources in real time.

Athough Tesla used different parts, this radio's basic L-C (Inductor-Capacitor) circuit uses a similar schematic to what Tesla experimented with in his early days. The versatile 1N34A crystal germanium diode used here, substitutes for the tricky rotating nickel detectors and sensitive relays, used by Tesla in the late 1800's.

You can listen to AM broadcasts with this radio, but it was made to have fun with in other ways. (Besides, AM radio wasn't exactly what Nikola Tesla was interested in...in fact, he believed it was a waste of energy to transmit and receive Hertzian waves!)

By using a program like Audio Hyjack Pro (Mac), the radio's output is tweaked at the computer to give some great real-time sound effects...and you can record them at the same time.

In the following accompanying movies, I show how the Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio reacts to lightning, radio frequencies, the light spectrum, the computer screen, RF pulses, electromagnetic fields and more!

In the following video, the Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio is used to give voice to a Mac Hyperspace screensaver! The simple crystal circuit is apparently sensitive to the screen synchronization RF frequencies, and so it provides awesome background sounds...check it out:

The next movie shows "Spooky", the radio, beside a Dancing Ghost homopolar motor. The motor emits electromagnetic waves that are picked up by Spooky's antenna coils, and we hear the results translated through computer software in real time...spooky!!

Here's a movie of the action in the new PC game "Tesla", featuring the Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio;

Step 1: Parts List And Schematic Diagram

List of Materials

1- Small Jam Jar, (Mason Jar) with large mouth

1- 3 1/4 inch dia Plexiglas (or polycarbonate) cover lid, 1/8 inch thick

1- C1 - 60/141 pf Variable Capacitor (Mike's Electronic Parts # VARCAP141) $1.97 ea.

1- Extension Shaft and Knob for above (Mike's Electronic Parts # ExtKnob-1) $1.87 ea.

1- L1 - 680 uh Ferrite Loopstick Antenna (Mike's Electronic Parts # LSA680-470) $2.97 ea.

1- D1 - Germanium 1N34A Diode (Mikes's Electronic Parts # 1N34A) $0.49 ea

1- C2 - .001uf Capacitor (marked 102) (Mikes's Electronic Parts # CAP.001uf) $0.33 ea

1- R1 - 47k Resistor (Mikes's Electronic Parts # 47kRES) $.25 ea

1- Chassis Banana Jack Red - (*Allied Stock # 528-0158) $.53 ea

1- Chassis Banana Jack Black - (*Allied Stock # 528-0159) $.53 ea

2 - (or more for each antenna) Banana Plug (*Allied Stock # 528-0302) $1.21

2 -3.5 mm Mono Chassis Jack (*Allied Stock # 932-0260) $1.16

(above plugs and jacks also available as part of "Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio" Kit )

- a few inches of 20 gauge hook-up wire
- solder
1- Audio Patch Cord, 1/8 inch plug ends (also part of "Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio" Kit )

(Total Parts Cost less than $30.)

Note1: Most of the above parts are available in the "Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio" Kit

from Mike's Electronic Parts

Note2: Complete crystal spirit radios that can also be adapted are available from

EJ Gold's Crystal Quantum Radios at YoyodyneIndustries.

Note3: For Each Spiral Pancake Antenna,
6 feet of #14 gauge solid copper wire
Banana Plug

Note4: For the Football Style Antenna,
4 feet #10 gauge solid copper wire.
40 feet of #30 gauge coated magnet wire.
Heavy Paper
Scotch Tape
Hot Glue
SuperGlue
Banana Plug

Tools
Needlenose pliers
Wire Cutter
Soldering iron
Computer w/ Audio Hijack audio software (Mac), or equivalent (older iMacs may work best! )

Please Note!

As of Oct 2015, above Crystal radio parts and Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio kits are now available at Mike's Electronic Parts

All you have do is find similar parts to these in the diagram on page 134 and reference where you got it and you have an extremely powerful radio. When I build it and attached multiple antanna and I could hear the radio 7 feet away Louldly from the radio.

Here is the transistor set diagram for a more effective and amazing two transistor radio from electronic playgrounds 130 page 134 expirement 113.Reference: <a href="http://www.elenco.com/admin_data/pdffiles/EP-130_Manual_REV-C.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.elenco.com/admin_data/pdffiles/EP-130_M...</a>

شكرا جزيلا

any old school electricians out there, you know how to make this work without the use of a laptop? I am pretty sure Tesla did not use a laptop to power the speakers.

You could probably just stick an old (or new) small amp on there. Should not be too hard.

i used an old guitar amp and i got great reception on WBAP (820). Does anyone have an idea how i can pick up, well, spirits? Maybe i need to increase the feedback on the coil.

the laptop is accepting the signal and amplifying for clarity and sound magnification. Headphones will do the same, but cannot record or playback, :( surround sounds also work, plug it into the feed in! Like I said the laptop is a sound magnifier.

Xtal head phone/ceramic headphone. You also could try a piezo tweeter, or piezo mike/speaker.(the link to mike has all the parts)Remember b4 their were amplifiers, they had simple Xtal headphones, (cans).Unfortunately Lindsay's Publications went out of business, they had scads of books on everything old.... how to build from scratch.If size is not an issue, you could make a variable cap out of cardboard and aluminum foil.Just google Xtal Radio , or Crystal Radio and go to one of 300 sites. Some show you how to make individualy parts, need a fixed cap, roll your own! What is in a simple cap, foil and insulator paperTo make it loud enough to hear w/o putting it in the ear, try making a passive smartphone amplifier. (here on instructables they have a few of them.) Ten add the Xtal headphone as the source. Inside a bose wave radio is a baffle that is a folded horn, go for it!

After making this radio, I gave a quick demonstration to the other guys living on the same floor as me in the dorms. They heard the whispers but didn't really comprehend what exactly they were hearing until I explained what the device tapped (more like traveled) into; they pretty much fainted when I spoke the words "disembodied souls" and "parallel universes" HAHA. Seeing that I attend very small & extremely religious liberal arts college in no-where Ohio, they all took the bait. HAHA Priceless. It's too bad these misinformed peers of mine buried it somewhere the next morning while I was in class. Ill just make another one.

Any substitute for 1N34A diode ?

People really believe this is "Tesla's spirit radio"! Ridiculous! :-)

Tesla listened to the heavens, heard signals, and people thought he was mad. Turns out he was the first to listen to the repeating triple pulses of Jupiter...

Seems like scientific consensus (and laypeople who think they're experts after reading one article) have been wrong before. How do you feel about geocentrism? Just saying.

Don't you mean Kanye-Geocentrism? Gee's I crack me up....

Hello. Is it necessary to use Plexiglas? Does using the normal metal cover that comes with the jar interfere? Thanks!

Mrfixit,I enjoyed your post, do you have the video's anyplace that does not require adobe, perhaps on you tube? I love the look of double coils. Is the sound program a freebie for the MAC?Have you ever listened to telephone poles? (I do not kid here, there was a site many years back that was all about "singing telephone poles" and it was not a rock group. I wish I had the site right now, I ask everywhere I go whenever it seems appropriate.Kinda like when the Ent's ask the Hobbits if they have seen the Lady Ents!!thankssparkie

Guys! You need to pay attention to the ads in the comments! Everything you need is at Mikes Electronic Parts!! Lol

As best as I can determine the 60/160 pF variable capacitors no longer exist. Nothing on google, eBay, Aliexpress, or any antique radio supply that I can google. Does anyone know of a source?

Check out Mike's Electronic Parts "Spooky" Kit here: https://www.mikeselectronicparts.com/product/spooky-tesla-spirit-radio-parts-kit/

<a href="http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5pcs-Duplex-223p-60pf-140pf-2-1mm-Hole-Shaft-Radio-Variable-Capacitor-s484-/281822604077?hash=item419defab2d" rel="nofollow">http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5pcs-Duplex-223p-60pf-1...</a>This should work (I have built a crystal radio with these before).

Thanks for the tip. I ordered on U.S.A. eBay site. No worries!

I updated the parts list to reflect the new parts and near-complete Kit available from <a href="https://www.mikeselectronicparts.com" rel="nofollow">Mikes Electronics</a>. Check it out!

How can we trace down the original parts list that Nikola Tesla himself used?

You can't because tesla didn't do this but you can track down old diodes and capacitors.For example:<a href="https://www.mikeselectronicparts.com/product/1n450/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mikeselectronicparts.com/product/1n450...</a>

You can't. Tesla simply didn't do this.

I'm absolutely lost on how you've got the cone antenna wired to the device... Can you draw a diagram or something? Thank you so much!

Hi again, so we have the radio made but can't get anything out of it except a very low static signal. And the variable capacitor does not seem to affect anything. We have the radio going into a sound card so we can connect to active monitors as the built in output on the computer was too low volume. So all we seem to be doing is getting cool effects off a very small amount of static, no am radio or variable with capacitor or light diode! I've read all the comments so not sure if there's much you can suggest but let me know if you have any more tips. Thanks, Hannah

There may be a problem with a burnt diode or bad connection. The diode can burn from the heat of soldering it. (Note: Use a pliers as a heat sink when soldering. ) To see if things are working properly, you can try using a long antenna to get more gain on local radio signals. I use a 20 foot piece of copper wire strung across my living room ceiling! :) Otherwise without antenna, may be hard to hear local am radio. You should be able to hear an electric motor for example as a test. A Dremel tool or electric drill close to the radio should be easily heard. Use multiple "Gain" modules if necessary to increase the volume. To hear laser, needs a delicate setup with lots of gain. The radio must be "on the edge" by being very sensitive. You might be better off using the built-in output of the computer, and then amplifying that. (As the sound card may be cutting off and may use a different grounding system.) What computer do you use?

You must use Audio Hijack Pro or comparable Windows software to amplify the signal and give it texture. I use three levels of gain, and other modules to modify the sound. Then, static takes on a whole new dimension.

hi there - yes we are putting it through audio hijack and using your screenshots for reference - and yes the static does sound good! but i don't think the variable capacitor is working - should this change the sound of the static too? we get no change when turning the knob... also no change with electromagnetic interference or with shining the light on the diode... thanks, hannah

How can pay you to make me one of these radios?

You can call me dumb dora are anything you like but what is this spirit radio for.? I have seen the video's and post. Is it a listening device of some kind. Like a micro phone? That is what I am understanding. And if it is why go to all the trouble? Please email me because I will probably not remember how to get back to this site. I really would like to know what it is for. Also my great great great grandfather invented the radio receiver is this what this is.? Here is the link that explains his invention, his diagrams on how he built the receiver are there also. <a href="http://www.wdrcobg.com/doolittle.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.wdrcobg.com/doolittle.html</a>Here is my email address if someone could explain to dumb dora please I am interested on what it is and what it is for. Judykdoolittle@gmail.comThank you !!

Just built this.. I cant get anything but static. No sound reactions to light on the diode or anything. I can get am if I touch the antennas, thats about it.. I quaddrupil checked my connections and even dis-assembled and reassembled.. still absolutely nothing but am radio when touched and static when not touched... Help anyone??

If you get static and AM when touching, you have done everything correctly. I believe you need to plug into the sound port of a Mac computer running Audio Hijack software set with the Spooky settings... Also, Increase signal by using a 20 foot antenna and ground if you wish.

"Tesla's spirit radio"? :-) Are you for real? :-)

Been messing with it more.. Still nothing but static.. Diode is non-responsive to light, does pick up my soldering gun though. I used a variable capacitor along with a ferrite loop-stick from an old radio though.. Could that be the problem? What pf does any old radio usually pick up? I got a rad germanium diode by the way; i dont know if that makes a difference?

Has anyone successfully built one? Im willing to pay someone to build one for me.

People are naive, Tesla never did this nor it is any "spirit radio". This is disinformation and I think the creator of this joke is laughing at the ignorance.

How can one use this with a PC instead of a MAC? Thanks :-)

Hiya friends! I've got mine hooked p to a Macbook Pro, which means I had to use a USB external sound adapter since I don't have a sound input jack. Nothing is being picked up by the radio, and I haven't had any luck with light or touch altering the sound. I just get static. Any advice would be hella appreciated and returned with a good joke and a digital wink!

Hi, I've just received this loopstick antenna from ComtrolAuto - it has one black (knitted out of two) and two thin wires (on far left and far right end). Does it matter which thin (non-coloured) wire do I take to solder with non-ground C1 capacitor? Thank you so much for helping a newbie :) Kind regards!

can I plug in headphones ... directly into the jar...

i hear Nikola Tesla's research was shut down by the government because he posed a threat to their system, can any one tell me why?

Why did you build it in a glass jar instead of on a wooden base like a more traditional crystal radio? Is there something special about the glass jar, that just building it on a wooden base would not provide?Thanks.

The glass jar is mostly just a cool idea I thought of, but it does have some scientific basis. The clear glass allows the diode to receive unshielded environmental input such as ambient light, laser, and magnetic and electromagnetic waves without much interference, at the same time protecting the circuit from dust, dirt and young prying hands. A wooden base is fine...but then it wouldn't be a Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio ! :) Cheers, Rick

Hi, thanks so much for this great instructable! I'm just getting to work on mine now, and had a question about the ferrite loopstick antenna. I have a ferrite core (I bought this one, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/62mm-Rectangular-Ferrite-Antenna-Bar-AM-MW-LW-Radio-Loopstick-Core-/120852688164?ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:GB:3160), but wasn't sure about the wrapping. Is it just a case of wrapping a thin wire around the core 75 times? In the picture it looks like you have the ferrite core, then something (tape or cardboard?) around the core, then another small bar (what is this, iron?) and then the thin wire wrapped around that. If you could clear up what that is, that would be great. Thanks a lot!

I created the spirit radio and It picks up higher frequency waves. Doesn't change a whole lot though. I am unable to get light to affect it. Different types of lights even. I'm using a PC voxal software program. Did I wire something wrong? Or is it my sound settings?

I had to use 3 pitch control modules added in the Audio Hijack software, double double gain, and a lot of fiddling and adjustments to get the light sensing to work. Try a laser first or even close to a 60 cycle lightbulb. The secret is that the laser will not read on the diode except when the light moves on and off of the diode. (i.e. With DC laser it is the CHANGE of light, not the light itself that gives the tone. An AC light will work as continuous tone )

I have played around with all of the settings that I know of. Tried AC and DC lights on the diode. I have iPhones and iPad's but have been unable to find software that I know for sure works. Maybe one day Audio Hijack will release a PC version.

Hello! Objective: build one Spooky Tesla Radio. (see Photo)Outcome: Successful! Build time: about 4 hours once I had all the parts.Turned out a little different than the instructions, different size jar (no idea what impact this has...I'm guessing purely aesthetic?) Variable Capacitor: same as specDownloaded patch and using Hijack for MacResults: AM radio station test okSpooky noises test = Yes but hard to tune in (still working on it) Sounds like a lot of people all talking at once! Lighting noises = Success! Still need to make the cone antennaQuestions: Is there a specific set of filters in Hijack required to hear the spooky noises?Is there a patch for this or do you only hear them once you've made connected the cone Antenna? Cheers....great kit! :)