Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio

Step 5 Wiring and Soldering

Ok, once most components are in place, it's time to wire and solder things up. Direct point-to-point wiring can be used with so few components. Follow the pictures and the schematic for the basic connections.

Only a couple of wires need to be soldered in. Run one ground wire from the middle ground post of C1 to the ground connection on the phone jack. Another wire will go from the antenna to the other C1 post.

Note that the centre connection of the C1 variable capacitor is connected to the ground connection of the phone jack. The 160 pf connection is on the right facing C1 from the top looking down, connecting tabs facing away from you. The 60 pf connection is on the other side of the middle ground connection, and was not used.

The D1 diode is heat sensitive and may fail if over-soldered. Use an alligator clip as a heat sink when soldering its leads. I mounted it on top of the cover to make it more sensitive to light.

The L1 Induction Coil thin wire with black paint goes to ground. The other thin inductor wire goes to the non-ground C1 capacitor connection. L2 is simply 10 wraps of wire around the inductor coil.

Comments

[vger13]

will it matter if i am using 1 or 2 inches of hook up wire in between some components rather than direct wire

[vger13]

i am doing something wrong  even with the earbud  iam barely getting the crackle of a am station that is onlt 5 miles away and that is with connecting to a 80 ft piece of coax that runs across the top of the house. i get nothing out of the patch cord but i think i have stereo instead of mono does that matter  

[mrfixitrick]

 The coax won't work as an antenna because it is designed to prevent radio signals from interfering with the central conductor wire by having the ground wire wrapped around it (as in the Faraday effect). You need a copper wire, about 20 gage, preferably stranded. 20 feet or more, preferably outside.

What happens when you touch the centre tip pin of the patch cord that goes to your computer ? There should be a very loud hum from your computer sound when you do that. If you don't get a loud hum when touching the pin, then you do not have enough Gain in the software...or there is a problem with the patch cable itself. 

Is the earbud you are using the high-impedance crystal radio type one? A regular modern earbud won't work because it takes too much power and isn't sensitive enough.

[vger13]

yes i do get the loud hum and it is the earpiece that came with the kit i uased the outer on the coax but i will try some other ant  ,tried ablton live ,i dont see any way of raising gain...didnt one person say they just used windows recorder and it worked

[mrfixitrick]

 Ok, good at least you have hum. There should also be a faint audible hum when not touching the tip of the patch cord plug, which changes when plugging it into the radio. The hum should either go away, or become louder, when the cord is plugged in.

Double-check the connections to the patch cord jack at the radio.
You could be having trouble with mono vs stereo on the connections, or a bad connection at the jack itself.

I had trouble with that jack because of twisting it too much when installing it, and two of its connectors crossed. Took me half a day of replacing parts to figure out! 

Plug the cord into the radio and leave the other end loose to test.
You can then use a continuity test or meter to check for continuity between the tip of the cord plug and the variable capacitor/diode connection. There should also be continuity between the ground connections at the radio and the outer part of the patch cord plug.

You still need Gain on the software end. I hope to have a windows machine in the next couple of days, to experiment with audio software and provide a recommendation.

[mrfixitrick]

 In some radios, longer hook-up wire will make a difference, but for practical purposes in this design it should be fine.

[tompaige]

HI GOOD WORD