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The Fish radios have no
radio tubes in them; they are all basically crystal sets. Crystal sets date back
to over 100 years ago at the very beginning of radio. At that time is was
necessary to poke at a real crystal with a probe that looked sort of like a
safety pin to find a spot that worked to detect radio waves.
 
The Fish radios are
ready-made crystals, germanium diodes, that are about 50 years old. Crystal
radios are not very loud and need headphones, but the Fish radios have speakers.
The Fish radios merge old and new technology, in that the crystal radio is
amplified by an integrated circuit to operate the small speaker in the bottom of
the fish.
 
Although crystal radios
are often thought of as inconvenient affairs, with wires hooked up as an antenna
& grounded to a water pipe, it is possible to make them with a wire wound
around a circular form that takes the place of a long antenna & ground wire.
This is not as sensitve to radio stations, but modern radio stations are so
powerful, that in an urban area the Fish radios can receive several stations
& be portable.
 
For the technically
minded, the Fish radios use 1N69 germanium crystal diodes & an LM386
integrated circuit amplifier chip running on a 9 volt battery.

Fiber Artist

Banff
Roseate Septembre
Stikine LeConte
Cactus
Yosemite
What Is It?
Collaborative Work
On Display at Ceres Gallery, NYC
A Winter Day
Patrons Enjoying the Fish Radio
Sahuarita