K1TTT wrote:
On Jun 22, 7:44 am, "Szczepan Bialek" wrote:
"K1TTT" ...
On Jun 21, 5:24 pm, "Szczepan Bialek" wrote:

"Michael Coslo"
...
We should define "ground" while we're at it.
If antenna emits electrons (longitudinal Tesla waves) than the ground is
the
source of them.
The lovers of the TEM will write more.
no one loves them more than you, so spew away if you wish.
The simple radio do not work without the ground:http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/r...ansmitter.html

"Without any connection to an antenna or a good ground connection, the
transmitter will only transmit to a receiver a few inches away. To get
better range, clip the ground wire to a good ground, such as a cold water
pipe, and the antenna to a long wire, like the one we used for the crystal
radio."

well, it works as they say it will only go a few inches because the
antenna is probably only a couple inches long at some low frequency...
once you give it a decent antenna it will work much better.


Having built one of these things or very similar (or more properly, my
tween daughter did)..

Hook a 6-10 foot long piece of wire to each of the clips and stretch
them out and it works pretty well. In my case, we threw a hunk
(precision measurement.. probably about 10 ft) of wire over the curtain
rod, and laid the other one out across the floor, transmitter sitting on
the desk. You could receive it on a standard AM BC radio with a ferrite
loopstick antenna at the other end of the house, some 15m/50 ft away.

The idea of using a 1MHz clock oscillator *is* clever. Back in the day,
I would have lashed up something with a single transistor and a LC tank.

BTW, the same general idea works pretty well with a 14.318 MHz
oscillator.. A 1 meter antenna makes a fine beacon signal right in the
20m band. Of course, you'll ID, operate within your license terms, etc.
In theory, if you could get it to swing 5V, you could put a couple
hundred milliwatts into a dipole, but I don't think they have that much
drive available.

I confess I haven't tried AM with the 14.318 oscillator..It probably has
some non-zero frequency pulling too.