[Bret L]

I was hanging out yesterday with some people and we got to talking
about crystal radios. You know, a long wire, a couple of coils and
some sort of diode and you could listen to the radio for free,
provided it was AM and close by. We wound up building a set in the
course of two or three hours using wire off a junked guitar pickup, a
toilet paper roll, and some salvaged parts off a dead PC board laying
around.

We only got one station, the local Bott outlet. Bott, for those who
don't know, is a for profit and filthy rich Christian (read: fundie)
outfit. By sheer coincidence they were going berserk over Planned
Parenthood and Margaret Sanger.

I couldn't let this calumny go unchallenged so I called in. It turned
out to be a taped show, so they couldn't put my Jesus denying bigoted
ass on, but the reaction was pretty good none the less. I told them
that Margaret Sanger was a good White woman who wanted more smart and
capable kids and less worthless ones. They were horrified.

Xtal radios have a long history. In high fidelity, people used to use
a form of crystal set- a passive tuner-to tune the finest local AM
broadcast station audio. All the big coil places sold kits of parts
you mounted on a panel and hooked to your preamp. When FM came out
people forgot about these. It's too bad because they are fun to build.