|
|
|
Philmore VC-1000 Crystal Set |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Box top of the Philmore VC-1000 crystal radio
kit. |
|
|
|
|
How it looked when it was new (photo from
Worthpoint).
The description "Earphone With Headband" agrees with the drawing
on the box, but it came with a crystal earplug.
This might have been a cost cutting measure. Later kits
didn't even come in a box, they were in a blister pack. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This radio was given to me by a fellow
crystal set fan named Vic Rodriguez.
|
|
|
The radio only has three parts. A coil, a
variable capacitor, and a 1N34A crystal diode.
It works very well for a radio consisting of three
parts!
|
|
|
The drawing on the base is a self-adhesive sticker
supplied with the kit.
|
|
|
|
The crystal diode is
original to the kit, though it doesn't match the picture on the box. |
|
|
|
|
|
At one time the diode was this style. |
|
|
|
|
|
The prewound coil consists of 80 turns #24
enameled wire, with a tap at turn 25, on a 2" diameter
cardboard tube. |
|
|
|
|
|
Recreated self-adhesive template.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Entry from the
1960 Philmore catalog. In 1955 the price was $3.25. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The pictures of the radio on the box and in the catalog are from the
1950s. The radio shown on this page is from the 1960s. |
|
|
|
|
| This is how the original
circuit was wired. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 1955 circuit and the 1965 circuit. Which works
better? We'll have to try both in order to find out. |
|
|
|
|
|
This box is from 1955. |
|
|
|
|
| Eventually they did away with the
box and replaced it with this shrink-wrapped abomination.
The coil is a block of wood, which is less efficient than a
cardboard cylinder. The words "solid state" have been added.
I'm not sure what the hank of black wire is for, but it
might be used for an antenna or ground connection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steve Mark listening in with his VC-1000. Photo taken around 1965
by his brother, Cary. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A brief demonstration. |
|
|
|
| Note: Some of these pictures were
harvested from the Internet. The potential intellectual
copyright infringement and hereditary fiducial
responsibility have been disregarded with antipathy.
Intellectual property rights of their present owners and
their future heirs, not as of yet conceived or imagined,
have been nonchalantly ignored.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
