Crystal Radio Receiver Broadcast

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Crystal Radio Receiver Broadcast

A one of a kind radio station from a vast archive spanning different parts of the globe to highlight the diverse world music genres and more obscure early recordings of the past.

Modelled on a BBC Radiola 'Bijou' crystal set Type 6 radio, made by the British Thomson-Houston Company based at Warwickshire, England in 1923. The stream is broadcast live via the original BBC Radiola crystal set receiver from 1923, special care has been taken to work on this unique sound to combine this with the modern digital audio stream.

The format of these shows are unlike what you'd expect from a radio station, there is an absence of advertising, promotion, commentary and visuals, instead attentiveness will be placed solely on the music itself and a receptive experiencing of the recordings aligned to the first historical music broadcast experiments.

Weekly Radio Broadcast, Thursday at 10,00pm GMT

Listen to the Live Stream (Available during time of broadcast)

Streamed at 128kbps, mono (this is broadcast through the original 1923, BBC Radiola, crystal set receiver)

'Lo-Fidelity' is to be expected with limited dynamic range, distortion and surface noise

Listen to the Archived Catch up Live Stream

Recorded at 320kbps

About the Crystal Radio Receiver

African American inventor Granville T Woods revolutionised the technology of telegraphony inventing the induction telegraph in 1887 which allowed the movement of voice signals through telegraph lines to facilitate message exchanges from stations to trains. Telegraphony would be an influence on radio telegraphy.

The crystal radio is a simple design that would go on to shape the face of broadcasting as we know it today.

Crystal radio was first invented during a period of great scientific innovation in the late 19th Century. The earliest examples of these radios were designed to receive morse code signals transmitted by experimentalists in amateur radio, with the device's evolution this also included the ability to receive voice signals which lead to technological advancements in the radio broadcasting industry.

Radio telegraphy used arc transmitters, spark gap and high frequency alternators. The 'coherer.' a very early radio detector was first used by the Physicist Edouard Branly, the device consisted of a capsule with 2 electrodes and metal filings in the space between the electrodes. The coherer however lacked the sensitivity to detect weaker signals and so another method was needed. In the early 20th century it was discovered that certain metallic minerals such as galena could be used to detect radio signals. Indian Physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose was the first person to use a crystal as a wave detector in 1894 and this would later be used in the crystal radio receiver set. A crystal radio is well known for not having a power supply, instead power is generated through sound which comes from the transmission of the radio station, radio waves would then be harnessed by an antenna connected to the radio receiver set, in a way this could be considered a forerunner of today's

renewable energy equipment.

Further Reading

Crystal radio, fundamentals and design by Phil A Kinzie download pdf

Foxhole Radio: Ubiquitous Razor Blade of WWII by Brian Carusella pdf

Radio Directories

Deezer.com

InternetRadiouk.com

ListenOnline Radio.com