Radio Caroline circa 1960’s.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader Mike, who shares a link to this story from the blog
République No.6:
Growing up in Piennes Lorraine, Radio Caroline the making of a rebel
[A]t night with my younger brother we would listen to a “pirate radio station” on a boat that would put real good music on, crusing the international waters between England and France. He burst in laughter and told me: That’s Radio Caroline“. That was it. My brother and I would listen to that station nearly every night on an old “galena radio receiver” with a huge antenna hidden in the attic built with copper wire we stole at the mine. I mean we didn’t really steal it, it was everywhere. It was the wires used by miners to connect detonators to batteries when blowing new tunnels and locals were using it for all sorts of things, like holding parts in chicken coop to tie tomato or green bean plants to stakes and could be found everywhere.
Actually at first we set the antenna in our bedroom but somehow it wasn’t long enough not to mention mom who saw it and tore it down giving her an other excuse to punish us. So we decide it to place it in the attic where no one ever went.
The most difficult part was going to the attic, there wasn’t any stairs. We had to bring a ladder to the trap leading to it. Mom was watching us like a hawk, looking for any excuses to punish us.[…]
there are many of us today who grew up in all ways except for our love of the ‘crystal’–
with proper attention and care for circuit and detail you can, during the hours of darkness, hear stations from hundreds and perhaps even a thousand or more miles distant–
given tender love and care in design and construction, the ‘crystal radio’ is no toy–
Great story, with a sentimentalist flair. Yes many of us got started with a crystal radio back in the 50’s and 60’s. After a certain time crystal radios went to germanium diodes with adjustable induction coils using a movable ferrite bar. Interestingly if you live near a major broadcaster these radios will still work!