Make a radio using an oscilloscope

Radios are based on electrical oscillators which are directly analogous to mechanical oscillators. You can make a radio using an inductor, capacitor, oscilloscope, solar cell, and amplified speakers. You can then use these concepts to create radios that don't need batteries, and alter radios to receive new frequency bands.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Radio
• Oscilloscope
• Inductor
• Capacitor
• Physics

[claymantoo]

Thanks so much for your reply.... I got the connector and a probe.

I was wondering if you have or can demonstrate using the oscilloscope

on a simple circuit? Something like the first thing you had been shown that

peaked your interest. Super basic yet powerful.

[derinsherman62]

@claymantoo I haven't yet made any videos on this, but there are a few circuits that generate nice oscilloscope patterns. You can make Lissajous patterns by connecting the X-input to one frequency generator and the Y-input to another frequency generator. When the ratio of frequencies is a simple fraction (like 3/2) then very pretty patterns appear on the scope. Another circuit is a narrow-band 60 Hz notch filter with 60 Hz square wave applied: the result is a square - sine wave.

[derinsherman62]

@claymantoo If you want to generate some interesting patterns on your own, you can get some signal generator circuits on ebay for only a few dollars (less than $10). You can also often find complete signal generators (box with power supply, knobs, terminals, etc.) for about $25 or so if you look around on ebay. A simple signal generator will create sine waves, triangle waves and square waves. You could also buy a new audio signal generator, like the Tenma 72-490, for about $50.

[claymantoo]

WOW!!!!!!!!!

That was just an AMAZING demo!!!

I followed your advice and got an analog oscilloscope.

Its a D&K 1470 dual trace. Very well taken care of.

Unfortunately its only 10MHz and no manual or probe.

I already found the manual and schematics for it.

Do you have an Idea of how I can get a probe for it?

Hard to find anything for it on the net.

[derinsherman62]

@claymantoo The trick is that the B&K 1470 scope uses a different connector than the now-standard BNC connectors used by most scopes. I believe it uses a UHF connector. So, you need to get some UHF to BNC adapters as well as some standard BNC probes. You can get BNC probes from Circuit Specialists or Jameco (do a Google search) and UHF to BNC adapters from Digikey. Good luck!

[Organgrinder010]

Wonderful!

[derinsherman62]

@Organgrinder010 Thanks! Unfortunately, this concept won't work with modern digital oscilloscopes because their screen refresh rate is well below audio frequencies. So, this experiment will be hard (if not impossible) to do in a decade or so because analog scopes are more expensive than their digital counterparts and most companies have stopped making them.

[fiftymillimeter]

Very, very cool.

[py1hy]

Very good!!!