The happy couple shown here are pulling in signals up to 25 miles away with one of two crystal sets described 70 years ago this month in the September, 1946, issue of Popular Mechanics.

The set they’re listening to is described as having eye appeal as modern as tomorrow. To achieve this effect, the base, coil form, and base for the detector are all made of plexiglass, dressed up with red plastic drawer pulls for feet.

The set featured two antenna taps. One, going directly to the main tuning coil, was used to tune in the strongest station. When more sensitivity was required, the antenna could be attached to a primary coil.

The other set, while appearing more rustic, actually contains a couple of more modern twists.  First of all, it replaces the cat’s whisker with a 1N34 germanium diode.  It also featured a dial cord.  No variable condenser was used.  Instead, tuning was accomplished with a permeability tuned coil, which was adjusted by moving the iron core through the coil with the dial cord.

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