In September 1970, I was probably busy putting together crystal sets. And some things are universal, and it appears that my counterparts behind the Iron Curtain were busy doing just the same thing. These illustrations are from the September 1970 issue of the Soviet publication Юный техник (Young Technician).

Interestingly, my Soviet counterparts were able to buy a suitable inductor, whereas I had to wind mine on a toilet paper tube. I suppose toilet paper shortages might be the logical explanation. In any event, the Soviet kids were able to pull in their strong local stations, just like I could.

The other illustration below isn’t too different from some of my experiments.  From the bottom figure, it appears that the Soviet kids figured out, as I did, that if you used two wires from a transistor, that would work about the same as a diode.