Seventy years ago, the May 1951 issue of Boys’ Life carried these plans for “one of the prettiest radios you’ve ever seen.” The chassis was a plastic dinner plate, and the magazine specified that the dish should be yellow, with dashing red fittings. With a good antenna (at least 100 feet) and ground, the set would pull in medium power stations up to 25 miles away.

The coil was wound on a piece of dry wood. As Boys’ Life was sometimes prone to do, they forgot to mention that the enamel insulation would need to be sanded off the wire at the point where the slider contacted it.

If you need help sourcing the parts to recreate this or other crystal set designs, be sure to check out our crystal set parts page.