My Very Own Rocket Radio

STORY BY: Denis Fitzpatrick
YEAR: 1954
LOCATION: Selkirk, Manitoba

Denis shared this story by email: "In the 1950's I had a crystal driven rocket radio, it was actually a Ham based product as it was powered by a 9 volt battery and had a crystal which brought in A.M stations. With a little ingenuity, a wire could be attached to the external antennae and strung out to bring in music from far away. My Uncle did just that extending a wire to a tree in our backyard on Langside street under the sash of the window. i could pick up radio stations from as far away as New York, and if the atmospheric conditions were right I could pick up the bounce from Australia, and Hawaii. My favourite however was WLS in Chicago, they played original rockabilly, and contemporary music we did not get in Winnipeg at that time. Here are some versions of the radio, mine was red and white and shaped like a V2 rocket./www.google.ca/search?q=1950's+rocket+radios&client=browser-ubuntu&hs=SyN&sa=G&channel=fe&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwi7zKPglfbMAhUszoMKHcqcCGUQsAQIKQ&biw=1855&bih=895It was a wonderful way of touching the world from a little bedroom in winnipeg. i spent many an hour visualizing the exotic (in my opinion the) locations the music was generated from." Thanks for sharin, Denis.