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I know of a guy that worked just about the entire world using a 20-something MHz clock oscillator from an old computer... Built the entire unit into a little Bayer aspirin tin (about 1"x1.5"x.25"). Had a little tiny insulated (from the case) terminals for the antenna, ground, key, and power. Inspired by his little xmitter, I built one myself and managed to get a QSO from 45 miles away using nothing more than a correct length of zip cord laying on the radio room floor. Talk about tiny QRP... And it all came from a "junk box." Wonderful things, those junk boxes...

I have all the stuff up in the radio room to take a step back in time to the early Marconi designs... Every so often I have to just build something old school. It is sad that so many people today do not even know what a crystal set radio is or how it works. A properly built rig with the 250uH coil with about 12 equally spaced taps can be used with a 12 position switch and a 365pF variable capacitor to pick up everything from from the bottom of the AM broadcast band (560KHz) all the way up through 6MHz in the shortwave band. All with no batteries or use of house current... That's real radio building... And it's fun!

They don't even sell those little aspirin tins anymore do they?

I build my altoids 6-meter rig in the late '90s.

Direct wiring and ground soldered to a blank copper circuit board.

You learn to make things tight up there to stay within legal limits on things. I did have access to a spec. an. then.

Life is fun sometimes. ;)

/johnny