Ling and Luke in Malaysia this weekend. As of Friday night, my big plan was to get up early, buy a single-speed crankset for my vintage Czechoslovakian bicycle and finish putting it together.
So on Saturday, I woke up at the crack of eleven thirty. Then found that TR Bikes, which ’specializes’ in singlespeed bikes didn’t have the parts. All he could offer me was a 49cog Campagnolo crankset “that ought to fit” and which cost $190. Too expensive and wasn’t even new (had a big chain-tear in its armpit), and it seemed sort of goofy putting an expensive Italian crank on the bike. It’s not period and not authentic. For 190$ I can buy a lot of interesting bike parts off ebay instead.
So I bailed out and went to Koba electronics at Peoples Park Complex. I handed them a list of parts for a simple regenerative receiver. After all, my Czechoslovakian numbers bike isn’t much good for an agent if it doesn’t include shortwave receiver to listen to infamous numbers station OLX.
Twenty minutes later I had most of the parts and headed home.
I didn’t really know where to start, so I spent half an hour identifying the parts to familiarize myself. Then I wired in the audio LM386 audio amplifier and started building out each of the components from there. I stopped when I’d get to an external device, like a speaker jack or a pot. I am missing a critical device, an air-dielectric variable capacitor for tuning. I also haven’t found a case to build into yet (I want something in a nice vintage bakelite). So I’m a bit stuck right now. Once I get it all together, hopefully it just works.
Does anyone have, or where can I get, a 150-350 pF air-dielectric variable capacitor?
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