Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this video, I document the vintage Heathkit model CR-1, one of four crystal radio receiver models ever offered by them (in the video narration, I might have said it was the ONLY one they offered....that was an error). I talk about my restoration of TWO CR-1 radios, and also about the kind of high impedance headphones that Heathkit optionally included with the CR-1 kit, namely monaural magnetic headphones by the Trimm company. I go through the Heathkit manual, and talk about the theory of operation of the CR-1 circuit.
Heathkit's four crystal radio models were CR-1, SK-70, R-180 and R-190. I believe that the R-180 & R-190 were produced earlier than the other two, and that the CR-1 was the last one they produced, but so far I have not been able to verify their timeline. It does seem that the CR-1 type was produced for longer, simply because they show up in online searches, apparently more papers were written about them, and there are examples available for purchase on eBay.
Timeline Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction/History
00:31 Internal views
00:59 Restoration
03:23 Testing (of one of my two CR-1's)
06:14 Heathkit manual - Part 1
10:34 Demonstration (of my other CR-1)
14:37 Trimm high-impedance magnetic headphones
16:46 Heathkit manual - Part 2 (theory of circuit operation)
In this video, I document the vintage Heathkit model CR-1, one of four crystal radio receiver models ever offered by them (in the video narration, I might have said it was the ONLY one they offered....that was an error). I talk about my restoration of TWO CR-1 radios, and also about the kind of high impedance headphones that Heathkit optionally included with the CR-1 kit, namely monaural magnetic headphones by the Trimm company. I go through the Heathkit manual, and talk about the theory of operation of the CR-1 circuit.
Heathkit's four crystal radio models were CR-1, SK-70, R-180 and R-190. I believe that the R-180 & R-190 were produced earlier than the other two, and that the CR-1 was the last one they produced, but so far I have not been able to verify their timeline. It does seem that the CR-1 type was produced for longer, simply because they show up in online searches, apparently more papers were written about them, and there are examples available for purchase on eBay.
Timeline Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction/History
00:31 Internal views
00:59 Restoration
03:23 Testing (of one of my two CR-1's)
06:14 Heathkit manual - Part 1
10:34 Demonstration (of my other CR-1)
14:37 Trimm high-impedance magnetic headphones
16:46 Heathkit manual - Part 2 (theory of circuit operation)
