An Old Guy Remembers Freaking Out the Help

Back in the 80's I managed a store called The Electronics Shop.
 We sold parts and computers, and did repairs on about everything but the TV sets.

As chief bottle washer, (and spending sometimes 14 hrs a day there), I wanted to listen to some radio from the local station KGY.

 Well, the computer sales kid was there one day and heard me building something in the repair area. He watched as I put together a radio using an old BCB tuning cap, a germanium diode out of a computer board, a salvaged ceramic capacitor off a computer board and made the infamous "Toilet Paper Tube " tuning coil, and fed the resulting signal into my signal tracer. Viola! Instant radio!.

Apparently that rig freaked him totally out and he was so impressed he was telling his friends all over about me making a working radio out of some old junk parts.

Even though it was just an xtal radio mounted in a cardboard box for the chassis, I thought nothing of it. Looking back on it now, it was quite funny.

He was a very good computer tech too. I often wonder what happened to him.