6502.org

Hey, look at that -- surface-mount components!

I think we see a breadboard...

That's a good ol' fashioned boardboard.

Yeah, way, way OT, but I guess we're done talking about a C64 WiFi modem.

That's approximately the way I started, and approximately the same year, too! My first crystal-diode radio was about 1971, and wow was it exciting to hear the local radio station! I still have, and occasionally use, the earphone I was given for that project. A friend had a Heathkit 100-in-1 kit which I thought was incredibly cool. I had visions of making one with parts removed from old radios and mounted on a piece of wood. That went nowhere though. My first transistor radio build was a Radio Shack kit (remember the ones in the red plastic boxes they used for several different kits?) received for Christmas 1972, and first non-kit home-made transistor radio was about 1973, which I put in a plastic soap travel box. It used a battery holder that held two AA batteries. I used my first IC amplifier about 1975. My interest in digital came later.

Here's the Radio Shack AM radio kit, from the 1972 catalog: To get the picture, I went to http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catal ... ctory.html and clicked on 1972 ver. 2 and thumbed through the catalog. Many here will find lots of nice memories at that site! I specifically remember a lot of the catalog covers shown there. I wish I had kept some of them, and also Lafayette and maybe a couple of others.

I lost all excitement and all interest in radio when I discovered that the only station which my crystal radio, and one and two transistor radios, came in just as well with a high impedance earphone connected to a tin box. WAUK AM 540, walking distance from my home.

Now if only I'd actually paid attention to those strange sounds I heard above the broadcast band, which I stupidly assumed were QRN.

As a kid I once tried to build a simple audio amplifier, but ended up receiving a Russian radio station.

It was very noticeable in the evening that medium wave had a much further reach (for good physical reasons.)

Yep, and nowadays, thanks to IBOC, we can't really take advantage of it anyway.

Well, it isn't all lost yet. I can still hear Toronto at night.

IBOC seems to be a case of the UK being part of Scandinavia - we use DAB instead, which is on a different band, AIUI.

I built my share of those Radio Shack kits. Most of the time, they sorta didn't work.

The XXX-in-1 kits I found more success with, with their springy terminals and what not.

I have a parts drawer full of those dumb springs for some reason...

Ok, here's something back on topic, another WiFi modem for vintage computers:
GuruModem is an RS-232 WiFi modem that can provide internet access to any computer with an RS-232 serial interface. The GuruModem also has an onboard SD-card interface to allow local backup of data downloaded from the internet. Full flow control is provided for speeds up to 115.2K.
https://electronicsisfun.com/f/gurumode ... unications

...and back off topic, I said "what the heck" and signed up for the 90+ hour electronics and board design class they had a link to. Ponied up the $12 (Be still my heart). I think I have a better chance of sitting through this thing than reading "Art of electronics".