What are the main parts of a radio?

Answer 1

The only required elements of a radio receiver are a detector, some device that

can move air in ways that correspond to changes in an electrical current, and a

few bits of wire to connect them.

The detector can be as simple as a pointy piece of wire touching the surface of a

stone with the right mineral composition, at least for AM radio. The purpose of

the air-moving device is to make sound so that you can hear the audio-frequency

components of what remains after the signal is "detected" ... like an earphone,

for example.

These parts were supplied in the Boy Scout crystal radio kit, which we built during the

same troop meeting when our scoutmaster brought in his pet dinosaur to show us.

Today, we suspect, the Scouts are building dual conversion superheterodyne

digital packet routers with 3-stage TRF front ends, DSP, surface-mount IF chains

with integrated crystal-lattice filters, and IP ports for remote network management.

Those are nice too, but it's regrettable that they'll never know the thrill of the local

AM station on a crystal set.

(Who are we kidding ? The #1 local AM rocker may not even have an analog signal anymore.)