I Hear Voices...

No, not like that.

I finished the basic construction of the Neophyte this evening. No mounting or case yet, just the basic board in a cardboard box with the tuning and peaking capacitors dangling from twisted wire.

There's a good bit of background noise and as I tune, there is a lot of non-signal audio that shows up, but I can definitely hear some radio signals. I'm relatively sure that at least one of the signals is some AM broadcast blow-through; there's some serious fire-and-brimstone stuff on that channel. None of the other signals have been strong enough or clear enough to pick out actual intelligible conversations or, better yet, call signs, but it's a start.

Strange thing: The peaking capacitor on the tunable front end has zero impact. Have to check to make sure that I have it wired up correctly and that I haven't somehow killed the capacitor.

Also need to get a better quality antenna rigged. I found two bits of 30 foot long bare wire (actually gardening wire one would use to tie back plants to a trellis) and am using them as a bare ground and end fed wire antenna. I think I'll wander down to the hardware store and pick up a roll of something small gauge. There's a small pass through in the wall next to my desk, so I think I'll run the wire out that and down a line of palms that line the driveway; perhaps about 100' of wire would work. Through the same hole, I'll drop more wire down to the utilities connection point directly below where I sit.