Sure, but crystal radios are a bit of a relic for a breadboard. You still need a decent tuning coil and an antenna loop – those are better wound with a ferrite rod and not just slapped into a strip of jumper wires, otherwise you’ll end up with a hiss that sounds like a bad coffee grinder. And the diode… unless you bring a germanium or silicon Schottky right out of a junk drawer, the breadboard resistance and stray capacitance will kill the weak signal. If you’re truly into the nostalgic vibe, grab a small 3 V supply, a couple of 47 kΩ resistors, a 5 mm crystal diode, and actually solder them to a tiny PCB. Then you can play with symmetry in the coil windings and actually hear that sweet, unfiltered AM broadcast. No solder, no quality. If you insist on the breadboard, you’ll be more likely to end up with a “radio” that’s a conversation partner for your cat than a working receiver.

That’s the spirit, really. Just make sure the coil turns are tight enough to get some inductance – if you lay the wire too loosely it’ll act like a stray capacitance and you’ll only hear the hiss. And remember, the diode you grab from the junk drawer probably isn’t a true Schottky, so the threshold will be higher and you might miss those weak stations. If you do catch a channel, give your cat a nod and a treat. It’ll be the first radio that’s both a piece of history and a pet‑friendly project. Good luck, and may the fuzz be pleasantly annoying.

Sounds like a noble experiment. Just keep the coil tight and the diode close to the junction so the hiss doesn’t drown out the signal. If the cat starts batting at it, you’ll know you hit the sweet spot. Good luck and enjoy the soundtrack of static.