The preppers have The Evolution of Radio Technology, Part 1, by Roger R. as a good summary of the development of the radio receiver.
“The primary steps or changes in the design of radio receiver construction are, the “crystal set” or Passive Tuned-Radio-Frequency (TRF) receiver, the Active TRF, or ‘straight’, receiver, the Regenerative (‘regen’ or ‘howler’) receiver and the superheterodyne (superhet, or mixing) receiver. There are other designs such as the ‘superregenerative’, ‘direct conversion’, and ‘homodyne’, but they are not significant for our purposes and are used today, if at all, for specific niche purposes. The four main categories each may have a use but only one, the last, will generally prove practical for a modern, all purpose radio and constitutes 99% of all commercially manufactured sets. All are worth knowing about and may have some specific application depending on the resources you have and what you are trying to accomplish.”
I don’t know about any prepper buying parts in order to be able to build a radio when it hits the fan – that’d take a bit more than a description of receiver types. There are kits and instructions out there, though, for hobbyists. I wonder who you’d listen to if civilization was destroyed and you had to bug out, GOOD, and take refuge in your remote bunker? The Prepper hobby has become popular enough that National Geographic now has a series about its adherents. I guess that goes with the survivalist shows on the Discover and Learning Channels.
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