really OT- light powered walkie talkie toy in the 60's

This would be easy enough to do with LED's and photodiodes -- but I'm wondering why you would prefer light to radio.

So the army in Iraq can't jam the IED detonators ;)

Actually it has to do with the fact that I was on the candlepower forums and there was a link to a record of sorts being set using leds for transmitting audio over a distance - in this case over a hundred miles. Pretty cool not using a laser to do the duty. That lead to the heliostat that the british used for morse transmission over distances that from what I understand exceeded a hundred miles. From there I got to the toy that I recall from my youth. Funny how a trivial pursuit can lead to avenues previously unknown. Pat

I recall a toy which comprised a sunlight powered transmitter and a photocell receiver. Clever but simple, the transmitter was a plastic tube with a thin plastic mirror on the end set at 45 degrees. The trick was to hold it so that the sun reflected off the mirror directly at the receiver. Your voice caused the mirror to vibrate and the receiver converted the modulated light to voltage which powered a set of earphones. I don't recall the name of the toy, however.

Fred

See what you can dig up on "photophone". The one I remember had a reflective membrane for the talking end and a rudimentary receiver, probably a CdS cell with (maybe) a transistor audio amp. I was thinking it was a Mattel thing, too, but not sure. You had Hasbro and Ideal in there, too. Was out of my price range when I was a kid and didn't last more than a season or two on the market. Battery-powered toys were out in my family, anyway. Was either pitched towards the "secret agent" angle or was an army toy, don't remember. IIRC, old A. G. Bell invented the first one.

Stan

Astrophones?

think that was what I was thinking of and I only posted the question a couple of manths back! Someones going thru the old posts! Thanks a lot, Pat