[Lowfer] Great idea for experimenting...

[Lyle Koehler]

A humorous treatment of the lemon-powered transmitter concept was written by
Bob Culter and Wes Hayward, and published in the March 1992 QST. The article
includes a circuit design for a QLP (sic) 10-meter transmitter. However, the
authors found that a simple lemon battery was not very effective. In their
words, "its cost of greater than $3000 per watt soured us on its further
use." They ended up using a sheet of galvanized roofing, a paper towel
soaked with lemon juice, and a copper-clad circuit board.

In a follow-up article in the Hints and Kinks section of the August 1993
QST, Arnold Sayre describes a way of making a usable battery from electrodes
inserted in a lemon. The polarization problem is reduced by coating a wet
paper towel with manganese dioxide before wrapping it around the copper
electrode. At the time, the manganese dioxide and suitable electrodes were
available from Central Scientific in Illinois -- probably they still are.

Lyle, K0LR