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The Secret Life of the Radio - Remastered

3 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this documentary2 months2021–2024 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN recommends the series as awesome and notes it is now legally on YouTube; commenters cite it for radio history.

Remastered episode of Tim Hunkin's The Secret Life of Machines about the radio, covering its development including Hertz and Marconi experiments and Armstrong's FM radio in animated form.

“awesome series, now freely/legally posted on YT” (HN, 2023)

2 recommendations · 3 citations · Documentaries

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@y04nn Dec 2021 Recommends
on HN thread I bought 1000 meters of wire to settle a physics debate [video]
Absolutely, if you turn on and off a light switch while listening an AM radio (even static) you would hear it through your speaker, as in this demonstration [1] (it worth watching the whole video if you are interested). [1] [this video]
Demonstrates AM radio picking up a switch's interference
@throw0101b Mar 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Apple Music Classical
This is the "Take Five" variant by Val Bennett, "The Russians Are Coming", used in the show Secret Life of Machines (awesome series, now freely/legally posted on YT): * [this video] * [link] * [link]
Series now legally posted on YouTube

Citations, criticism and jokes

@LeoPanthera Nov 2022 Cites it
on HN thread The tragic birth of FM radio (2006)
A slightly comical animated look at Edwin Armstrong's invention of FM radio can be seen as part of Tim Hunkin's "The Secret Life of the Radio": [this video] It's split into two parts, with the second part later in the same video, here: [this video]
Animated look at Armstrong's invention of FM radio
@djmips Sep 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Coherer Effect [video]
also nicely covered in the Secret Life of Radio in context of the development of radio communication. [this video]
Covers the coherer in context of radio development
@helsinkiandrew Mar 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Radios, how do they work?
Tim Hunkin has posted a remastered version of his "The Secret Life of the Radio" TV program (from 1987) which recreates some of Hertz and Marconi's experiments with spark gaps and coherers. [this video]
Remastered program recreating Hertz and Marconi experiments

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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