Homemade Walkie Talkies

You don't need to be an electrical engineer to create a pair of functional walkie talkies. Use simple household items to create a sound device based on the scientific theory of vibration. You'll need a willing partner to play along and assistance from an adult to create your walkie talkies. Always ask an adult's permission before cutting or changing any materials you find around the house.

Although low tech, basic household items will create a working set of walkie talkies. Gather two paper or plastic cups, one piece of cotton string and a pair of sharp scissors. The piece of string can be any length; however a 5- or 7-foot piece is ideal.

To create a durable set of walkie talkies, opt for a plastic cup. Styrofoam cups break down easily and don't trap efficiently and paper cups won't withstand a tremendous amount of wear and tear.

Also, the scissors are used to poke a hole in the cup so if you are unable to find scissors you can use the point of a sharp knife or even an electric drill as long as you have adult supervision or the adult is performing the task.

Add sparkle and fun to your walkie talkie by completing it with decorative touches. Grab a bottle of craft glue or a hot glue gun and some sequins, glitter, scraps of material, feathers, stickers, markers and paint.

Poke a small hole in bottom center of each cup. The hole should be just large enough to thread the string through it. Pull the string through one cup and tie a knot at the end so it prevents the string from threading completely through. Thread the other side of the string through the second cup and tie at knot at the end. You should have two cups joined by one piece of string.

For fun decorate the cups. Create a jungle theme using brown and green paint so you can remain camouflaged while using your walkie talkies or you can add some sparkle by gluing sequins and glitter.

Put your homemade walkie talkies to the test. One participant walks to one end of the room with one cup, while the other participant holds the other cup on the other side. The string must be pulled tightly to ensure that the vibration picks up the sound of your voice.

While one person holds the cup to his ear, have the other person talk into his own cup. The sound of his voice should be transmitted through the vibration that is carried along the string. Test your walkie talkies from different angles of the room to see if you can hear the other person's voice better in one spot or another. Also, re-configure your walkie talkie using a shorter or longer piece of string to see if the sound vibration is different.