“My 13 yr old son really enjoyed building this radio. It was pretty easy for him to understand and he caught on quickly. We purchased an inexpensive soldering iron at the local hardware store, as well as some better solder.”
“In the process of building. This is a great gift for a gifted child. Keeps your child challenged and allows him/her to learn new things. He is learning how to solder and how electronics work in different ways. Terrific idea for a child with many interests.”
“I built the AM section first. Just followed the instructions for assembly and ignored all the tests. When finished, I had an operating AM radio. A few adjustments later (following instructions for adjusting with no test equipment), I could tune many local stations.I then assembled the FM section by installing all components and ignoring assembly instructions. I installed all resistors, then all capacitors, then coils, diodes, transistors, and transformers. The FM section didn't work. I used a signal generator at 90MHz, no modulation, and a multimeter and traced the problem to transformer T4. Transistor Q6 had no collector voltage indicating an open circuit in T4. I removed T4 from the circuit board and removed the can from the assembly. It took a magnifier and some patience to find a broken, hair thin wire and reconnect it. I replaced the can and soldered T4 back on the circuit board. With power applied, the FM section came to life. After a few adjustments (following instructions for adjusting with no test equipment), I could tune several local stations.Recommendations:1. The radio kit is a fun project and can be a rewarding learning experience but some precautions are necessary. The copper circuitry on the PC board is very thin and easily damaged. A soldered connection can be broken by applying pressure to the component side. If any movement is possible, the soldered connection will be torn away from the rest of the circuitry and may not be visually evident. This happened twice with me.2. I have had many years of electronics experience and felt pretty confident with my skipping so much of the instructions. I do NOT recommend my method. The kit is a learning experience and all instructions should be followed.3. All resistors and small capacitors are provided on cards with the reference numbers and values. The schematic diagram provided on the back of the instruction book shows the reference numbers for all parts, but not their values. Don't throw the cards away or it will be a pain in the neck to determine the correct value for a referenced part.4. Diodes D2 and D3 are type 1N34A. Diode D1 is a Varactor diode and looks like D2 and D3. Keep them separate or suffer the consequences.5. A 60 watt soldering iron is appropriate for all soldering, Use 60/40 Tin/Lead solder and throw the solder supplied in the kit away. It requires too much heat to work properly.”
“Building this kit has been the most fun I've had in a long time, and for thirty bucks! A friend of mine and I each bought one of these kits and had a blast emailing each other about where we were in the build and what our measurements were. I'm an experienced ham and have built radios from scratch and from very expensive kits, but I really learned far more with the Elenco kit because it comes with very detailed build instructions and measurement methods that got me to think about how the circuits work and how they work together. I liked how the instructions walk you from the audio stage build back through the detector, IF amplifiers, mixer, local oscillator and antenna stages, building and testing each stage as you go. It's helpful to have some basic test gear, a DMM at a minimum, but it's really fun if you have an RF generator, a scope and a spectrum analyzer. Still, the instructions help you get through the alignments without fancy test gear. There's a clever tool that you build that helps you determine what adjustments you need to make without the heavy duty test equipment. In the end the best test gear you have are your own ears, and tweaking the radio is a lot of fun that way. I thought this wouldn't be a radio I'd be snuggling up to at night listening to distant stations but it sure is!”
“This kit was fun to put together, any issues were on me and not the product, ended up working well, besides I learned repair work at the same time, win win”
“Christmas gift for a kid who liked to build things. The AM radio works great. The jury is still out on the FM side, however. Either it doesn't have the sensitivity to pick up FM stations around here, or something isn't working as it should. It's built correctly, just has a difficult time getting properly aligned. Hope to sort out the problem soon with my trusty old oscilloscope.”
