“I'm an Amateur Radio operator and I bought this kit for my son to get him interested in all things radio. He's 8 years old.It took us a couple of hours to put together. He read the instructions, identified the needed capacitor, resistor, or diode and placed them on the PCB. I did the soldering. We talked about what each component did and how it was used in the radio. I even quizzed him at the end and he was proud about how much he knew about the different parts.People say that it's not very sensitive. Nope. That's not the case -- it's the antenna that is the weak link in this system. (By the way, it's ALWAYS THE ANTENNA!) Using the stock antenna we easily picked up a couple of stations outside of the house and only one inside. When I touched the end of the antenna to my 102 foot wire dipole antenna the radio came to life. My point? Rig up a better antenna, just a long wire will do, and enjoy the results.The main point is not to build a HiFi stereo, but to learn about electronics and this kit delivered.”
“Product has heavy smell of mold. Must have been stored for quite some time in damp location. It is hard to work on it due to the bad smell. It is what it is I guess.”
“A really good item for beginning/intermediate sautering practice. I bought for my teen daughter's physics course (upper middle or high school). She is able to follow the instructions and we are hopeful it will work when finished. I like the educational description of the various components--it enhances its value to students learning about electronics.”
“Works better than I expected. Easy to assemble. I didn't bother with the instructions just used the schematic to verify agreement between the board, the parts labels etc, I also check all the components with the appropriate tester before installing and all were okay. There's not a whole lot to learn from this little build since most all the interesting stuff happens inside the FM receiver IC that is a preinstalled surface mount IC. Still it was easy and fun to build and kind of looks like an appropriate type radio to keep on my work/hobby bench.One word of caution, watch out for the C* capacitor that mounts on the back. It would be easy to short out some pins on the surface mount IC if the capacitor legs are mashed against the IC. Didn't do any damage when I did this but it didn't work. I spotted it quickly and the radio's worked great ever since.”
