“Great radio kit for a beginner. Comes with easy to follow instructions. Only difficulty I had is that the solder holes/sites are slightly bigger than other soldering kits causing slight instabilities while soldering and having to lay more solder than usual. It comes with it's own spindle though which provided plenty enough to finish the project.”
“Best Christmas gift ever! This occupied our 11 and 14 year old daughters for HOURS! They're so incredibly proud that they built their own radios and still use them. Depending on the age level, an adult with soldering experience is recommended.”
“My big complaint with this kit is the board traces are basically tin foil or thinner, while barely wiggling a component to make sure it was attached the foil came right off the board and its a trace that goes to the already mounted FM chip. I didn't even bother finishing it, I'm no beginner the radio was to be part of a bigger project, but if I were creating a board for a learning project as they tout this one I would make sure to use good copper clad boards that aren't so flimsy. Charge a few more dollars and improve your board and you might have something here.”
“I've always wanted to learn to solder so I finally bought myself a soldering station and a few kits. The first kit I built was the Elenco Practice Solder Kit so that was my only previous soldering experience when I built this.A few notes:I used a Hakko FX888d soldering station set at 750 degrees.I used my own solder rather than the included lead-free solder.I took me a few hours to put together one afternoon.The negatives:The radio is very simple and can only tune via the scan, so it can be tricky to find a specific station.If you follow the order in the manual you end up installing tall components before some of the smaller ones, which can make it difficult to solder the smaller ones flush against the board if you have the board just sitting on the table.The sheet of resistors and capacitors makes it difficult to find the proper one because the component often covers the number and they aren't in numerical order.The actual radio receiver section is an surface mount IC that is already attached to the board, so you aren't really building the whole radio and learning all the theory of the different sections. The audio amplifier is also an IC. The documentation does try to explain how a radio works but I didn't study the section much.I am occasionally getting a clicking sound and I'm not sure if it is just due to the design of the radio or a flaw in my installation.The positives:I got the kit working first try with no problems.Comes with everything except general soldering equipmentYou first build the audio section and then test before finishing the RF section, which could help save some headaches troubleshooting.The audio is very loud and clear and the volume knob works great.There are a good variety of components to get practice with.The manual explains how to install the more unique pieces that a beginner may not understand.The instruction manual walks you through everythingThe kit is inexpensive.Radio reception is adequate.The volume knob has a nice click to turn the radio on when you turn the volume up from 0 (the potentiometer is also a switch which is neat to see if you have never seen how one works).Overall this is a good kit for a beginner who wants to get practice soldering and end up with something useful. As I write this I am listening to a local baseball game and the quality is just as good as using a regular radio.”
“My 11 year old built this in 2 afternoons with some help at the beginning. I wanted him to learn how to solder and begin to learn what component pieces look like. I don't expect him to now know a lot about radios but it's a good start. His works well and picks up all the FM stations around here quite well. Great learning project.”
“Fun build your own radio, basic soldering skill required, the instructions are detailed and easy to follow, it really works , and gets decent reception, this would make a great gift for the nerd in your life, excellent product,”
