“Good project but the board is cheap. I had some sections off the back start peeling off which ruined the connections. If you want the radio, go somewhere else...but for a basic soldering project it's great. Used it to teach a basic soldering class for a group of telecommunications technicians. The radios don't work (all of them had the same issue) but the instructions were easy to follow and it was priced well enough.”
“This kit is well thought out and the manual is excellent! My 10 year old did 90% of this including the soldering and it worked 100% when finished. I sat with him and double checked his work while guiding him when he tried to put a part in the wrong spot or backwards though very little extra help was needed. He did manage to lift a pad on the board which we jumpered around but that happens when you dont have soldering experience. The audio output is quite good for the small speaker and the tuner isnt bad at all for a kit at this price point (I'd consider this a bargain actually!). It would be cool if Elenco offered a plastic case for this and I wish I had planned ahead and fit it into a box or something to house it as it does work that good:-)Edit: I liked this so much I just ordered another one for my nephew's birthday gift!”
“This radio kit makes for a fun little project. This kit even includes some lead-free solder (which I didn't use as I prefer leaded solder). Make sure you follow the instructions carefully as electrolytic capacitors can pop like firecrackers if installed the wrong way, but this won't happen if you follow the instructions. Unless you live right next to the radio towers, you'll need to add one or both of the remaining optional capacitors to boost the gain of your new radio.”
“Excellent learning experience building this FM radio model FM-88K. I would suggest cleaning and tinning the board before soldering any parts to it. This will make it a whole lot easier when soldering parts to the pads. This product is very well documented, and the parts well organized on a long strip of cardboard. If you go through it step by step you will have no problems. Read all instructions thoroughly first before starting.”
“Elenco kits are just pretty much all around awesome. Not only do they include parts and instructions, but they come with material about the theory behind the kit you're building, which is nice for people who don't have a heavy technical background. That said, this kit gets a 4 star review because I hate the 9V battery holder that comes with this kit. The instructions for the build are clear and concise, but they're built around two testing stages. More advanced builders may want to ditch the instructions and just place the parts based on the schematics, installing small parts (resistors, diodes), medium parts (ceramic caps then electrolytic caps) and finally larger parts (switches, pot, battery holder and antenna). This doesn't mean to not read the instructions, as you'd miss the instructions about not installing C21 and C*. Still, for what it's worth, I walked my wife through building this kit from opening box to listening to music in about 2 hours.”
