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Reviews For: Elenco AM-780K (AM)

Category: Ham Radio Kits

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Review Summary For : Elenco AM-780K (AM)
Reviews: 1MSRP: 17.95
Description:
Easy to build AM radio with 2 integrated circuits - an excellent introductory kit for young people ages 12 to 90 to learn about electronics and radio!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.elenco.com/product/productdetails/radio_kits=MTc=/two_ic_am_radio_kit=Njk=
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
KG4NVV Rating: 2015-01-29
Excellent beginner's kit! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This kit is intended as an educational kit to introduce someone to electronics and radio. It has only about 20 parts or thereabouts, so it takes 2 hours or less to build even at a slow pace. Parts seem to be of good quality and I had no trouble getting this thing to work. Even an inexperienced kit builder can successfully put this together if the directions are carefully followed. The directions are excellent, clear and detailed, and remind me of the high quality directions that appeared in the Heathkits of yesteryear. The radio is a tuned radio frequency design that uses a 484/7642 RF amplifier integrated circuit along with the venerable LM386 integrated circuit for audio amplification. As far as performance goes, it is a very sensitive receiver, but don't expect too much in the selectivity department, particularly if there is a strong station nearby. After all, there is a reason why the superheterodyne receiver is primarily used instead of the TRF! Nonetheless, this circuit is much simpler than a superhet, easy to build, and does not require an external wire antenna to receive AM broadcast band radio signals. As a kid, I used to listen to baseball games with basically a crystal set connected to an audio amplifier, and this circuit is far superior to that! It is a great introduction to soldering for a newbie kit builder and the directions explain the basics of soldering very well. A highly recommended and enjoyable kit building experience!