Elenco FM Radio Kit

This auto-scan FM kit from Elenco is fantastic. The instructions are well written and illustrated. Included is a good explanation of how the radio works and its different sections. All the components are organized for you in advance on a bit of cardboard. The main FM chip is surface-mount, but has been pre-soldered for you. The build process is straightforward, and all the parts are of reasonable quality for a kit like this. There is no case, but one could be 3D-printed if needed (though I think it is fine without a case, as the battery holder acts as a stand). The radio itself, once built, performs quite well after alignment (if you have bad performance, don't skip that step). The audio amp section is very loud. Tuning can be a little odd, as you can only "tune-up." You then reset the radio to start at the bottom of the band. Unfortunately you can't hold a specific frequency when listening to a marginal station. It will eventually lose lock and tune up. It works best with stronger stations.This is a great kit for beginners to advanced beginners. Intermediate builders will find it a relaxing build.

I bought this to just pass the time, and as a kid I used to put together Heathkit things so I thought the time has come to get back to my youth. This FM kit is really a work of art. The board is beautifully detail and it was well packaged, presented and laid out. The instructions are excellent and there is lots of additional information on radios in general and this radio in particular. I have little understanding of these things but I read all about it anyway and was fascinated. And thank goodness it actually worked at the end of all my somewhat amateurish soldering. They make many good points about having the right soldering iron and learning to solder well. I recommend paying attention to that part.And it was fun when I finished to turn it on and instantly hear a radio station. The sound is mediocre but it's not meant to be that kind of listening excellence. I recommend being patient and steady and all should turn out well.

I'm 28 with a fair amount of radio and electronics experience, though I hadn't soldered much in a while. I tried this kit for fun and to reacquaint myself with soldering before working on a more delicate project I have in mind. I found this kit to be very well-designed and easy to assemble. For the price, it is excellent. I had to detract one star because my kit included the incorrect screw for attaching the battery holder (not a big deal, but still annoying) and because I think there are other Elenco radio kits I'd recommend above this one.This kit would be great for a teenager's introduction to soldering (easy to follow assembly instructions, clearly labeled components and PCB, large soldering pads, a fun end-goal of producing your own radio), but probably just "okay" as an educational tool in teaching radio design to a young engineer. I understood the circuit descriptions and educational aspects found in the instruction manual, but I'm already familiar with those concepts. I think it'd be difficult to understand a lot of the provided circuit description and radio theory if I wasn't already familiar with the information. Another thing limiting this kit as an educational tool in radio fundamentals is the inclusion of an integrated circuit in the core of the receiver design. This makes everything more abstract from an educational perspective.I just checked around on Amazon, and there are several other Elenco radio kits available. Some of those are specifically "transistor" versions which involve no integrated circuits. That may mean twice as many components for you to solder, but it'd probably make for a better educational tool in teaching radio fundamentals.Two final tips:The kit features large soldering pads and lead-free solder. I support both of these choices for a beginner's kit (lots of space for your soldering iron, and no lead around children), but that combination can actually make soldering tricky because large pads sink more heat, and lead-free solder doesn't melt until higher temperatures. You'll probably want to use a chisel-tip on your soldering iron, and wet the tip with a bit of solder to help with heat transfer.If you have access to an oscilloscope, this is a fun little kit to probe around! The carrier frequency (~100 MHz) may be outside your scope's bandwidth, but most of the receiver circuitry operates at an intermediate frequency of 70 kHz, and the audio portion will be around ~1 kHz, both of which you can easily measure. So you can observe the ~1mV frequency-modulated 70 kHz IF signal on one channel, and on a second channel bring up the ~0.1V audio signal going to the speaker. Or probe anywhere along the chain rather easily. Fun stuff.

Very good kit with excellent instructions. Components like resistors, capacitors, and diodes are attached to a long card strip that identifies them individually by circuit designator, color codes and values. You can immediately determine that you have all the components that are required for the build. Large bulky components are bagged. This is a very good beginner to intermediate kit, but precision in soldering is required for components in the area of the surface mount IC which comes factory installed. Traces are close in this area and care is needed to avoid a solder bridge between pads. Most pads are larger than normal to make them easier to solder for a beginner. There is instructional material in front and back of the assembly instructions that is quite helpful and informative. We used this kit in scout camp this year and the only problems we had were related to excessive solder creating bridges. I would recommend looking at all traces and pads for bridges before installing the battery. As a radio, it's not great audio but it only has a small speaker. A tube of no-lead solder is included.