Elenco Two IC AM Radio Kit | Solder | Great STEM Project | SOLDERING REQUIRED

The media could not be loaded. Just got it threw Prime next day. I was immediately impressed with the large 10 page instruction book. Nothing at all like you get from kits by China. You couldn't ask for better instructions!Thanks to the very user friendly instructions even a complete newbie or child 12 and up can figure this out as each component is clearly identified and tips on soldering is included. Along with the best in depth trouble shooting similar to a service manual with points to check with what the ohm reading should be or what the voltage should be and if not correct what components to check.This kit is perfect for anyone to understand how the am radio works and improve your understanding of circuits by presenting block diagrams, schematic and a pictorial diagram. It's not just for kids, adults regardless of age or experience will benefit from it.It says it takes about 3 hours to assemble. There are 26 parts. I will update with a final pic when completed.Update: took me about 45 minutes. Worked first try. The selectivity is poor but good enough to pull strong stations. But that is not what this kit is about. Elenco makes great kits. The quality and instructions can't be beat. But they are intended for educational purposes. If you just want a good am radio, you can do better. If you want to learn how they work, Elenco is untouchable!I recommend you dont use lead free solder, it's horrible to work with. I stopped using lead free 2 years ago. Instead stick with the regular lead based with flux.On the surface mounts like the battery holder, potentiometer, antenna wires and tuning capacitor apply a little bit of flux on the board so the heat and solder distribute better. Surface mounts can be tricky for newbies. Other than that, justtake your time.UPDATE: VIDEOJust to demo it can pull in strong stations. It was not my goal to build a Super AM DXing radio. Just wanted to sharpen my solder skill and there is that satisfaction of success too!

This kit is well documented and easy to assemble. It's very gratifying to hear sound coming out of a thing that you have built.

OK, so I have many years in RF engineering and I'm a ham extra, still, I've tried to not "force" my electronic and musical hobbies on my daughters in fear of them being overwhelmed and too directed. Still, when I asked her early last year if she'd like to "make a radio" sometime, she was very interested and asked about it several times later before her birthday in September. That was when she received this kit. I looked around at many and after some consideration, I chose this one.A few weeks after her birthday, we sat down at a good well-lit bench and I thought we would work through the kit for a couple of hours each over a few sessions to spread it out. Well, that wasn't going to happen! My daughter was so excited that she determined quickly that we would do it all at once, even though I encouraged her to take her time. Admittedly, she has soldered a few wires together before (just some leads twisted together and soldered) so she was not shy or afraid. I guess I'd have to recommend doing that first as it gives the child the opportunity to see how the solder melts and how, if the leads are heated enough, it wets and flows. I admit I did that well in advance to whet her appetite. I also spent some time letting her know (note this!) that ANY circuit board with copper traces has a glue that holds the copper to the board, and too much heat will break it down. That will allow the solder pads to lift which can be tricky to recover from for the inexperienced.All that said, she set about putting the components on the board with a little verbal help, and made her first real solder connections with relative ease. We followed the instructions and checked them off as we went. She especially like trimming the leads with small side-cutters. I recommend some comfortable safety glasses for that part, as the lead-bits do fly.I find it nice that they include lead-free solder,which took some worry out of the project. I am not sure that all of the components sourced meet the RoHS (lead-free) standards, and there is almost no practical way to know, so a really good wash-up after handling is still recommended. Lilli made most all of the small component solder connections herself, although she had me do the Integrated Circuit socket and I did the trickier lead wires for the speaker and tuning condenser connections. I think in all it took us about 4 hours.My goodness did her face light up when she turned it on the first time and quickly found a local station ! Now, 5 months later, it still is "displayed" prominently in the living room and she frequently plays with it and includes it in her situational play games often. It must just sip current, as the battery is still the original one we put in when we built it. It was a wonderful experience to see her go at it with such gusto and focus. I have taught many people to solder in my professional capacity over the years (20+ mostly ladies in production environments) and I have to say that kids can learn it as quick or quicker than any adult. Patience and preparation are key.Just last week at breakfast I suddenly asked her, out of the clear blue - "Lilli - what's the most interesting thing you have ever done?" Her answer, without even a slight pause to think, was " Building a radio! " and she gave me a smile I will never forget. I wish I could upload here some of the video I made with her making her radio - then you would understand. A child's world is without borders until we erect them. Lilli is certainly teaching me that!A few caveats on this unit - first - it is not a traditional superhet unit - that means the sensitivity and selectivity are extremely poor. Second, the audio is atrocious and without a cabinet the speaker sounds like the proverbial tin can. Third, I recommend to use a little stripe of silicone adhesive to hold down the little wires that go to the ferrite antenna if you want the radio to be handled at all. They are a bit longer than required and would get hooked and damaged easily if not nailed down. All that aside, Lilli never noticed any of this stuff - it's her radio and she made it. It works and she's proud as can be. Most importantly, it got her enduring interest. And that has nothing to do with price or sound quality. Job done. I recently asked her if she wanted to build another kit and her reply was a resounding YES!! So, off we go on the hunt for the next adventure. I keep thinking about that Fox-Hole Radio my father and I made together.... Four stars for overall development and implementation, a decent kit with decent instructions. Minus one star for the technical points of audio quality and selectivity issues.

I got this AM radio kit to learn more about radios, and I most definitely did! This is perfect for anyone who likes diy electronics projects, it took me about 3 hours to assemble, and you don't really need to have much experience with soldering to get it done.My only suggestion is to use medium heat on your iron, and different solder than what it came with. The PCB board gets hot really easily and the connections can pull off trying to melt the lower guage solder. I used .022g 62/36/2 and had a much easier time getting good joints. It is definitely possible to do with the solder it comes with, but thinner stuff will make it much easier!The radio works great as well, with a little bit of tuning I can get stations from over 100 miles away, and by altering the antenna you can get some airbands too!Overall, this kit is great, and makes a super fun project for a rainy day! I have purchased kits from other manufacturers, and while some of them were good, the Elenco brand seems to be the best quality, and the INSTRUCTION MANUAL IS AMAZING, not only does it have the schematic, it explains what every part is, what it does, and how to identify the part. Because of the quality of the radio, and the manual, I will most certainly be buying other Elenco kits in the near-future.