Very nice ! Working on a basic crystal circuit, have been trying different kind of coils. Turns out that you can use a small axial inductor (bright green resistor looking like) and pick up clear radio stations...passed trough a ferrite bead may help tuning. Also works with transfo. type inductors... with bi-inductors transfos, the second winding can be used as a wave trap. Now i wanna try that mk484 chip you are using and see the result.
RadioShack sell small automotive neons with coloured cases. You could take out the neon (use for exciter circuits maybe) and put an LED inside, to look like a vacuum tube. They sell em in red and orange.
Am doing similar - my goal being a solar homemade radio for CoasttoCoastAM at night, as iHeartRadio is a bandwidth hog on our 1mb internet. Battery will be a 3.7V Li-Ion from old laptop, mounted vertically and no plastic wrap on it, to look like a big aluminium can capacitor of old :)
@slider2732 ----This is fun. I plan to use mine to listen to a favorite news station (KNX 1070) that this radio can pick up. I have started looking at old AM radios to get an idea of what kind of box to put it in. Some of those antique AM radios were beautiful wooden works of art.
@serfer5rogers ----- Thanks. I also came across a way to do this using only a 555 chip. What I am learning though, is that to get higher performance out of the radio the circuit gets much more complicated.
Put it in a classy cigar box, but cut out a window on top so you can see the circuit board and cover the window with plexiglas from the inside. Change out the LED to a high brightness one, and mount it so that it illuminates the circuit board during operation!
@Objectivityiskey ------That raises a good question. Do I make the circuit visible from the outside or not? Your idea of making a "window" somewhere on the box sounds pretty good. It might disappoint some people though who expect to see tiny vaccuum tubes inside. Maybe I could use some tiny LEDs that looks like ones.
Very nice ! Working on a basic crystal circuit, have been trying different kind of coils. Turns out that you can use a small axial inductor (bright green resistor looking like) and pick up clear radio stations...passed trough a ferrite bead may help tuning. Also works with transfo. type inductors... with bi-inductors transfos, the second winding can be used as a wave trap. Now i wanna try that mk484 chip you are using and see the result.
iluzyon1 1 month ago
RadioShack sell small automotive neons with coloured cases. You could take out the neon (use for exciter circuits maybe) and put an LED inside, to look like a vacuum tube. They sell em in red and orange.
Am doing similar - my goal being a solar homemade radio for CoasttoCoastAM at night, as iHeartRadio is a bandwidth hog on our 1mb internet. Battery will be a 3.7V Li-Ion from old laptop, mounted vertically and no plastic wrap on it, to look like a big aluminium can capacitor of old :)
slider2732 1 month ago
@slider2732 ----This is fun. I plan to use mine to listen to a favorite news station (KNX 1070) that this radio can pick up. I have started looking at old AM radios to get an idea of what kind of box to put it in. Some of those antique AM radios were beautiful wooden works of art.
Lidmotor 1 month ago
did you know that you only need the lm386 to make the radio, just hook up the tank circuit to the input of the ic through a germanium diode
serfer5rogers 1 month ago
@serfer5rogers ----- Thanks. I also came across a way to do this using only a 555 chip. What I am learning though, is that to get higher performance out of the radio the circuit gets much more complicated.
Lidmotor 1 month ago
Put it in a classy cigar box, but cut out a window on top so you can see the circuit board and cover the window with plexiglas from the inside. Change out the LED to a high brightness one, and mount it so that it illuminates the circuit board during operation!
Objectivityiskey 1 month ago
@Objectivityiskey ------That raises a good question. Do I make the circuit visible from the outside or not? Your idea of making a "window" somewhere on the box sounds pretty good. It might disappoint some people though who expect to see tiny vaccuum tubes inside. Maybe I could use some tiny LEDs that looks like ones.
Lidmotor 1 month ago
Nice work :) I do realize this can grow and grow and grow into a huge hobby of it's own!!!
KyleCarrington 1 month ago
@KyleCarrington ---Yes. One thing leads to another.
Lidmotor 1 month ago
Awesome job putting that together, just subbed to your channel and glad I did, I may learn from what you do.
hawaii50th 1 month ago
@hawaii50th -----Thanks for checking out my channel. I hope you enjoy my projects
Lidmotor 1 month ago