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Airband radio receiver kit
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For fun I bought a cheap ($17) airband receiver kit. I assembled the kit based on the supplied schematic and tested the receiver. The receiver works and is a nice project. The downside is that the receiver is rather 'deaf'. The incoming signal has to be rather strong to be well received. So it's a nice project, but I don't consider this kit a serious replacement for a 'real' receiver. If you want to enjoy building this kit, it perfect. But if you want a cheap airband receiver I advice so spend a little more money for a better receiver. It's also possible to add a preamplifier to compensate the sensitivity, but I doubt that it's worth the effort...
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The quality of the pcb is good. All the needed components are supplied as also the schematic and circuit description. The quality of the resistors can be better. They work, but the wires are very thin. My advice is to replace alle the resistors by regular good quality resistors. The functionality is eventually the same, but better quality resistors result in better mechanical stability. The kit is shown below.
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On the image below is the printed circuit board show. The top side is shown normally and the bottom side is mirrored to get a better idea of the circuit design. There's a clever design trick on the right side of the pcb visible. The 'square' traces on the pcb act as inductors for the input low pass filter. This inductor design saves five components to save money.
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To get an idea of the design is the schematic placed below. Click on the schematic to get the full version. Remind that the original quality was rather bad so it's possible that not everything is very clear...
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For reference is the original documentation also shown below.
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