EIGHT Build Your Own Tube Radio

The tube radio kit comes with a 6J1 vacuum tube, a custom printed PCB built to fit perfectly with everything and be easy to work with, wire length, battery compartments, all the required resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc and a speaker all neatly packaged in a high quality box that is then used to house the radio. The instructions are perfectly detailed, along with a circuit diagram, pictures and explanations behind some of the components including the tube and its purpose. The radio box/housing feels very good quality for what it is and allows a perfect fit for all the components. The knobs on the front fit well, the speaker slides in perfectly and - the best part - the tube sits behind a gap in the front such that you can view it perfectly while it is operational, allowing you to see the nice warm glow of the cathode. It may take a bit of tweaking to be able to pick up a station as this is a shortwave. Personally I made a longer antenna from some wire I had and it improved a bit. Also make sure to follow instructions to connect the radio to ground if not having much luck. One thing to note is that a lot of stations turn on at certain times. When I first tried the radio I could barely pick anything up from where I live however I tried it again later in the evening and was able to pick up stations from all across the world! A fun and interesting project as well as an awesome piece of electronics history. Overall, love this kit! :D

I had previously bought and assembled the FM radio kit from this series, which came with a solderless breadboard, although I decided to solder it properly and put it in a wooden box. So I had no hesitation in buying this kit which reminded me of the valve radios that my father used to tinker with. It looks like a solid piece of kit although I have not started assembling it yet. One little niggle is that unlike the FM radio kit, the two potentiometers do not come with colour-coded wires already soldered on, and the instructions give no clue regarding where to connect each of the potentiometer contacts, so I will need to figure this out myself. Someone with no experience in electronics would need advice about this. Only red wire is supplied with the kit unfortunately, but I already have a supply of hook-up wire in various colours so I can colour-code the connections to help avoid mistakes. I would not really call this a toy.

The components seem good quality. Instructions for fitting components are ok, but as for the wiring, it caused me a few problems. The 16 page manual is 16 x 11.5 cm. All illustrations are in monochrome and are quite small with, sometimes, 3 to a page, and not very clear. Online instructions are exactly the same, so no help. It seems to assume constructors can read wiring diagrams and translate that to the construction process. They could learn a lot from UK supplier, Kanga Kits. With them, you download proper, true step by step, instructions, descriptions of components and how to identify them. Everything you need with clear coloured illustrations, great for the novice. I had a Kanga radio kit up and running in a few, leisurely, hours. I've given up on this tube radio for the time being.Became to frustrating.

The radio is great to build one drawback the wiring very difficult to connect because of the coler photos a really nice radio

This is a very good kit. It deserves five stars, but I have given it just three because of two reasons. Firstly, the quality of the parts was let down by the quality of the box - which forms the case for the radio. While having the speaker mount stuck haphazardly was annoying, probably I could have solved that. But secondly, the listing lets it down. It wasn't apparent that this was just a shortwave radio from the listing, nor (if it was there) was the need to erect some kind of aerial and put in some kind of earthing. If I had seen this (and apologies to the seller if this is buried in the details) or seen that it was shortwave only I wouldn't have purchased it. As it was I sent it straight back.

Bought it as a gift for my nephew, was very happy

Didn’t work

Works great!

Como los de antaño. En general bien. Sobre todo de noche y con paciencia se sintonizan emisoras lejanas.

I have built dozens of regenerative receiver kits. This one is very easy but be sure to read the instructions in their entirety before building the kit. This will tune from below the 80 meter ham band to just below the 20 meter ham band. The audio is nice and loud. It would benefit from a headphone jack for really weak stations. Pros: -Simple to build -Good audio -Solder points are not to close together -No special tools required - Alkaline batteries will power the radio for many hours at medium volume - Good reception with a long wire (see cons) - Instructions do include some theory of operation - No toroids to wind - Hand capacitance is not bad with a good ground or dipole antenna (see cons) Cons: -Needs a fine tuning control or a bandspread control for the tuning capacitor - 3300 MHz to 13000+ MHz is a lot to tune in 180 degrees (maybe a band switch?) - Needs more than a single turn potentiometer for the regeneration control - the sweet spot is very narrow - Needs an antenna coupling capacitor instead of three jacks to choose from. Using an 80 meter dipole caused me to have to constantly switch between the least coupled antenna connection for very strong stations to the next more coupled jack for weaker stations. A trimmer cap may be in order. - no included battery holder securing devices - battery holders flop around inside the case. The wiring for them needs to be lengthened to allow the holder to be glued or taped to the inside of the back of the box - the case is heavy card stock not metal allowing for some hand capacitance

En mi caso lo he montado y no ha funcionado (aún estoy tratando de encontrar el problema), pero quizás sea por mi inexperiencia. Por lo demás me ha parecido un kit muy bien pensado, y queda bonito en la estantería.

El artículo corresponde a lo solicitado pero todavía no lo he montado. Por consiguiente no tengo una opinión general. No corran tanto solicitando las opiniones.