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Primary
Business Address |
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Phone:
555-555-5555 |
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To contact us: |
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By Ed Paparo (click to email me) |
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Fig. 1: This is probably the easiest receiver to
build. And, what’s great about it, is
that it only costs about $25.00! |
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How easy can you
build an Aircraft Receiver? Try this
on for size! Remember those Science Fair Project
Kits from Radio Shack? Pretty easy to
build, right? Well, dig out those old
AM/FM Radio kits-time to tweak! It’s as simple as this- 1.) Buy
the above mentioned kit 2.)
Build it– up to the FM Tuner part. 3.)
Remove the silicone from the RF coil and stretch the coil so it forms a big
loop (about 1” inside diameter from pcb board). See Fig. 2 4.)
Continue installing the tuner and plop the batteries in. The
radio should receive transmissions immediately. One note is that the antenna that came with
the kit is a waste of time- get a
telescoping antenna that is 16-24” long.
That should pick up signals better.
Also, it can be slid up and down to adjust for the proper
wavelength. If the antenna is too
long, the receiver will cut out completely.
Another thing is that the receiver tunes from about the middle of the
FM band through the aircraft band, so don’t be surprised to hear local FM
stations on this receiver. What I
did after that was to purchase an enclosure, and a pcb board from Radio Shack. I cut
the pcb board down so it would fit into the slots inside of the enclosure and
then replicated the preamplifier section on it. Then I mounted the tuner, antenna and
swivel base, LM386 audio amplifier board, power switch, and an earphone
jack. See Fig. 4. When
tuning, you may notice that if you have your hand too close to the speaker,
the frequency changes. Big deal. Just don’t rest your hand on it when you
tune. At least you can listen in on pilots and towers! Please
feel free to email me or
sign my guestbook with questions or comments. I will be happy to hear from you. Ed |
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Simple
Aircraft Receiver |
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Fig.2:
Tuner with RF Coil stretched. |
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Fig.3:
Another angle of tuner assembly. |
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Fig. 4:
Inside of Aircraft Receiver. |
