AM radios are relatively simple devices, and building one is a good way to start exploring the world of radio communications. [GreatScott] does exactly this in the video after the break, building both a transmitter and receiver.
At the most basic level, AM radio works by generating a carrier wave with an oscillator, and then modulating the amplitude with an audio signal. When the oscillators are mentioned, (or pretty much any electronic project), 555 timers inevitably come up, so [GreatScott] them for his first experiments. He tested two popular 555 transmitter circuits. One uses the control voltage pin to input the audio signal, while the other uses the reset pin. The CV-pin version worked slightly better, but it was still just barely possible to distinguish a voice. For these first test a standard commercial AM/FM receiver was used. The next attempt was with a XR2206 function generator kit, which worked quite well when combined with a simple microphone amplifier circuit. On the receiver side, [GreatScott] built and incredibly simple circuit around a TA7642 AM amplifier/demodulator IC, with only six passive components and a hand-wound coil.
There is no shortage of ways to build AM radios, and we’ve covered quite a few over the years. Off course a 555 timer can also be used in a receiver, and building transmitters using only discrete components is quite simple, as demonstrated by the 10-minute transmitter and single transistor transmitter.
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