If a crystal radio is the distilled essence of a radio, this transmitter is the matching distilled essence of transmitters.
The transmitter goes together in about 10 minutes, and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
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Depending on the antenna, the transmitter can send voice and music across the room, or across the street.
I put together my first version with simple clip leads (no soldering, no printed circuit board, not even a battery clip). This version is much sturdier and convenient. |
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An AM transmitter from simple parts
Our transmitter will need these parts:
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- A one megahertz crystal oscillator - This is a crystal clock oscillator such as those used in computers. There are many suppliers, such as
Jameco (part #27861) or JDR MicroDevices part OSC1.0. This is a 1000 ohm to 8 ohm audio transformer.
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- A generic printed circuit board (any general purpose printed circuit board will do).
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- A phone plug - This should match the jack in your sound source. I use a 1/8 inch plug to match standard earphone jacks of transistor radios and Radio Shack's Archer mini-amplifier speaker.
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- A 9 volt battery clip
- A 9 volt battery
- A set of alligator jumpers. You can find them anywhere electronics parts are sold.
- Some insulated wire for an antenna.
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Building the transmitter
The oscillator is the heart of the transmitter. It has four leads, but we only use three of them. When the power is connected to two of the leads, the voltage on third lead starts jumping between 0 volts and 5 volts, one million times each second.
The oscillator is built into a metal can. The corners of the can are rounded, except for the lower left corner, which is sharp. This indicates the where the unused lead is. The lead is there to help hold the can down firmly on the printed circuit board, but it is not connected to anything inside the can.
The other main part is the audio transformer . In this circuit it is used as a modulator. The modulator changes the strength of the radio waves to match the loudness of the music or voice we want to transmit.
Pictorial diagram of the transmitter
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The transformer has two leads on one side, (red and white in the photo) and three leads on the other side (blue, black and green in the photo). The two leads are the low impedance side of the transformer, (the 8 ohm side). The three leads are the high impedance side (the 1000 ohm side). The middle of the three leads is called the center tap, and we won't be using it in this circuit.
Putting it together
The transformer has two metal tabs on the bottom. These can be bent out flat, so the transformer can be glued to the printed circuit board, or two holes can be drilled in the board, and the tabs can fit into the holes and be folded over to hold the transformer in place. If you choose to drill the holes and fold over the tabs, the tabs can be soldered to the copper pads on the back of the printed circuit board for a more secure anchor.
The transformer should be placed on the left side of the printed circuit board, leaving plenty of room on the right for the oscillator.
Insert the leads of the oscillator into the printed circuit board, placing it far to the right. The copper side of the board should be down, with the oscillator on the side without copper.
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Photograph of the completed transmitter
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Gently bend the leads of the oscillator over, so it is held firmly onto the printed circuit board.
Solder the pins of the oscillator to the copper foil of the printed circuit board. Be careful not to use too much solder, or it may form bridges of solder between copper traces that are not supposed to be connected together.
Insert the stripped end of the red wire into a convenient unused hole in the printed circuit board (such as the bottom left hole). Insert the red wire from the battery clip into a nearby hole that is connected by copper foil to the first hole, so the two red wires are electrically connected. Solder the two wires to the copper foil.
Insert the white transformer wire into a hole whose copper foil is connected to the upper left pin of the oscillator. Solder this wire to its copper foil.
Cut one of the clip leads in half, so you have two pieces of wire each with an aligator clip attached. In the photo, I used two different colors for clarity (yellow and green). Strip the insulation from the last half inch of each piece.
Insert the black wire of the battery clip into a hole whose copper foil connects to the lower right pin of the oscillator. Insert the stripped end of one of the aligator clip leads into a hole that is also connected to the lower right pin of the oscillator. Solder the two wires to the copper foil. The aligator clip will be the ground connection, just like in the crystal radio.
Insert the stripped end of the other aligator clip into a hole that is connected to the top right pin of the oscillator. Solder the wire to the copper foil. This will be the antenna connector.
Open the phone plug, and insert the blue and green wires of the transformer into the plastic handle. The metal part of the plug has two pieces, each with a small hole. Put one of the transformer wires into one hole and solder it, then put the other wire into the other hole and solder it. When the metal has cooled, screw the plastic handle back onto the metal phone plug.
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