How to make a radio | The SWLing Post

This year, at the 2014 Dayton Hamvention, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of SWLing Post readers–truly a highlight for me at the convention.

One of the readers I met was Mike Gualtieri (KB3TKG). Mike and I had a great conversation about pirate radio, ham radio and shortwave listening.

I also learned that, one year ago, Mike started MakeRF: a blog devoted to making radios and accessories. He has already documented several savvy projects:

I encourage you to bookmark MakeRF and even give one of these simple projects a go. Many thanks, Mike!

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A sample illustration from "How To Build a Transistor Radio"

A sample illustration from “Making a Transistor Radio”

Those of you who are ham radio operators (especially QRPers) are familiar with the name George Dobbs (G3RJV). In 1972, Reverend Dobbs wrote a book called, Making A Transistor Radio and now it’s available online.

Making A Transistor Radio is a clear, simple, step-by-step guide to building your own transistor radio. In each stage of the process you’re rewarded with a working radio. In addition, you’ll learn about all of the stages of a working receiver.

Perhaps what I love best about this book–besides the fact that is resembles the mountains of electronics books I poured through in my youth–are the illustrations. Each illustration describes exactly how each component of the radio should be built, leaving nothing to be pondered.

If you’ve ever wanted to build your own radio, from scratch, this is a great place to start.

Thanks, Eric, for sending this link!

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