AM RADIO & TRANSMITTER
***Remember the Project Kit for this class is sold separately***
We've added new activities to this course! In addition to building the AM radio transmitter from scratch, each student will also assemble an Elenco AM-780K AM Radio receiver that you SOLDER together! The AM Radio receiver is yours to keep after class is over!
Wait 'til you hear your voice coming out of the radio Techsplorer! Who knew you were going to become a Broadcaster? And you built it all yourself from scratch and know exactly how it works! Yep, and it's not nearly as hard as you're imagining.
You don't need any prior experience in order to take this course. We'll start by lead you through the basics of electrical engineering theory so you have an intuitive understanding of Ohm's Law and circuit topologies like series and parallel. We'll touch briefly on some advanced concepts like Kirchhoff's Laws, Electromagnetic Field Theory and RF signal transmission. And after that we're going to get into building some REAL electronic circuits using a solderless breadboard, just like an Electrical Engineer would.
First you'll build a fun to play with musical instrument that you play without touching! How can that be? You'll see. But that's just your warm up circuit to get you started. Then we'll show you how a microphone works and how to put it into a circuit that converts the sound of your voice into voltage signal and amplifies it! We will even SHOW you what your voice looks like in the voltage signal by looking at it on the OSCILLOSCOPE!!!
Are you having fun yet? Hold on tight it's about to get even wilder because we going to show you how to send your voice flying through the air waves by encoding it onto a carrier wave using Amplitude Modulation--yes that's what the "AM" stands for in AM Radio. It's all much simpler than you think! In Techsplorers you will learn first hand that all the "magical" advanced technology you see around you in todays modern world all has very simple ideas behind how it works that YOU can understand!
Can you hear me now Techsplorer?
CONCEPT EXPOSURE:
- Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering and Systems Design
- Ohm's Law--Voltage, Current and Resistance
- Circuit Topologies--Parallel and Series Connection
- Kirchhoff's Current Law--Conservation of Charge
- Kirchhoff's Voltage Law--Conservation of Energy
- Oscillators and Frequency
- Signal Modulation
- Electromagnetic Fields and RF Propagation
PRACTICAL SKILLS:
- Oscilloscope Operation
- Voltage, Current and Resistance Measurement with Multi-Meter
- Circuit Construction using Solderless Breadboard
- Electrical Schematics and Symbols
- Electrical Component Packaging and Pin Numbering
- Resistor Color Code
- Safe Battery Usage
- Wire Stripping