Soldering Skill Required: Check out this "Manhattan style" FM Transmitter

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Super Simple FM Transmitter is the latest addition to our Weekend Projects series of beginner-friendly electronics builds. Whether you’re a beginner looking for a serious challenge or an advanced builder looking to put your soldering skills to the test, or you want to learn the unique “Manhattan style” of circuit-making, this project is for you!

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FM transmitters can be complicated to build, but not this one — it’s about the easiest you can possibly make. And though the science of radio is well understood, there’s a magical, emotional quality about it that we don’t often stop to appreciate. Building your own radio receiver — or better yet, transmitter — makes it real again. You will not forget the first time you pick up a transmission broadcast from a device you soldered together, yourself, from a few bits of copper, carbon, plastic, and wire.

Inspired by Japanese multimedia artist Tetsuo Kogawa and modified from a kit, MAKE Technical Editor Sean Michael Ragan walks us through building this circuit in the video below. If you customize this circuit in your own way, or build it into an enclosure or otherwise, be sure to document your process and send us images and a story of your experience when you’re done. We love seeing what makers are up to with our Weekend Projects!