Ok gang, the Gakken kits from Japan are going quick, here’s the next one we’re releasing! The vacuum tube radio kit – From Gakken’s Sophisticated Science Kit for Adults, this great kit allows you to put together a real, functional, vacuum-tube radio! Includes a pin straightener for the vacuum tubes, a testing microphone so you can make sure everything is hooked up correctly to produce sounds, rubber feet on the fiber board to minimize “howling,” a variable condenser to allow for finer tuning, a recreation of 60-year-old circuits, and a more powerful transformer for better volume and sound quality. Runs on five 9V batteries and one “C” battery (batteries not included). Tubes are 100% functional NOS tubes. Make is proud to be the exclusive distributor in North America for these brilliant kits! Here’s a build video to check out from 2006 (not ours, but the same kit).
6 thoughts on “Vacuum tube radio kit”
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Excuse my ignorance, but do these things get FM stations? I’d really like to make one, but if all I’ll get is talk radio, I think I’ll pass.
I’ve gotta say, new tube gear is nice. But. That seems like it’s sort of more of a conversation piece than a solid tube receiver.
The sale site amazingly neglects to mention which bands this receiver gets, but I’m guessing it’s limited to the 0.5-2.0 MHz range (e.g.: mediumwave, aka broadcast AM in the US).
Yeah, you could spend $99 and have to assemble this limited mediumwave receiver. Or you can hit ebay and buy a Hallicrafters S-38 series wideband receiver and have an decent 0.5-30MHz AM/CW receiver for $50 shipped. It’ll probably work okay, or you can get some practical experience replacing the electrolytic capacitors and restore a practical and functioning piece of history.
like to see a class a amp/pre amp that looked like this