I wonder if anyone in the group has constructed one of these little kits? I would be very interested to hear opinions as to how easy it is to put together and whether there is much soldering involved (it is shown as a simple skill kit). Any help and opinions as to the sound quality and distance coverable within Part 15 would be gratefully received, thanks.
Sorry, but having no experience with this kit the best thing to recommend is to do a web search on it. Doing so yielded several reviews and information.
In general, kits in this price range are not crystal controlled which may or may not be an issue depending on your expectations. Frequency drift will happen without crystal control but how much and whether it is a problem is set by the kit design and your intended use. If you intend to transmit around your home to analog tuned radios this may work just fine.
The lowest priced crystal controlled frequency synthesized AM transmitter kit I know of is the SSTRAN AMT-3000. From experience I can write it is moderately easy to build and provides excellent audio.
Neil
I have no knowledge of that unit either, but curiosity made me take a look. Neil is correct that it is not crystal controlled, but for the price it sounds like a sweet deal anyway...
I only looked at one review; This guy (link below) from the UK bought one and assembled it, describing in fair detail what he went through, providing illustrations.. He was at first disappointed when he ended up having to order two additional capacitors to get it opperating correctly, but went on to say... "Hopefully it was just an isolated incident... Once the modifications are done, the unit performs very well. The audio is clear, the level can be adjusted to achieve 100% modulation, and the range is certainly adequate for our purposes.
If the choice was this VEC-1290K unit, the AM03 or the Gizmo, I would say this is the best of the bunch. However once the AMT3000 enters the equation, things don't look so good for the VEC-1290K."
http://www.vintage-radio.com/reviews/vec1290k.html
So if you haven't already read that reveiw, it'd be a good idea too, as it has some useful information and answers your questions about that particular xmtr, and also provides some links to some other specific comments about it so you will know what you'd be getting into.
I say if your budget strapped and it's either that or nothing, maybe it's worth a gamble.. But if it were me I might think about spending another 10 or 20 bucks and grabbing a used talking house of ebay or something.. I see them sell for the $50 range quite often and there are a lot of people using those for their part 15 stations.But ask some questions first, becuase there are differences in the models.
http://www.vintage-radio.com/reviews/vec1290k.html /p>