I need more precise instructions!

[sonicx927]

I'm working on the build your own low power AM radio transmitter and I don't understand the instructions! I really only need help on step 1. Please help soon! I don't have much more time!

[Craig_Bridge]

You can connect the circuit to the headphone jack of a portable music player (e.g. mp3, CD or cassette tape player).

This is where you are going to get your audio signal from. Any audio source with a headphone jack that has a volume control should work. You just need to buy the appropriate plug to fit your headphone jack.

1/8 inch mono phone plug (Radio Shack # 274-286A)

The assumption is that a 1/8" mono phone plug will fit into the headphone jack of your audio source. A better choice might be a stereo phone plug to prevent shorting out one channel of your audio source.

Use two alligator jumpers to connect to the terminals of the phone plug. (If you have a soldering iron, you can solder connecting wires instead.)

Without actually looking up this particular part I have no idea what it actually looks like so you are going to have to look at it and figure some things out yourself. There should be a "housing" (in the picture this is a black piece of plastic and wires were used) that unscrews from the back of the phone plug to allow access to the internal place to connect the wires to. Various styles of internal connections (screw, solder, crimp, etc) exist and I don't know which you have. All of the variations will have one "tip" and one "frame" connection (stereo connectors will have an additional "ring" connection). The "tip" of the phone plug is the very end of the plug (male) that goes into the jack (female). Stereo plugs have a metal "ring" insulated from the tip that is the next part that goes into the jack. The last metal part that goes into (or mates with) the jack is the "frame" which is insulated from the "tip" and/or "ring".

I'm going to describe the plug with the "tip" pointing down. Inside the housing, the "tip" connection is the one that goes to the center rod and you can only see the end of it. The "ring" connection" on stereo plugs is the one that connects just under the tip rod to an invisible tube connected to the "ring". The "frame" connection is the one that connects under the "ring" (stereo version) or "tip" (mono version) and visibly makes connection to the longest and largest diameter portion of the plug.

One wire or alligator clip lead should be connected between the "tip" connection and one of the 8 ohm transformer leads.

Another wire or alligator clip lead should be connected between the "frame" connection and the positive (+) battery terminal.

If you don't understand these instructions, get a parent or adult for help identifying the connections as I've used words that should be familiar in other contexts that should lead to easy identification based on simularity.

[sonicx927]

oh man thanks a lot!