The Dormant Graymark Model 536 AM Radio Kit

Building an AM Radio kit is a staple of many Vocational Electronic programs. It teaches radio and electronic theory, soldering, construction, troubleshooting, and the use of test equipment such as Multimeters, Signal Generators, and Oscilloscopes. The two year vocational program I attended in high school was not any different. In 1986, year one in the vocational electronic program, I assembled this Graymark Model 536 Superheterodyne on the foam breadboard provided.

You can still see the instructor's initials on the breadboard in the above photo as he authorized the continued construction after checking my assembly work and measurements. To breadboard was a far as this AM Radio kit made it as that was all that was required in the vocational program as we had to move on to the next topic, Digital Circuits. We were only graded on an operation AM Radio assembled on the breadboard and left to our own devices to transfer the electronic parts from the breadboard to printed circuit board and mount it in the enclosure in order to complete the assembly.  

​This Graymark Model 536 kit has moved with me on three separate occasions from my parents house, to a rented duplex, and then two homes I have owned with my wife. During the moves I have lost some small parts included with the kit and will need to improvise during the final assembly process. 

In 2016, I have vowed to complete this kit with the electronic components ported over to the printed circuit board then mounted in the enclosure provided.

Actually, there is more work to be done than just transferring parts from the foam breadboard to the printed circuit board. Like on the breadboard, you mount components for each subsystem first then perform measurement and calibrations. The final assembly is roughly broken down into Audio Amplifier, Mixer/Oscillator, IF (Intermediate Frequency), and Detector subsystems, each with their own testing, calibration, and measurement procedures.

Stay tuned, as a future blog of mine will give a detailed description of the final assembly of this Graymark Model 536 kit.

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My Graymark Model 536 AM Radio Kit on Breadboard!