Electronic – Does this simple RF transmitter circuit actually work

fmoscillatorradioRF

I've come across this circuit a few times while searching for simple transmitter circuits, and decided to try it.

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According to this site, it should be transmitting at around 90Mhz.

http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/Spy%20Circuits/SpyCircuits-1.html

I feel like I've followed the instructions to the letter, yet I have no results when chasing the dial on my radio.

UPDATE:

Here are some photos of the circuit I have constructed.

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I've tried just about every area of the dial and fiddled with the coils. No effect or "quiet spot".

UPDATE 2:

I have changed the coil so that it is a single coil tapped at the 6th loop. I am now getting some effect, but it's not what I expected.

When I pinch the coil together, it seems to drown out whatever FM station I am on. I can't seem to narrow it down to one frequency. If I hold the coil together, it will add static or a faint whistling to any station. The range is also very poor; the phenomena occurs at a max of 3 feet away from my radio with the 12" antenna. If I use myself as an antenna(holding on to the antenna wire), I can create the effect from the other side of the room. Is this a good sign or am I fooling myself?

UPDATE 3:

See my answer.

Best Answer

If you want 90 MHz, you're going to need a much smaller capacitor, I would think. The capacitor and the inductor are critical to determining what frequency this produces. The page you linked seems to have a 22 nF cap in that location, which is 0.022 uF. 10 uF seems much too large.