What struck me first is that this entire radio exists for the sake of one screen element. Mirko Pavleski states that the virtual analog dial, an animated needle drawn on a color TFT, was the main reason for starting the build. That seems a charming priority, and everything else grew around it.
The case work is refreshingly hands-on. Dimension sheets were drawn by hand, transferred onto plastic sheet stock, cut with a utility knife and ruler, then spray-painted in grey and black before being joined into a box frame and fitted with hardware. Up front sit a large tuning knob, a volume knob, MW/SW and RAD/SPK toggle switches, a power switch and a speaker grille.
The circuit choices stand out. An ESP32 with a Si5351A module form the local oscillator, a rotary encoder changes frequency, and an NE612 mixer follows a two-transistor RF amplifier that raises sensitivity while keeping oscillator signals off the antenna input. A 1 kOhm potentiometer serves as an attenuator, the preselector switches between MW and SW ranges, and four LEDs stabilize its tuning voltage. Around the back there is a BNC antenna jack, an antenna gain control, a 3.5 mm SDR output, a 12V barrel jack and three SMA connectors for the clock outputs.
Reception demos covered medium wave from 0.275 to 1.315 MHz, shortwave at 9.224, 11.359 and 10.100 MHz, and SSB amateur signals near 14.012 and 14.178 MHz when feeding a PC. The maker rates the sensitivity and selectivity as excellent.
Not everything went smoothly. After trying TCA440 and TDA1072 ICs, the maker rebuilt the IF stage with IF transformers, and aligning them took a lot of patience, though the outcome was great. Two things remain open: the antenna used with the receiver was never named, and a request to release the schematics and code openly has not been answered yet.
Project by Mirko Pavleski. Watch it on their YouTube channel: