One of the project I always want to make is an FM radio receiver for knowledge purposes how does the radio receive signals based on certain frequencies. However there are too many design requires specific antenna coil winding and varicap to make it work...so I keep searching a simpler way to do it and i found the circuit based on BK1079 IC.

The design is way much simpler than i thought and it requires less than 10 components to make it work. In fact there is no need for antenna although it maybe required just in case. Secondly it works on breadboard although the sound maybe not so efficient. Most importantly the channel search is using one push of a button.

It could have been better if the project is done on permanent circuit board probably everything will run smoothly especially the reception and the noise reduction but it still work good on bread anyway.

 

An auto seek radio is sold at The Dollar Store for only one dollar. It comes with a battery and headphones so the actual radio is free. I have two of these radios that have a tiny speaker instead of headphones. They use a TDA7088 IC. Their performance and sound are terrible.
Strong local stations overload it and distant stations are not received. It frequently scans to no station.