PROBLEM ENCOUNTER During construction of the project a few problems were occurred.

One problem was putting the BJT transistors in backwards on the perforated PC board because of the confusion of having the component on top of the board and soldering on the bottom side. Also there was the problem of the installation of the 3.5mm stereo audio jack, but once the structure of the audio jack was understood the problem was corrected easily and was then soldered back in. Another problem cropped up once the project was placed on the perforated PC board. The capacitors were gaining capacitance because of their leads being side by side on the board and resulted in the frequency being pushed to around 150MHz instead of the wanted 100-108MHz range. This problem was easily fixed by spreading the leads apart on the board, which doesnt allow for the leads to act as capacitors.12 More problems arose while trying to achieve a clear and correct frequency. The first problem that occurred was interference with other radio station. Once the circuit was placed on the perforated PC board it started coming in stronger and acting as an FM blocker, blocking out all other frequencies around the transmitted signal. Once it was time to take measurements, the second problem was revealed. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) was needed to measure the frequency at which the circuit was broadcasting at. Once the function was discovered on the oscilloscope under the math options, it took only a short time to master. This was achieved by using the horizontal and vertical position controls and the cursors on the time/frequency axis. Once the last problem was resolved the third problem was run into immediately. The oscilloscope probe was adding capacitance to the circuit, which decreased the frequency. The oscilloscope probe which was used had an internal capacitance of 15pF. The signal was then tuned in on the radio and the difference was taken. This showed that the probe caused a +5MHz frequency shift, which could now be accounted for while trying to troubleshoot and take measurements. The fourth problem that arose was that the frequency changed from the breadboard to the perforated PC board. This issue was probably due to the breadboard being more for low frequency experiments and also the additional capacitance in the wires that were used on the breadboard. Frequency shifting by the AA battery was the fifth problem. It was now time to make the FM transmitter portable, being

designed for a 1.5V source it was thought that an AA battery could be substituted for the power supply without any complications. This assumption proved to be incorrect. A AA battery has a small capacitance were the power supply has none, and this caused the frequency to shift approximately +5MHz, putting the signal out of the fm radio band. This was a huge problem because now the project was not working correctly. While troubleshooting, it was discovered that if capacitors leads were laid out horizontal to the board that the capacitance would decrease slightly, which allowed for the broadcast frequency to lower back into fm radio band. The last problem we ran into was clipping by the modulation transistor. If the iPods volume was increased to high it would create clipping due the 13 transistor not being able to handle the voltage being outputted from the iPod. This was easily resolved just making sure the volume was only 50% or below, which allowed for the signal to come in clear.

TROUBLE SHOOTING The original circuit design had to be altered in several ways to achieve the final circuit. The design adjustments were necessary to allow for troubleshooting. These changes include the addition of a switch in series with the battery to turn it on and off, external wires to be able to connect the power supply and measure the positive and negative rails, a radio to confirm a signal being broadcasted, 11 learning how to use the FFT function on the oscilloscope, and basic trial and error with the addition and removal of components and the changing of component values. CONLUSION OF FM TRANSMITTER we can conclude that a FM transmitter is not as simple as it appears to be. There are many different components and elements all with different purposes that work together in order to create a signal with a high enough frequency to be broadcast. Just by looking at the diagram we can see that this particular circuit is fairly small, but at the same time can be very complicated. We now understand the general process of how sound is put into the mike,and then transferred through the circuit, and then amplified to a frequency which can be broadcast from an antenna. This basic circuit is just the one of many different types of circuits found in everyday electronics.