Philips Experimenter Kit

Most of you have seen electronic experiment kits - "Build 457 different radios!". Most of them were simple one-transistor sets & goofy things.

The Philips kit was someting else. I found it in a department store in Germany. What impressed me the most is the quality of the parts, and the sophistication of the experiments. This is not something you give a kid to amuse him for a few minutes - you can do some serious stuff with this kit.

The basic kit allowed performing general electronic experiments. One add-on kit featured audio components to build amplifiers, and another add-on included RF coils and IF transformers. There was another kit which featured an oscilloscope kit, but I couldn't quite afford it.


This is the RF add-on kit. The IF transformers are Litz-wound and the tuning capacitor is the same type as used in a good-quality radio, with trimmers. In the background is one of the project dial faces. Each project has it's own front panel marked off for that project alone.


This is part of the audio add-on kit. The dual ganged pot can be separated as needed. The driver transformer has dual primary and secondary windings. Also shown is one of the output transistors.

This is the main console. Each project has an 8 X 11 sheet showing the pictorial layout. The project in place now is an impedance bridge.

This is one of the illustrations in the book for the Herzschlagindikator. (Did I mention that most of the instructions are in German?). This is the heart rate monitor, and it monitors the heart rate by checking the flow of blood through the index finger. It works extremely well with no adjustments.

This is the schematic for one of the audio amplifiers - it features a preamp stage, separate bass and treble controls, push-pull output, a sophisticated feedback circuit, and a speaker switch.

This is one of the receivers - a two-band superhet with an IF stage.

This is the schematic for the heart rate indicator.
Here's a partial list of the projects:

Museum page