Hi Everyone! I have to fast forward a bit on AM radio due to an inquiry from "Catzilla" at Elab about IC AM radios. Chips for AM or for AM/FM radios use an entirely different in the IF section. AS we have been discussing, the original AM radios used inductors/traffos to narrow the band and amplify only the 455 khz intermediate signal. There is a way to do this eliminating all those IFT's! This was used even before the advent of IC's. THE CERAMIC FILTER The ceramic filter is that yellow square part with 2 or 3 legs and it usually labelled on its side is 455 Khz. It is a ceramic resonator. It resonates strongly at 455 Khz and will only allow that signal to pass through. One small part replaces the 3 traffos! The local oscillator coil and the antenna are still needed. Some ICS have built in audio amp and others without. THE TA2003 Toshiba introduced this IC in the recent past which has caught on in the commercially manufactured AM/FM radios. Most of the newer portable radios use this simple IC. The mixer-oscillator tranny is built in. The detector diode is also built in. It has a sensitive built in intermediate frequency amplifier. This IC is also commonly available in Raon.