Build A Radio to Listen to The World
The old DIY radios could only reach at best, local frequencies. That all changed of course with the world wide web. Now we find that you can buy digital radios by the score, with available stations across the globe.

However, now it is possible to build your own Internet radio. So forget all the new gadgets. There is now a product available on the high street called the Microchip Internet Radio Board.

MPEG Audio Codec Is Included
With this device you can build and create your own internet radio. It has MPEG audio codec and an RJ45 connector on board. The board has a PIC microcontroller. It is capable of connecting to the Shoutcast server, and it can also receive streaming MP3 content.

If you are into programming these types of devices and enjoy making your own gadgets, then this is for you. It is part of a development kit with supported families inclusive of PIC18F and PIC18F67J60.

Farnell Electronics
The board is one of the offerings of Farnell Electronics. It has lots of features including the inclusion of an OLED display which shows song titles, author and station names in addition to the IP address of the board. It also has the usual switches for controlling stations, volume and bass.

Getting Started
In order to get started building your rado the instructions refer you to the block diagram, which explains how to receive data from the Shoutcast server. This does not look overly complicated, especially if you are in to electronic DIY. There is plenty of support available to help with building your radio and you could always join the forums and discussion groups.

Useful For Newbies To Electronics or Hobbyists
The product looks fine for hobbyists or if you are just curious. There is plenty of supporting information and gives a new perspective to the building of DIY radios, from being purely electronics based, to both electronics and digital technology. It is simply a small computerised communication medium. At approximately £71.00 in the UK it’s great for the hobbyist or for learning more about digital electronics and looks like a useful piece of kit. Of all the cool technology advancements the ability to do be able to do this for such low cost is very cool in itself.