What does "ker" mean as in 1 nF ker?

[Electron_Tru]

What does "ker" mean as in 1 nF ker? What type of capacitor is it?
I have been gethering parts for my first electronics project ever. I have been stumped for quite awhile. I'm going to make a FM Transmitter for an iPod shuffle. The schematic are found here: https://shufflehacks.blogspot.com. He lists the parts and everything, but I dont know the lingo yet.

please help me

sincerely,
Electron_Tru

 

[dknguyen]

Maybe ker is abbreviated for ceramic in another langauge?

 

[Dr.EM]

I'd go with that, most radio circuits/HF circuits need ceramics.

 

[sederberg]

Ker is short for keramische, which is German for ceramic. I think the roots go back even further to the Greek word "keramikos" which has something to do with pottery.

 

[_nox_]

keramische

drop the last e -> keramisch
or better: keramik

 

[audioguru]

It is a lousy FM transmitter:
1) It is mono, not stereo.
2) It doesn't have pre-emphasis (the treble boost that FM radio stations use}, so it won't have any treble when heard on an FM radio. It will sound like an AM radio or like your stereo with its treble control turned all the way down.
3) Its RF frequency will drift all over the place when something gets near it or near its antenna, when the temperature changes and when the battery voltage changes (as it runs down).

 

[Electron_Tru]

Thankyou

Thankyou all for your help. I think you guys are exactly right. Ker does mean Ceramic in another language. It makes sense; the guy who wrote the schematics is from the Netherlands.

 

[Dr.EM]

Audioguru makes a good point, and for the intended application of this transmitter, the design really is inadequate. The design is more suitable for voice transmission, and even then would be difficult to use due to the frequency drift.

Also, you mention this is your first project. FM transmitters or any radio frequency circuits are very difficult to make due to stray capacitance (I still haven't tried one after years of making projects. I did a simple theremin once, and it worked very poorly as the layout was bad). If you proceed with this, you should do a layout identical to the one done by the poster, notice how close all the parts are together? This is not just to fit inside the mouse, but to reduce the effects of stray capacitance.

I think there are better first time projects as for one; you really could do with an oscilloscope to set this up (and a high frequency one at that) and even if you got it to work, it's likely to be dissapointing (mono, muffled sound and constant retuning neeeded). Let us know if there are any other projects you might like to try and we can find them