Has anyone made any modifications to make the audio louder?  I'm not smart enough to do it but it would be interesting if someone could come up with a small amplifier circuit that could be put between the speaker connections and the speaker to give it more volume.  I tried one of these little eBay 1w amplifier boards but there must have been some issues with coupling between the speaker out and the input pf the amplifier board because I just got sort of a squeal.  There's probably some type of impedance matching or attenuation that needs done to make something like that work becuase it didn't work for me.  My hearing is not the best but I was kind of expecting the volume of this kit top be nearly on par with a typical transistor radio.

I know doing something like this would not be good for battery life but I'd really love to set this on my kitchen counter or desk and be able to hear it 4 or 5' away.  I have to have my ear about a foot away or closer to make use of the radio.  I love the look of this radio and it was a fun kit to build.  I did all of the suggested mods but I think it falls short when it comes to output volume.  I probably wouldn't have built it had I known the audio output was so low and yes, part pf that has to do with my hearing but I have a bunch of small radios that's I have no problem hearing that run off of (2) AA batteries or (1) 9V battery.  There must be someone on the board that can resolve this with some type of eBay add on board and a few components?

Curt M.