Permafrost: How to Build the Radio Station Bench in the New Home Quest

The Radio Station Bench is the last build in the “New Home” quest, and it is the one that tends to stall players. It needs two crafted items that each sit behind their own station, and the game will refuse to place it in several situations without ever saying why in plain terms. Here is the full chain and every reason the placement preview turns red.

Quick answer: Build the Radio Station Bench for 3 Wire and 10 Wood. Find it in the Utilities tab of the Building menu. Placement requires a Wooden Foundation or a floor you constructed, plus enough unobstructed space.

The full cost chain

The bench itself is cheap, but the Wire inside it has to be worked up from raw copper through two stations. Each Wire is one Copper Ingot, and each Copper Ingot is smelted from copper ore and coal in the Stone Furnace. Values can change while the game is in early access, but this is the current chain.

Make this	Costs	Station
Radio Station Bench	3 Wire + 10 Wood	Building menu, Utilities tab
Wire (×1)	1 Copper Ingot	Workbench
Copper Ingot (×1)	3 Copper + 5 Coal	Stone Furnace
Coal (×2)	5 Wood	Stone Furnace

In total, making three Wire takes 9 Copper and 15 Coal. Coal Boulders are another way to get Coal, so mine them instead of burning Wood if that is quicker. Before crafting, place both required stations: a Workbench, which costs 10 Wood, and a Stone Furnace, which costs 40 Stone; both appear in the Utilities tab. To unlock the Stone Furnace blueprint, spend 2 blueprint points in the Blueprints screen’s BUILDING tree (press U).

Radio Station Bench cost in the Utilities tab — The Radio Station Bench sits in the Utilities tab of the Building menu, with its 3 Wire and 10 Wood cost shown as owned over required. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

Mine copper and smelt Copper Ingots

Copper needs the Flint Pickaxe, not a stone one. The stone pickaxe only breaks Flint and Stone; the Flint Pickaxe’s tooltip reads “Mines: Sulfur, Copper, Coal, Flint, Stone.” Craft one at the Workbench for 2 Flint and 4 Wood before you go looking for ore.

Search for Copper Boulders; you will generally find none close to the first shelter. From your base, head a short distance beyond the broken road bridge to a ravine for the nearest deposits. More boulders appear along the misty chasm toward Solar Fields, and you can also find them in Landscar Cave. Equip the Flint Pickaxe and break them with LMB.

Press E to bring up the Stone Furnace. Its workbench-style panel shows Coal, Copper Ingot and Iron Ingot. Choose Copper Ingot, select a quantity using “Craft x1”, “+” or “Max”, then begin crafting. When you lack Coal, make some from Wood in the furnace first.

Smelting Copper Ingots — The Stone Furnace running a Copper Ingot batch. Finished ingots drop on the ground at its base, so you collect them from the floor rather than the menu. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

Collect the ingots. The furnace works for a while, then the finished Copper Ingots fall on the ground at its base. Walk up and press E to pick them up. Any Coal you crafted lands beside it the same way.

You can pick up a Copper Ingot lying out in the open at Nomad Camp, a ruined Cold Zone camp a short run from your first shelter. Collecting it completes the “Smelt Copper Ingot” objective without requiring you to smelt one, and unlocks the Moon Cult Jacket recipe as well. Since this gives you just one ingot, it supplies one of the three Wire you need. Look for the skull “COLD ZONE” banner at Nomad Camp. Temperatures hover around -23°C during the day and drop further at night, so visit in daylight and leave promptly.

Craft Wire at the Workbench

Take the Copper Ingots to the Workbench and open it with E. Select Wire and craft one per ingot. The finished Wire sits on the bench top for you to pick up. Repeat until you hold three.

Crafting Wire at the Workbench — The Wire recipe in the Workbench menu. One Copper Ingot makes one Wire, so three crafts give you the full amount the bench needs. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

A wrecked car on the frozen river before Bone Cave may contain 1 Wire. If you looted that car earlier, you could be one Wire short of smelting a full set.

Place the Radio Station Bench

Make sure you are carrying 3 Wire and 10 Wood in your own inventory. If they are sitting in a chest, take them out before you place the bench.

Equip the Building Tool by holding Q and selecting Construction, or press B. Bring up the build menu, then use Q and E to reach Utilities and choose the Radio Station Bench. The screen corner displays what you own against each required amount; both cost indicators need to be green.

Point at a floor piece in your shelter and wait for the ghost preview to turn green before building with LMB. Use R to rotate the bench before placing it. With enough room, you can position it beside a window along a wall.

Look at the finished bench and press E (“Press E to listen”). The “New radio message” banner appears and the transmission from Icarus plays. When it ends you will see “NEW HOME – QUEST COMPLETED”, followed by “THE OUTPOST – Reach Hunter’s Glade” as the next main quest begins. That quest update is your confirmation it worked.

Why the bench will not place: the four red messages

When the placement ghost stays red, the game prints one of four messages. Each points at a different problem.

MISSING RESOURCES — You lack at least part of the 3 Wire and 10 Wood required to place the bench. Look at the owned and required amounts; Wire is most often what is missing.
FOUNDATION REQUIRED! — The preview is positioned above bare ground. Set it on a Wooden Foundation or on flooring you built yourself.
AREA OBSTRUCTED — The floor area available for placement is too cramped. A starter hut filled with a bed, chests, a workbench and torches has no space left.
CAN’T BUILD IN AIR — The preview has no surface beneath it to make contact with. Lower your aim.

The bench refuses to place — A red placement preview with "FOUNDATION REQUIRED!" showing — the bench is aimed at bare ground instead of a built floor. Image: SpaceRocket Games / via @MissPinkPlays

The placement error labeled “AREA OBSTRUCTED” takes the most effort to fix. With only two foundations, the starter hut often cannot fit the bench. You can enlarge it by laying extra Wooden Foundations (5 Wood apiece) and shifting the walls outward (each Wooden Wall costs 3 Wood; dismantling a piece gives back some wood). Alternatively, move a chest to open up a narrow area beside a wall. With more floor space, the bench fits against a wall without an issue.

Rebuild costs you may need

If you have to enlarge the hut to fit the bench, these are the pieces and what they cost.

Piece	Cost
Wooden Foundation	5 Wood
Wooden Wall	3 Wood
Wooden Doorway	3 Wood
Wooden Floor / Roof	3 Wood
Wooden Door	2 Wood
Wooden Stairs	2 Wood

A few things players ask next

The Radio Station Bench runs without power or an antenna and is ready as soon as you place it. Outdoors is fine, provided it sits on a foundation or floor you constructed; bare ground won’t work. Press E to hear its story transmissions. The Hunter’s Glade tower contains a second Radio Station Bench, which works identically in subsequent quests. The furnace also shows an Iron Ingot, though iron isn’t smelted at this stage of the game, so disregard it for now.

Permafrost is in early access, so these recipe costs and quest steps can shift with updates. If a number on your screen differs from one here, trust the owned-over-required readout in the build menu and work from that.