Overall sounds pretty good. If the regular fuse ever pops "at power on," you can go the SLO BLO route. If that ever pops, then start looking for a problem.

First, with regard to picking up stations, a lot depends upon the antenna (particularly how much wire) you have connected to the set.

Also (we have not discussed this before), you have what is known as a Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) type of receiver. This type of receiver generally is not quite as sensitive or selective as the later superhetrodyne receivers which have a local oscillator, converter, and one or more IF stages.

All of your selectivity is having to be done directly at the frequency that the station is on rather than at an Intermediate Frequency (IF) like 455 kHz.

Now I don't have specific experience with this particular receiver, but I just don't expect it to be all that sensitive or selective. That's why radio designs migrated to the superhetrodyne configuration.

On the other hand it should play local stations pretty good as long as they are not crowded too close together. It also should play any locally generated signals just fine (something like an SSTRANS being used to broadcast your own music in the house).

I hope, despite the potential frustrations while making all those resistor swaps, that this was a good experience that will serve you well in future projects.

Curtis Eickerman

Curtis,
I can't begin to express the amount of gratitude that I have for you sharing your time, effort and knowledge with me. It has been both a real pleasure and an extremely educational experience with you. I couldn't have asked for a more patient and helpful person to work with.
I have real appreciation for you giving so much time to our project and am so thankful for your perseverence. I was hoping that you wouldn't scream UNCLE at any point. I believe that there were many opportunities to... but you stayed with me.
"How do I test a voltage-divider?" and 180 posts later.... the radio is tip top!
This is my first experience having an experienced mentor. And a great one it was!
From the time I first launched this post... to now.... I am amazed at how much I have grown in respectful confidence in overall understanding and specific action steps thanks to you.
So much to learn in this craft. As I post more questions to the forum, I hope to have the pleasure of being mentored by you again.
Thank you Doc.
With sincere appreciation,
Sudsy

This is/was an EPIC thread-had me on the edge of my chair for days!
Great job guys!
Phil

Sudsy, you are quite welcome. It was a learning experience for me as well, which is pretty good after working with radios for about 45 years. You had me pretty stumped a couple of times. I have to admit this is the first time I have had contamination in a receiving tube socket that biased a tube WAY past cutoff. 185 volts on a cathode pin with a grounded control grid!

Curtis Eickerman

Curtis did a wonderful job of explaining his guidance in terms that I could understand. A great learning experience for me as well as others. Couldn't wait for the next installment as I was reading. Sure is nice having Curtis on the forum.

Jerry