An early TRF set followed me home...anyone know what it is?
 

Found this guy sitting in someone's trash when I was doing some errands the other day. It's a '20s TRF set with a mix of 301, 201, and possibly 112 tubes. Included a few spares although I don't know if they're any good.

Anyone have info on this ancient beast? The tuners are from Chas. Freshman and the tube sockets are from Frost Radio. No other brand markings anywhere. The electronics seem good quality, the cabinet in pretty good, but some of the fine Assembly is a little wonky. Kit maybe?

The little rheostat in the upper left isn't connected to anything. On the front panel it also has three 1/4" jacks and a smaller jack or connection I can't ID.

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To me everything back then looked like an Atwater-Kent, but that doesn't help much. I have always steered clear of DC operated sets, so I don't know much. I do know that it resembles an old A-K model 20 that someone gave me once, but not enough to say that it is. The front config. is a bit different.

I took immediate notice to the small size of those tuning coils. Seems like most I have seen are much wider than that. I guess the thing could be something besides an A.M. receiver. Perhaps marine or shortwave....

Looks well contructed, probably not a home brew, but more likely assembled by a local radio shop. That was common at the time. Not an AK, I don,t think, they tended to mold thier own bakelite parts. A great find for free, thats for sure.

Looks like a browning drake. Most likely it is a home brew.

Just curious: Are the three 1/4-inch jacks speaker jacks, each cutting out one stage of amplification?

I've fooled w/a couple of these old battery TRF sets-They're pretty neat, when you coax one into working... They REALLY like L-O-N-G antennas... And, yes, it DOES take a safecracker's touch to turn all 3 dials & REALLY "Peak" one in... But pulling in a far-away station on one gives you an idea of the THRILL folks had in the Twenties, & these guys were all they had..

That's normally what those jacks do: first one is right off the detector used mainly for headphones. Second one is one stage of audio, third one is two stages. The jacks have contacts so that none, one, or two audio tube filaments are lighted per which jack is selected. "Hey Ma, I got Saint Looey!"

That,s a nice find. Looks like a straight TRF, no regeneration. It looks like a few of the tubes maybe the 5 volt high current filament types. Looks like not too much trouble to test the radio.
Ed

In operation of the radio do not mix the 1 amp (201) and the 1/4 amp(201A) tubes. Filament control will be difficult and you my damage a rheostat.