Good heads-up advice on the plate/grid cap situation!
You need to be careful. Sometimes I used to hammer a right angle on the tip of a jeweler's screwdriver to use as an aid in prying apart the corrosive marriage of the cap on such a tube... Just a thot.....
(BTW a lot of IF and RF tubes in these old radios used a tube that sported contact to their
control grid through a top-mounted cap on the tube envelope. Also there are many power-handling tubes of the time that used such cap contact for anode connection. In the philosophy of those times there was a reason for each of these practices. Miniature tube designs have subsequently exploded such theories of the necessities of such practices.)
Here's hoping that you can once again hear program from your old friend.
I post that previous link simply because I now believe that is how old tube sets should perhaps be treated. It is a lot of work--granted.
As a kid I was into shortcuts, which was one of the reasons perhaps I got the dubious nickname "Dangerous Dave" back in the day. And such moniker has stuck through the years I must admit....
More recently than I care to admit I went into a radio shop here in Pittsfield, MA where I waited to be waited on. I have been shopping there for over 30 years, so I have an inclination to ignore the help and go and select from their inventory as I please. I know more where everything is than any of them that operate the place these days--including the owner.
OK, so I go in one day--only very recently--bear in mind!, and find that the owner's son has somehow snagged yet another radio console. The history of it is that the client gave it to my friend after digging it out of the attic where it spent the last 45 years or so...I look it over while he is blabbering on the phone. He is eyeing me as I explore this old set, and start to pull out a major mouse-nest of packing material and mattress stuffing from amongst the tubes on the chassis. I then reach for the power cord to this radio (obviously still in good condition as observed by me!) and plug it into an outlet, while watching the owner's eyes bug out while he talks with his customer on the phone.
I powered the radio up. It lit all the filaments. And then produced a mild hum through the loudspeaker. I put a finger on the antenna terminal, and reached in and swept the tuning gang (the dial drive string being broken, obviating the tuning knob) until I got program from a local station. The old radio clearly bellowed out the play-by-play of a Yankees/Red Sox game. The owner of the store said I was crazy. I retorted with "You're just figuring this out, my friend!?" Again: That's why I'm known as Dangerous Dave.
I did know enough not to try to run that old relic long enough to see what would happen as the diseased and aged capacitors started to revolt at being suddenly pressed into use after their long nap...
You are better to follow the more cautious avenues as recommended by Thatch Ear in the treatises outlined by such sage of perhaps more sober mind...
The only thing I can say as observation of my still-daring tendency after all these years is to say that the child is the father of the man....and perhaps to beg your pardon as to the ramblings of a foolish old fart....
