[Reece]

The "newest" signal-handling tube in the set is the 6C6 which was introduced in 1934, but the ballast has an octal base; the first octals were introduced in 1935. I'm guessing '35 or '36; however some mfrs. kept using big pin tubes for a few years after octals came in.

I think somebody somewhere played with this set, too: it would take getting into the chassis to see if there's any sign of a bandswitch or another coil for SW, and any sign of a pilot light. Little TRF's like this didn't usually have any bells and whistles. The tuning knob appears to be connected directly to the tuning condensor shaft. The pointer would travel in an arc, and would not get anywhere near some of the dial calibrations. Some kid may have fancied up this radio to appear to have SW and an 'eye'.

The more I look at this I wonder if this was a factory-made hoax: to indicate the calibrations, the pointer would have to come out where the "star" is in the middle of the dial. But there's no hole there. The green circle has a blanked out triangle in the back so that if it were illuminated, it would resemble a tuning eye, but there's no pilot light, and no sign of one that I can see from the pictures, unless that's the top of one peeking out from behind the condensor rotor. Were they just "using up" that dial scale because they didn't have a standard one at the time?

Love to see under the chassis!


Reece