Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs
.....I don't know whether AC power was available in homes in the 1920s, but if not, I would think the Radiola III would have been designed for battery-only use. I'm sure these sets would have been instant best-sellers in rural areas without electricity (prior to the enactment of the Rural Electrification Act in, I believe, the 1930s) as well.
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Very few AC powered sets prior to 1927, and they were usually Rube Goldberg contraptions. Kellog made a "401" tube, basically an '01A with a cathode, the filament connections were via pins on a top cap. The problem was trying to use tubes with AC filaments, especially the detector. This was solved with the type 26 and type 27 tubes, the 26 used a "balance" of the 1.5V and 1.05A to cancel most of the hum, and the 27 with a cathode.
3-dial sets were the most prevalent, using 5 tubes. Regenerative sets gave greater performance per tube, but could be finicky and harder to adjust.. as well as causing local interference when mis-adjusted.
Another thing to remember evaluating the performance of these sets, is that the RF noise floor is much higher these days, with all the switching power supplies and HV transmission lines. Back when, 150 feet of wire running out to the barn and a crystal set really could pick up those distant stations in the evenings..