St Regis radio?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Were the ballast tube burnt out and unobtainable sure I'd run an AC capacitor in it's stead and not think twice about altering the circuit , in my opinion running condition trumps original condition with most tube radios . But , since I'll bet replacements for the original ballast tube are still available , and since the ballast tube carries no built in safety hazard by design like the curtain burner cord does , I'd be inclined to leave the circuit as is and stock up on a couple or few spare ballast tubes while they are still somewhat available .

If the ballast tube is readily available and reasonably priced, then fine. The 165R8 number seems to be a Triad or Hytron number. JFD numbers are different.
When the set was new there was a lot of DC districts, so a resistive dropper had to be used.