Building a valve radio

Are you looking to build from a kit or completely from scratch? Here are some good places to start:

For parts:

Schematics

Hope this helps get you started.

Cheers, Dave M

Just> Suppose a fellow wanted to build a valve (=vacuum tube) AM radio. Where

From scratch.

Thank you.

Interestingly you could consider scratch-building the valves themselves.

I can probably find a 1930s book showing how to make a car. It starts by showing how to make the tools necessary to make the car - e.g. the engine block from a solid lump of metal.

I have a copy here, seems pretty detailed. some parts may be hard to get, like the "B" batteries.

I don't think that was ever a common thing for the home builder. Maybe in the very early days, when tubes were just getting started, but I don't think even then. It's just not something I've read about.

Eventually some did make their own tubes, I remember an article in QST about 1964 or 65 about an Argentinian who did.

I've seen much more about making one's own components. Roll your own capacitors out of wax paper and tin foil. Make electrolytics with beer bottles and some mixture. Make variable capacitors, in the early days they'd be "book" capacitors, pieces of wood that closed like a book, increasing capacitance, but in more recent decades people have made variable capacitors for special purposes. SOme did make their own resistors, if it was early enough, I've seen descriptions. Quartz crystals seemed to be something made before commercial grinding took off (for a long period, crystals weren't very common, then crowded bands and restrictions made them a necessity).

Michael

In the antique radio newsgroup, it's not uncommon to put a string of 9v batteries toegher to get a "B" battery. The connectors at the top allow them to be connected in series. It works since B+ was high voltage but low current.

Michael

Like this fellow.

In an old magazine there was a joke artical about a radio kit. In a small wooden box was a lump of iron,copper, glass and plastic. You made all your own components. Inside the box was the instructions telling you how to open the box so you could use it for the chassie.

My intention is to incorporate valve DC power supplies.