[Groundhog74]

Finally won an eBay auction and got the 01A tubes I needed. I rigged up some 9v batteries to provide the 45 and 90v I needed, and decided to try my battery tender set for 6 v as an "A" supply...I know that's not right, but wanted to make sure the radio worked at all before I invested more money. After I finally figured out the right combination with the battery hook ups, I was receiving, but with very low volume. In the headset I could hear ok, but low, the speaker was barely audible. Later, I added a "C" battery using 2 AA batteries, and added a slightly better antenna. Volume was better, headset was fairly loud, the speaker was what I would call lower mid-range volume wise. After about 5 minutes of operation my battery tender would go into a fault and shut everything down until I turned it off and reset it. The tender is rated at 1.5 amps and probably sees the radios current draw of 1.25 to 1.5 amps as a battery problem and faults out. Possibly the voltage was low too also, I did not check it with the radio on. Today I picked up a proper dual 30 v dc power supply and will try it. It will handle the load with room to spare. Also, I believe a longer, higher antenna will make a difference. Right now I'm using about 20 feet of wire strung around the room.
With no idea how to tune it, I was receiving WOWO out of Fort Wayne Indiana which is about 75 miles from here and a very strong station that I listen to a lot. Overall I am very happy with this 50 dollar antique store find. With the speaker, tubes and miscellaneous stuff I currently am into this rig for around $275. For a really clean, working 1920's TRF With a working horn speaker I don't feel I got hurt money wise too bad. I will get a battery eliminator some time soon as I think I may be in the market for more 1920's sets in the future. I can see where they could get addictive.