[WallaceRoger]

I powered up this morning to try this test and immediately picked up WLS! Some noise, but it was coming in. Lots of noise beyond that on the dial. Lower on the dial, I barely grab another station, but it's very faint. I should add that this was happening WITHOUT me touching the 27 tubes at all, the station just came in right away.

I listened to WLS for a few minutes, tried tuning and it all faded to static. Tried tuning back and forth, just static, not even WLS anymore. I didn't see any smoke or smell anything cooking.

I noticed that the volume knob doesn't turn as freely as it seems like it ought to. It's somewhat difficult to turn in one direction and makes small sounds occasionally like a spring popping. Maybe this is an issue?

It's weird that I was getting a station and then it just went away as the set ran.

EDIT: I shut it off, waited a few minutes, powered back on and listening to WLS again... then 5 minutes in, the station drops out and just getting the radio hum. seems really odd.