[Jamie]

I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner"... I can replace caps, I read a schematic pretty well, I can check voltages. I have some understanding of how the signal travels down the antenna and ends up coming out the speaker. I've done a good job of restoring lots of radios.

But, when it came to actual theory and understanding the details of how a radio operates, I was mostly lost. Other than replacing parts, and checking voltages, I had no real idea of how to troubleshoot a faulty set. If you are like me, when you get stuck and a set just won't work, you search for ideas by reading forums, or asking other people.

So you'd see responses like, "check the by-pass cap in the detector stage", "It's probably the cathode by-pass condensor", "Check the plate decoupling filter in the IF"..

....you read that and go..."hrmmm..ok, next thread".. It's all kind of confusing, but you hope that someday you'll get it. As you read the Electrical section of this site, you think "Man, I wish I was as good as Brenda, Morzh, Mondial, etc..." (too many to name them all)...

I found that there are no web pages, no threads, no forums that really explain it all in common language. ... until..

I bought a book - "Elements of Radio Servicing" by William Marcus and Alex Levy. This book should be required reading for all newbies (and even intermediate hobbyists) . It walks you through each individual stage of a radio, explains how the stage works, how to identify that stage on a schematic and how to troubleshoot that stage. It focuses on using a signal generator as the main troubleshooting tool. I learned more by reading this book than I ever thought I'd know, and this book WILL be an invaluable reference tool, and source of information, in the future.

So, if you've hung in there and read this entire post, go order this book from Amazon. It's the best money you'll spend on the radio hobby.