I went to visit my parents this weekend and took the old TF radio with me that I got cheap off eBay (guy had no idea if it worked). My dad is an electronics guru and I figured it would give us something to do. Thanks to red58 I was able to get the wiring diagrams and figure out that I was missing the OZ4 tube. My dad knew someone that had a colleciton of tubes so we drove out into the sticks to see him (and to look at his 1916 Commerce truck under restoration - cool truck). Anyway the guy had a complete set of tubes for the radio (but no vibrator). He wanted $9 for the lot so I gladly paid him $10 and off we went.
Back at my dad's I swapped out all of the tubes and we hooked it up to a fused car battery. Also hooked up an old speaker and 6" attenna wire. Unfortunately we got no sound. Next we made few checks of the pin voltages here and there. Everything looked fine. Then as I was moving the tuner around I thought I heard the faintest of voices on the speaker. My dad held onto the end of the attenna wire and presto! out came Johnny Cash with "A Boy Named Sue". I couldn't have been happier.
Now with a longer attenna wire I've been lsitening to the radio all weekend! I can only bring in two stations but I am in rural Arizona where two is probabaly all they've got.
Can't wait to get it into my truck.
Greg
