Re: I remember when ...
We all did!
I made grid bias batteries by breaking open hand-lamp batteries and taking a couple of cells out, then wrapping them in paper and insulting tape. They would last for months. I also made HT (B+) battery stacks out of hand-lamp batteries hacked together for 120V. The heater batteries were "U2" torch cells, and would be the ones that were replaced weekly - I used to buy four U2 cells with my pocket money! A little later, I started to use a 6V motorcycle battery for the heaters, and my dad built a charger to replenish the charge over night.
My receiver began as a 2-valve TRF with regeneration, and grew into a dual-conversion 12-valve monster which included three 7360 switched beam tetrodes - one for the front end mixer, one for the second mixer and a third for the product detector for resolving SSB. It's still the best receiver I've ever used!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
