I just finished a complete re-cap and tube test on this nice little radio-phono combo. The odd thing is that the only reception I can get is the local station, which comes in loud and clear, nothing else on the band. The phono hums loudly when I touch the wire, so I know the audio is all good.( no new cartridge yet). Any suggestions?

Check alignment and AVC circuit...Also, make sure your antenna is wired up right, and try moving the position of the antenna, or radio, and see if it helps, since AM is directional.

:Check alignment and AVC circuit...Also, make sure your antenna is wired up right, and try moving the position of the antenna, or radio, and see if it helps, since AM is directional.

This has a loop antenna mounted on the back cover, which is a bit of a mess, can I bypass with a long wire, and if so, how do I hook it up to the 2 wires coming from the chassis?

The schematic shows a coupling winding for an external antenna on the loop. Look for a fahnstock clip or screw terminal marked "ext antenna" somewhere on the loop holder. However, the main loop itself needs to be intact (i.e., no broken wires or shorted turns) for this external antenna input to work properly.

The loop antenna forms half of a resonant circuit used to tune the input signal to the converter tube. Without it, reception will be broad, weak, and noisy. You could replace the loop with a generic BCB antenna coupling transformer and run a longwire antenna, but it would be probably cheaper/easier to just rebuild the loop antenna.

Ditto on the alignment... just about every 50+ year old superhet that I've ever repaired has performed noticeably better following an alignment. This may be caused by component drift but I suspect that a fair amount of misalignment is caused by intrepid but uninformed DIY-ers (maybe from three or four decades ago) playing with the IF can adjustments just to see what happens, and lacking the test equipment to properly re-set them.

:The schematic shows a coupling winding for an external antenna on the loop. Look for a fahnstock clip or screw terminal marked "ext antenna" somewhere on the loop holder. However, the main loop itself needs to be intact (i.e., no broken wires or shorted turns) for this external antenna input to work properly.
:
:The loop antenna forms half of a resonant circuit used to tune the input signal to the converter tube. Without it, reception will be broad, weak, and noisy. You could replace the loop with a generic BCB antenna coupling transformer and run a longwire antenna, but it would be probably cheaper/easier to just rebuild the loop antenna.
:
:Ditto on the alignment... just about every 50+ year old superhet that I've ever repaired has performed noticeably better following an alignment. This may be caused by component drift but I suspect that a fair amount of misalignment is caused by intrepid but uninformed DIY-ers (maybe from three or four decades ago) playing with the IF can adjustments just to see what happens, and lacking the test equipment to properly re-set them.

It turned out that the oscillator 6sa7 was the cause, it intermittently worked and was weak despite testing good. I also had to do some rewiring on the loop antenna, which was barely attached to the back cover. I never realized how critical these loop antennas are, the radio will not play at all without both ends connected to the loop. Thanks for all the help.

Dave now you know why we old radio techs carried around a couple of caddies of tubes with us on a call.

Clifton

::The schematic shows a coupling winding for an external antenna on the loop. Look for a fahnstock clip or screw terminal marked "ext antenna" somewhere on the loop holder. However, the main loop itself needs to be intact (i.e., no broken wires or shorted turns) for this external antenna input to work properly.
::
::The loop antenna forms half of a resonant circuit used to tune the input signal to the converter tube. Without it, reception will be broad, weak, and noisy. You could replace the loop with a generic BCB antenna coupling transformer and run a longwire antenna, but it would be probably cheaper/easier to just rebuild the loop antenna.
::
::Ditto on the alignment... just about every 50+ year old superhet that I've ever repaired has performed noticeably better following an alignment. This may be caused by component drift but I suspect that a fair amount of misalignment is caused by intrepid but uninformed DIY-ers (maybe from three or four decades ago) playing with the IF can adjustments just to see what happens, and lacking the test equipment to properly re-set them.
:
:It turned out that the oscillator 6sa7 was the cause, it intermittently worked and was weak despite testing good. I also had to do some rewiring on the loop antenna, which was barely attached to the back cover. I never realized how critical these loop antennas are, the radio will not play at all without both ends connected to the loop. Thanks for all the help.

One thing about converter tubes (or multi-function tubes in general) is that it's easy to test just one part of the tube (say, the amp portion) and extrapolate the "good" test reading onto the remainder of the tube. You can have part of the tube that works/tests perfectly good while the other section is bad. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me (since the sections share the same electron emitter) but I know that it can be the case. It's necessary to test the entire tube.