Hello, I am still working on this universal radio with schematic jackson bell model 84. I think the tuning condenser got sprayed with tuner contact cleaner so I took it off and sprayed it with non residue cleaner and reinstalled it. The radio now works with the antenna wire, but not well....it never did. I am able to get the best sorta clear sound when I put a aligator clip lead on the 1st 24a tube. The other end of the lead I leave unconnected. This also seems to stop the oscillations in two places at the low end of the dial. Is there anything I can do to get the radio to play clear and have more selectivity. It only seems to get the strong local station. Even that station is recieved over a wider end of the dial than it should be, especially if you remove the clip lead. the only two trimmer caps that I can adjust are the two on the tuning condenser. Is this radio a really low grade model?

The station could be overloading the set, you could have at least one bad tube, the tuner capacitor could be bad. The worst case senario is that the set is not of the superhet type. It could be possible if you have a radio on that station that can't suppress the IF within a safe range it could interfere with the IF of this set.
:Hello, I am still working on this universal radio with schematic jackson bell model 84. I think the tuning condenser got sprayed with tuner contact cleaner so I took it off and sprayed it with non residue cleaner and reinstalled it. The radio now works with the antenna wire, but not well....it never did. I am able to get the best sorta clear sound when I put a aligator clip lead on the 1st 24a tube. The other end of the lead I leave unconnected. This also seems to stop the oscillations in two places at the low end of the dial. Is there anything I can do to get the radio to play clear and have more selectivity. It only seems to get the strong local station. Even that station is recieved over a wider end of the dial than it should be, especially if you remove the clip lead. the only two trimmer caps that I can adjust are the two on the tuning condenser. Is this radio a really low grade model?