With my signal tracer, I can trace audio through the rf stages easily enough, right down to the output tubes. When I switch my probe to RF, not so easily traced if at all. Can someone explain this?

I'm happy that radio is working but wondering about tracing the rf only.

Does the radio work? Strange that you can get audio to go through the set all the way down the RF stages, but actually, come to think of it, I have been able to do this myself. Since audio is at such a radically different frequency range than radio frequencies, it tends to use the RF transformers like audio transformers. No resonation needs to take place for this.

As for the RF, with a TRF radio, each stage tunes with the other stages, to the station you want to listen to. They don't stay tuned to a fixed frequency. You must adjust your signal generator to the frequency that the radio is tuned to. If you have a known accurate generator, and the radio does not allow RF through whenever you tune it to the generator's frequency, then the radio is out of alignment. Tune the radio to about 1400 KC, and turn the generator to the same frequency. Work backwards and align all of the trimmers on the tuning condensers for maximum output. Once you are at the antenna, if you still have a signal going through, re-align the trimmers for maximum output. If you can get a signal through some of the stages but not others, and you have tried aligning them, then there is something wrong with one or more of those stages. After you are done aligning your radio, if you aligned the radio at 1400 KC with your signal generator, but when you tune in actual stations they are not in alignment (especially at 1400 KC), then your generator is not callibrated properly. This is a problem with older generators that have fallen out of alignment and/or generators of poor quality, where synchronization across the generator's dial is not possible. It is best, once you get the set working fairly well, to do the final alignment of the radio using actual stations.

Thomas