That's great. The best way to learn is by repairing the radio yourself. Yes, bypassing the RF stage is one way a person could go if they couldn't get plate voltage. Your story should be used in antique collector club publications.
Norm
: After studying this radio for months, trying to understand the circuitry, I ordered some parts. I found several places in the radio that did not agree with the diagram. First back up abit. My dad bought this radio in 1946. About 15 years ago he asked if I wanted it, and it no longer played. I took it. After a few years I took it to a local radio shop for repair. When I got it back it played one local station and no shortwave. The guy told me because of its age he could not make all the adjustments for fear of breaking something. Since then it has sat. Also the tuning knob had been turned to far (probably by a grandchild) and broke the cord. I fixed that the other night and turned it on. Now I realize I probably should have replaced the Electrolytic capacitors first. Anyhow it had a loud hum not effected by the volume control. So I replace the three part electrolytic with under the chassis caps. Then turning it on , no hum, one problem fixed. Today I turned it on again and got a static like from a bad volume control, but thats not it. I'm guessing one of the 6F6 power tubes. I have two new ones because one of them in the set is a 6V6 so I'm planning to replace both. But I want it to play first so I don't burn up the new ones. Turning the tuner gave no change. Oh by the way did I mention I found a modern wire (multicolored) from the antenna to the IF/Oscilator. It appeared the RF amplifier was being bypassed. I decided to check some voltages and found a grid voltage of 65v was 90V. I found a 10K capacitor had ben replaced by a 4K. Replacing that I got more voltage drop to the grid of the RF amplifier, but its plate voltage was zero. On the other side of the plate resistor I had 250V. It should have been 150V on the plate. I checked the resistor and it was open. replaced it and I've got all kinds of stations!!! Still alot of work todo. But it seems to me this was probably the problem when I took it to the shop and he worked the antenna around the problem and charged me $90. Anyhow I'm feeling pretty good right now I felt I had to share my first restoration progress. I know its not aligned correctly and at 1500kc on the dial I might be getting 1000kc. So now I need a Signal generator and keep working. I've still got all the paper caps to replace, I've got the parts. Rich