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Anyone interested in this kind of thing should read Early Wireless by A R Constable. He was also the founding member of the British Vintage wireless Society.

https://www.bvws.org.uk/

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Paul Carlson of Mr. Carlson's Lab (Youtube and Patreon) is a consummate expert at this sort of restoration, preservation and analysis of old designs if you want to watch it happen.

He's probably the best for absolute beginners in terms of learning what to do to avoid killing yourself with the high voltages involved. But there are quite a lot of youtube creators doing this kind of thing, you can learn something from each of them:

Shango066: He impressively resurrects radios and TV that have been left out in the desert for 60+ years and is the best at troubleshooting. I learned that exploring mines is a thing from this guy, definitely check out his mine explore videos.

David Tipton: he restores the electronics yes, but I'm impressed with the chassis restoration work. He uses a lot of modern tools, like 3d print replacement knobs or create new labels.

Electronics Old and New by M Caldeira: He restores European radios from his home in Madeira. He has a cool technique of tracing schematics.

D-lab Electronics: convert old radios into guitar amps!

Glasslinger: he makes his own vacuum tubes! I like his restorations of very early radios.

W2AEW: because at some point you need to learn how to use a smith chart to design complex impedance matching circuits..

I second this whole-heartedly. I grew up in the hollow-state era when solid-state discrete devices were relatively new. Mr. Carlson’s Lab is a great show. Paul really knows his stuff.

I wish he would do more troubleshooting. He replaces all the tubes, all the caps, all the resistors, and now the radio magically works!

You exaggerate. He replaces bad tubes and keeps the rest. He rarely replaces resistors; old carbon resistors are very durable and some resistors should not be replaced without good reason, such as those in instruments. He aggressively replaces paper caps and lectures about exactly why these have to go rather than indulging foolish nostalgia (they turn into resistors which overloads grids which melts irreplaceable transformers while starting a house fire.) Mica caps and most ceramics are tested and left alone. And he doesn't leave the function of the device to "magic." The design and operation of the circuit is analyzed; the first thing you see after an intro usually a circuit schematic.

It is astonishing how people perceive things.

The idea of someone unironically having a vacuum tube radio repair-related bone to pick with Paul Carlson is just funny. He should make detailed reaction videos where he shit-talks Paul for his poor technique, lack of electronics knowledge, and inauthenticity.

I'd much rather watch Uncle Doug resurrect old guitar amps.

Doug’s a legit craftsman. His scratch builds are second to none. His video on phase inverters was also a game changer for me as a young builder.

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