[John Bartley]

I guess I belong to that "other" group of old radio people .... the ones who always try their sets first and only repair and/or restore those sets that we plan to keep or use regularly. I would say that more than half the sets I've owned have worked half decently without any work and because many of them have simply passed thru my hands I don't know if they still work.

I am down to a couple of dozen sets in total now, and I'd guess that better than half will work just fine and have not been touched by me.

On the other hand, I am still plagued by memories of a National NC57 that I could not fix. It's the only one to ever gain that distinction. It came to me completely butchered and while I could get it to "play", there was a mechanical issue with it that caused it to change alignment every time the chassis was moved. I waved the white flag after too many weeks of trying.

My mother was given a Northern Electric "Midge" set in about 1950 as a "going to college" gift and when she threw it out (drats) in 1987 it had only ever had tubes changed. It spent it's entire life sitting on the kitchen counter of whatever house she was living in.