Seventy five years ago, the father and daughter shown here were putting together a one-tube shortwave receiver according to plans in the July 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The set, the “Mighty Midget” One Tuber, employed a single 1D8-GT, a dual tube, with one half being used as the regenerative detector and the other half serving as an audio amplifier.

Thanks to the efficiency of the multi-unit tube, the set was said to run rings around two-tube receivers of even a year earlier.  “Twenty-meter phone stations roll in with headphone volume at times actually uncomfortable, and there is plenty of ‘sock’ even on weak foreign stations.”

For information on sourcing parts, especially the plug-in coils, see my recent post about a similar two-tube set.

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