Eighty years ago this month, the May 1940 issue of Radio Craft carried the plans for this simple one-tube broadcast set dubbed the “Baseball Special.” The author put the circuit together to be able to listen to the play-by-play while sitting in the stands. He noted that the set was never meant to be a DXer, but it pulled in the local stations, the ones that broadcast the game.

The circuit used a 1D8GT triple diode-triode-pentode tube. The diode section was not used, the pentode was used as a regenerative detector, and the triode served as audio amplifier. A short piece of wire served as the antenna. A camera case was used to house the radio, although the author noted that the works could just as easily be tossed into a paper bag.